More than any other person of his time, Isaac Leeser 0806-1868) envisioned the development of a major center of Jewish culture and religious activity in the United States. He single-handedly provided American Jews with many of the basic religious texts, institutions, and conceptual tools they needed to construct the cultural foundation of what would later emerge as the largest Jewish community in the history of the Jewish people. Born in Germany, Leeser arrived in the United States in 1824. At that time, the American Jewish community was still a relatively unimportant outpost of Jewish life. No sustained or coordinated effort was being made to protect and expand Jewish political rights in America. The community was small, weak, and seemingly not interested in evolving into a cohesive, dynamic center of Jewish life. Leeser settled in Philadelphia where he sought to unite American Jews and the growing immigrant community under the banner of modern Sephardic Orthodoxy. Thoroughly Americanized prior to the first period of mass Jewish immigration to the United States between 1830 and 1854, Leeser served as a bridge between the old native-born and new immigrant American Jews. Among the former, he inspired a handful to work for the revitalization of Judaism in America. To the latter, he was a spiritual leader, a champion of tradition, and a guide to life in a new land. Leeser had a decisive impact on American Judaism during a career that spanned nearly forty years. The outstanding Jewish religious leader in America prior to the Civil War, he shaped both the American Jewish community and American Judaism. He sought to professionalize the American rabbinate, introduced vernacular preaching into the North American synagogue, and produced the first English language translation of the entire Hebrew Bible. As editor and publisher of The Occident, Leeser also laid the groundwork for the now vigorous and thriving American Jewish press. Leeser's influence extended well beyond the American Jewish community An outspoken advocate of religious liberty, he defended Jewish civil rights, sought to improve Jewish-Christian relations, and was an early advocate of modern Zionism. At the international level, Leeser helped mobilize Jewish opinion during the Damascus Affair and corresponded with a number of important Jewish leaders in Great Britain and western Europe. In the first biography of Isaac Leeser, Lance Sussman makes extensive use of archival and primary sources to provide a thorough study of a man who has been largely ignored by traditional histories. Isaac Leeser and the Making of American Judaism also tells an important part of the story of Judaism's response to the challenge of political freedom and social acceptance in a new, modern society Judaism itself was transformed as it came to terms with America, and the key figure in this process was Isaac Leeser.

Of all Judaic rituals, that of giyyur is arguably the most radical: it turns a Gentile into a Jew - once and for all and irrevocably. The very possibility of such a transformation is anomalous, according to Jewish tradition, which regards Jewishness as an ascriptive status entered through birth to a Jewish mother.What is the internal logic of the ritual of giyyur, that seems to enable a Gentile to acquire an 'ascribed' identity? It is to this question, and others deriving from it, that the authors address themselves.Interpretation of a ritual such as giyyur is linked to broad issues of anthropology, religion and culture: the relation of 'nature' and 'culture' in the construction of group boundaries; the tension between ethnicity and religion; the interrelation of individual identity and membership in a collective. Fully aware of these issues, this groundbreaking study focuses upon a close reading of primary halakhic texts from Talmudic times down to the present as key to the explication of meaning within the Judaic tradition.In our times, the meaning of Jewish identity is a core issue, directly affecting the public debate regarding the relative weight of religion, nationality and kinship in determining basic aspects of Jewish life throughout the world. This book constitutes a seminal contribution to this ongoing discussion: it enables access to a wealth of halakhic sources previously accessible only to rabbinic scholars, fleshes out their meanings and implications within the cultural history of halakha, and in doing so situates halakha at the nexus of contemporary cultural discourse.The Robert and Arlene Kogod Library of Judaic Studies publishes new research which serves to enhance the quality of dialogue between Jewish classical sources and the modern world, to enrich the meanings of Jewish thought and to explore the varieties of Jewish life.

The starting point for any study of the Bible is the text of the Masora, as designed by the Masoretes. The ancient manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible contain thousands of Masora comments of two types: Masora Magna and Masora Prava. How does this complex defense mechanism, which contains counting of words and combinations from the Bible, work? Yosef Ofer, of Bar-Ilan University and the Academy of the Hebrew Language, presents the way in which the Masoretic comments preserve the Masoretic Text of the Bible throughout generations and all over the world, providing comprehensive information in a short and efficient manner. The book describes the important manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible, and the methods of the Masora in determining the biblical spelling and designing the forms of the parshiot and the biblical Songs. The effectiveness of Masoretic mechanisms and their degree of success in preserving the text is examined. A special explanation is offered for the phenomenon of qere and ketiv. The book discusses the place of the Masoretic text in the history of the Bible, the differences between the Babylonian Masora and that of Tiberias, the special status of the Aleppo Codex and the mystery surrounding it. Special attention is given to the comparison between the Aleppo Codex and the Leningrad Codex (B 19a). In addition, the book discusses the relationship between the Masora and other tangential domains: the grammar of the Hebrew language, the interpretation of the Bible, and the Halakha. The book is a necessary tool for anyone interested in the text of the Bible and its crystallization.

The works of Marcin Czechowic (1536-1613), a leader of a Polish Radical Protestant sect known as the Arians, are often referred to as proof for the Jews' close contacts with Radical Christians and the tolerant character of interreligious debates in early-modern Poland. In "Politics of Polemics," Magdalena Luszczynska explores Arian-Jewish relations focusing on Czechowic's two polemics that utilise contrasting images of the Jew. The first features an invented interlocutor, a spiritually blind, tradition-bound 'hermeneutical Jew,' while the second engages in depth with Jewish texts, beliefs, and practices drawing on the Christian Hebraist perception of the Jews as potential teachers of 'sacred philology.' The works are analysed in the context of Radical Protestant theology, the tradition of Christian-Jewish polemics, and Arian leadership contest. "Politics of Polemics," providing an English-speaking reader with an unprecedented access to this unique polemical material, is a valuable source for the historians of the Radical Reformation and of Christian-Jewish relations in early-modern Poland.

In Brothers from Afar, Ephraim Kanarfogel challenges a long-held view that those who had apostatized and later returned to the Jewish community in northern medieval Europe were encouraged to resume their places without the need for special ceremony or act that verified their reversion. Kanarfogel's evidence suggests that from the late twelfth century onward, leading rabbinic authorities held that returning apostates had to undergo ritual immersion and other rites of contrition. He also argues that the shift in rabbinic positions during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was fundamentally a response to changing Christian perceptions of Jews and was not simply an internal halakhic or rabbinic development. Brothers from Afar is divided into seven chapters. Kanarfogel begins the book with Rashi (1040-1105), the pre-eminent European rabbinic authority, who favored an approach which sought to smooth the return of penitent apostates. He then goes on to explain that although Jacob Katz, a leading Jewish social historian, maintains that this more lenient approach held sway in Ashkenazic society, a series of manuscript passages indicate that Rashi's view was challenged in several significant ways by northern French Tosafists in the mid-twelfth century. German Tosafists mandated immersion for a returning apostate as a means of atonement, akin to the procedure required of a new convert. In addition, several prominent tosafists sought to downgrade the status of apostates from Judaisim who did not return, in both marital and economic issues, well beyond the place assigned to them by Rashi and others who supported his approach. Although these mandates were formulated along textual and juridical lines, considerations of how to protect the Jewish communities from the inroads of increased anti-Judaism and the outright hatred expressed for the Jews as unrivaled enemies of Christianity, played a large role. Indeed, medieval Christian sources that describe how Jews dealt with those who relapsed from Christianity to Judaism are based not only on popular practices and culture but also reflect concepts and practices that had the approbation of the rabbinic elite in northern Europe. Brothers from Afar belongs in the library of every scholar of Jewish and medieval studies.

Scepticism has been the driving force in the development of Greco-Roman culture in the past, and the impetus for far-reaching scientific achievements and philosophical investigation. Early Jewish culture, in contrast, avoided creating consistent representations of its philosophical doctrines. Sceptical notions can nevertheless be found in some early Jewish literature such as the Book of Ecclesiastes. One encounters there expressions of doubt with respect to Divine justice or even Divine involvement in earthly affairs. During the first centuries of the common era, however, Jewish thought, as reflected in rabbinic works, was engaged in persistent intellectual activity devoted to the laws, norms, regulations, exegesis and other traditional areas of Jewish religious knowledge. An effort to detect sceptical ideas in ancient Judaism, therefore, requires a closer analysis of this literary heritage and its cultural context. This volume of collected essays seeks to tackle the question of scepticism in an Early Jewish context, including Ecclesiastes and other Jewish Second Temple works, rabbinic midrashic and talmudic literature, and reflections of Jewish thought in early Christian and patristic writings. Contributors are: Tali Artman, Geoffrey Herman, Reuven Kiperwasser, Serge Ruzer, Cana Werman, and Carsten Wilke.

This is the first published book-length treatment on Paul Tillich and Judaism, which is a neglected aspect of Tillich's thought. It has three compelling features. First, pivotal biographical details show the importance of Judaism for Tillich, and that he ardently opposed anti-Semitism before WWII and after the Holocaust. Second, Tillich's theological method is examined in key primary sources to show how he maintains continuity between Judaism and Christianity. The primary source analysis includes his 1910 and 1912 dissertations on Schelling, the 1933 The Socialist Decision, the 1952 Berlin lectures on "the Jewish Question," and his final public lecture on the importance of the history of religion for systematic theology. Particular attention is paid to his dialectical and theological history of religion. Third, Tillich's positive theology of Judaism contrasts sharply with the many complex, negative ways in which Judaism is portrayed in Western thought. This contributes significantly to our understanding the evolving history of Christian anti-Judaism.

Rabbi Jacob Agus' (1911-1986) intellectual production spanned nearly a half century and covered an enormous historical and conceptual range, from the biblical to the modern era. Best known as an important Jewish scholar, he also held important rabbinic, teaching, and public positions. Although born and raised within an orthodox setting, Agus was strongly influenced by American liberalism and his work displayed modernizing sympathies, reservations about nationalism--including some forms of Zionism--and often severe criticisms of kabbalah. Agus crafted a unique, quite American, modernizing vision that ardently sought to remain in touch with the wellsprings of the rabbinic tradition while remaining open to the intellectual and moral currents of his own time.

The Essential Agus brings together a sampling of Agus' most important published and unpublished material in one easily accessible volume. It will be an invaluable resource for students and researchers seeking to experience Agus' intellectual legacy.

The scientific debates on border crossings and cultural exchange between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have much increased over the last decades. Within this context, however, little attention has been given to the biblical Exodus, which not only plays a pivotal role in the Abrahamic religions, but also is a master narrative of a border crossing in itself. Sea and desert are spaces of liminality and transit in more than just a geographical sense. Their passage includes a transition to freedom and initiation into a new divine community, an encounter with God and an entry into the Age of law. The volume gathers twelve articles written by leading specialists in Jewish and Islamic Studies, Theology and Literature, Art and Film history, dedicated to the transitional aspects within the Exodus narrative. Bringing these studies together, the volume takes a double approach, one that is both comparative and intercultural. How do Jewish, Christian and Islamic texts and images read and retell the various border crossings in the Exodus story, and on what levels do they interrelate? By raising these questions the volume aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of contact points between the various traditions.

This book inquires as to whether theological dialogue between Christians and Jews is possible, not only in itself but also as regards the emergence of communities of Messianic Judaism. In light of David Novak's insights, Matthew Levering proposes that Christian theological responses to supersessionism need to preserve both the Church's development of doctrine and Rabbinic Judaism's ability to define its own boundaries.
The book undertakes constructive philosophical theology in dialogue with Novak. Exploring the interrelated doctrines of divine providence/theonomy, the image of God, and natural law, Levering places Novak's work in conversation especially with Thomas Aquinas, whose approach fosters a rich dialogue with Novak's broadly Maimonidean perspective. It focuses upon the relationship of human beings to the Creator, with attention to the philosophical entailments of Jewish and Christian covenantal commitments, aiming to spell out what true freedom involves.
It concludes by asking whether Christians and Jews would do better to bracket our covenantal commitments in pursuing such wisdom. Drawing upon Novak's work, the author argues that in the face of suffering and death, God's covenantal election makes possible hope, lacking which the quest for wisdom runs aground.

aFor the general reader, and the ever-burgeoning number of students in Jewish studies programs, the "Essential Papers" series brings together a wealth of core secondary material, while the commentaries offered by the editors aim to place this material in critical comparative context.a
--"Jewish Journal of Sociology"

No work has informed Jewish life and history more than the Talmud. This unique and vast collection of teachings and traditions contains within it the intellectual output of hundreds of Jewish sages who considered all aspects of an entire peopleas life from the Hellenistic period in Palestine (c. 315 B.C.E.) until the end of the Sassanian era in Babylonia (615 C.E.). This volume adds the insights of modern talmudic scholarship and criticism to the growing number of more traditionally oriented works that seek to open the talmudic heritage and tradition to contemporary readers. These central essays provide a taste of the myriad ways in which talmudic study can intersect with such diverse disciplines as economics, history, ethics, law, literary criticism, and philosophy.

Contributors: Baruch Micah Bokser, Boaz Cohen, Ari Elon, Meyer S. Feldblum, Louis Ginzberg, Abraham Goldberg, Robert Goldenberg, Heinrich Graetz, Louis Jacobs, David Kraemer, Geoffrey B. Levey, Aaron Levine, Saul Lieberman, Jacob Neusner, Nahum Rakover, and David Weiss-Halivni.

Martyrs create space and time through the actions they take, the fate they suffer, the stories they prompt, the cultural narratives against which they take place and the retelling of their tales in different places and contexts. The title "Desiring Martyrs" is meant in two senses. First, it refers to protagonists and antagonists of the martyrdom narratives who as literary characters seek martyrs and the way they inscribe certain kinds of cultural and social desire. Second, it describes the later celebration of martyrs via narrative, martyrdom acts, monuments, inscriptions, martyria, liturgical commemoration, pilgrimage, etc. Here there is a cultural desire to tell or remember a particular kind of story about the past that serves particular communal interests and goals. By applying the spatial turn to these ancient texts the volume seeks to advance a still nascent social geographical understanding of emergent Christian and Jewish martyrdom. It explores how martyr narratives engage pre-existing time-space configurations to result in new appropriations of earlier traditions.

In this groundbreaking study, Avi Sagi outlines a broad spectrum of answers to important questions presented in Jewish literature, covering theological issues bearing on the meaning of the Torah and of revelation, as well as hermeneutical questions regarding understanding of the halakhic text.This is the first volume to attempt to provide a comprehensive map of the available views and theories concerning the theological, hermeneutical, and ontological meaning of dispute as a constitutive element of Halakhah. It offers an attentive reading of the texts and strives to present, clearly and exhaustively, the conscious account of Jewish tradition in general and of halakhic tradition in particular concerning the meaning of halakhic discourse.The Robert and Arlene Kogod Library of Judaic Studies publishes new research which serves to enhance the quality of dialogue between Jewish classical sources and the modern world, to enrich the meanings of Jewish thought and to explore the varieties of Jewish life.

The rule that exempts women from rituals that need to be performed at specific times (so-called timebound, positive commandments) has served for centuries to stabilize Jewish gender. It has provided a rationale for women's centrality at home and their absence from the synagogue. Departing from dominant popular and scholarly views, Elizabeth Shanks Alexander argues that the rule was not conceived to structure women's religious lives, but rather became a tool for social engineering only after it underwent shifts in meaning during its transmission. Alexander narrates the rule's complicated history, establishing the purposes for which it was initially formulated and the shifts in interpretation that led to its being perceived as a key marker of Jewish gender. At the end of her study, Alexander points to women's exemption from particular rituals (Shema, tefillin, and Torah study), which, she argues, are better places to look for insight into rabbinic gender.

This volume clears away myths and deliberate falsehoods to reach the bedrock of truth about Western society's Judeo-Christian tradition. In The Final Superstition Joseph Daleiden examines the origins of Judaism, Catholicism, and the various Christian fundamentalist sects. He demonstrates that in every instance the proponents of new religions exploit the misery and ignorance of their followers to gain control over their lives, resulting in a ruthless despotism that vigoiously stamps out all dissent. Sound ethics and effective social doctrines must not be grounded in myth and falsehood. Written in a lively dialogue form, The Final Superstition offers a devastating counterattack against those religionists who have for too long dictated public policy, often with dire consequences. While many who have looked to religion for comfort will find its conclusion unsettling, open-minded readers of this book will discover powerful arguments for emancipation from ancient superstition and erroneous moral systems.

Traditionally, in the year 312, the Roman emperor Constantine experienced a "vision of the Cross" that led him to convert to Christianity and to defeat his last rival to the imperial throne; and, in 394, a divine wind carried the emperor Theodosius to victory at the battle of the Frigidus River. Other stories heralded the discovery of the True Cross by Constantine's mother, Helena, and the rise of a new kind of miracle-maker in the deserts of Egypt and Syria. These miracle stories helped Christians understand the dizzying changes in their fortunes during the century. They also shed light on Christianity's conflict with other faiths and the darker turn it took in subsequent ages. In A Century of Miracles, historian H. A. Drake explores the role miracle stories played in helping Christians, pagans, and Jews think about themselves and each other. These stories, he concludes, bolstered Christian belief that their god wanted the empire to be Christian. Most importantly, they help explain how, after a century of trumpeting the power of their god, Christians were able to deal with their failure to protect the city of Rome from a barbarian sack by the Gothic army of Alaric in 410. Augustine's magnificent City of God eventually established a new theoretical basis for success, but in the meantime the popularity of miracle stories reassured the faithful - even when the miracles came to an end. A Century of Miracles provides an absorbing illumination of the pivotal fourth century as seen through the prism of a complex and decidedly mystical phenomenon.

In A Jewish Philosophy of History, Prof. Paul Eidelberg unites three disciplines--politics, philosophy, and science--in reader-friendly language. overcome Arab hostility, Eidelberg sets forth a comprehensive remedial program. This requires nothing less than a reconstruction of the mentality as well as the system of governance that dominates Israel and hinders a renaissance of Hebraic civilization. This renaissance is essential for overcoming the clash of civilizations between the West now mired in relativism, and Islam long trapped in absolutism. Eidelberg explains that Judaism is not a religion, but a verifiable system of knowledge. Citing the works of eminent physicists from Einstein to Hawking, he reveals the convergence of science and Torah. He then sets forth the world-historical program of the Torah. scientists, and empires since the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 586 BCE, have unwittingly facilitated the Torah's world-historical program precisely what mankind needs to avoid the scourge of nihilism and barbarism.

The relationship between morality and religion has long been controversial, familiar in its formulation as Euthyphro's dilemma: Is an act right because God commanded it or did God command it because it is right. In Morality and Religion: The Jewish Story, renowned scholar Avi Sagi marshals the breadth of philosophical and hermeneutical tools to examine this relationship in Judaism from two perspectives. The first considers whether Judaism adopted a thesis widespread in other monotheistic religions known as 'divine command morality,' making morality contingent on God's command. The second deals with the ways Jewish tradition grapples with conflicts between religious and moral obligations. After examining a broad spectrum of Jewish sources-including Talmudic literature, Halakhah, Aggadah, Jewish philosophy, and liturgy-Sagi concludes that mainstream Jewish tradition consistently refrains from attempts to endorse divine command morality or resolve conflicts by invoking a divine command. Rather, the central strand in Judaism perceives God and humans as inhabiting the same moral community and bound by the same moral obligations. When conflicts emerge between moral and religious instructions, Jewish tradition interprets religious norms so that they ultimately pass the moral test. This mainstream voice is anchored in the meaning of Jewish law, which is founded on human autonomy and rationality, and in the relationship with God that is assumed in this tradition.