The nature and reliability of the ancient sources are among the most important issues in the scholarship on the Dead Sea Scrolls. It is noteworthy, therefore, that scholars have grown increasingly skeptical about the value of these materials for reconstructing the life of the Teacher of Righteousness. Travis B. Williams' study is designed to address this new perspective and its implications for historical inquiry. He offers an important corrective to popular conceptions of history and memory by introducing memory theory as a means of informing historical investigation. Charting a new methodological course in Dead Sea Scrolls research, Williams reveals that properly representing the past requires an explanation of how the mnemonic evidence found in the relevant sources could have developed from a historical progression that began with the Teacher. His book represents the first attempt in Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship to integrate history and memory in a comprehensive way.

The "Bhagavad Gita," perhaps the most famous of all Indian scriptures, is universally regarded as one of the world's spiritual and literary masterpieces. Richard Davis tells the story of this venerable and enduring book, from its origins in ancient India to its reception today as a spiritual classic that has been translated into more than seventy-five languages. The "Gita" opens on the eve of a mighty battle, when the warrior Arjuna is overwhelmed by despair and refuses to fight. He turns to his charioteer, Krishna, who counsels him on why he must. In the dialogue that follows, Arjuna comes to realize that the true battle is for his own soul.

Davis highlights the place of this legendary dialogue in classical Indian culture, and then examines how it has lived on in diverse settings and contexts. He looks at the medieval devotional traditions surrounding the divine character of Krishna and traces how the "Gita" traveled from India to the West, where it found admirers in such figures as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and Aldous Huxley. Davis explores how Indian nationalists like Mahatma Gandhi and Swami Vivekananda used the "Gita" in their fight against colonial rule, and how contemporary interpreters reanimate and perform this classical work for audiences today.

An essential biography of a timeless masterpiece, this book is an ideal introduction to the "Gita" and its insights into the struggle for self-mastery that we all must wage.

Take a fresh look at India's great epic and rediscover the lost kingdoms, dynasties, and characters of the Mahabharata, accompanied by beautiful images and discussion points. Often described as the longest poem ever written, the Mahabharata is one of two Sanskrit epics of ancient India. Its stories resonate with us even today through its themes of conflict and dilemmas, and have been drawn on for inspiration in film, theatre, and art. The Illustrated Mahabharata follows the tale as it unfolds through 18 episodes, or parvas, alongside stunning photographs, paintings, sculptures, and historical artefacts. Discover the principal characters of the Mahabharata and their family trees, and understand key moments - from the birth of Pandavas and Kauravas to the death of the elders. This definitive guide also highlights important quotes, themes, and historical context points to explore and enrich your understanding of the stories. Know the Mahabharata with this beautiful retelling of India's greatest epic. "

The Struggle for Jerusalem and the Holy Land Between Judaism and Islam is a new inquiry into the Qur'an and classic Islamic sources on the people of Israel, their Torah, and their links to the Holy Land. In recent generations, the Muslim and Arab world has been suffused with publications on the subject of the people of Israel and their affinity to the Land of Israel. Most of these publications are tendentious, written with a hostile attitude toward Jews and Judaism; indeed, some of them are tainted with anti-Semitism. The Qur'an also deals with the question of the status of Eretz Israel, the Land of Israel. Many of its exegetes, following in the tracks of Islam's holy book, have done so as well-and somewhat surprisingly, perhaps, express an approach asserting that this land is promised exclusively to the people of Israel.

'Awakening of the Heart' is a comprehensive, single volume collection of the Buddha's key sutras, translated with contemporary commentary by Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, making the Buddha's teachings accessible and applicable to our daily lives and times.

The study of classical Jewish texts is flourishing in day schools and adult education, synagogues and summer camps, universities and yeshivot. But serious inquiry into the practices and purposes of such study is far rarer. In this book, a diverse collection of empirical and conceptual studies illuminates particular aspects of the teaching of Bible and rabbinic literature to, and the learning of, children and adults. In addition to providing specific insights into the pedagogy of Jewish texts, these studies serve as models of what the disciplined study of pedagogy can look like. The book will be of interest to teachers of Jewish texts in all contexts, and will be particularly valuable for the professional development of Jewish educators.

This index lists all the topics in the "Risale-i Nur", the author's great multi-volume commentary on the Qur'an, and provides an outline for the later, more famous and massive treatise. Now available in English, it offers an overview of the material treated in the "Risale-i Nur" and an opportunity to browse through brief entries such as "Flower", "Spark" and "Whiff" each of which is a keyword linked to a passage in the Qur'an or a figure of speech in a theological argument.

How the rabbis of the Talmud transformed everything into a legal question-and Jewish law into a way of thinking and talking about everything Though typically translated as "Jewish law," the term halakhah is not an easy match for what is usually thought of as law. This is because the rabbinic legal system has rarely wielded the political power to enforce its many detailed rules, nor has it ever been the law of any state. Even more idiosyncratically, the talmudic rabbis claim that the study of halakhah is a holy endeavor that brings a person closer to God-a claim no country makes of its law. In this panoramic book, Chaim Saiman traces how generations of rabbis have used concepts forged in talmudic disputation to do the work that other societies assign not only to philosophy, political theory, theology, and ethics but also to art, drama, and literature. In the multifaceted world of halakhah where everything is law, law is also everything, and even laws that serve no practical purpose can, when properly studied, provide surprising insights into timeless questions about the very nature of human existence. What does it mean for legal analysis to connect humans to God? Can spiritual teachings remain meaningful and at the same time rigidly codified? Can a modern state be governed by such law? Guiding readers across two millennia of richly illuminating perspectives, this book shows how halakhah is not just "law" but an entire way of thinking, being, and knowing.

While many scholars have noted Martin Heidegger's indebtedness to Christian mystical sources, as well as his affinity with Taoism and Buddhism, Elliot R. Wolfson expands connections between Heidegger's thought and kabbalistic material. By arguing that the Jewish esoteric tradition impacted Heidegger, Wolfson presents an alternative way of understanding the history of Western philosophy. Wolfson's comparison between Heidegger and kabbalah sheds light on key concepts such as hermeneutics, temporality, language, and being and nothingness, while yielding surprising reflections on their common philosophical ground. Given Heidegger's involvement with National Socialism and his use of antisemitic language, these innovative readings are all the more remarkable for their juxtaposition of incongruent fields of discourse. Wolfson's entanglement with Heidegger and kabbalah not only enhances understandings of both but, more profoundly, serves as an ethical corrective to their respective ethnocentrism and essentialism. Wolfson masterfully illustrates the redemptive capacity of thought to illuminate common ground in seemingly disparate philosophical traditions.

Spanning a thousand years of history--and bringing the story to the present through ethnographic fieldwork in Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania--Rudolph Ware documents the profound significance of Qur'an schools for West African Muslim communities. Such schools peacefully brought Islam to much of the region, becoming striking symbols of Muslim identity. Ware shows how in Senegambia the schools became powerful channels for African resistance during the eras of the slave trade and colonisation. While illuminating the past, Ware also makes signal contributions to understanding contemporary Islam by demonstrating how the schools' epistemology of embodiment gives expression to classical Islamic frameworks of learning and knowledge. Today, many Muslims and non-Muslims find West African methods of Qur'an schooling puzzling and controversial. In fascinating detail, Ware introduces these practices from the viewpoint of the practitioners, explicating their emphasis on educating the whole human being as if to remake it as a living replica of the Qur'an. From this perspective, the transference of knowledge in core texts and rituals is literally embodied in people, helping shape them--like the Prophet of Islam--into vital bearers of the word of God.

The main sources for an understanding of classical Hindu law are the Sanskrit treatises on religious and legal duties, known as the Dharma stras. In this collection of his major studies in the field, Ludo Rocher presents analytical and interpretive essays on a wide range of topics, from general themes such as the nature of Hindu law and Anglo-Hindu law to technical matters including word studies and text criticism. Rocher's deep engagement with the language and worldview of the authors in the Dharma stra tradition yields distinctive and corrective contributions to the field, which are informed by knowledge both of the Indian grammatical tradition and of Roman and civil law. Davis's introduction presents an interpretative account of Rocher's many contributions to the field, organized around the themes that recur in his work, and examines his key advances, both methodological and substantive. Comparisons and contrasts between Rocher's ideas and those of his Indological colleagues serve to place him in the context of a scholarly tradition, while Rocher's fundamental view that the Dharma stra is first and foremost a scholarly and scholastic tradition, rather than a practical legal one, is also explored. This invaluable collection serves both as summary review of the ideas of Rocher, a leading authority in the field, and as a critical evaluation of the impact of these ideas on the present study of law and Indology.