Michael Levi Rodkinson (1845-1904) was a journalist, author, and publisher whose literary projects spanned numerous countries and continents. Hero to some and scoundrel to others, Rodkinson was a polemical figure whose beliefs underwent many transformations over the course of his life, most significantly from Hasidism to combative Haskalah to eventually anticipating the neo-Romantic trends of the early twentieth century. Throughout his career, Rodkinson's writing challenged the familiar genres of the literature of Hasidism and the Haskalah, shaping the religious realities of his readers and articulating a spiritual and community life among Jews, who took his ideas to heart in surprising ways. Today, Rodkinson is frequently referred to as a minor Hasidic author and publisher, a characterization based on the criticism of his opponents rather than on his writings. In Literary Hasidism, Meir draws upon those writings and their reception to present a completely different picture of this colorful and influential writer. Examining Rodkinson's lifelong role as a catalyzing agent of different cultural phenomena, his diverse publishing activities, and his writings in their respective stages, Meir grants readers a provocative new vantage point from which to consider this divisive, enigmatic figure.

This book provides a new conceptual and methodological framework the social scientific study of Mishnah, as well as a series of case studies that apply social science perspectives to the analysis of Mishnah's evidence. The framework is one that takes full account of the historical and literary-historical issues that impinge upon the use of Mishnah for any scholarly purposes beyond philological study, including social scientific approaches to the materials. Based on the framework, each chapter undertakes, with appropriate methodological caveats, an avenue of inquiry open to the social scientist that brings to bear social scientific questions and modes of inquiry to Mishnaic evidence.

Scholars typically view Jeremiah 26-45 as a collection of episodes constructed during the Babylonian exile that attempts to prove the authenticity of Jeremiah's prophetic status. But Jeremiah's prophetic legitimacy was already widely accepted during the period of the Babylonian exile. These chapters serve a different purpose, namely, to provide a response by the Deuteronomistic scribes to the rise of the Ezekiel tradition and the Zadokite priesthood that threatened their influence among the exilic population. By subsuming their work within an existing and earlier collection of Jeremianic literature, the ideology and political agenda of the Deuteronomists was fused with the literary legacy of a widely respected prophet, giving rise to a larger literary collection that left a profound and lasting impression on Israel's intellectual and social history.

This volume contributes to the growing field of Early Modern Jewish Atlantic History, while stimulating new discussions at the interface between Jewish Studies and Postcolonial Studies. It is a collection of substantive, sophisticated and variegated essays, combining case studies with theoretical reflections, organized into three sections: race and blood, metropoles and colonies, and history and memory. Twelve chapters treat converso slave traders, race and early Afro-Portuguese relations in West Africa, Sephardim and people of color in nineteenth-century Curacao, Portuguese converso/Sephardic imperialist behavior, Caspar Barlaeus' attitude toward Jews in the Sephardic Atlantic, Jewish-Creole historiography in eighteenth-century Suriname, Savannah's eighteenth-century Sephardic community in an Altantic setting, Freemasonry and Sephardim in the British Empire, the figure of Columbus in popular literature about the Caribbean, key works of Caribbean postcolonial literature on Sephardim, the holocaust, slavery and race, Canadian Jewish identity in the reception history of Esther Brandeau/Jacques La Fargue and Moroccan-Jewish memories of a sixteenth-century Portuguese military defeat.

The Serekh Texts discusses the central rule documents produced by a pious Jewish community of the Essenes that lived at Qumran by the Dead Sea at the turn of the era. The texts describe the life of a highly ascetic group that had rejected the hellenistic Jewish culture and had withdrawn into the desert to live a life of perfect obedience to the Torah. Sarianna Metso introduces the twelve manuscripts of the Community Rule found in Qumran Caves 1, 4 and 5 in terms of their content, textual history, literary function, and significance for the study of ancient Judaism and early Christianity. The writings of the community open a fascinating window onto the religious life in Palestine at the time of the emergence of early Christianity and rabbinic Judaism. There are few other contemporary Jewish sources in which the life and religious practices of a Jewish group are so vividly and authentically illustrated. The Serekh Texts provides an accessible summary of current scholarly discussion on the central topics related to the Community Rule, such as the community's identity and history, and offers comprehensive bibliographies for further study. The Serekh Texts discusses the central rule documents produced by a pious Jewish community of the Essenes that lived at Qumran by the Dead Sea at the turn of the era. The texts describe the life of a highly ascetic group that had rejected the hellenistic Jewish culture and had withdrawn into the desert to live a life of perfect obedience to the Torah. Sarianna Metso introduces the twelve manuscripts of the Community Rule found in Qumran Caves 1, 4 and 5 in terms of their content, textual history, literary function, and significance for the study of ancient Judaism and early Christianity. The writings of the community open a fascinating window onto the religious life in Palestine at the time of the emergence of early Christianity and rabbinic Judaism. There are few other contemporary Jewish sources in which the life and religious practices of a Jewish group are so vividly and authentically illustrated. The Serekh Texts provides an accessible summary of current scholarly discussion on the central topics related to the Community Rule, such as the community's identity and history, and offers comprehensive bibliographies for further study. The Serekh Texts discusses the central rule documents produced by a pious Jewish community of the Essenes that lived at Qumran by the Dead Sea at the turn of the era. The texts describe the life of a highly ascetic group that had rejected the hellenistic Jewish culture and had withdrawn into the desert to live a life of perfect obedience to the Torah. Sarianna Metso introduces the twelve manuscripts of the Community Rule found in Qumran Caves 1, 4 and 5 in terms of their content, textual history, literary function, and significance for the study of ancient Judaism and early Christianity. The writings of the community open a fascinating window onto the religious life in Palestine at the time of the emergence of early Christianity and rabbinic Judaism. There are few other contemporary Jewish sources in which the life and religious practices of a Jewish group are so vividly and authentically illustrated. The Serekh Texts provides an accessible summary of current scholarly discussion on the central topics related to the Community Rule, such as the community's identity and history, and offers comprehensive bibliographies for further study.

Modern physics has forever changed the way we view and understand physical reality. With a wide spectrum of theories, from general relativity to quantum mechanics, our conceptions of the very big and the very small are no longer intuitively obvious. Many philosophers, even scientists have expressed the opinion that the counterintuitive conclusions posited in modern physics are best understood using spiritual terminology. In the 11 lectures in this volume, Harav Ginsburgh, one of our generation's foremost scholars, innovators, and teachers of Kabbalah, reveals how modern physics reflects foundational concepts in the Torah's inner dimension. A wide range of topics from relativity (special and general), quantum mechanics, and string theory are addressed. Elegantly and gracefully, Harav Ginsburgh's exposition of the topics switches back and forth between the scientific and Torah perspectives. With his deep insight, Harav Ginsburgh gives even well-known physical concepts a refreshing and new treatment. Apart from carefully drawing parallels and correspondences between the Torah's inner dimension and modern physics, in these lectures, Harav Ginsburgh proposes new directions for scientific research into important areas such as a unified field theory, CPT symmetry, the relationship between acceleration and gravitation, and the possibility of uncovering additional dimensions in physical reality, demonstrating how the Torah's depth can be used to fertilize science and further our understanding of nature.
Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh is one of our generation s foremost expositors of Kabbalah and Chassidut and is the author of over 100 books in Hebrew, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. The interface between Torah and science is one of the areas in which he is known for his breakthrough work, forging a path in revolutionizing the way we think about the relationship between Judaism and modern science. He is also the founder and dean of the Ba al Shem Tov School of Jewish Psychology, and his unique approach to mathematics in Torah is now the basis of a new math curriculum for Jewish schools.

Primitive Judaism is the earliest system of thought that sought to explain the concepts of divinity, humanity, and life on the planet. What's more, it is Moses who deserves the credit for the systematization of basic, primitive Tanakian Judaism. In King David's Naked Dance, author Allan Russell Juriansz defines the primitive theology of Tanakian Judaism that obeys the Tanak as the sole canon of the Hebrew people.

A sequel to Juriansz' first book-The Fair Dinkum Jew, which calls for a reformation in Israel and worldwide Jewry-King David's Naked Dance sends a message to the Hebrew people to relearn Tanakian Judaism and live by it. Using the writing of several Talmudic rabbis and Jewish reformers, Juriansz presents a discussion of the Tanak as the only sacred canon and shows its messages of the work of God to create, redeem, and glorify His world and His people.

King David's Naked Dance calls for the world's Jewry and Israel to unite in the primitive Judaism, a splendid redemptive religion that needs to be embraced, defended, and propagated.

We Sing We Stay Together: Shabbat Morning Service Prayers is a super user-friendly Sing-Along prayer book for the Shabbat (Saturday) Morning Synagogue Service with TRANSLITERATED ENGLISH TEXT, translation and explanation of the service. Its primary purpose is to make it beyond easy to learn the prayers when listening and singing along to the 64 track music CD album set of the same name; but it also stands, in its own right, as a learning tool explaining the meaning of the words and the service. Our Jewish prayers are beautiful love songs; full of goodness, affection, adoration, hope, kindness and generosity. They are our DNA, even if we do not know them, because these prayers, our religion, have moulded the Jewish people; our way of thinking, education, who we are, and what we represent. Judaism is all about being good and positive for oneself, family, community, the wider world - all out of respect and love for Hashem. It fills me with gratitude, humility, and pride. Our heritage is an intellectual, cultural, spiritual and religious blessing - but we need easy access. I was never able to participate in, let alone enjoy, the Shabbat Morning Service, but I loved those moments when the whole community comes together and sings a few short prayers with moving melodies. There just was not enough of it, we needed more singing, much more! Community is all about family and friends, and we are all friends, it is actually written in one of our prayers. Our prayers are crying out to be sung with great happiness, clearly and harmoniously. Communal prayers are all about belonging, sharing, and that is only possible if we can all join in as equals; and for that we need clearly articulated words that are easy to learn and enjoyable to sing. I dedicate this project of melodizing the Shabbat Morning Service prayers and writing a Sing-Along prayer book to all who love and care for Jewish Continuity, Judaism, Torah, and the Nation-State of the Jewish People, Israel; and so also to all our wonderful friends, the righteous among the nations. Remember to remember that when we sing together, we stay together. AM ISRAEL CHAI - the people of Israel live. With love, and hope for our children, Richard Collis

This book presents an alternative reading of the respective works of Moses Maimonides and Baruch Spinoza. It argues that both thinkers are primarily concerned with the singular perfection of the complete human being rather than with attaining only rational knowledge. Complete perfection of a human being expresses the unique concord of concrete activities, such as ethics, politics, and psychology, with reason. The necessity of concrete historical activities in generating perfection entails that both thinkers are not primarily concerned with an "escape" to a metaphysical realm of transcendent or universal truths via cognition. Instead, both are focused on developing and cultivating individuals' concrete desires and activities to the potential benefit of all. This book argues that rather than solely focusing on individual enlightenment, both thinkers are primarily concerned with a political life and the improvement of fellow citizens' capacities. A key theme throughout the text is that both Maimonides and Spinoza realize that an apolitical life undermines individual and social flourishing.

These stories have the effect of bringing the saints to life as real people. In the course of reading these stories we happen upon many fascinating cultural and historical topics, such as the Christianization of Roman holidays, the symbolism behind the monk's tonsure, Nero's "pregnancy," and the reason why chaste but hot-blooded women can grow beards. At the same time these stories draw abundantly on Holy Scripture to shed light on the mysteries of the Christian faith. Table of Contents: Joshua, Saul, David, Solomon, Rehoboam. Job, Tobit, Judith, St. Andrew, St. Nicholas the Bishop, The Blessed Virgin, SS Gentian, Fulcian, Victorice, S. Nicasius, St. Thomas the Apostle, St. Anastasia, S. Eugenia, S. Stephen Protomartyr, S. John the Evangelist, the History of the Innocents, S. Thomas, martyr, of Canterbury, S. Silvester, S. Paul the first Hermit, S. Remigius, S. Hilary, S. Firmin, Macarias, Life of S. Felix, S. Marcel, S. Anthony, S. Anthony, S. Fabian, S. Sebastian, S. Agnes, S. Vincent, S. Basil, S. John the Almoner, and S. Paul and of the name of conversion.

As a Jewish boy in France during World War II, Leo Michel Abrami evaded Nazi persecution when his mother sent him to live in Normandy disguised as a Catholic boy. When the war ended, he returned to some semblance of a traditional life.

As his life and career evolved, however, it became anything but traditional. In this engaging autobiography, Rabbi Arieh narrates stories about people, places, and events with both candor and keen observation. He served congregations worldwide, from the United States to Guatemala and South Africa. He also served as a prison chaplain in California, counseling murderers such as Charles Manson and Edmund Kemper.

Rabbi Arieh's stories are infused with his strong faith and his unique perspective on Judaism. Numerous challenges arose because of his nondenominational and pluralistic attitude toward all segments of the Jewish community. While his non-allegiance to any single denomination made his professional life more difficult, it was a matter of deep personal conviction.

Above all else, Rabbi Arieh endeavored to bring his message of faith to the people and communities he served. Through this series of captivating anecdotes you'll be inspired by his life of service and scholarship.