Author Traces The Portrait Of Rabbi Judah And His Ideas. Includes The World Of The Cabbalah, A Portrait Of The Master, Human Destiny, Reason And Faith, Judaism And Christianity, The Legacy Of Rabbi Judah.

"Paulist Press deserves credit for adding this new dimension to interfaith dialogue." The Jewish Spectator The Talmud: Selected Writings translated by Ben Zion Bokser introduced by Ben Zion Bokser and Baruch M. Bokser preface by Robert Goldenberg "Study with all your heart and soul that you may know God's ways and be attentive to His Torah. Guard His Torah in your heart and keep the fear of Him before your eyes. Guard your lips from every sin, and purify and sanctify yourself from fault and wrongdoing, and God will be with you everywhere." From "The Tractate Berakhot" In the first through the sixth centuries of the common era, successive circles of rabbis in the Holy Land and Babylonia developed Rabbinic Judaism. Transforming the biblical Temple-oriented form of Judaism, they shaped a vision of Judaism centered around the piety of following and studying the Torah to achieve a sense of the divine in this world. This piety entailed both an intellectual and emotional dimension that spoke to individuals and that affected the developing synagogues and local communities of Jews. The rabbinic teachings were eventually compiled into the Talmud and Midrash in a manner that perpetuated the piety of study. These works do not offer clear cut decisions but invite the reader into the text to join in a chorus of voices and alternatives pursuing a discussion on the meaning of the Torah and what the divine demands of men and women in their everyday world. This version of Judaism soon became "classical" and would remain formative until modern times. The present volume provides an introduction to the spirituality of this movement. After reviewing the historical and religious background of the Talmud and how it treats diverse spheres of human life, the volume lets the Talmud speak in its own words. With extensive selections from the Talmud, it enables the reader to enter its world as it addresses the proper way of approaching and experiencing life.

This is a new release of the original 1954 edition.

This is a new release of the original 1954 edition.

Author Traces The Portrait Of Rabbi Judah And His Ideas. Includes The World Of The Cabbalah, A Portrait Of The Master, Human Destiny, Reason And Faith, Judaism And Christianity, The Legacy Of Rabbi Judah.

An interesting study, based on a thousand years of Jewish thought and wisdom.

Ben Zion Bokser (July 4, 1907 - 1984) was one of the major Conservative rabbis of America. He stressed the Rabbinic sages and the Talmud as the source of Judaism. "This is not an uncommon impression and one finds it sometimes among Jews as well as Christians - that Judaism is the religion of the Hebrew Bible. It is, of course, a fallacious impression. . . Judaism is not the religion of the Bible" (Judaism and the Christian Predicament, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1967, p. 59). Similar to Heschel, Bokser affirms revelation and even the special status of Sinai, but revelation is always framed in humans by man. "Man receives a divine communication when the divine spirit rests on him, but man must give form to that communication; He must express it in words, in images and in symbols which will make his message intelligible to other men. Out of this need to give form to the truth that is revealed to him, the prophet places the stamp of his own individuality upon that truth." Bokser argued that Christian antisemitism had desensitized Germans to the heinous character of Nazi propaganda. However, in the post-war period Christian religious and lay leaders have insisted that Christians must play a role in correcting the problems of the social order. (Judaism and the Christian Predicament) Active in interfaith, Bokser composed the following prayer in the style of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook. God's Prayer Every day When prayers rise In synagogue, church and mosque God prays for His world. May it be the will of My children To accept My gift of life, And allow me to lead them Toward the light.

This is a great book about the Talmud, which represents approximately a thousand years of Jewish thought. Although the non-Jewish world has given the Talmud a mixed reaction, the Talmud plays today a dominant role in Jewish life.

Author Traces The Portrait Of Rabbi Judah And His Ideas. Includes The World Of The Cabbalah, A Portrait Of The Master, Human Destiny, Reason And Faith, Judaism And Christianity, The Legacy Of Rabbi Judah.

Author Traces The Portrait Of Rabbi Judah And His Ideas. Includes The World Of The Cabbalah, A Portrait Of The Master, Human Destiny, Reason And Faith, Judaism And Christianity, The Legacy Of Rabbi Judah.

Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hacohen Kook was the first Chief Rabbi of Palestine, and the 20th century's most important Orthodox Jewish mystic.

The conflict between religion and science has been a perennial problem in human thought. One of the most brilliant efforts to cope with it is that of Moses Maimonides. Born in the latter part of the twelfth century (1135 1205) when Aristotelian naturalism proclaimed its bold challenge to any revealed religion in the name of the sufficiency of reason, and its fruits, the natural sciences, Moses Maimonides led in an act of meditation that broke new ground in the understanding both of religion as well as of science. Dr. Bokser examines the basic elements of his thought and seeks to indicate what in it was of transient character and what remains cogent for the religio-cultural problem of our own time.