Jewish Science: Divine Healing in Judaism with Special Reference to the Jewish Scriptures and Prayer Book

Moses, Alfred G. Jewish Science: Divine Healing in Judaism with Special Reference to the Jewish Scriptures and Prayer Book. Memphis: Bottom of the Hill Publishing, 1916 (2011).

In the early twentieth century, Rabbi Alfred Moses, along with Morris and Tehilla Lichtenstein, founded Jewish Science to help bring back into the fold the many Jews who were turning to the Christian Science and New Thought movements. Moses explains in his 1916 book that his goal was to “assist in the work of [a Jewish] spiritual renaissance” (11) and to prove that Judaism has long held all that appears so attractive to the Jewish converts to Christian Science: divine healing, affirmative prayer, and a religion of love as well as law. To make his case, he catalogs the many Jewish scriptures illustrating divine healing, particularly related to Jewish Wisdom or “Chochmoh,” as well as a chapter on the history of the mystical, healing Chasidic Movement. He also includes a chapter contrasting the tenets of Christian Science with those of the Jewish faith, and refuting Mary Baker Eddy’s traditional 19^th century views of Judaism as found in her writings, which “reveal a misunderstanding of the true spirit of the Jewish Faith” (40). His main goal is to prove wrong the view that Judaism presents only a material view of Deity, and to state openly the spiritual principle of divine healing in Judaism.

Access a scanned pdf copy of the original (1916) book here.

ISBN: 978-1-61203-278-8

See also annotations:

“Truly a Liberated Woman: Tehilla Lichtenstein and Her Unique Role in the History of American Judaism” by Marion Sader

“‘Israel’s Return to Zion’: Jewish Christian Scientists in the United States. 1880-1925” by Rolf Swensen

From Christian Science to Jewish Science, Spiritual Healing and American Jews by Ellen M. Umansky