What can we know about ourselves and the world through the sense of touch and what are the epistemic limits of touch? Scepticism claims that there is always something that slips through the epistemologist's grasp. A Touch of Doubt explores the significance of touch for the history of philosophical scepticism as well as for scepticism as an embodied form of subversive political, religious, and artistic practice. Drawing on the tradition of scepticism within nineteenth- and twentieth-century continental philosophy and psychoanalysis, this volume discusses how the sense of touch uncovers contradictions within our knowledge of ourselves and the world. It questions 1) what we can know through touch, 2) what we can know about touch itself, and 3) how our experience of touching the other and ourselves throws us into a state of doubt. This volume is intended for students and scholars who wish to reconsider the experience of touching in intersections of philosophy, religion, art, and social and political practice.

The volume explores the stone carved shrines for the scrolls of the Mosaic Law from the mid-sixteenth to the mid-seventeenth century synagogues in the former Polish Kingdom. Created on the margin of mainstream art and at a crossroad of diverse cultures, artistic traditions, aesthetic attitudes and languages, these indoor architectural structures have hitherto not been the subject of a monographic study. Revisiting and integrating multiple sources, the author re-evaluates the relationship of the Jewish culture in Renaissance Poland with the medieval Jewish heritage, sepulchral art of the Polish court and nobles, and earlier adaptations of the Christian revival of classical antiquity by Italian Jews. The book uncovers the evolution of artistic patronage, aesthetics, expressions of identities, and emerging visions among a religious minority on the cusp of the modern age.

Kitab al-mustalhaq is an addendum to the treatises on Hebrew morphology by HayyuG, the most classic of the Andalusi works written during the caliphate of Cordoba and the benchmark for studies of the Hebrew language throughout the Arabic-speaking world during the medieval period. Kitab al-mustalhaq was composed in Zaragoza by Ibn Ganah after the civil war was unleashed in Cordoba in 1013. This new edition includes an historical introduction, taking account of the major contributions from the twentieth century to the present day, a description of the methodology and contents of this treatise, a description of the manuscripts, and a glossary of terminology. This new edition shows how Ibn Ganah updated his book until the end of his life.

Reform Judaism has been tested by the spiritual torments and ideological upheavals of the last two centuries. Now, "Reform Judaism for the Rest of Us" brings into discussion key tenets and opinions that shape current thinking within the faith and introduces ideas for its future development. Author Alexander Maller believes that the core message of Reform Judaism, a modern faith inspired by the Jewish heritage and the Jewish and American Enlightenment, is entering a new phase in its history.

Free from the defunct extremist ideologies of the last centuries, American Reform Judaism can expand its reach into the new millennium if it strengthens its grassroots appeal to be of, by, and for the Reform congregants. It must also have a strong Jewish divine faith orientation, be open-minded to the realities of modern living, bear a deep love of Zion, and uphold a strong defense of the Constitution.

The arguments brought forth in this study stem from the author's position as a lay congregant. They also arise from the fact that he is a participant in and an observer of the continuous dialogue between rank-and-file congregants and clergy, as well as among congregations and various denominations of faith. "Reform Judaism for the Rest of Us" encourages congregants to adopt a sustainable, modern, deity-based orientation inspired by Jewish heritage and the American spirit.

Though fifteen-year-old Nepos lost his parents at an early age, he is brave and adventurous, with a thirst for knowledge. Living in the Roman Empire, he has been raised by his grandfather Philo Curtius, the founder and owner of a Roman newsletter. At Nepos's request, Curtius calls in some favors, and the boy is allowed to accompany General Tarquitius and his entourage on a trip to Judea. Nepos believes this is his chance to prove to everyone he is ready to become both a man and a reporter.

The itinerary calls for the entourage to visit cities close to the sea, such as Syracuse in Sicilia, Corinth and Athens in Achaia, Thessalonica in Macedonia, Philippi in Thrace, Ephesus in Asia Minor, Myra in Lycia, Tarsus in Cilicia, Antioch in Syria, and finally Jerusalem in Judea. Nepos is exposed to the great culture of all these places, but when the general is robbed, Nepos is sent to report on a wedding in Cana. There, he witnesses a man called Jesus turning water into wine.

Intrigued, Nepos sets out to discover who Jesus really is. Nepos is eager to discover more about the "Son of God."

The father-daughter dyad features in the Hebrew Bible in all of narratives, laws, myths and metaphors. In previous explorations of this relationship, the tendency has been to focus on discrete stories - notable among them, Judges 11 (the story of Jephthah's human sacrifice of his daughter) and Genesis 19 (the dark tale of Lot's daughters' seduction of their father). By taking the full spectrum into account, however, the daughter emerges prominently as (not only) expendable and exploitable (as an emphasis on daughter sacrifice or incest has suggested) but as cherished and protected by her father. Depictions of daughters are multifarious and there is a balance of very positive and very negative images. While not uncritical of earlier feminist investigations, this book makes a contribution to feminist biblical criticism and utilizes methods drawn from the social sciences and psychoanalysis. Alongside careful textual analysis, Johanna Stiebert offers a critical evaluation of the heuristic usefulness of the ethnographic honour-shame model, of parallels with Roman family studies, and of the application and meaning of 'patriarchy'. Following semantic analysis of the primary Hebrew terms for 'father' ( ) and 'daughter' ( ), as well as careful examination of inter-family dynamics and the daughter's role vis-a-vis the son's, alongside thorough investigation of both Judges 11 and Genesis 19, and also of the metaphor of God-the-father of daughters Eve, Wisdom and Zion, Stiebert provides the fullest exploration of daughters in the Hebrew Bible to date.

Hakol Kol Yaakov: The Joel Roth Jubilee Volume contains articles dedicated to Rabbi Joel Roth, written by colleagues and students. Some are academic articles in the general area of Talmud and Rabbinics, while others are rabbinic responsa that treat an issue of contemporary Jewish law. These articles reflect the unique and integrated voice and vision that Joel Roth has brought to the American Jewish community.

Based on several years of research on Jewish intellectual life in the Renaissance, this book tries to distinguish the coordinates of "modernity" as premises of Jewish philosophy, and vice versa. In the first part, it is concerned with the foundations of Jewish philosophy, its nature as philosophical science and as wisdom. The second part is devoted to certain elements and challenges of the humanist and Renaissance period as reflected in Judaism: historical consciousness and the sciences, utopian tradition, the legal status of the Jews in Christian political tradition and in Jewish political thought, aesthetic concepts of the body and conversion.

In his academic career, that by now spans six decades, Daniel J. Lasker distinguished himself by the wide range of his scholarly interests. In the field of Jewish theology and philosophy he contributed significantly to the study of Rabbinic as well as Karaite authors. In the field of Jewish polemics his studies explore Judeo-Arabic and Hebrew texts, analyzing them in the context of their Christian and Muslim backgrounds. His contributions refer to a wide variety of authors who lived from the 9th century to the 18th century and beyond, in the Muslim East, in Muslin and Christian parts of the Mediterranean Sea, and in west and east Europe. This Festschrift for Daniel J. Lasker consists of four parts. The first highlights his academic career and scholarly achievements. In the three other parts, colleagues and students of Daniel J. Lasker offer their own findings and insights in topics strongly connected to his studies, namely, intersections of Jewish theology and Biblical exegesis with the Islamic and Christian cultures, as well as Jewish-Muslim and Jewish-Christian relations. Thus, this wide-scoped and rich volume offers significant contributions to a variety of topics in Jewish Studies.

Paul Foster Case was an American occultist of the early 20th century and author of numerous books on occult tarot and Qabalah. Perhaps his greatest contributions to the field of occultism were the lessons he wrote for associate members of Builders of the Adytum. The Knowledge Lectures given to initiated members of the Chapters of the B.O.T.A. were equally profound, although the limited distribution has made them less well known. Case was early on attracted to the occult. While still a child he reported experiences that today are called lucid dreaming. He corresponded about these experiences with Rudyard Kipling who encouraged him as to the validity of his paranormal pursuits. In the year 1900, Case met the occultist Claude Bragdon while both were performing at a charity performance. Bragdon asked Case what he thought the origin of playing cards was. After pursuing the question in his father's library, Case discovered a link to tarot, called 'The Game of Man, ' thus began what would become Case's lifelong study of the tarot, and leading to the creation of the B.O.T.A. tarot deck, a "corrected" version of the Rider-Waite cards. Between 1905 and 1908 (aged 20-24), Case began practicing yoga, and in particular pranayama, from what published sources were available. His early experiences appear to have caused him some mental and emotional difficulties and left him with a lifelong concern that so called "occult" practice be done with proper guidance and training.

This is the second volume of the projected four-volume history of the Second Temple period. It is axiomatic that there are large gaps in the history of the Persian period, but the early Greek period is possibly even less known. This volume brings together all we know about the Jews during the period from Alexander's conquest to the eve of the Maccabaean revolt, including the Jews in Egypt as well as the situation in Judah. Based directly on the primary sources, which are surveyed, the study addresses questions such as administration, society, religion, economy, jurisprudence, Hellenism and Jewish identity.These are discussed in the context of the wider Hellenistic world and its history. A strength of the study is its extensive up-to-date secondary bibliography (approximately one thousand items).