Areligion or a culture like Judaism, at least three thousand years old, cannot be expected to be all of one piece, homogeneous, self-contained, consistent, a neatly constructed system of ideas. If Judaism were that, it would have died centuries ago and would be a subject of interest only to the historian and archaeologist. Judaism has been a living force precisely because it is a teeming, thundering, and clamoring phenomenon, full of contrary tendencies and inconsistencies. Although there are no words or phrases in Hebrew Scriptures for "human rights," "conscience," or "due process of law," the ideals and values which these concepts represent were inherent in the earliest Jewish texts.

This volume begins with four essays on the concept of man's being born "free and equal," in the image of God. The underpinning of this concept in Jewish law is explored in Section 2, entitled "The Rule of Law." Section 3, "The Democratic Ideal," traces the foundations of democracy in the Jewish teachings in the Bible and the Talmud, which in turn influenced the whole body of Western political thought. Relations between man and man, man and woman, employer and employee, slave and master are all spelled out. Section 4 presents essays analyzing man's freedom of conscience, and his God-given rights to dissent and protest. Section 5 deals with aspects of personal liberty, including the right of privacy. Section 6, entitled "The Earth is the Lord's," deals with the Jewish view of man's transient tenancy on God's earth, his obligations not to destroy anything that lives or grows, and to share the earth's bounty with the poor, the widowed, and the orphaned. Section 7 delivers an analysis of the "end of days" vision of Micah and man's continuing need to strive for peace and not for war. The volume concludes with three new essays, dealing with contemporary issues: "In God's Image: The Religious Imperative of Equality under Law"; "The Values of a Jewish and Democratic State: The Task of Reaching a Synthesis"; and "Religious Freedom and Religious Coercion in the State of Israel."

This enlarged edition is accessibly written for a general and scholarly audience and will be of particular interest to political scientists, historians, and constitutional scholars.

David Stern shows how the parable or mashal - the most distinctive type of narrative in midrash - was composed, how its symbolism works, and how it serves to convey the ideological convictions of the rabbis. He describes its relation to similar tales in other literatures, including the parables of Jesus in the New Testament and kabbalistic parables. Through its innovative approach to midrash, this study reaches far beyond its particular subject, and should appeal to all readers interested in narrative and religion.

This collection of essays challenges the traditional patriarchal approach to sacred literature by highlighting gender parity in sacred texts and envisioning the rise of the matriarchy in the future. The authors redefine Biblical Greek words like malakoi and arsenokoitai used in condemnation of homosexuality, and Qur'anic words like darajah and qawwamun, used for establishing patriarchy. One author reexamines the role of the Nepalese Teej festival of fasting and worship of the god Shiva in promoting male hegemony in Hinduism. Other papers examine passages like Proverbs 31:1-31, the stories of Sarah and Rahab in the Bible, the role of Mary in the Qur'an, and the Dharmic conversion in chapter 27 of the Lotus Sutra. This book makes it clear that sacred literature is subject to human understanding as it evolves through space and time. Today, as more women are educated and actively engaged in political, economic, and social life, religions are challenged to redefine gender roles and norms.

"If he had lived among the Greeks, he would now be numbered among the stars." So wrote Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in his epitaph for Francis Mercury van Helmont. Leibniz was not the only contemporary to admire and respect van Helmont, but although famous in his own day, he has been virtually ignored by modern historians. Yet his views influenced Leibniz, contributed to the development of modern science, and fostered the kind of ecumenicalism that made the concept of toleration conceivable.
The progressive nature of van Helmont's thought was based on his deep commitment to the esoteric doctrines of the Lurianic Kabbalah. With his friend Christian Knorr von Rosenroth, van Helmont edited the "Kabbala Denudata (1677-1684), the largest collection of Lurianic Kabbalistic texts available to Christians up to that time. Because the subject matter of this work appears so difficult and arcane, it has never been appreciated as a significant text for understanding the emergence of modern thought. However, one can find in it the basis for the faith in science, the belief in progress, and the pluralism characteristic of later western thought. The Lurianic Kabbalah thus deserves a place it has never received in histories of western scientific and cultural developments.
Although van Helmont's efforts contributed to the development of religious toleration, his experience as a prisoner of the Inquisition accused of "Judaising" reveals the problematic relations between Christians and Jews during the early-modern period. New Inquisitional documents relating to van Helmont's imprisonment will be discussed to illustrate the difficulties faced by anyone advocating philo-semitism and toleration at the time.

In Midrash and Theory, David Stern presents an approach to midrashic literature that is responsible and responsive to the principles of Contemporary theory.

As midrash -- the literature of classical Jewish Scriptural interpretation -- has undergone a revival in the larger Jewish community, the midrashic imagination has shown itself capable of exercising a powerful influence and hold on a new type of contemporary Jewish writing. Stern examines this phenomenon from the perspective of the cultural relevance of midrash and its connection to its original historical and literary contexts. Stern also explores the impact of modern literary theory on midrashic studies, and the resultant changes on the focus, the methods, and the intellectual assumptions of this field. By exploring this linkage, Stern provides not only an introduction to the midrashic tradition, but a fascinating insight into the impact of contemporary theory on an entire field of study.

Viewed through the lens of the ancient talmudic, midrashic, and kabbalistic commentaries, this book examines, in biblical sequence, the scriptural passages related to our ancestral mothers, wives, and daughters. The chosen excerpts, clearly documented, seek to illuminate the question of what it may mean to be truly feminine, truly wise-how actions which appear to be malevolent, or at the very least, misguided, when superficially viewed, may, in fact, have been engineered to produce the greatest good. Barbara L. Thaw Ronson has not chosen to view the Bible as an historical document, attempting to uncover its often cryptic meanings based upon the societal dictates at the time in question; rather, she explores the Bible by perceiving it solely as a timeless Divine doctrine: to illuminate the value and significance of prayer and the individual woman's relationship with her Creator (which informs her relationship with family and neighbor). and to discover and highlight the idea of Woman that exists independently of the era into which she finds herself born.

In an effort to respond to the baseless criticism that Jewish law is overly preoccupied with religious ritual at the expense of issues having to do with interpersonal relationships, the author presents a detailed exploration of the vast attention that the masters of Jewish thought have given to relations between and among individuals. This book is not a legal guide to interpersonal relationships in Jewish life, nor is it a volume of moral exhortation. Rather, Rabbi Feldman aims to convey the importance of his subject by exhibiting its hallowed place within the structure of Jewish law and within the analysis that interpersonal relationships have been given among the giants in the field of Jewish thought.

"The Peshi?ta of Daniel" sets forth an analysis of the Syriac text of the Book of Daniel. It discusses the relationship of the Peshi?ta text of Daniel to the Hebrew/Aramaic text of this portion of Scripture, and its relationship to the Old Greek and Theodotionic versions as well. Making use of the Leiden edition of the Syriac text, it seeks to evaluate the text-critical value of the Peshi?ta of Daniel. It also describes various translation techniques employed in the Peshi?ta of Daniel and evaluates its qualities as a translation.

Daisetz Suzuki discusses the influence of the Lankavatara Sutra in the expression of Zen ideas. He examines the legends that Bodhidharma, the supposed founder of Zen in China, took with him only the Lanka text, and that Bodhidharma was only one in a line of teachers of the Lanka Sutra in China. Suzuki explores the fundamental themes of the sutra -- the acceptance of the Void, the career of the Bodhisattva, and the unreality of perception.