Letters to the Editor

Two letters respond to earlier JBQ pieces. Pinchas Kahn challenges a reading in “Self Effacement in the Bible” that he argues wrongly implies man can become “part of God” or achieve “union with God,” positions he says Judaism has never endorsed, citing a Talmudic discussion (Succah 5a) on the barrier between heaven and earth. Dan Vogel, author of “Balaam, Shakespeare, Shylock,” acknowledges a previously overlooked essay on Shylock by Harry Golden that anticipated several of his own points. The letters are followed by news of the Jewish Bible Association, including a members’ tour of Megiddo and the introduction of new Deputy Editor Mark Elliott Shapiro.