Sacrifice dominated the religious landscape of the ancient Mediterranean world for millennia, but its role and meaning changed dramatically in the fourth and fifth centuries with the rise of Christianity. Daniel Ullucci offers a new explanation of this remarkable transformation, in the process demonstrating the complexity of the concept of sacrifice in Roman, Greek, and Jewish religion.
The Christian Rejection of Animal Sacrifice challenges the predominant scholarly model, which posits a connection between so-called critiques of sacrifice in non-Christian Greek, Latin, and Hebrew texts and the Christian rejection of animal sacrifice. According to this model, pre-Christian authors attacked the propriety of animal sacrifice as a religious practice, and Christians responded by replacing animal sacrifice with a pure, ''spiritual'' 'worship. This historical construction influences prevailing views of animal sacrifice even today, casting it as barbaric, backward, and primitive despite the fact that it is still practiced in such contemporary religions as Islam and Santeria.
Rather than interpret the entire history of animal sacrifice through the lens of the Christian master narrative, Ullucci shows that the ancient texts must be seen not simply as critiques but as part of an ongoing competition between elite cultural producers to define the meaning and purpose of sacrifice. He reveals that Christian authors were not merely purveyors of pure spiritual religion, but a cultural elite vying for legitimacy and influence in societies that long predated them. The Christian Rejection of Animal Sacrifice is a crucial reinterpretation of the history of one of humanity's oldest and most fascinating rituals.

In this volume, Bible Studies scholar Yitzhak (Itzik) Peleg offers an educational, values-based approach to the cycle of Jewish holidays-festivals and holy days-as found in the Jewish calendar. These special days play a dual role: they reflect a sense of identity with, and belonging to, the Jewish people, while simultaneously shaping that identity and sense of belonging. The biblical command "And you shall tell your son" (Exodus 13:8) is meant to ensure that children will become familiar with the history of their people via the experience of celebrating the holidays. It is the author's claim, however, that this command must be preceded by another educational command: "And you shall listen to your son and your daughter." The book examines the various Jewish holidays and ways in which they are celebrated, while focusing on three general topics: identity, belonging, memory. Throughout the generations, observance of the holidays has developed and changed, from time to time and place to place. These changes have enabled generations of Jews, in their various communities, to define their own Jewish identity and sense of belonging.

Scholars of classical history and literature have for more than a century accepted `initiation' as a tool for understanding a variety of obscure rituals and myths, ranging from the ancient Greek wedding and adolescent haircutting rituals to initiatory motifs or structures in Greek myth, comedy and tragedy.
In this books an international group of experts including Gloria Ferrari, Fritz Graf and Bruce Lincoln, critique many of these past studies, and challenge strongly the tradition of privileging the concept of initiation as a tool for studying social performances and literary texts, in which changes in status or group membership occur in unusual ways. These new modes of research mark an important turning point in the modern study of the religion and myths of ancient Greece and Rome, making this a valuable collection across a number of classical subjects.

This book explores the ramifications of being infertile in the medieval Arab-Islamic world by examining legal texts, medical treatises, and works of religious preaching. Sara Verskin illuminates how attitudes toward mixed-gender interactions; legal theories pertaining to marriage, divorce, and inheritance; and scientific theories of reproduction contoured the intellectual and social landscape infertile women had to navigate.

Islam is the only biblical religion that still practices animal sacrifice. Indeed, every year more than a million animals are shipped to Mecca from all over the world to be slaughtered during the Muslim Hajj. This multi-disciplinary volume is the first to examine the physical foundations of this practice and the significance of the ritual. Brannon Wheeler uses both textual analysis and various types of material evidence to gain insight into the role of animal sacrifice in Islam. He provides a 'thick description' of the elaborate camel sacrifice performed by Muhammad, which serves as the model for future Hajj sacrifices. Wheeler integrates biblical and classical Arabic sources with evidence from zooarchaeology and the rock art of ancient Arabia to gain insight into an event that reportedly occurred 1400 years ago. His book encourages a more nuanced and expansive conception of "sacrifice" in the history of religion.

How can children 'develop' spiritually and how do their teachers know when 'development' has occurred? This volume traces the roots and growth of school worship and spiritual development from Victorian times and earlier through the 1960s and beyond in order to see how we have reached the present situation. The subject is examined in various contexts: its historical and cultural background; politics and legislation; philosophy and values; curriculum development. The book addresses the problem of how to define spiritual development and the contentious issue of compulsory school worship. It offers new insights and a thesis for the way forward.

"Harmonizing Similarities" is a study of the legal distinctions (al-furuq al-fiqhiyya) literature and its role in the development of the Islamic legal heritage. This book reconsiders how the public performance of Islamic law helped shape legal literature. It identifies the origins of this tradition in contemporaneous lexicographic and medical literature, both of which demonstrated the productive potential of drawing distinctions. Elias G. Saba demonstrates the implications of the legal furuq and how changes to this genre reflect shifts in the social consumption of Islamic legal knowledge. The interest in legal distinctions grew out of the performance of knowledge in formalized legal disputations. From here, legal distinctions incorporated elements of play through its interactions with the genre of legal riddles. As play, books of legal distinctions were supplements to performance in literary salons, study circles, and court performances; these books also served as mimetic objects, allowing the reader to participate in a session virtually. Saba underscores how social and intellectual practices helped shape the literary development of Islamic law and that literary elaboration became a main driver of dynamism in Islamic law. This monograph has been awarded the annual BRAIS - De Gruyter Prize in the Study of Islam and the Muslim World.

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.

We Sing We Stay Together: Shabbat Morning Service Prayers is a super user-friendly Sing-Along prayer book for the Shabbat (Saturday) Morning Synagogue Service with TRANSLITERATED ENGLISH TEXT, translation and explanation of the service. Its primary purpose is to make it beyond easy to learn the prayers when listening and singing along to the 64 track music CD album set of the same name; but it also stands, in its own right, as a learning tool explaining the meaning of the words and the service. Our Jewish prayers are beautiful love songs; full of goodness, affection, adoration, hope, kindness and generosity. They are our DNA, even if we do not know them, because these prayers, our religion, have moulded the Jewish people; our way of thinking, education, who we are, and what we represent. Judaism is all about being good and positive for oneself, family, community, the wider world - all out of respect and love for Hashem. It fills me with gratitude, humility, and pride. Our heritage is an intellectual, cultural, spiritual and religious blessing - but we need easy access. I was never able to participate in, let alone enjoy, the Shabbat Morning Service, but I loved those moments when the whole community comes together and sings a few short prayers with moving melodies. There just was not enough of it, we needed more singing, much more! Community is all about family and friends, and we are all friends, it is actually written in one of our prayers. Our prayers are crying out to be sung with great happiness, clearly and harmoniously. Communal prayers are all about belonging, sharing, and that is only possible if we can all join in as equals; and for that we need clearly articulated words that are easy to learn and enjoyable to sing. I dedicate this project of melodizing the Shabbat Morning Service prayers and writing a Sing-Along prayer book to all who love and care for Jewish Continuity, Judaism, Torah, and the Nation-State of the Jewish People, Israel; and so also to all our wonderful friends, the righteous among the nations. Remember to remember that when we sing together, we stay together. AM ISRAEL CHAI - the people of Israel live. With love, and hope for our children, Richard Collis

Rudra Puja has been practised in India since the beginning of time. Shiva means Auspicious. Rudra is a synonym for Shiva that means 'Destroyer of Evil'. Puja means that which is born of fullness. The Vedic scriptures hail the Rudram chants as a method to remove sufferings, attain desires and bestow all round prosperity in one's village. This book presents the complete Rudra Puja Abhisheka procedure in Sanskrit using clear Devanagari font. Headings are given in English for the performer to follow the text correctly. The Rudram Verses for NORTH INDIAN Shukla Yajur Veda as well as for SOUTH INDIAN Krishna Yajur Veda are both given in separate sections with correct Vedic Accents. Additionally, the Devanagari Latin Transliteration is given for the South Indian version. A copious Appendix gives the Devanagari Alphabet, Pronunciation Key, and some famous Shiva Shlokas. Ideal for use at home or in the temple.

"O louvor que nos une: Cerimonia de oracoes matutina do Shabbat" (We Sing We Stay Together) e um livro de oracao extremamente acessivel para acompanhar os canticos da cerimonia matutina do Shabbat (sabado) na sinagoga, com TEXTO TRANSLITERADO EM PORTUGUES, traducao e explicacao da cerimonia. Seu principal objetivo e facilitar o aprendizado das oracoes enquanto se ouve e acompanha o conjunto homonimo de CD com 64 faixas. Mas, por si so, ele tambem serve como uma ferramenta para explicar o significado das palavras e da cerimonia. Nossas oracoes judaicas sao belas cancoes de amor, repletas de bondade, afeto, adoracao, esperanca, benevolencia e generosidade. Elas sao o nosso DNA, mesmo que nao as conhecamos, pois tais oracoes, nossa religiao, moldaram o povo judeu: elas moldaram nosso modo de pensar, nossa educacao, quem somos e o que representamos. O judaismo prega que devemos ser bons e positivos para nos mesmos, para a familia, para a comunidade e para o mundo em geral - tudo por respeito e amor a Hashem. Isso me enche de gratidao, humildade e orgulho. Nossa heranca e uma bencao intelectual, cultural, espiritual e religiosa. Precisamos, porem, de facil acesso. Eu nunca pude participar, muito menos desfrutar, de uma cerimonia matutina do Shabbat, mas adorava os momentos em que toda a comunidade se reunia e entoava alguns breves louvores com melodias emocionantes. Tais momentos simplesmente nao eram suficientes. Nos precisavamos cantar mais, muito mais! Comunidade tem a ver com familia e amigos, e todos nos somos amigos - isto esta, inclusive, escrito em uma de nossas oracoes. Nossas oracoes clamam por ser entoadas com grande alegria, clareza e harmonia. As oracoes coletivas dizem respeito a pertenca e partilha, e isso so e possivel se todos pudermos nos unir como semelhantes. Para isso, precisamos de palavras claramente articuladas, faceis de aprender e agradaveis de cantar. Eu dedico este projeto de melodizacao das oracoes da cerimonia matutina do Shabbat e a escrita de um livro de oracao com as respectivas letras a todos os que amam e se importam com a continuidade judaica, com o judaismo, com a Tora e com o Estado-nacao do povo judeu, Israel, bem como a todos os nossos maravilhosos amigos, os justos entre as nacoes. Lembrem-se de que, quando louvamos juntos, permanecemos juntos. AM ISRAEL CHAI - o povo de Israel vive. Com amor e esperanca para os nossos filhos, Richard Collis

The interpretation of animal sacrifice, now considered the most important ancient Greek and Roman religious ritual, has long been dominated by the views of Walter Burkert, the late J.-P. Vernant, and Marcel Detienne. No penetrating and general critique of their views has appeared and, in particular, no critique of the application of these views to Roman religion. Nor has any critique dealt with the use of literary and visual sources by these writers. This book, a collection of essays by leading scholars, incorporates all these subjects and provides a theoretical background for the study of animal sacrifice in an ancient context.