The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary shows teens in their own language how Torah addresses the issues in their world. The conversational tone is inviting and dignified, concise and substantial, direct and informative. The narrative summaries, "big" ideas, model divrei Torah, haftarot commentaries, and discussion questions will engage teens in studying the Torah and haftarot, in writing divrei Torah, and in continuing to learn Torah throughout their lives. Re'eh includes: * General introduction * Two model divrei Torah on the weekly Torah portion. * One model davar Torah on the weekly Haftarah portion. Jewish learning-for young people and adults-will never be the same.

The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary shows teens in their own language how Torah addresses the issues in their world. The conversational tone is inviting and dignified, concise and substantial, direct and informative. Each pamphlet includes a general introduction, two model divrei Torah on the weekly Torah portion, and one model davar Torah on the weekly Haftarah portion. Jewish learning-for young people and adults-will never be the same. The complete set of weekly portions is available in Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin's book The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary (JPS, 2017).

The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary shows teens in their own language how Torah addresses the issues in their world. The conversational tone is inviting and dignified, concise and substantial, direct and informative. Each pamphlet includes a general introduction, two model divrei Torah on the weekly Torah portion, and one model davar Torah on the weekly Haftarah portion. Jewish learning-for young people and adults-will never be the same. The complete set of weekly portions is available in Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin's book The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary (JPS, 2017).

The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary shows teens in their own language how Torah addresses the issues in their world. The conversational tone is inviting and dignified, concise and substantial, direct and informative. Each pamphlet includes a general introduction, two model divrei Torah on the weekly Torah portion, and one model davar Torah on the weekly Haftarah portion. Jewish learning-for young people and adults-will never be the same. The complete set of weekly portions is available in Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin's book The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary (JPS, 2017).

The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary shows teens in their own language how Torah addresses the issues in their world. The conversational tone is inviting and dignified, concise and substantial, direct and informative. Each pamphlet includes a general introduction, two model divrei Torah on the weekly Torah portion, and one model davar Torah on the weekly Haftarah portion. Jewish learning-for young people and adults-will never be the same. The complete set of weekly portions is available in Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin's book The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary (JPS, 2017).

Va-yeshev (Genesis 37:1-40:23) and Haftarah (Amos 2:6-3:8): The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary shows teens in their own language how Torah addresses the issues in their world. The conversational tone is inviting and dignified, concise and substantial, direct and informative. Each pamphlet includes a general introduction, two model divrei Torah on the weekly Torah portion, and one model davar Torah on the weekly Haftarah portion. Jewish learning-for young people and adults-will never be the same. The complete set of weekly portions is available in Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin's book The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary (JPS, 2017).

Va-yishlah (Genesis 32:4-36:43) and Haftarah (Obadiah 1:1-21): The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary shows teens in their own language how Torah addresses the issues in their world. The conversational tone is inviting and dignified, concise and substantial, direct and informative. Each pamphlet includes a general introduction, two model divrei Torah on the weekly Torah portion, and one model davar Torah on the weekly Haftarah portion. Jewish learning-for young people and adults-will never be the same. The complete set of weekly portions is available in Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin's book The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary (JPS, 2017).

Tetsavveh (Exodus 27:20-30:10) and Haftarah (Ezekiel 43:10-27): The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary shows teens in their own language how Torah addresses the issues in their world. The conversational tone is inviting and dignified, concise and substantial, direct and informative. Each pamphlet includes a general introduction, two model divrei Torah on the weekly Torah portion, and one model davar Torah on the weekly Haftarah portion. Jewish learning-for young people and adults-will never be the same. The complete set of weekly portions is available in Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin's book The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary (JPS, 2017).

One of India's greatest epics, the Ramayana pervades the country's moral and cultural consciousness. For generations it has served as a bedtime story for Indian children, while at the same time engaging the interest of philosophers and theologians. Believed to have been composed by Valmiki sometime between the eighth and sixth centuries BC, the Ramayana tells the tragic and magical story of Rama, the prince of Ayodhya, an incarnation of Lord Visnu, born to rid the earth of the terrible demon Ravana. An idealized heroic tale ending with the inevitable triumph of good over evil, the Ramayana is also an intensely personal story of family relationships, love and loss, duty and honor, of harem intrigue, petty jealousies, and destructive ambitions. All this played out in a universe populated by larger-than-life humans, gods and celestial beings, wondrous animals and terrifying demons. With her magnificent translation and superb introduction, Arshia Sattar has successfully bridged both time and space to bring this ancient classic to modern English readers.

In The Qur'an and Modern Arabic Literary Criticism, Mohammad Salama navigates the labyrinthine semantics that underlie this sacred text and inform contemporary scholarship. The book presents reflections on Quranic exegesis by explaining - and distinguishing between - interpretation and explication. While the book focuses on Quranic and literary scholarship in twentieth-century Egypt from Taha Husayn to Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, it also engages with an immense tradition of scholarship from the classical period to the present, including authors such as Abu 'Ubayda, Ibn 'Abbas, al-Razi, and al-Tabari. Salama argues that, over the centuries, the Arabic language experienced semantic and phonological shifts, creating a lacuna in understanding the Qur'an and bringing contemporary readers under the spell of hermeneutical and parochial interpretations. He demonstrates that while this lacuna explains much of the intellectual poverty of traditionalist approaches to Quranic exegesis, the work of the modern Egyptian school of academics marks a sharp departure from the programmed conservatism of Islamist and Salafi exegetics. Through analyses of the writings of these intellectuals, the author shows that a fresh look at the sources and a revolutionary attempt to approach the Qur'an could render tradition itself an impetus for an alternative aesthetics-contextual, open, and unfolding.

For too many Jewish young people, bar/bat mitzvah has been the beginning of the end of their Jewish journeys. When students perceive the Torah as incomprehensible or irrelevant, many form the false impression that Judaism has nothing to say to them. Enter the game-changer: the JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary shows teens in their own language how Torah addresses the issues in their world. The conversational tone is inviting and dignified, concise and substantial, direct and informative. The narrative summaries, "big" ideas, model divrei Torah, haftarot commentaries, and discussion questions will engage teens in studying the Torah and haftarot, in writing divrei Torah, and in continuing to learn Torah throughout their lives-making it the book every rabbi, cantor, parent, and tutor will also want to have. Jewish learning-for young people and adults-will never be the same. Weekly portion pamphlets are now available for every parasha of The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary!

This is the first major study in a Western language of Rashid al-Din Maybudi's Persian commentary on the Qur'an Kashf al-asrar wa 'uddat al-abrar (Unveiling of Mysteries and Provision of the Righteous). Annabel Keeler explores the interplay between scriptural exegesis and mystical doctrine in a twelfth-century Sufi commentary on the Qur'an. Previously little-known outside the Persian-speaking world, it is increasingly recognized as a key work in the development of Sufi Qur'anic interpretation. This volume provides invaluable background for anyone wanting to gain a deeper understanding of Persian mystical poetry and prose, and other major works of Sufi literature.

Preaching's Preacher's Guide to the Best Bible Reference Paul's letters to the Philippians and Colossians celebrate the glory and supremacy of Jesus Christ and his saving work, a refrain that the reformers never grew tired of singing. While their tones are diverse, the clarity of their compositions and the power of their voices still reverberate today. Reformation commentators found the main themes of these Pauline letters deeply applicable to their circumstances, and volume editor Graham Tomlin urges that they are just as relevant to our own: Philippians overflows with thanksgiving in the midst of persecution and trials; Colossians defends the superiority of Jesus as Lord over all principalities and powers. For the Reformers as well as for Paul, all goodness and grace flows from Christ in whom "all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell" (Col 1:19), the Son who "made himself nothing" (Phil 2:7) in order to bring many daughters and sons to glory. This volume assembles a diverse chorus spanning place, time, and confessional differences: from Italian Reform-minded Catholic Gasparo Contarini and German Lutheran Martin Chemnitz, to Dutch Anabaptist Menno Simons, to French Reformed Theodore Beza and English Puritan Richard Sibbes. Scholars and pastors alike will find many fruitful insights from these and a number of other significant figures--most of whom enjoy fresh translations from the original, many for the first time in English.

How the billionaire owners of Hobby Lobby are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to make America a "Bible nation" The Greens of Oklahoma City-the billionaire owners of the Hobby Lobby chain of craft stores-are spending hundreds of millions of dollars in an ambitious effort to increase the Bible's influence on American society. In Bible Nation, Candida Moss and Joel Baden provide the first in-depth investigative account of the Greens' sweeping Bible projects. Moss and Baden tell the story of the Greens' efforts to place a Bible curriculum in public schools; their rapid acquisition of an unparalleled collection of biblical antiquities; their creation of a closely controlled group of scholars to study and promote the collection; and their construction of a $500 million Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. Revealing how all these initiatives promote a very particular set of beliefs about the Bible, the book raises serious questions about the trade in biblical antiquities, the integrity of academic research, and the place of private belief in public life.

A murderer, an outcast, a man cursed by God and exiled from his people - Cain, the biblical killer of Abel, is a figure of utter disdain. But that disdain is curiously in evidence well before his brother's death, as God inexplicably refuses Cain's sacrifice while accepting Abel's. Cain kills in a rage of exclusion, yet it is God himself who has set the brothers apart. For Regina Schwartz, we ignore the dark side of the Bible to our peril. The perplexing story of Cain and Abel is emblematic of the tenacious influence of the Bible on secular notions of identity - notions that are all too often violently exclusionary, negatively defining "us" against "them" in ethnic, religious, racial, gender, and nationalistic terms. In this compelling work of cultural and biblical criticism, Schwartz contends that it is the very concept of monotheism and its jealous demand for exclusive allegiance - to one God, one Land, one Nation or one People - that informs the model of collective identity forged in violence, against the other. The Hebrew Bible is filled with narratives of division and exclusion, scarcity and competition, that erupt in violence. Once these narratives were appropriated and disseminated by western religious traditions, they came to pervade deep cultural assumptions about how collectives are imagined - with collective hatred, with collective degradation, and with collective abuse. Recovering the Bible's often misguided role as a handbook for politics and social thought, Schwartz demonstrates just how dangerous it can be.

Searching for Meaning in Midrash explores the fascinating body of Jewish literature called Midrash-creative interpretations of the Bible that are designed to reveal hidden or deeper meaning in Scripture. Each of the over 50 midrashim sit next to its corresponding biblical text so that readers can compare them, along with commentary on the times and insights of the Rabbis who wrote each midrash. Readers are given guidance for answering "What does this text mean to me?"

"Web of Life" weaves its suggestive interpretation of Jewish culture in the Palestine of late antiquity on the warp of a singular, breathtakingly tragic, and sublime rabbinic text, "Lamentations Rabbah." The textual analyses that form the core of the book are informed by a range of theoretical paradigms rarely brought to bear on rabbinic literature: structural analysis of mythologies and folktales, performative approaches to textual production, feminist theory, psychoanalytical analysis of culture, cultural criticism, and folk narrative genre analysis.
The concept of context as the hermeneutic basis for literary interpretation reactivates the written text and subverts the hierarchical structures with which it has been traditionally identified. This book reinterprets rabbinic culture as an arena of multiple dialogues that traverse traditional concepts of identity regarding gender, nation, religion, and territory. The author's approach is permeated by the idea that scholarly writing about ancient texts is invigorated by an existential hermeneutic rooted in the universality of human experience. She thus resorts to personal experience as an idiom of communication between author and reader and between human beings of our time and of the past. This research acknowledges the overlap of poetic and analytical language as well as the language of analysis and everyday life.
In eliciting folk narrative discourses inside the rabbinic text, the book challenges traditional views about the social basis that engendered these texts. It suggests the subversive potential of the constitutive texts of Jewish culture from late antiquity to the present by pointing out the inherent multi-vocality of the text, adding to the conventionally acknowledged synagogue and academy the home, the marketplace, and other private and public socializing institutions.

One of the world's foremost experts on the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Qumran community that produced them provides an authoritative new English translation of the two hundred longest and most important nonbiblical Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran, along with an introduction to the history of the discovery and publication of each manuscript and the background necessary for placing each manuscript in its actual historical context.

The Midrash: An Introduction sets forth the way in which Judaism reads the Hebrew Bible. In this masterful presentation, the reader is introduced to the classics of Jewish Bible interpretation, with special attention to the way in which the ribbis of Talmudic times read the Pentateuch, the Book of Ruth, and Song of Songs. The seven Midrash compilations are introduced with a lucid account of their main points, accompanied by selections that give the reader a direct encounter, in English, with the Bible as Judaism understands it. The word midrash, based on the Hebrew root DaRaSH ("search"), means "interpretation" or "exegesis." Midrash also more formally refers to the compilations of such interpretations of Scripture. As Dr. Jacob Neusner explains, these compilations "reached closure and conclusion in the formative stage of Judaism, that is, the first seven centuries of the Common Era, the time in which the Mishnah (ca. 200), Talmud of the Land of Israel (ca. 400), and Talmud of Babylonia (ca. 600) were written." Midrash is not so much about Scripture as it is a subordinate part of Scripture: "They did not write about Scripture," Dr. Neusner says. "They wrote with Scripture ... much as painters paint with a palette of colors." The Midrash: An Introduction is the second volume in Dr. Jacob Neusner's series of introductory volumes on classical rabbinic literature. As with the first volume - The Mishnah: An Introduction - this book offers the layperson a concise description of the religious literature and, drawing on Dr. Neusner's own translations of the texts, walks readers through the selections, providing them with firsthand experience with the document itself. As Dr. Neusner says in his preface to The Midrash: An Introduction, "In these pages I mean to make it possible for readers to know one such compilation from the other and so to begin studying their own."

In the 19th century, many Christians throughout the western world expected the fulfilment of Jesus's promise to return. The widespread expectation culminated in "The Great Disappointment" of 1844. This is a verse-by-verse exploration of Jesus's greatest prophetic sermon, the Olivet Discourse, an examination of 19th century and current Christian interpretations and presents an analysis in the light of Baha'u'llah's teachings.

The first comprehensive, down-to-earth introduction to explain the primary message of Kabbalah that we are to become like God.

Unlike the faddish books that just discuss Kabbalah as a magical system, or those that treat it as if it were separable from Judaism, this inspiring book makes accessible the mysteries of Kabbalah with thorough scholarship and depth of spiritual insight. It traces the evolution of Kabbalah in Judaism and sets forth its most important gift: a way of revealing the connection that exists between our "everyday" life and the spiritual oneness of the universe. Including hands-on "personal Kabbalah" exercises that help bring the teachings into your life, "The Gift of Kabbalah"explores: Healing from the Source Holiness in the Ordinary Contemplating Your Place in History Building a Positive Structure for Life The Soul's Contract with God ... and much more.

Secrets of oriental sexuology are recorded in the book and one can not fail to be intrigued by a number of headings throughout the volume with titles such as "The Lady and the Barber", "The Bath-Keeper Who Lent His Wife", "Passion Gone Mad", "Forth-Eight Erotic Postures"...The writing of this treatise is a credit to Jalal Addin Al-Siyuti and the book was translated from the Arabic at the beginning of the century by an English Bohemian. It was originally published in France as a limited edition of only 300 copies. An imaginative translation has been accomplished in a fascinating style which will attract many new readers. Some interesting poems are contained in the book and the introductory lines of just one entitled "The Squire" written by the Earl of Harrington are quoted. "Last night, when to your bed I came, You were a novice at the game, I've taught you now a little skill But I have more to teach you still,...(page 152)

This series provides the student and educated reader authoritative introductions to particular aspects of Islamic culture. Covering history, theology, architecture, language, philosophy and literature, the surveys extend from the origins of Islam to the modern day.

Faith and History in the Old Testament was first published in 1963. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. This absorbing and readable account of the religion of ancient Israel is presented against the background of other cultures of the time. Father MacKenzie traces the development of Israel's belief and draws upon modern knowledge of the cultures of the ancient Near East to illuminate the history. But the main stress is on the religious meaning which the Israelites themselves perceived in the events they experienced, a meaning which is accepted and extended in different ways by modern Jews and by Christians. The author explains, in non-technical style, the distinctive features of the faith of the Old Testament as evident in such themes as covenant, creation, retribution, the pursuit of wisdom, and the hope of salvation. At the outset, he defines the study of theology and places the study of Chrisson with that of Israel. He analyzes Israel's concept of God and the character of the covenant between God and the people of Israel, discusses the Israelite literature on the creation of earth and its creatures, and considers the interrelationship between myth and history. He discusses the search for wisdom in Israel, the public prayers, and the concept of a promise from the deity. In conclusion, he presents the interpretation by the Old Testament authors of these distinctive features of Israel's religion. The book is intended for lay people interested in modern Bible interpretation, as well as for priests, ministers, and rabbis who wish a general survey of the Old Testament. It is suitable for use as a text or supplementary reading in religion or theology courses.