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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Non-Christian religions > Judaism
Traditional Jewish religious belief speaks of a divinely revealed,
perfect text, authoritatively expounded. The question this book
addresses is one with which the author has struggled all his life:
in the light of historical criticism, advances in knowledge, and
changing moral attitudes, is the traditional notion of divine
revelation and authoritative interpretation still valid? The focus
is on Judaism and the examples are mostly drawn from that
tradition, but the arguments are easy to transpose to other
religions. Norman Solomon's discussion will appeal to those who
seek to identify with a religious community but who are troubled by
the claim of divine authority made for the scriptures of that
community. Ranging across several academic disciplines, it is
addressed to people of all religions who find their heads and their
hearts are not in accord with each other. It is accessible to a
general readership interested in the relationship of scripture,
interpretation, and religious authority, though scholars will find
original observations and historical interpretations in many areas.
It should find a ready place in university and popular programmes
in Jewish studies, general theology, and philosophy of religion.
In her latest book, Life in Citiations: Biblical Narratives and
Contemporary Hebrew Culture, Ruth Tsoffar studies several key
biblical narratives that figure prominently in Israeli culture.
Life in Citations provides a close reading of these narratives,
along with works by contemporary Hebrew Israeli artists that
respond to them. Together they read as a modern commentary on life
with text, or even life under the rule of its verses, to answer
questions like How can we explain the fascination and intense
identification of Israelis with the Bible? What does it mean to
live in such close proximity with the Bible, and What kind of story
can such a life tell?
Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible for the first time
compares the ancient law collections of the Ancient Near East, the
Greeks and the Pentateuch to determine the legal antecedents for
the biblical laws. Following on from his 2006 work, Berossus and
Genesis, Manetho and Exodus, Gmirkin takes up his theory that the
Pentateuch was written around 270 BCE using Greek sources found at
the Great Library of Alexandria, and applies this to an examination
of the biblical law codes. A striking number of legal parallels are
found between the Pentateuch and Athenian laws, and specifically
with those found in Plato's Laws of ca. 350 BCE. Constitutional
features in biblical law, Athenian law, and Plato's Laws also
contain close correspondences. Several genres of biblical law,
including the Decalogue, are shown to have striking parallels with
Greek legal collections, and the synthesis of narrative and legal
content is shown to be compatible with Greek literature. All this
evidence points to direct influence from Greek writings, especially
Plato's Laws, on the biblical legal tradition. Finally, it is
argued that the creation of the Hebrew Bible took place according
to the program found in Plato's Laws for creating a legally
authorized national ethical literature, reinforcing the importance
of this specific Greek text to the authors of the Torah and Hebrew
Bible in the early Hellenistic Era. This study offers a fascinating
analysis of the background to the Pentateuch, and will be of
interest not only to biblical scholars, but also to students of
Plato, ancient law, and Hellenistic literary traditions.
In 1914, seven million Jews across Eastern Europe and the Eastern
Mediterranean were caught in the crossfire of warring empires in a
disaster of stupendous, unprecedented proportions. In response,
American Jews developed a new model of humanitarian relief for
their suffering brethren abroad, wandering into American foreign
policy as they navigated a wartime political landscape. The effort
continued into peacetime, touching every interwar Jewish community
in these troubled regions through long-term refugee, child welfare,
public health, and poverty alleviation projects. Against the
backdrop of war, revolution, and reconstruction, this is the story
of American Jews who went abroad in solidarity to rescue and
rebuild Jewish lives in Jewish homelands. As they constructed a new
form of humanitarianism and re-drew the map of modern philanthropy,
they rebuilt the Jewish Diaspora itself in the image of the modern
social welfare state.
Thinking about ultimate reality is becoming increasingly
transreligious. This transreligious turn follows inevitably from
the discovery of divine truths in multiple traditions. Global
communications bring the full range of religious ideas and
practices to anyone with access to the internet. Moreover, the
growth of the "nones" and those who describe themselves as
"spiritual but not religious" creates a pressing need for
theological thinking not bound by prescribed doctrines and fixed
rituals. This book responds to this vital need. The chapters in
this volume each examine the claim that if the aim of theology is
to know and articulate all we can about the divine reality, and if
revelations, enlightenments, and insights into that reality are not
limited to a single tradition, then what is called for is a
theology without confessional restrictions. In other words, a
Theology Without Walls. To ground the project in examples, the
volume provides emerging models of transreligious inquiry. It also
includes sympathetic critics who raise valid concerns that such a
theology must face. This is a book that will be of urgent interest
to theologians, religious studies scholars, and philosophers of
religion. It will be especially suitable for those interested in
comparative theology, inter-religious and interfaith understanding,
new trends in constructive theology, normative religious studies,
and global philosophy of religion.
Spurred by a curiosity about Daf Yomi-a study program launched in
the 1920s in which Jews around the world read one page of the
Talmud every day for 2,711 days, or about seven and a half
years-Adam Kirsch approached Tablet magazine to write a weekly
column about his own Daf Yomi experience. An avowedly secular Jew,
Kirsch did not have a religious source for his interest in the
Talmud; rather, as a student of Jewish literature and history, he
came to realize that he couldn't fully explore these subjects
without some knowledge of the Talmud. This book is perfect for
readers who are in a similar position. Most people have little
sense of what the Talmud actually is-how the text moves, its
preoccupations and insights, and its moments of strangeness and
profundity. As a critic and journalist Kirsch has experience in
exploring difficult texts, discussing what he finds there, and why
it matters. His exploration into the Talmud is best described as a
kind of travel writing-a report on what he saw during his
seven-and-a-half-year journey through the Talmud. For readers who
want to travel that same path, there is no better guide.
Emotions have moved center stage in many contemporary debates over
religious diversity and multicultural recognition. As in other
contested fields, emotions are often one-sidedly discussed as
quintessentially subjective and individual phenomena, neglecting
their social and cultural constitution. Moreover, emotionality in
these debates is frequently attributed to the religious subject
alone, disregarding the affective anatomy of the secular. This
volume addresses these shortcomings, bringing into conversation a
variety of disciplinary perspectives on religious and secular
affect and emotion. The volume emphasizes two analytical
perspectives: on the one hand, chapters take an immanent
perspective, focusing on subjective feelings and emotions in
relation to the religious and the secular. On the other hand,
chapters take a relational perspective, looking at the role of
affect and emotion in how the religious and the secular constitute
one another. These perspectives cut across the three main parts of
the volume: the first one addressing historical intertwinements of
religion and emotion, the second part emphasizing affects,
emotions, and religiosity, and the third part looking at specific
sensibilities of the secular. The thirteen chapters provide a
well-balanced composition of theoretical, methodological, and
empirical approaches to these areas of inquiry, discussing both
historical and contemporary cases.
Offers an in depth comparative look at the Epic of Gilgamesh and
the Primeval History, which allows students to view the Genesis
within its Near Eastern context. Offers a fresh model for
approaching this comparative task, which has at times been stifled
by religious dogmatism, on the one hand, or disciplinary insularity
on the other. Written in a lucid style with explanation of all key
terms and themes, this book is suitable for students with no
background in the subjects.
In Hebrew and Arabic, the words Amen and Amin?the most frequent
conclusions of prayers?derive from cognate consonantal roots. The
Greek and other versions of the Hebrew Bible continue to use the
word Amen; the New Testament follows suit. The basic meaning of
Amen or Amin in all three scriptures is the same, a passionate
address to God: 'I entrust myself to You; I put my faith in You, I
keep faith with You.' It is the cry of a person struggling to grasp
and be grasped by God. Amen: Jews, Christians, and Muslims Keep
Faith with God examines faith as it is understood by Jews,
Christians and Muslims; it does not aim to be a work of systematic
theology or a lengthy explication of the contents of different
faith traditions. It offers Jews, Christians and Muslims several
approaches to faith as a category of human experience open to God:
a faithful God who reaches out to grasp the faithful human being at
the same time that the faithful human being reaches out to grasp a
faithful God. This two-sided faith, divine and human, lies at the
center of each faith tradition. The book examines faith as one
might examine a gem, gazing at different facets in turn. In this
process, Patrick Ryan, a Jesuit who has lived for decades in Africa
as well as in the United States, shares the personal reflections of
one who has tried to live a life of faith not only in the company
of fellow Christians but also in the company of Jews and Muslims,
friends for many years. The work as a whole, and each chapter
within it, begins and ends with reflections shared with an
anonymous but real person who has struggled with faith for all that
time and who continues the struggle with faith even today.
Mysticism, which transcends the boundaries of time and space and
refers to a reality not grasped by means of ordinary human
cognition, is one of the central sources of inspiration of
religious thought. It is an attempt to decode the mystery of divine
existence by penetrating to the depths of consciousness through
language, memory, myth, and symbolism. Delving deep into the
psyche, mystics strive to redeem perceived reality from its
immediate meaning. Mystical texts constitute a history of this
religious creativity, of man's attempt to reveal the divine
structure underlying the chaos of reality and thereby endow life
with hope and purpose. By offering an alternative perspective on
the world that gives expression to yearnings for freedom and
change, mysticism engenders new modes of authority and leadership;
as such it plays a decisive role in moulding religious and social
history. For all these reasons, the mystical corpus deserves study
and discussion in the framework of cultural criticism and research.
This study is a lyrical exposition of the Jewish mystical
phenomenon. It is based on a close reading of the hundreds of
volumes written by Jewish mystics and incorporates mystical
testimonies drawn from the different countries and cultural
environments in which Jews have lived. Rachel Elior's purpose is to
present, as accurately as possible, the meanings of the mystical
works as they were perceived by their creators and readers. At the
same time, she contextualizes them within the boundaries of the
religion, culture, language, and spiritual and historical
circumstances in which the destiny of the Jewish people has
evolved. The author succeeds in drawing the reader into a mystical
world. With great intensity, she conveys the richness of the
mystical experience in discovering the infinity of meaning embedded
in the sacred text; teasing out the recurring themes, she explains
the multivalent symbols. Using copious extracts from Jewish
mystical sources, she illustrates the varieties of the mystical
experience from antiquity to the twentieth century. She succeeds in
eloquently conveying how mystics try to decipher reality by
penetrating beyond its apparent boundaries: how they experience
spiritual powers symbolically, imaginatively, or visually; how
hidden truths are revealed in visions or dreams, in an epiphany or
as 'lightning'; how they are 'engraved' in the mind or illuminate
in the soul. Most of the texts she draws on are written in very
obscure language, but the skilful translations communicate the
mystical experiences vividly and make it easy for the reader to
understand how Elior uses them to explain the relationship between
the revealed world and the hidden world and between the mystical
world and the traditional religious world, with all the social and
religious tensions this has caused.
This book deals with the Second World War in Southeastern Europe
from the perspective of conditions on the ground during the
conflict. The focus is on the reshaping of ethnic and religious
groups in wartime, on the "top-down" and "bottom-up" dynamics of
mass violence, and on the local dimensions of the Holocaust. The
approach breaks with the national narratives and "top-down"
political and military histories that continue to be the
predominant paradigms for the Second World War in this part of
Europe.
Studying the many ideas about how giving charity atones for sin and
other rewards in late antique rabbinic literature, this volume
contains many, varied, and even conflicting ideas, as the
multiplicity must be recognized and allowed expression. Topics
include the significance of the rabbis' use of the biblical word
"tzedaqah" as charity, the coexistence of the idea that God is the
ultimate recipient of tzedaqah along with rabbinic ambivalence
about that idea, redemptive almsgiving, and the reward for charity
of retention or increase in wealth. Rabbinic literature's
preference for "teshuvah" (repentance) over tzedeqah to atone for
sin is also closely examined. Throughout, close attention is paid
to chronological differences in these ideas, and to differences
between the rabbinic compilations of the land of Israel and the
Babylonian Talmud. The book extensively analyzes the various ways
the Babylonian Talmud especially tends to put limits on the divine
element in charity while privileging its human, this-worldly
dimensions. This tendency also characterizes the Babylonian
Talmud's treatment of other topics. The book briefly surveys some
post-Talmudic developments. As the study fills a gap in existing
scholarship on charity and the rabbis, it is an invaluable resource
for scholars and clergy interested in charity within comparative
religion, history, and religion.
Sa'adyah Gaon was an outstanding tenth-century Jewish thinker-a
prominent rabbi, philosopher, and exegete. He was a pioneer in the
fields in which he toiled, and was an inspiration and basis for
later Jewish writing in all these areas. The last major
English-language study of his work was published in 1921, long
before Genizah research changed the understanding of the time in
which he lived. Robert Brody's masterly work, covering Sa'adyah's
biography and his main areas of creativity in an accessible way, is
therefore a much-needed reassessment of an outstanding figure. The
opening chapter, on the geonic period that formed the background to
Sa'adyah's life (a period on which there are few works in English),
is followed by an overview that brings out the revolutionary
aspects of his work and the characteristic features of his
writings. Subsequent chapters consider his philosophical works; his
Bible commentaries; his pioneering linguistic work; his poetry; his
halakhic activity (including an examination of his use of the
Palestinian Talmud compared to that of the Babylonian Talmud); and
his activity as a polemicist, notably against the Karaites. An
Epilogue sums up his importance in medieval Jewish culture.
Particularly valuable features of the book are the copious
quotations from Sa'adyah's works, which facilitate familiarity with
his style as well as his ideas; the clarity in presenting complex
and difficult concepts; the constant assessment of his relationship
to his predecessors in his various fields of study and his own
unique contributions to each field; and the contextualization of
his contribution within the political, cultural, and religious
climate of his times so that both revolutionary and conservative
elements in his thought can be identified and evaluated.
Volume 17 of The Jewish Law Annual adds to the growing list of
articles on Jewish law that have been published in volumes 1-16 of
this series, providing English-speaking readers with scholarly
articles presenting jurisprudential, historical, textual and
comparative analysis of issues in Jewish law. The volume contains
seven articles diverse in their scope and focus. Two articles are
devoted to the halakhic thought of Rabbi A. I Kook; two treat
classic legal questions: breach of a promise to marry, and the
legal capacity of minors; two examine aspects of the judicial
process, one exploring talmudic analyses of the biblical
requirement that courts be established in every town, and the
other, post-talmudic views on judicial authority in cases suspected
of fraudulent claims. Another article addresses the fascinating
question of the epistemic-pedagogic worldviews of the rival
Tannaitic legal academics, the House of Hillel and the House of
Shammai. The volume concludes with a section on Israeli legislation
that adduces or is informed by Jewish law, and two reviews of a
much-discussed recent book on a topic of considerable contemporary
interest: the agunah problem.
The communitarian critic of liberalism argues that the
socio-political context is fundamental to any understanding of the
individual as such. This debate is advanced by particularising it
to the experience of Jews in the modern world. Essays focus on the
variety of views of the relationships between the individual Jew
and the communities, religious and secular, of which he or she is a
member.
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