Review by Neville Teller- The Jerusalem Post

In his new book, author Rabbi Moshe Taragin wrestles long and hard with his personal angel, Redemption. He has no doubt that redemption for the world in general, and the Jewish people in particular, is inevitable. Indeed, he believes the process is well on its way. "History has a beginning and an end," he writes, and he sees its end as a perfect state of heightened spirituality. "Jewish history," he says "sits at the heart of this redemptive process," for redemption is a core value of Jewish belief. Judaism subsists on the certainty of an eventual messianic age.

At the same time he acknowledges that the concept of redemption can be very confusing. Like individual existence itself, there is no roadmap. As we mature, we grow aware that we are adrift on an ocean of uncertainty as regards the why of the journey and the when of journey's end. Believing Jews, however, are sure that they are being borne towards a certain shore, and that they are enjoined to do their best to enhance the journey.

In his wide-ranging Reclaiming Redemption, Taragin goes well beyond the mere facts of Jewish history. These he certainly provides for he sees redemption as integral to history, but he explores also the meaning of redemption in today's world for the Jewish people as a whole. Positioned in the very heart of orthodox Judaism, Rabbi Taragin has not a trace of religious extremism about him. He writes with a generous heart about the Jewish people as a whole, and views with understanding those segments that are far from orthodox.

Tackling this issue in a section he calls "Peoplehood", his first chapter is titled "There is more than one truth". He finds today's Jewish people badly divided. The seismic events of the last two centuries, he says, "have driven great wedges between different sections of Judaism." He urges tolerance. "We must tolerate other Jews because we are one family."

He goes further. Living in harmony (or *achdus*) demands all sides to understand that diversity and difference actually enhance religious experience. *Achdus*, Taragin tells us, is "based on an important theological truth. Hashem is too infinite to be fully understood or encompassed by one approach...By acknowledging other legitimate approaches, we concede our own inability to fully grasp Him."

This open-hearted approach carries Taragin into some unexpected waters. He deals in his Chapter 6 with the question of whether Chareidim and Zionists can both be correct about redemption. One viewpoint sees it as God-given, divine; the other as created on earth by human beings. Discussing the issue, if not quite resolving it, he quotes the eminent Danish physicist Neils Bohr: "The opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth." He concludes: "Nothing is more mysterious than redemption."

Taragin then examines the fraught issue of "Jews who oppose the State of Israel." He says it can be "puzzling and even infuriating" that many Jews "stridently contest the state, exhibit public opposition and sometimes even cooperate with our sworn enemies." Yet he retains his broadminded approach, appreciating that "Israel's spiritual ambitions seem to challenge democratic norms."

"As a West Bank 'settler'," he writes, "I struggle with this duality on a daily basis." It all depends, he tell us, on how you view history.

In the final analysis, Taragin turns to plain, hard fact to answer the ever-open questions about redemption -- how do we know that the Jewish mission is real, that progress toward the messianic future has already begun? He turns to history. He sees redemption as interwoven in history, as a part of nature itself. He points to the astonishing, totally unpredictable events of the 76 years since Israel emerged as a sovereign state comprising some 600,000 Jews.

"In 1948," he writes, "we turned a door handle and entered the final room of history." In the Six-Day war of June 1967 he sees an echo of the six days that the Almighty took to create the world. Drawn from many strands of the Jewish story, Taragin surveys the Jewish people's long struggle, as often with itself as with its enemies, to represent the Almighty in the world as they journey toward the ultimate messianic age.

The title *Reclaiming Redemption* proclaims both the intention and the achievement of its author. Taragin presents his perceptive reflections in very short, easily understood, chapters -- just over 100 of them. Together they are an affirmation of his profound belief that the world in general, and the Jewish people in particular, has entered the final stages of the redemptive process.

This is a book that demands to be read.