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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Non-Christian sacred works & liturgy > Sacred texts
The purpose of this book is to re-examine those basic issues in the
study of midrash, which to some extent have been marginalized by
current trends in scholarship and research. Irving Jacobs asks, for
example, whether the early rabbinic exegetes had a concept of
peshat (plain meaning) and, if so, what significance they attached
to it in their exposition of the biblical text. He enquires if the
selection of proemial and proof-texts was a random one, dependent
purely upon the art or whim of the preacher, or rather if
exegetical traditions linked certain pentateuchal themes with
specific sections of the Prophets (and particularly the
Hagiographa), which were acknowledged by preachers and audiences
alike. As midrash in its original, pre-literary form, was a living
process involving both live preachers and live audiences in the
ancient synagogues of the Holy Land, to what extent, he asks, did
the latter influence the former in the development of their art and
skills?
A word conventionally imbued with melancholy meanings, "diaspora"
has been used variously to describe the cataclysmic historical
event of displacement, the subsequent geographical scattering of
peoples, or the conditions of alienation abroad and yearning for an
ancestral home. But as Daniel Boyarin writes, diaspora may be more
constructively construed as a form of cultural hybridity or a mode
of analysis. In A Traveling Homeland, he makes the case that a
shared homeland or past and traumatic dissociation are not
necessary conditions for diaspora and that Jews carry their
homeland with them in diaspora, in the form of textual,
interpretive communities built around talmudic study. For Boyarin,
the Babylonian Talmud is a diasporist manifesto, a text that
produces and defines the practices that constitute Jewish diasporic
identity. Boyarin examines the ways the Babylonian Talmud imagines
its own community and sense of homeland, and he shows how talmudic
commentaries from the medieval and early modern periods also
produce a doubled cultural identity. He links the ongoing
productivity of this bifocal cultural vision to the nature of the
book: as the physical text moved between different times and
places, the methods of its study developed through contact with
surrounding cultures. Ultimately, A Traveling Homeland envisions
talmudic study as the center of a shared Jewish identity and a
distinctive feature of the Jewish diaspora that defines it as a
thing apart from other cultural migrations.
The figure of Sakuntala appears in many forms throughout South
Asian literature, most famously in the "Mahabharata" and in
Kalidisa's fourth-century Sanskrit play, "Sakuntala and the Ring of
Recollection." In these two texts, Sakuntala undergoes a critical
transformation, relinquishing her assertiveness and autonomy to
become the quintessentially submissive woman, revealing much about
the performance of Hindu femininity that would come to dominate
South Asian culture. Through a careful analysis of sections from
"Sakuntala" and their various iterations in different contexts,
Romila Thapar explores the interactions between literature and
history, culture and gender, that frame the development of this
canonical figure, as well as a distinct conception of female
identity.
The art of interpreting Holy Scriptures flourished throughout the
culturally heterogeneous pre-modern Orient among Jews, Christians
and Muslims. Different ways of interpretation developed within each
religion not without considering the others. How were the
interactions and how productive were they for the further
development of these traditions? Have there been blurred spaces of
scholarly activity that transcended sectarian borders? What was the
role played by mutual influences in profiling the own tradition
against the others? These and other related questions are
critically treated in the present volume.
Written by four outstanding Torah scholars, the JPS Torah
Commentary series represents a fusion of the best of the old and
new. Utilizing the latest research to enhance our understanding of
the biblical text, it takes its place as one of the most
authoritative yet accessible Bible commentaries of our day. The JPS
Torah Commentary series guides readers through the words and ideas
of the Torah. Each volume is the work of a scholar who stands at
the pinnacle of his field. every page contains the complete
traditional Hebrew text, with cantillation notes, the JPS
translation of the Holy Scriptures, aliyot breaks, Masoretic notes,
and commentary by a distinguished Hebrew Bible scholar, integrating
classical and modern sources. Each volume also contains
supplementary essays that elaborate upon key words and themes, a
glossary of commentators and sources, extensive bibliographic
notes, and maps.
This book brings together some of the world's most exciting
scholars from across a variety of disciplines to provide a concise
and accessible guide to the Hebrew Bible. It covers every major
genre of book in the Old Testament together with in-depth
discussions of major themes such as human nature, covenant,
creation, ethics, ritual and purity, sacred space, and monotheism.
This authoritative overview sets each book within its historical
and cultural context in the ancient Near East, paying special
attention to its sociological setting. It provides new insights
into the reception of the books and the different ways they have
been studied, from historical-critical enquiry to modern advocacy
approaches such as feminism and liberation theology. It also
includes a guide to biblical translations and textual criticism and
helpful suggestions for further reading. Featuring contributions
from experts with backgrounds in the Jewish and Christian faith
traditions as well as secular scholars in the humanities and social
sciences, The Hebrew Bible is the perfect starting place for anyone
seeking a user-friendly introduction to the Old Testament, and an
invaluable reference book for students and teachers.
From the early years of the Common Era to 1700, Indian
intellectuals explored with unparalleled subtlety the place of
emotion in art. Their investigations led to the deconstruction of
art's formal structures and broader inquiries into the pleasure of
tragic tales. Rasa, or taste, was the word they chose to describe
art's aesthetics, and their passionate effort to pin down these
phenomena became its own remarkable act of creation. This book is
the first in any language to follow the evolution of rasa from its
origins in dramaturgical thought-a concept for the stage-to its
flourishing in literary thought-a concept for the page. A Rasa
Reader incorporates primary texts by every significant thinker on
classical Indian aesthetics, many never translated before. The
arrangement of the selections captures the intellectual dynamism
that has powered this debate for centuries. Headnotes explain the
meaning and significance of each text, a comprehensive introduction
summarizes major threads in intellectual-historical terms, and
critical endnotes and an extensive bibliography add further depth
to the selections. The Sanskrit theory of emotion in art is one of
the most sophisticated in the ancient world, a precursor of the
work being done today by critics and philosophers of aesthetics. A
Rasa Reader's conceptual detail, historical precision, and clarity
will appeal to any scholar interested in a full portrait of global
intellectual development. A Rasa Reader is the inaugural book in
the Historical Sourcebooks in Classical Indian Thought series,
edited by Sheldon Pollock. These text-based books guide readers
through the most important forms of classical Indian thought, from
epistemology, rhetoric, and hermeneutics to astral science, yoga,
and medicine. Each volume provides fresh translations of key works,
headnotes to contextualize selections, a comprehensive analysis of
major lines of development within the discipline, and exegetical
and text-critical endnotes, as well as a bibliography. Designed for
comparativists and interested general readers, Historical
Sourcebooks is also a great resource for advanced scholars seeking
authoritative commentary on challenging works.
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