This is the first full-scale assessment of the theological, social and ideational implications of our new understandings of ancient Israel's social and religious development. Scholars now stress the gradual emergence of Israel out of the culture of ancient Palestine and the surrounding ancient Near East rather than contrast Israel with the ancient world. Our new paradigms stress the ongoing and unfinished nature of the monotheistic 'revolution', which is indeed still in process today. Gnuse takes a further bold step in setting the emergence of monotheism in a wider intellectual context: he argues brilliantly that the interpretation of Israel's development as both an evolutionary and revolutionary process corresponds to categories of contemporary evolutionary thought in the biological and palaeontological sciences (Punctuated Equilibrium).

This reference provides a comprehensive survey of human rights in Judaism. It includes both theoretical discussions of the nature and substance of human rights and practical applications of that theory either by Jews or to Jews. While numerous dissertations and audio-visual materials focus on human rights and Judaism, the bibliography is limited to books and articles. The majority of the works have been written in English or Hebrew, but significant studies in other languages, chiefly French and German, have also been included. The volume contains more than 700 citations, each accompanied by a descriptive annotation.

The book begins with an introductory essay that examines the basic concerns of the works that follow. The annotated entries are then presented in five chapters. The first chapter includes anthologies, references, and periodicals. The second chapter includes studies of human rights in the Bible and Talmud. The third chapter includes works on Jewish theories of human rights. The fourth chapter, broken down into smaller sections, includes works on Judaism and particular human rights. The fifth chapter contains entries for works on contemporary Judaism and human rights. The volume concludes with author, title, and subject indexes.

In the long history of the monotheistic tradition, violence - often bloody with warfare - have not just been occasional but defining activities. Since 9/11, sociologists, religious historians, philosophers and anthropologists have examined the question of the roots of religious violence in new ways, and with surprising results. In November 2004, the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion brought together leading theorists at Cornell University to explore the question whether religions are viral forms of a general cultural tendency to violent action. Do religions, and especially the Abrahamic tradition, encourage violence in the imagery of their sacred writings, in their theology, and their tendency to see the world as a cosmos divided between powers of good and forces of evil? Is such violence a historical condition affecting all religious movements, or are some religions more prone to violence than others?;The papers collected in this volume represent the independent and considered thinking of internationally known scholars from a variety of disciplines concerning the relationship between religion and violence, with special reference to the theories of 'just war' and 'jihad', technical terms that arise in connection with the theology of early medieval Christianity and early Islam, respectively.

Following World War II, members of the sizable Jewish community in what had been Kurdistan, now part of Iraq, left their homeland and resettled in Palestine where they were quickly assimilated with the dominant Israeli-Jewish culture. Anthropologist Erich Brauer interviewed a large number of these Kurdish Jews and wrote The Jews of Kurdistan prior to his death in 1942. Raphael Patai completed the manuscript left by Brauer, translated it into Hebrew, and had it published in 1947. This new English-language volume, completed and edited by Patai, makes a unique ethnological monograph available to the wider scholarly community, and, at the same time, serves as a monument to a scholar whose work has to this day remained largely unknown outside the narrow circle of Hebrew-reading anthropologists. The Jews of Kurdistan is a unique historical document in that it presents a picture of Kurdish Jewish life and culture prior to World War II. It is the only ethnological study of the Kurdish Jews ever written and provides a comprehensive look at their material culture, life cycles, religious practices, occupations, and relations with the Muslims. In 1950-51, with the mass immigration of Kurdish Jews to Israel, their world as it had been before the war suddenly ceased to exist. This book reflects the life and culture of a Jewish community that has disappeared from the country it had inhabited from antiquity. In his preface, Raphael Patai offers data he considers important for supplementing Brauer's book, and comments on the book's values and limitations fifty years after Brauer wrote it. Patai has included additional information elicited from Kurdish Jews in Jerusalem, verified quotations, correctedsome passages that were inaccurately translated from Hebrew authors, completed the bibliography, and added occasional references to parallel traits found in other Oriental Jewish communities.

Sceptical Paths offers a fresh look at key junctions in the history of scepticism. Throughout this collection, key figures are reinterpreted, key arguments are reassessed, lesser-known figures are reintroduced, accepted distinctions are challenged, and new ideas are explored. The historiography of scepticism is usually based on a distinction between ancient and modern. The former is understood as a way of life which focuses on enquiry, whereas the latter is taken to be an epistemological approach which focuses on doubt. The studies in Sceptical Paths not only deepen the understanding of these approaches, but also show how ancient sceptical ideas find their way into modern thought, and modern sceptical ideas are anticipated in ancient thought. Within this state of affairs, the presence of sceptical arguments within Medieval philosophy is reflected in full force, not only enriching the historical narrative, but also introducing another layer to the sceptical discourse, namely its employment within theological settings. The various studies in this book exhibit the rich variety of expression in which scepticism manifests itself within various context and set against various philosophical and religious doctrines, schools, and approaches.

Was there an active Jewish-Christian polemic in fourth-century Persia? Aphrahat's Demonstrations, a fourth-century adversus Judaeos text, clearly indicates that fourth-century Persian Christians were interested in the debate. Is there evidence of this polemic in the rabbinic literature? Despite the lack of a comparable Jewish or rabbinic adversus Christianos literature, there is evidence, both from Aphrahat and the Rabbis that this polemic was not one sided.

While many aspects of Sonship have been analyzed in books on Judaism, this book constitutes the first attempt to address the category of Sonship in Jewish mystical literature as a whole - a category much more vast than ever imagined. Idel's aim is to point out the many instances where Jewish thinkers, especially the mystics among them, resorted to concepts of Sonship and their conceptual backgrounds, and thus to show the existence of a wide variety of understandings of hypostatic sons in Judaism. By this survey, not only can the mystical forms of Sonship in Judaism be better understood, but the concept of Sonship in religion in general can also be enriched. "The Kogod Library of Judaic Studies" aims to publish new research in all areas of Judaic studies with the potential to both enrich and deepen the understanding of Jewish culture and history and to influence and mould Jewish life and philosophy. The series reflects the existence of plural Jewish identities and streams involved in a lively and continuous multi-vocal religious discourse, and in creating a cultural mosaic.

Human leadership is a multifaceted topic in the Hebrew Bible. This holds true not only for the final form of the texts, but also for their literary history. A large range of distributions emerges from the successive sharpening or modification of different aspects of leadership. While some of them are combined to a complex figuration of leadership, others remain reserved for certain individuals. Furthermore, it can be considered a consensus within the scholarly debate, that concepts of leadership have a certain connection to the history of ancient Israel which is, though, hard to ascertain. Up to now, all these aspects of (human) leadership have been treated in a rather isolated manner. Against this background,the volume focuses on the different concepts of leadership in the Pentateuch and the Former Prophets. Concepts like "priest", "prophet", "judge", and "king" are examined in a literary, (religious-/tradition-) historical and theological perspective. Hence, the volume contributes to biblical theology and sheds new light on the redaction/reception history of the Pentateuch and the Former Prophets. Not least, it provides valuable insights into the history of religious and/or political "authorities" in Israel and Early Judaism(s).

The State of Israel is the only Western state where the majority of lands are still owned by the State and by a public body related to it (The Jewish National Fund). At the root lies the divine command stating that the Land of Israel belongs to God and therefore should not be traded in perpetuity (Leviticus 25). This principle has been applied to almost all of the State lands, and was established in a Basic Law. Since the 1980s there were many pressures in Israel to privatize at least part of the State's and JNF's lands, due to the general privatization process of Israel's economy, the deepening globalization process, and the transformation of Israel to an individualistic society. However, only a small portion of the lands were privatized, constituting 4% of the area of Israel. The book is based wholly on primary sources. It describes and analyzes the history of the ideological, social and legal processes that took place and their development since the beginning of the 20th century until today - processes that brought about the unique phenomenon of the State of Israel as an advanced capitalistic state whose lands are mostly state-owned.

In this book Anthony O'Hear examines the reasons that are given for religious faith. His approach is firmly within the classical tradition of natural theology, but an underlying theme is the differences between the personal Creator of the Bible or the Koran and a God conceived of as the indeterminate ground of everything determinate. Drawing on several religious traditions and on the resources of contemporary philosophy, specific chapters analyse the nature of religious faith and of religious experience. They examine connections between religion and morality, and religion and human knowledge - the cosmological, teleological and ontological arguments, process thought, and the problem that evil presents for religion. The final chapter returns to the inherently dogmatic nature of religious faith and concludes that rational people should look beyond religion for the fulfilment of their spiritual needs.

In the State of Israel, the unique family law derives from ancient Jewish law, halakhic traditions, and an extensive legal tradition spanning many centuries and geographic locations. This book examines Israeli family law in comparison with the corresponding law in the United States and illuminates common issues in legal systems worldwide. The Israeli system is primarily controlled by the religious law of the parties. Thus, religious courts were also established and granted enforcement powers equivalent to those of the civil courts. This is a complex situation because the religious law applied in these courts is not always consistent with gender equality and civil rights practiced in civil court. This book seeks to clarify that tension and offer solutions. The comprehensive analysis in this book may serve as a guide for those interested in family law: civil court judges, rabbinical court judges, lawyers, mediators, arbitrators, and families themselves. Topics central to the book include issues subject to modification, the right of a minor to independent status, extramarital relationships, and joint property.

This volume, the second of a five-volume edition of the third order of the Jerusalem Talmud, deals in part I (Soa-ah) with the ordeal of the wife suspected of adultery (Num 5) and the role of Hebrew in the Jewish ritual. Part II (Nedarim) is concerned with Korban and similar expressions, vows and their consequences, and vows of women (Num 30).

How do science and religion interact? This study examines the ways in which two minorities in Britain - the Quaker and Anglo-Jewish communities - engaged with science. Drawing on a wealth of documentary material, much of which has not been analysed by previous historians, Geoffrey Cantor charts the participation of Quakers and Jews in many different aspects of science: scientific research, science education, science-related careers, and scientific institutions. The responses of both communities to the challenge of modernity posed by innovative scientific theories, such as the Newtonian worldview and Darwin's theory of evolution, are of central interest.

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls more than sixty years ago has revealed a wealth of literary compositions which rework the Hebrew Bible in various ways. This genre seems to have been a popular literary form in ancient Judaism literature. However, the Qumran texts of this type are particularly interesting for they offer for the first time a large sample of such compositions in their original languages, Hebrew and Aramaic. Since the rewritten Bible texts do not use the particular style and nomenclature specific to the literature produced by the Qumran community. Many of these texts are unknown from any other sources, and have been published only during the last two decades. They therefore became the object of intense scholarly study. However, most the attention has been directed to the longer specimens, such as the Hebrew Book of Jubilees and the Aramaic Genesis Apocryphon. The present volume addresses the less known and poorly studied pieces, a group of eleven small Hebrew texts that rework the Hebrew Bible. It provides fresh editions, translations and detailed commentaries for each one. The volume thus places these texts within the larger context of the Qumran library, aiming at completing the data about the rewritten Bible.

The factionalism and denominationalism of modern Jewry makes it supremely difficult to create a definition of the Jewish people. Instead of serving as a uniting force around which community is formed, Judaism has itself become a source of divisions. Consequently, attempts to identify beliefs or practices essential for membership in the Jewish people are almost doomed to failure.Aiming to take readers beyond the divisions that characterize modern Jewry, this book explores the ever contentious question of who is a Jew. Through a historical survey of the shifting boundaries of Jewish identity and deviance over time, the book provides new insights into how Jewish law over the centuries has erected boundaries to govern and maintain the collective identity of the Jewish people. Drawing on these historical strategies the book identifies the causes and reasons that underlie them, and employs these in order to help construct a guide for creating a structure of boundaries relevant for contemporary Jewish existence.

Psalms 146-150, sometimes called "Final Hallel" or "Minor Hallel", are often argued to have been written as a literary end of the Psalter. However, if sources other than the Hebrew Masoretic Text are taken into account, such an original unit of Psalms 146-150 has to be questioned. "The End of the Psalter" presents new interpretations of Psalms 146-150 based on the oldest extant evidence: the Hebrew Masoretic Text, the Hebrew Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Greek Septuagint. Each Psalm is analysed separately in all three sources, complete with a translation and detailed comments on form, intertextuality, content, genre, and date. Comparisons of the individual Psalms and their intertextual references in the ancient sources highlight substantial differences between the transmitted texts. The book concludes that Psalms 146-150 were at first separate texts which only in the Masoretic Text form the end of the Psalter. It thus stresses the importance of Psalms Exegesis before Psalter Exegesis, and argues for the inclusion of ancient sources beyond to the Masoretic Text to further our understanding of the Psalms.