This reference provides a comprehensive survey of human rights in Judaism. It includes both theoretical discussions of the nature and substance of human rights and practical applications of that theory either by Jews or to Jews. While numerous dissertations and audio-visual materials focus on human rights and Judaism, the bibliography is limited to books and articles. The majority of the works have been written in English or Hebrew, but significant studies in other languages, chiefly French and German, have also been included. The volume contains more than 700 citations, each accompanied by a descriptive annotation.

The book begins with an introductory essay that examines the basic concerns of the works that follow. The annotated entries are then presented in five chapters. The first chapter includes anthologies, references, and periodicals. The second chapter includes studies of human rights in the Bible and Talmud. The third chapter includes works on Jewish theories of human rights. The fourth chapter, broken down into smaller sections, includes works on Judaism and particular human rights. The fifth chapter contains entries for works on contemporary Judaism and human rights. The volume concludes with author, title, and subject indexes.

This bibliography documents and annotates the various articles and books devoted to Jewish ethics. It is divided into two sections. The first is an essay exploring philosophical questions and the way in which Jewish thinkers wrestle with them. The second part is an annotated bibliography with author, subject, and title indexes that brings together widely scattered or relatively unknown works. Representing the broad spectrum of Jewish thought, it includes articles from journals published by Reform, Orthodox, Conservative, and Reconstructionist Jewish institutions, scholarly articles and books published in the United States and Europe, traditional collections of Hebrew ethical writings, both contemporary and classical, and anthologies. The bibliographical survey is divided into five major sections: general works and anthologies, the history of Jewish ethics, issues in Jewish ethics, themes in Jewish ethics, and Jewish ethics and non-Jewish ethical theories.

While scholars agree on the continuing importance of biblical covenant as a foundation of Judaism, they often disagree in their perception of the meaning and significance of this concept in a modern context. Breslauer addresses the disputed issues in a thorough examination of the debate itself, together with the biblical data and theological interpretations that support covenantal religion. Searching for new definitions of covenant, he suggests ways in which covenantal images offer positive and realistic answers to the problems that modern society poses for the practicing Jew. Beginning with an explanation of the basic elements of covenantal Judaism, the author explores the problems raised by that paradigm, particularly as set forth in the work of Richard Rubenstein. Themes considered in the chapters that follow include the problem of being a Jew in contemporary society, the nature of human freedom, and the implications of covenantal religion for both community and personal identity. The discussion draws on major Judaic sources, including Hasidic works, Talmudic stories, and the Bible, as well as such contemporary thinkers as Martin Buber, Jacob Agus, and Will Herberg. The author concludes by drawing together the various themes and proposing a covenantal paradigm that affirms Jewish religion as a valid option in the modern world. A comprehensive annotated bibliography is supplied. Combining historical investigation with constructive analysis of present-day issues, this book will be of interest to both scholars and general readers concerned with contemporary Judaism.

Moving the focus away from the exposition of one particular thinker, this unique book offers a constructive, postmodern approach to contemporary Jewish thinking combined with analysis of modern Jewish thought, reflections on Jewish law, mysticism, history, and theology. This exploration of postmodernism in Judaism and its relevance as a moral standard concentrates on three basic elements in postmodernism: attention to Other, using the text as a prism for generating alternate realities, and recognition of the impossibility of absolute knowledge. While guarding against Jewish dogmatism, this approach simultaneously stimulates Jewish creativity. Modern and postmodern approaches to Judaism that are examined include those of Leo Baeck, Martin Buber, Hermann Cohen, Jacques Derrida, Emmanuel Levinas, and Franz Rosenzweig. Recent contributions include thinkers such as Eugene B. Borowitz, J. David Bleich, David Novak, and Edith Wischograd.

The varied chapters in the book will appeal to a diverse scholarly audience. Jewish scholars and people interested in modern Jewish thought will appreciate the range of concerns addressed in the text. The book assumes that readers have little knowledge of either Judaism or postmodernism so these terms are explained, which make the work accessible to the ordinary reader. The book challenges the modernism of mainstream contemporary Jewish ethics, therefore, all readers will learn to acknowledge the influence and value of the emerging postmodern approach to Jewish moral thought.

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This book summarizes and evaluates the contribution of Martin Buber as a theorist of myth. It offers a coherent and unified study focusing on Buber's approach to myth as part of his entire system of philosophy. The book analyzes whether Buber's use of myth contributes to modern appreciation of myth.

This book, first published in 1990, summarizes and evaluates the contribution of Martin Buber as a theorist of myth. Buber provides explicit guidelines for understanding and evaluating myths. He describes reality as twofold: people live either in a world of things, to which they relate as a subject controlling its objects, or in a world of self-conscious others, with whom one relates as fellow subjects. Human beings require both types of reality, but also a means of moving from one to the other. Buber understands myths as one such means by which people pass from I-It reality to I-You meeting. In studying myths, he focuses on the myths in the traditions he knows best, but offers his advice and interpretation of mythology and scholarship about mythology generally.