JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

eckhart, meister
traveled the globe to challenge Christians in the way they related
to Jews, Judaism, and Israel. The couple made a point of
encouraging young people who worked in the field of Christian-Jewish
relations.
Eckardt was an active member of the National Christian
Leadership Conference for Israel (NCLCI) since its establishment
in 1979. That same year, President Carter appointed
him special consultant to the President’s Commission on the
Holocaust. From 1981 to 1986 he served on the United States
Holocaust Memorial Council as a special advisor to its chairman,
Elie *Wiesel. Eckardt was also a senior associate fellow
of the Center for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies and a Maxwell
Fellow at Oxford University.
Other publications by Eckardt include The Surge of Piety
in America, an Appraisal (1958), Your People, My People:
The Meeting of Jews and Christians (1974), Jews and Christians,
the Contemporary Meeting (1986), For Righteousness’
Sake: Contemporary Moral Philosophies (1987), Long Night’s
Journey into Day: Life and Faith after the Holocaust (1988),
Black-Woman-Jew: Three Wars for Human Liberation (1989),
Reclaiming Jesus of History: Christology Today (1992), No Longer
Aliens, No Longer Strangers: Christian Faith and Ethics for
Today (1994).
[Yona Malachy / Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)]
°ECKHART, MEISTER (c. 1260–c. 1327), theologian and
mystic. Born Johannes Eckhart at Hochheim, Thuringia, he
joined the Dominican Order in his youth. Although some
of his propositions were condemned as heretical by Pope
John XXII, Eckhart exerted a great influence on medieval mysticism.
Because Eckhart wrote little about the Jews, and, unlike
other Christian theologians, did not discuss the question
of the continued existence of the Jewish people, it was generally
assumed that he had nothing to do with Judaism. The
pioneers in the study of the influence of Jewish philosophy on
Christian scholasticism, Manuel *Joel and Jacob *Guttmann,
did not even bother to analyze Eckhart’s writings. However,
in 1928, Josef Koch advanced the thesis that Eckhart was influenced
by Jewish philosophy, in particular by *Maimonides.
According to Koch, Eckhart first came into contact with the
writings of Jewish philosophers in 1313, when he began to
prepare a comprehensive collection of doctrinal statements
to serve as authorities for his own interpretation of religious
doctrines. Koch suggests that Maimonides’ method of biblical
exegesis, found in the Guide of the Perplexed, influenced Eckhart
to change the direction of his work and to begin to write
biblical commentaries instead of the collection of doctrinal
statements he had originally begun. Maimonides’ doctrine
of negative attributes had a profound influence on Eckhart,
in that it showed him that it was possible for man to describe
God without obliterating the distinction between God and
His creatures, a distinction which Eckhart regarded as fundamental.
While it was a matter of routine by the last decades
of the 13th century for Christian philosophers to refer to Maimonides,
Eckhart was more dependent on Maimonides than
other Christian philosophers of the period. It should be emphasized
that Eckhart’s interest in Judaism always remained
purely intellectual, and that he was not at all interested in the
social role of the Jews in a Christian society.
Bibliography: Meister Eckhart, Die deutschen und lateinischen
Werke, ed. Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (1936); J.M.
Clark (ed. and tr.), Meister Eckhart: an Introduction to the Study of his
Works (1957); R.B. Blakney (ed. and tr.), Meister Eckhart, A Modern
Translation (1941); N. Smart, in: Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2 (1967),
S.V.; J. Koch, in: Jahresbericht der Schlesischen NDB, 4 (1959), S.V.; E.
Gilson, Christian Philosophy in the Middle Ages (1955), index.
[Hans Liebeschutz]
ECKMAN, JULIUS (1805–1877), U.S. rabbi. Eckman was
born in Rawicz, Posen. He began a mercantile career in London
at the age of 14, but after three years left for Berlin to resume
his studies. In 1846 he was appointed rabbi in Mobile,
Alabama, and subsequently in New Orleans, Richmond, and
Charleston. In 1854 he was appointed rabbi of Congregation
Emanu-El, San Francisco, but his appointment was terminated
after one year. A man of high principles and constant devotion
to scholarship, Eckman was in demand on account of his ability
to preach in English as well as in German, but the reclusive
bachelor lacked the temperament to cope with the conditions
of congregational life in pioneer America. Eckman remained
in San Francisco for the greater part of his life. He took over
the congregational school as a private venture and devoted
himself to the education of Jewish children. In 1856 he established
a periodical The Gleaner, which he published until 1862
and resumed in 1864. Shortly thereafter he merged it with the
Hebrew Observer. Eckman served as rabbi of congregations in
Portland, Oregon, during 1863–66 and 1869–72.
Bibliography: J. Voorsanger, Chronicles of Emanu-El (1900),
141–51; O.P. Fitzgerald, California Sketches (1880). Add. Bibliography:
F. Rosenbaum, Visions of Reform (2000).
[Sefton D. Temkin / Fred S. Rosenbaum (2nd ed.)]
ECOLOGY. This survey deals with those Jewish sources
which have particular reference to environmental matters,
and the restrictions upon the actions of the individual both
in his own private domain and in public places, to the extent
that they affect his nearest neighbors and the community in
general. Four general observations may be made:
(1) According to the Bible, the earth has not been given
over to man’s absolute ownership to use and abuse as he
wishes; he merely acts as a custodian to maintain and preserve
it for the benefit of his contemporaries and future generations;
stress is laid on the influence exerted by the environment on
the mind and spirit of man. The special talmudic approach
to the individual’s duty to protect and preserve public property
is illustrated by the story told in the Tosefta of the man
who threw boulders from his land onto the public highway. A
pious person (ḥasid) chided him: “Dolt, why are you throwing
stones from a place which does not belong to you to one
which does?” The man was scornful of the ḥasid. Eventually,
92 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6