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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Non-Christian religions > Judaism
"Why me?" Why do we suffer? How can we heal? "Spiritual suffering must be differentiated from physical pain, although the two are intertwined in such a way that it is nearly impossible to distinguish one from the other. We suffer spiritually when we do not grow from our illness, when we do not learn from the experience of physical and emotional pain." from the Introduction Too many of us faced with bodily illness, whether our own or that of a loved one, feel lost as to what to do or how to handle it. Grounded in the spiritual traditions of Judaism, this book provides healing rituals, psalms and prayers that help us initiate a dialogue with God, to guide us through the complicated path of healing and wholeness. Olitzky explores: What Judaism teaches us about healing Finding the meaning of illness in Jewish tradition How to draw on prayers, services, psalms, and other spiritual resources for healing How to grow by fully embracing the process of recovery Olitzky brings together his inspiring guidance in using Jewish texts with his own experience dealing with illness in others including those he loves to demonstrate how the healing of the soul is an indispensable counterpart to curing the body.
This book begins by arguing that early Greek reflection on the afterlife and immortality insisted on the importance of the physical body whereas a wealth of Jewish texts from the Hebrew Bible, Second Temple Judaism and early (Pauline) Christianity understood post-mortem existence to be that of the soul alone. Changes begin to appear in the later New Testament where the importance of the afterlife of the physical body became essential, and such thoughts continued into the period of the early Church where the significance of the physical body in post-mortem existence became a point of theological orthodoxy. This book will assert that the influx of Greco-Romans into the early Church changed the direction of Christian thought towards one which included the body. At the same time, the ideological and polemical thrust of an eternal tortuous afterlife for the wicked became essential.
In Jews, Judaism, and Success, Robert Eisen attempts to solve a long-standing mystery that has fascinated many: How did Jews become such a remarkably successful minority in the modern western world? Eisen argues that Jews achieved such success because they were unusually well-prepared for it by their religion - in particular, Rabbinic Judaism, or the Judaism of the rabbis. Rooted in the Talmud, this form of Judaism instilled in Jews key values that paved the way for success in modern western society: autonomy, freedom of thought, worldliness, and education. The book carefully analyses the evolution of these four values over the past two thousand years in order to demonstrate that they had a longer and richer history in Jewish culture than in western culture. The book thus disputes the common assumption that Rabbinic Judaism was always an obstacle to Jews becoming modern. It demonstrates that while modern Jews rejected aspects of Rabbinic Judaism, they also retained some of its values, and these values in particular led to Jewish success. Written for a broad range of readers, Jews, Judaism, and Success provides unique insights on the meaning of success and how it is achieved in the modern world.
Examining the relationship between Judaism as a religious culture
and kibbutz life, this is a ground-breaking work in the research of
Judaism.
Religions in the Modern World: Traditions and Transformations, Third Edition is the ideal textbook for those coming to the study of religion for the first time, as well as for those who wish to keep up-to-date with the latest perspectives in the field. This third edition contains new and upgraded pedagogic features, including chapter summaries, key terms and definitions, and questions for reflection and discussion. The first part of the book considers the history and modern practices of the main religious traditions of the world, while the second analyzes trends from secularization to the rise of new spiritualities. Comprehensive and fully international in coverage, it is accessibly written by practicing and specialist teachers.
This book, first published in 1925, aims to demonstrate the ultimate roots of the many religious ideas of the Hebrews in Canaanite thought. This book will be of interest to students of theology and religious studies.
He demonstrates that Ashkenazic Jewish culture was profoundly shaped and conditioned by life in an overwhelmingly Christian society. Drawing on diverse Christian documents, he portrays Christian beliefs about medieval Jews and Judaism with a degree of detail seldom found in Jewish historics. Emphasizing social, political, and economic history, but also duscussing religious topics, Glick describes the evolution of a complex, inherently unequal relationship. Because the Ashkenazic Jews of medieval Europe were ancestral to almost the entire Jewish population of eastern Europe, their historical experience played a major role in the heritage of most Jewish Americans.
Introducing Judaism is the ideal starting point for students beginning their studies of this fascinating religion. Eliezer Segal takes a historical approach, focusing on religious aspects of Judaism, and introducing themes as they emerge from authentic Jewish documents. Students will gain an understanding of how Judaism is lived by its adherents and the historical and geographical diversity of Jewish beliefs and practices. The book has a clear and accessible structure. Part One presents the historical context of Judaism, from the Biblical era, through the Medieval period and on to modern Judaism. Part Two surveys the distinctive values and beliefs of Judaism, including attitudes to God, Covenant, Israel, exile and homeland, the Torah, and its commandments, while Part Three presents Jewish Practices and Institutions, engaging with topics such as daily life, worship, temple and synagogue, law, ethics and education, the afterlife, and resurrection. Throughout the book, Eliezer Segal stresses the diversity of interpretations that have been generated by historical circumstances, differing theological and ideological outlooks, and the spiritual creativity of the religious community. Attention is paid to various models of piety, mysticism, scholasticism and folk religion, including the impact of Judaism on the daily life of believers and the experiences of Jewish women. Illustrated throughout, Introducing Judaism includes text boxes, a glossary, and a list of further reading to aid students' understanding and revision, providing a thorough overview of one of the first recorded monotheistic faiths and one of the oldest religions still practiced today. The accompanying website for this book can be found at www.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415440097.
Anti-Semitism is on the rise. How is this still possible? Once again, we are witness to a surge in right-wing authoritarianism, ethnonationalism, and white supremacism, and the racist, xenophobic, and misogynist violence they spread. Like historic newsreels brought back to life, renewed waves of refugees are turned away at borders, placed in cages, or washed up lifeless on the shore. Such striking similarities between present and past suggest that we are not done with the issues raised by the historical Jewish Question: that is, what is the place of "the Jew"-the minority, the relic, the rootless stranger, the racialized other, the exiled, the displaced, the immigrant, the diasporic? In The Jewish Question Again, leading scholars grapple with our inability to keep these struggles in the past and why we continue to repeat these atrocities. This book explores the haunting recurrence of the Jewish Question today and begs why we find ourselves here yet again.
Judaism, Jewish Identities and the Gospel Tradition is a collection of essays focused on what is now a major issue in contemporary gospel studies. The essays are in honour of Maurice Casey who has made major contributions to our understanding of the Jewish context of Jesus and the gospels. Fittingly, however, this collection of essays will avoid the conventional festschrift format and is designed to be a detailed analysis in its own right. This volume will look at the ways in which Judaism can function as an analytical concept in gospel scholarship. This will include an overview of the ways in which Judaism is used in the canonical gospels and how this relates to the idea of a Jewish Jesus, in addition to specific examples of similarities with, and differences from, various Jewish traditions in the gospels, constructions of gender, the impact of the historical Jesus, and the significant steps toward Christian distinctiveness made in the gospel of John. Contributors include Andrew Angel, Roger D. Aus, George J. Brooke, David Bryan, Bruce Chilton, Daniel Cohen, James G. Crossley, Wendy E. S. North, and Catrin Williams, with a preface by C. K. Barrett.
In this enlightening biography, Joseph Telushkin offers a captivating portrait of the late Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, a towering figure who saw beyond conventional boundaries to turn his movement, Chabad-Lubavitch, into one of the most dynamic and widespread organizations ever seen in the Jewish world. At once an incisive work of history and a compendium of Rabbi Schneerson's teachings, Rebbe is the definitive guide to understanding one of the most vital, intriguing figures of the last centuries. From his modest headquarters in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, the Rebbe advised some of the world's greatest leaders and shaped matters of state and society. Statesmen and artists as diverse as Ronald Reagan, Robert F. Kennedy, Yitzchak Rabin, Menachem Begin, Elie Wiesel, and Bob Dylan span the spectrum of those who sought his counsel. The Rebbe was the only rabbi ever to receive the Congressional Gold Medal, and to have an American national day, Education and Sharing Day, proclaimed in his honor. No one has succeeded him in his position. Nevertheless, twenty years after his death, his movement has doubled in size, spreading to more than eighty countries, and his impact resonates still. But what was the secret of the Rebbe's success and influence? What principles of leadership guided him? And how did he rally such extraordinary devotion and resolve? Rebbe explores Schneerson's overarching philosophies against the backdrop of treacherous history, revealing his clandestine operations to rescue and sustain Jews in the Soviet Union, and his critical role in the expansion of the food stamp program throughout the United States. More broadly, it examines how he became in effect an ambassador for Jews globally, and how he came to be viewed by many as not only a spiritual archetype but a savior. Telushkin also delves deep into the more controversial aspects of the Rebbe's leadership, analyzing his views on modern science and territorial compromise in Israel, and how in the last years of his life, many of his followers believed that he would soon be revealed as the Messiah, a source of contention until this day. Epic, intimate, and masterfully told, Rebbe is the definitive work on a monumental and multifaceted leader, written by one of today's most prominent and respected Jewish scholars.
This book brings together a collection of 16 essays that explore Jewish communities in North Africa, Turkey and Iraq. The discussions are located primarily in the 20th century but essays also examine the Jewish community in 16th-century Istanbul, and in early modern Morocco. Topics include traumatic departures of communities from countries of centuries-old Jewish residence, and relocations; pilgrimages to holy sites by Mizrahi Jews in Israel; resonances of Shabbetai Zevi in Turkey and Morocco; "otherness" and the nature of homeland; the Sephardi culinary heritage as realised in the cookbooks of Claudia Roden; sites of memory, such as Kuzguncuk in Turkey; and a controversial view of the exclusions and erasures that Arabized Jews have undergone. In this unique collection a major, but not exclusive, theme is that of the instability of memory, and the attempt to understand the interactions between memory and history as Jews recount their experiences of living in, and often leaving, their past homelands. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Modern Jewish Studies.
Published in 1990, A Systematic Harpoon Into Family Games is a valuable contribution to the field of Family Therapy, using games that were utilised in a workshop in Finland, August 1986, organized by the Family Therapists' Association and the Association for Mental Health. This book was written for professionals who every day, within either the public or the private sector, meet families, couples, or individual patients. The author's main concern was to supply less experienced colleagues with a working tool which could help them on a clinical level.
Jews, Race, and the Politics of Difference explores how Russian Jewish writers and political activists such as Vladimir Jabotinsky turned to "race" as an operational concept in the late imperial politics of the Russian Empire. Building on the latest scholarship on racial thinking and Jewish identities, Marina Mogilner shows how Jewish anthropologists, ethnographers, writers, lawyers, and political activists in late imperial Russia sought to construct a Jewish identity based on racial categorization in addition to religious affiliation. By grounding nationality not in culture and territory but in blood and biology, race offered Jewish nationalists in Russia a scientifically sound and politically effective way to reaffirm their common identity. Jews, Race, and the Politics of Difference presents the works of Jabotinsky as a lens to understanding Jewish "self-racializing," and brings Jews and race together in a framework that is more multifaceted and controversial than that implied by the usual narratives of racial antisemitism.
The gospel writers were masters of 'Midrash', a popular literary technique in the ancient Jewish world. Midrash enables authors to promote their ideas by weaving them into well known biblical themes. The gospels contain coded, midrashic, messages that would have resonated with their contemporary Jewish audience. Approaching the "New Testament" from a midrashic perspective leads to a radically new picture of Jesus as a political leader. Not, as is often claimed a revolutionary against Roman occupation. One prominent theme, that of the Holy Grail, which is central to an understanding of the revolutionary agenda, was virtually (but not quite) written out the gospels, only to resurface in medieval Christian folk lore. The failure of Jesus' revolution came about, not with his crucifixion, but long before with the imprisonment and subsequent execution of John the Baptist, the only qualifying candidate for high office in the revolutionary scheme. From this time forward Jesus and his disciples faced an uphill struggle. Their ultimate demise was inevitable, and Jesus knew this, as the narrative bears out.
A new gift edition of a modern classic, with supplemental
photographs, speeches, letters, and essays
This book uses the Jewish ritual of circumcision to consider how violent acts are embedded within entrenched moral discourses and offers a new perspective for thinking about violence. Intervening in contemporary debates on the Jewish ritual of circumcision, it departs from both the ordinary secular defences of circumcision for medical reasons, and the criticisms that consider it an unethical violation of bodies that cannot consent. An examination of the intersection of violence and morality, this book rejects the binary logic on which popular debates on circumcision hinge, arguing that in some instances violence can be a productive experience and can thus be considered beyond 'good' and 'bad'. Engaging with the works of Jacques Derrida, the author puts forward a framework of violence of ontology, which is characterised as a violence that is related to existence, the violence of being, which resists definition through binary oppositions. In so doing, the author contends that circumcision is in fact a form of generative violence that is leveraged for cultural purposes and inherent in the making of bodies. As such, this volume offers a compelling framework that investigates the relationship between bodies, identities, ethics, and violence, and will therefore appeal to scholars of sociology, social theory, and religion with interests in the sociology of the body, ritual, and cultural studies.
Judaism, Jewish Identities and the Gospel Tradition is a collection of essays focused on what is now a major issue in contemporary gospel studies. The essays are in honour of Maurice Casey who has made major contributions to our understanding of the Jewish context of Jesus and the gospels. Fittingly, however, this collection of essays will avoid the conventional festschrift format and is designed to be a detailed analysis in its own right. This volume will look at the ways in which Judaism can function as an analytical concept in gospel scholarship. This will include an overview of the ways in which Judaism is used in the canonical gospels and how this relates to the idea of a Jewish Jesus, in addition to specific examples of similarities with, and differences from, various Jewish traditions in the gospels, constructions of gender, the impact of the historical Jesus, and the significant steps toward Christian distinctiveness made in the gospel of John. Contributors include Andrew Angel, Roger D. Aus, George J. Brooke, David Bryan, Bruce Chilton, Daniel Cohen, James G. Crossley, Wendy E. S. North, and Catrin Williams, with a preface by C. K. Barrett.
The Jewish intellectual tradition has a long and complex history that has resulted in significant and influential works of scholarship. In this book, the authors suggest that there is a series of common principles that can be extracted from the Jewish intellectual tradition that have broad, even life-changing, implications for individual and societal achievement. These principles include respect for tradition while encouraging independent, often disruptive thinking; a precise system of logical reasoning in pursuit of the truth; universal education continuing through adulthood; and living a purposeful life. The main objective of this book is to understand the historical development of these principles and to demonstrate how applying them judiciously can lead to greater intellectual productivity, a more fulfilling existence, and a more advanced society.
With extraordinary range and literary energy, the story of Absalom's rebellion in 2 Samuel ranks as the most elaborate and extensively narrated internal political event in the Hebrew Bible, complete with a host of scandalous and sordid events: illicit sex, murder, cover-up, petty crime, to name a few. For many students approaching the historical books of the Bible, however, texts often fail to address the vitality of this most turbulent period of King David's career. Bodner addresses this shortcoming with his The Rebellion of Absalom, a lively analysis of the early monarchy of Israel, written by a recognized commentator of the Bible's historical books. Concise and insightful, each chapter incrementally focuses on the stages of David's rise to power and Absalom's early life and rebellion. Crucial issues in the development of Israel's monarchy are embedded in this story, including: royal legitimation divine election succession usurpation divine and human punishment. The Rebellion of Absalom is a student-friendly, culturally savvy approach to one of the most important episodes in deciding how the kings of Israel would be determined throughout the monarchic period.
With extraordinary range and literary energy, the story of Absalom's rebellion in 2 Samuel ranks as the most elaborate and extensively narrated internal political event in the Hebrew Bible, complete with a host of scandalous and sordid events: illicit sex, murder, cover-up, petty crime, to name a few. For many students approaching the historical books of the Bible, however, texts often fail to address the vitality of this most turbulent period of King David's career. Bodner addresses this shortcoming with his The Rebellion of Absalom, a lively analysis of the early monarchy of Israel, written by a recognized commentator of the Bible's historical books. Concise and insightful, each chapter incrementally focuses on the stages of David's rise to power and Absalom's early life and rebellion. Crucial issues in the development of Israel's monarchy are embedded in this story, including: royal legitimation divine election succession usurpation divine and human punishment. The Rebellion of Absalom is a student-friendly, culturally savvy approach to one of the most important episodes in deciding how the kings of Israel would be determined throughout the monarchic period.
Volume 20 of "The Jewish Law Annual" features six detailed studies. The first three articles consider questions which fall under the rubric of halakhic methodology. The final three articles address substantive questions regarding privacy, cohabitation and medical triage. All three methodological articles discuss creative interpretation of legal sources. Two (Cohen and Gilat) consider the positive and forward-thinking aspects of such halakhic creativity. The third (Radzyner) examines tendentious invocation of new halakhic arguments to advance an extraneous interest. Cohen explores positive creativity and surveys the innovative midrashic exegeses of R. Meir Simha Hakohen of Dvinsk, demonstrating his willingness to base rulings intended for implementation on such exegesis. Gilat examines exegetical creativity as to the laws of capital offenses. Midrashic argumentation enables the rabbinical authorities to set aside the literal sense of the harsh biblical laws, and implement more suitable penological policies. On the other hand, Radzyner s article on tendentious innovation focuses on a situation where novel arguments were advanced in the context of a power struggle, namely, Israeli rabbinical court efforts to preserve jurisdiction. Two articles discuss contemporary dilemmas. Spira & Wainberg consider the hypothetical scenario of triage of an HIV vaccine, analyzing both the talmudic sources for resolving issues related to allocating scarce resources, and recent responsa. Warburg discusses the status of civil marriage and cohabitation vis-a-vis payment of spousal maintenance: can rabbinical courts order such payment? Schreiber s article addresses the question of whether privacy is a core value in talmudic law: does it indeed uphold a right to privacy, as recent scholars have claimed? The volume concludes with a review of Yuval Sinai s "Application of Jewish Law in the Israeli Courts" (Hebrew)."
An exciting, long-awaited first English translation of this famous, ancient, magical text * Seen as the original source for later, traditional literature on angelic hierarchy, astrology, Qabalah, and Gematrla * Includes extensive explanatory text on the holy names of God, the divisions of Heaven and Hell, and the names and hierarchy of the angels and spirits * Offers extensive commentary on astronomy, astrology, and symbolic interpretations of Both the Book of Genesis and the Sepher Yezira Now at long last, the long-awaited first English translation-from ancient Hebrew--of the rare and complete 1701 Amsterdam edition of this famous magical text. According to Hebrew legend, the Sepher Rezial was given to Adam in the Garden of Eden by the hand of God. The myth suggests that this diverse compendium of ancient Hebrew lore was the first book ever written.
Like the Hebrew prophets before him, the great American rabbi and civil rights leader reveals God's concern for this world and each of us. Abraham Joshua Heschel, descended from a long line of Orthodox rabbis, fled Europe to escape the Nazis. He made the insights of traditional Jewish spirituality come alive for American Jews while speaking out boldly against war and racial injustice. Heschel brought the fervor of the Hebrew prophets to his role as a public intellectual. He challenged the sensibilities of the modern West, which views science and human reason as sufficient. Only by rediscovering wonder and awe before mysteries that transcend knowledge can we hope to find God again. This God, Heschel says, is not distant but passionately concerned about our lives and human affairs, and asks something of us in return. This little book, which brings together Heschel's key insights on a range of topics, will reinvigorate readers of any faith who hunger for wonder and thirst for justice. Plough Spiritual Guides briefly introduce the writings of great spiritual voices of the past to new readers. |
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