BLANK, SHELDON HAAS

BLANK, SHELDON HAAS (1896–1989), U.S. rabbi and Bible scholar. Blank was ordained at Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1923. From 1926 he taught Bible at the Hebrew Union College. Blank published numerous studies on many aspects of biblical scholarship, dealing with questions of the text and of social and political history. He made a special contribution by his insights into the religious experience of biblical personalities, especially the prophets, and by his exposition of their religious ideas. These qualities characterize his books Prophetic Faith in Isaiah (1958) and Jeremiah: Man and Prophet (1961) as well as such essays as "Men against God, the Promethean Element in Biblical Prayer" (in JBL, 72 (1953), 1–13), "Doest Thou Well to Be Angry? A Study in Self-Pity" (in HUCA, 26 (1955), 29–41), and "Of a Truth the Lord Hath Sent Me, an Inquiry into the Source of the Prophet's Authority" (1955). In these studies he strictly followed the canons of critical scholarship. Elsewhere, however, he sought to reinterpret biblical thoughts in terms of the present day: "The Relevance of Prophetic Thought for the Modern Rabbi" (CCARY, 65 (1955), 163–72) and The Dawn of Our Responsibility (1961). He was editor of the Hebrew Union College Annual for more than 60 years, -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Dictionary Catalog of the Klau Library, 4 (1964), 465–70. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: HUC-JIR at 100 Years (1976). (Bernard J. Bamberger)