AUTHOR EVENT
Alan Dershowitz
“Abraham: The World’s First (But Certainly Not Last) Jewish Lawyer.” 8 p.m. Saturday. $26 members, $31 nonmembers. Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta. 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody. 678-812-3981, atlantajcc.org.
On Saturday evening, famed lawyer Alan Dershowitz will be in Atlanta as part of the Marcus Jewish Community Center’s annual book festival to discuss his new volume: “Abraham: The World’s First (But Certainly Not Last) Jewish Lawyer.” (Jewish Encounters, $26)
The book looks at a range of Jewish lawyers, from Theodor Herzl to Ruth Bader Ginsburg. But the nut of the tome are chapters examining Abraham, the father of three religions, and his two lawyerlike encounters with God.
In one, the prophet argues with God on behalf of the doomed people of Sodom, as any defense lawyer might. But Abraham’s arguments are nowhere to be found when God demands that his man sacrifice his son Isaac. And Abraham complies — only to be stopped by an angel. Here’s an incomplete transcript of a conversation with Dershowitz on Thursday:
Q: It’s a rare book that makes me wish I were Jewish. We never covered a third of this stuff in Sunday school. How did you come by the idea?
A: As a kid, I was always influenced by the Abraham story — the story of Abraham arguing with God. … And then last year, we did a mock trial at Temple Emmanu-El in New York, in front of 1,500 people. Abraham was put on trial for attempted murder of his son Isaac.
I was the defense lawyer, and Eliot Spitzer (the former governor of New York) was the prosecutor. And there was a real federal judge. We had a real trial. It was a close verdict, but we won. Abraham walked. He got off. I had been working on the book, but that kind of stimulated me to focus on the lawyer part of it.
Q: I know defense lawyers — some very good ones. They don’t always speak of judges as infallible creatures. Sometimes just the opposite. When you put God and Abraham in a judge-and-lawyer frame, does it alter your concept of God?
A: The Jewish concept of God is different than the Christian and Muslim concept of God. The Jewish concept of God is a learning God, a God who makes mistakes. A God who loses his temper. A God who regrets creating human beings. The Jewish God isn’t as perfect, just like the Jewish characters in the Bible aren’t as perfect. Jesus is perfect. Muhammad is perfect. Moses, Abraham? Not so much. And Jehovah? Not so much.
That may explain why Jews are so argumentative and unwilling to accept authority. Even the Jewish God is subject to being talked out of something.
Q: I’m very interested in your take on Abraham and the near-sacrifice of Isaac as the birth of religious fundamentalism. Especially the line, “faith won, love lost.”
A: The reason it’s so powerful is that it resonates in the three Abrahamic religions. For Christians, it anticipates the sacrifice by God of his own son. For Muslims, the word “al-silm” means submission. Three different religions having three different takes on this incredibly powerful and moving story.
Then, of course, the question comes up: How do you explain the same Abraham arguing with God about strangers and not arguing with God about his own son? I had a lot of fun trying to figure that one out.
Q: I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask you at least one secular question. You’re very big on the First Amendment. Do you have any advice for students at Yale or the University of Missouri on the importance of free speech and a free press?
A: First of all, understand that you’re not entitled to any safe space for your ideas. Your ideas are not subject to being put in safe spaces. You have to allow your ideas to be criticized. It’s not an answer to say, “I’m offended by your ideas, therefore you shouldn’t be able to express them.” There should be no safe spaces for ideas on university campuses.
