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The Jewish Alchemists: A History and Source Book. By RAPHAEL PATAI. Princeton: PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1994. Pp. 617. $35.
This is a work of antiquarianism, not one of professional scholarship. The positive implications of this characterization are the following: Patai has invested considerable energy in tracking down a wide range of materials, both published and unpublished; he has employed considerable linguistic and chemical expertise in translating and interpreting the documents that have come to his attention; and he has displayed some erudition in describing the immediate historical circumstances surrounding their composition. The negative implications-setting aside for the moment certain errors and omissions which may also be found in academic publications-radiate from the basic contextual questions that Patai does not even bother to ask. Jews have participated in many, many cultures over the ages-and by that I include cultures defined by research interests, such as science, and not just those based on common language and territorial settings; and of course Jews have developed many cultures of their own. How does alchemy tie into any of these cultures? Is there anything intrinsic in the values and traditions of Judaism that can help us understand Jewish interest, or lack thereof, in alchemy? How does the interest in alchemy displayed by the figures portrayed in Patai's book connect to their Jewishness, if at all? These questions are entirely ignored. There are...