Neither Nor.(Common Prayers: Faith, Family, and a Christian's Journey Through the Jewish Year)(Review)

Common Prayers: Faith, Family, and a Christian's Journey Through the Jewish Year, by Harvey Cox (Houghton Mifflin, 305 pp., $24)

Harvey Cox is not afraid to reinvent himself. In 1965, the Harvard Divinity School professor published The Secular City, in which he predicted, if not the death of God, then at least the death of traditional religion. In 1984, religion was making something of a comeback, and so-like any fortune-teller worth his tea leaves-Cox tried a little reinterpretation. In his second major work, Religion in the Secular City, he examined two of the movements he judged responsible for this revival-fundamentalism and liberation theology. Not surprisingly, given his own leftist political orientation, he predicted the failure of the former and the success of the latter. He had once again bet on the wrong horse: Fundamentalism today is vigorous, and liberation theology is on the wane.

Undeterred, Cox is back. His new book, Common Prayers, barely mentions secularism, let alone liberation theology. Rather, it describes the author's personal return to traditional religion, albeit not his own. As Cox tells it, about 15 years ago he entered into his second marriage, this time to a Jewish woman, with whom he has one child, Nicholas. Before Nicholas was born, the two decided that he would be raised in the Jewish tradition. Since then Cox has learned a great deal about Judaism, and he summarizes his findings here in an eminently readable form.

The book's subtitle hints at its useful structure. Explaining Judaism, a religion of practices and rituals, through its calendar is probably the way that most Jews would do it. Beginning with the Sabbath, which Cox calls his favorite holiday, and traveling through the Jewish New Year, Passover, and Israeli Independence Day (to name a few), he explains not only the origins of each of the Jewish holy days and festivals, but also how they are typically celebrated by American Jews generally and by his own family in particular.

Cox's chapters often begin with an initial Christian response to the holiday. Describing the "near-euphoric" singing and dancing of Jews during Simhat Torah-the celebration that marks the end of the annual reading of the five books of Moses-Cox explains, "it is the holiday when Jews act most like Pentecostals." But the dancers "are hugging large, rolled-up scrolls encased in silk covers": Torahs. He quickly turns from first impressions to deeper lessons: "It is a holiday in which I catch a glimpse of something utterly fundamental to Judaism . . . that for Jews the Law is not a burden, a hindrance, or an obstacle to living a fully human and vitally spiritual life. . . . It is a generous gift which God bestows on his people simply out of love." In the process of learning about Judaism, Cox often reports being disabused of his previous stereotypes about Judaism as an onerously "legalistic" faith with a God whose concern is more with punishment than love of His people.

But Common Prayers is more than a corrective to Gentile misconceptions about Judaism; Cox also delves into many of the fundamental dilemmas with which modern Jews wrestle. When he accompanies his wife and son to synagogue on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, he is struck by the section of the service in which the congregation recites, "We have dealt treacherously, we have spoken slander, we have acted perversely . . . we have done violence, we have framed lies . . . scoffed, revolted, rebelled." Of course, Cox realizes, most of the people in the congregation have not committed these sins, but since there are some in the community who have, everyone must recite it. This raises an obvious question: Can anyone actually repent for someone else? Cox uses this as a springboard for a lengthy discussion of collective repentance. Drawing on his own Protestant tradition, he asks, "Wasn't Luther right? Doesn't repentance require a ...