Judaism Books

Book SynopsisDeals with the subject of how Jews think about and work with objects. This title draws from philosophy, cultural studies, literature, psychology, film, and photography to portray the vibrancy of Jewish practice in America. It offers an approach to an understanding of modern Jewish thought and its relation to American culture.Trade ReviewKen Koltun-Fromm's fascinating account of American Jewish thinkers' engagement with material culture explores a subject largely commanded by social historians . . . [His] chapters engage fascinating topics in clear-headed and searching discussions. * Shofar *Material Culture and Jewish Thought in America invites us to re-examine a range of religious-philosophical sources, for which we should be grateful. * Jewish Book World *Koltun-Fromm brings a synthetic approach, and thus, fresh air, to what has too long remained a narrowly focused set of questions. Scholars in a variety of fields will find relevant and rewarding discussions in these pages. Volume 37, Number 4, Dec. 2011 * Religious Studies Review *[This book] offers a bracing insight into the current, vibrant state of American Jewish studies.7/16/10 -- Josh Lambert * Forward *In this tightly argued and sophisticated monograph, Koltun-Fromm seeks to locate and explore the experiences of American Jews with physical objects and things as diverse as journals and urban streets. . . . All libraries supporting such patrons should seriously consider its purchase. . . . Recommended. * Choice *Table of ContentsContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Material Culture and Jewish Identity in America1. The Material Self: Mordecai Kaplan and the Art of Writing2. The Material Past: Edward Bernays, Joshua Liebman, and Erich Fromm3. Material Place: Joseph Soloveitchik and the Urban Holy4. Material Presence: Abraham Joshua Heschel and The Sabbath5. The Material Narrative: Yezierska, Roth, Ozick, Malamud6. The Material Gaze: American Jewish Identity and Heritage ProductionConclusion: American or Jewish Material Identity?NotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisPersonal reflections on Judaism and warTrade ReviewThe author's goal in this deeply personal and thought provoking book is to challenge conventional perspectives on peace and war and reconcile the bellicosity found in religion with its messages of peace. And yet, as personal as this book is, A Prophetic Peace makes its greatest impact when Isaacs culls through fascinating rabbinic and philosophical material by Ludwig Wittgenstein, Jacques Derrida, Abraham Joshua Heschel, and Martin Buber, among others. * www.jewishbookcouncil.org *[S]tress[es] the importance of the historical prophets to Jewish sensibility.43.1 Autumn 2013 * JOURNAL OF PALESTINE STUDIES *[T]his is un-put-down-able, real philosophy for the real world, with some parting anecdotes that show that you can lead an extremist to dialogue even if you can't make him agree! If you're interested in philosophy, read it; if you're interested in religion, read it; and if you're interested in peace, read it. * Ebor *While Isaacs writes mostly for an Israeli audience, his details, insights, and scholarly analysis would also interest non-Jews that want to learn more about Judaism, Rabbinic philosophy, and the internal struggle of a Zionist who longs for peace. * middleeastexperience.com *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsPreface – Lebanon II1 – Politics, Anti-Politics and Religion2 - Irenic Scholarship3 – Theological Disarmament4 - Deconstruction and the Prophetic Voice5 – Prophetic Peace6 – The Rabbinic Voice7 – A Prayer for Peace8 – Peace EducationAfterword – Beating SoftlyNotes BibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisExplores the power of Jewish culture and assesses the perceived threats to the coherence and size of Jewish communities in the United States, Europe, and Israel. This book shows how context shapes Jewish senses of the future and how conceptions of the future are shaped and altered by life experiences. It is intended for general Jewish readers.Trade Review"An effective antidote to the melancholy views of those who gloomily forecast the demise of the Jewish community." * Jewish Journal, Dade County, FL *Table of ContentsPreface 1. Studying the Jewish Future 2. The Futures of Jewish Communities in the United States, Europe, and Israel 3. Forecasting Jewish Populations 4. The Centrality of Jewish Values in Shaping the Jewish Future 5. What Prophecy and Animal Sacrifices Reveal about Contemporary Jewish Communities 6. Secularism, Religion, Ethnicity, and Assimilation Notes Index

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Book SynopsisThe Sparks of Randomness, Henri Atlan''s magnum opus, develops his whole philosophy with a highly impressive display of knowledge, wisdom, depth, rigor, and intellectual and moral vigor. Atlan founds an ethics adapted to the new power over life that modern scientific knowledge has given us. He holds that the results of science cannot ground any ethical or political truth whatsoever, while human creative activity and the conquest of knowledge are a double-edged sword. This first volume, Spermatic Knowledge, begins with the Talmudic tale about the prophet Jeremiah''s creation of a golem, or artificial man. Atlan shows that the Jewish tradition does not demonize man for creating and changing living thingsa charge often leveled at promoters of advanced technologies, like biologists, who are accused of playing God. To the contrary, man is depicted as being the co-creator of the world.Although Atlan believes that the fabrication of life from scratch will take pTrade Review"Atlan seeks to integrate the mechanistic worldview common in the biological sciences into a form of absolute monism that draws upon Kabbalah and Spinoza. . . Steeped in the biological sciences and remarkably learned in Judaica, it will set a standard for new creative forms of constructive Jewish thought. Anyone interested in the relation between religion and science will do well to turn here."—Zachary Braiterman, Religious Studies Review"Henri Atlan has undoubtedly become a great scholar and important international figure in the academic community. His approach to texts is original and stimulating, his ideas both lucid and insightful. He has written many volumes on a variety of subjects, but this one has special meaning due to the convulsions society has been undergoing in recent years. The book is steeped in psychology and religion, biology and sociology, mysticism and ethos. Drawing from Talmudic sources but also from secular ones, it is sure to find appeal in many circles."—Elie Wiesel"As a physician, biologist, and philosopher, Henri Atlan occupies a preeminent place in the present-day French intellectual landscape, carrying on a grand French tradition of scientist-philosophers that goes back to Pascal. His Sparks of Randomness is dedicated to reflecting upon the lesson that Jeremiah learned from the golem: that we should not renounce attaining the perfect knowledge that makes us capable of creating life, but once we attain the knowledge, we should abstain from acting on it. This book is not only fundamental for the future of biology, cognitive science, and the human sciences in general, but also constitutes one of the most important readings of Spinoza ever produced."—Jean-Pierre Dupuy, Stanford University

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Book SynopsisA major re-examination of postwar American Jewry that debunks the assumption of silenceTrade ReviewDiner sets out to drive a stake, once and for all, through the heart of a historical falsehood that has proved remarkably durable. This is the notion that, as Diner's subtitle has it, American Jews were initially & silent about the Holocaustthat the greatest catastrophe in Jewish history was somehow swept under the rug of American Jewrys collective consciousness. . . . Perhaps the & myth of silence was a necessary stage in American Jewrys ongoing struggle to make sense of its place in a post-Holocaust world. But even if that myth once served a need, thanks to Hasia Diners work, it must now be retired for good. * Tablet Magazine *Diners worthy, innovative, diligently researched work should spark controversy and meaningful dialogue among Holocaust scholars and in the Jewish community. * Publishers Weekly *We Remember's real interest lies not only in its polemical conclusion, but also in its primary argument and supporting evidence. -- Simon Perego * Books & Ideas *Diner's superb study effectively shatters this notion of avoidance, and argues effectively that American Jews were engaged with the Holocaust and its impact in deep and meaningful ways for many years preceding the trial. She has uncovered massive amounts of untapped evidence of 'widespread and intense American Jewish engagement with the Holocaust precisely in the years when silence supposedly reigned' (367)....Diner drives her point home with a scrupulous research and clear prose style that is readily accessible to the general public. By successfully proving that historical accounts of Jews avoiding the Holocaust in the postwar era are incorrect, Diner's account is revolutionist history at its best. -- Patricia Kollander * Yearbook of German-American Studies *A powerful book worthy of its important subject. Diner revises our understanding of the critical postwar decades when American Jews incorporated bitter memories of the murder of European Jews into their collective consciousness. -- Deborah Dash Moore,author of GI JewsA startling and passionate work of history. No one has written about the early American Jewish response to the Holocaust with more insight, sophistication, and sensitivity. -- Gary Gerstle,author of American CrucibleFor several years the debate over postwar responses to the Jewish catastrophe has simply recycled the same data, with partisans declaring that the cup is neither half empty or half full depending on their point of view. Now, thanks to the mountain of evidence she has excavated, Hasia Diner has landed a knockout punch on those who assert that after 1945 American Jews were silent about the fate that befell the Jewish communities in Nazi-occupied Europe, preferring to forget about it while busily integrating into American society and enjoying the postwar boom. -- David Cesarani,Royal Halloway, University of LondonFundamentally challenges the now widespread view that before the 1960s American Jewry showed little interest in the Holocaust. With a wealth of fascinating documentation, We Remember with Reverence and Love provides a moving account of the early efforts in the U.S. to document, commemorate, and memorialize the tragic fate of the Jews during the Second World War. -- Antony Polonsky,Brandeis UniversityThis research should convince even the most recalcitrant that American Jewry did care far beyond the mundane purposes to which some misused the Holocaust. . . . No course on the postwar period in American Jewish history can afford to ignore it. * The Journal of American History *In her new book We Remember With Reverence and Love. . . Diner argues that Jews not only did not want to forget the Holocaust in the postwar years, but actually pushed hard to memorialize it. * The Jewish Week *Diner sets out to drive a stake, once and for all, through the heart of a historical falsehood that has proved remarkably durable. This is the notion that, as Diner"s subtitle has it, American Jews were initially & silent about the Holocaustthat the greatest catastrophe in Jewish history was somehow swept under the rug of American Jewrys collective consciousness. . . . Perhaps the & myth of silence was a necessary stage in American Jewrys ongoing struggle to make sense of its place in a post-Holocaust world. But even if that myth once served a need, thanks to Hasia Diners work, it must now be retired for good. * The New Republic *Diner hurls a passionate, well-delineated attack on the conventional view that postwar Jews and survivors wanted to forget the Holocaust rather than memorialize the tragedy. . . . A work of towering research and conviction that will surely enliven academic debates for years to come. * Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review *Diner refutes the conventional wisdom that the American Jewish community ignored, or actively resisted, discussing the Holocaust until the 1960s. She makes a convincing case that in the post-1945 era American Jews, through their communal and religious institutions, assiduously grappled with the question of how to understand and commemorate the Holocaust. . . . An important contribution to American Jewish historiography. * Library Journal *Uncovers a rich and varied trove of remembrances in song, literature, liturgy, public display, and hundreds of other forms. * New Jersey Jewish News *A lively and controversial book, it is sure to spark debate and conversation for years to come. * Jewish Book World *Through her meticulously researched book, Diner helps to restore the vital postwar years to our understanding of American Jewish history and to honor those Jewish men and women who helped pick up the pieces of a shattered Jewish world. * Jewish Woman Magazine *In the last hundred pages of her book, Diner turns to other factors that led to more widespread memorialization of Holocaust victims and discusses the evolution of Holocaust commemoration in the United States. She commands enormous knowledge and her observations are astute. * Holocaust and Genocide Studies *The book details how, nationwide, Jews in those years memorialized the victims, documented the catastrophe, mobilized for survivors, sought justice from Germany, and used the Holocaust both to advance a political agenda and to build a Jewish future in America. * Forward *Diner conclusively disproves American Jewish Holocaust amnesia before 1962 or 1967... In over five hundred pages of massively researched text and notes, including numerous illustrations, we see documented in great detail how American Jews not only remembered and memorialized the six million during those earlier years; they invoked them in almost everything they said and did as a community, particularly in the struggle for civil rights, where they drew from memories of Nazism a special hatred and fear for American racism, segregation, and bigotry. * H-Net Reviews *Dismantles the idea of American Jewish & Forgetfulness about the Shoah in the post-war years. * Detroit Jewish News *Diners book successfully proves that American Jews did remember the Holocaust with reverence and love prior to the early 1960s. Rich in documentation, her work challenges preconceived notions extent in many areas. * American Historical Review *The evidencefrom youth groups programs, to memorial ceremonies, from early (and admittedly failed) efforts to build monuments, to synagogue programsis quite overwhelming. So resourcefully has Diner tracked down sermons and song lyrics, posters and programs, that this reviewer finds it hard to imagine any future historians continuing to perpetrate the claim that an explicit communal consciousness of the Holocaust did not really surface until the 1960s. * AJS *Diner persuasively and methodically demonstrates that American Jews established a strong interest in the genocide of European Jewry as early as the waning months of the war. * American Jewish Archives Journal *Diner’s compelling, albeit lengthy, study is an extremely important addition to the literature. Probing and compassionate, it dynamically challenges the myth of silence that has been so durable in popular and scholarly accounts of postwar American Jewish life. * American Jewish Archives Journal *Only a seasoned, mature, and brilliant scholar such as Professor Diner could take it upon herself to challenge long-accepted beliefs maintained by an entire school of historians who preceded her. . .[her] work is a very important, critical addition to the massive output of Holocaust research. * Association of Jewish Libraries *Diner seeks in this passionate volume to shatter the widespread myth that US Jews from 1945 to 1962 had little interest in thinking about, engaging with, and memorializing the Holocaust. * CHOICE *Diner seeks in the passionate volume to shatter the widespread myth that U.S. Jews from 1945 to 1962 & had little interest in thinking about, engaging with, and memorializing the Holocaust. . . . Highly recommended. * Choice *Table of ContentsPreface Introduction: Deeds and Words1 Fitt ing Memorials2 Telling the World3 The Saving Remnant 4 Germany on Their Minds 5 Wrestling with the Postwar World 6 Facing the Jewish Future Conclusion: Th e Corruption of History, the Betrayal of Memory Notes Bibliography Index About the Author

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Book SynopsisThis anthology, covering colonial times to the 21st century, shows women shaping Judaism and their American Jewish communities as they engaged in volunteer activities and political crusades, battled stereotypes, and made built relationships with their Christian neighbours.Trade Review"A vibrant collection of classic and recent essays in American Jewish womens history that form the perfect starting point toexplore this burgeoning field. From the feminist politics of kosher meat boycotts and garment union organizing to the Jewish dimensions of modern dance and teenage diaries, this readable volume reveals the breadth and excitement of American Jewish women's history." -- Deborah Dash Moore,co-editor of Jewish Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia"An impressive compendium of essays, American Jewish Women's History paints a broad and diverse portrait of American Jewish women. Written by some of the most incisive historians of the American Jewish community, the chapters examine Jewish women in many different venues: the home and the marketplace, religious and secular institutions, and picket lines and cultural institutions." -- Deborah E. Lipstadt,Emory University"It's a thought-provoking book that should be read by women and men alike." * Booklist *"This anthology conveys the breadth of the historical experiences of American Jewish women." * Jewish Advocate *"Nadell makes explicit the diverse roles and experiences of Jewish women in the United States." * History Reviews of New Books *

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Book SynopsisOver the last century, American Jews married outside their religion at increasing rates. By examining the intersection of intermarriage and gender across the twentieth century, this book describes the lives of Jewish women who intermarried while placing their decisions in historical context.Trade Review"This book is well written and will hold a special appeal for those who are interested in historical narrative as a means of analyzing intermarriage in general and how this impacts on American Jewish women in particular." * INTAMS *"Still Jewish is a fascinating read for those interested in Jewish history or women’s history as well as for those concerned about the future of the Jewish community" * Jerusalem Post *"Great poignancy." * Moment Magazine *"McGinity's story has great poignancy. Still Jewish demonstrates how, from insular beginnings surrounded by anti-Semitism to a world of inevitable intermarriage, Jewish women with gentile partners negotiated a new way to be Jewish in America." * Moment *"McGinity creatively uses gender as a category of analysis...her approach is novel." * Journal of American Ethnic History *"McGinity’s work makes clear the need for further study of intermarriage including experiences of Jewish men; comparisons of intermarried and in-married Jewish women; consideration of same-sex intermarriages; and, finally, larger sociological studies of contemporary women." * Lilith *"Historian McGinity (Brown) makes an effort to evoke new perspectives on the intermarriage of US Jewish women during the 20th century.The author offers a brief candid assessment of her own experience, which seems contrary to accepted views that marrying “out” is a prescription for diminished religious and social identity, leading to assimilation." * CHOICE *"Throughout her analysis, McGinity shows how the lives of Jewish women who intermarried demonstrate the complexity of Jewish identity in the United States." -- Sarah Imhoff * Religious Studies Review *"In [McGinitys] new book Still Jewish, she traces the attitudes of intermarried women toward Judaism throughout the 20th century." * Forward.com *"If you thought there was nothing new to say about Jews and intermarriage, think again. McGinity’s well-researched study focuses on American Jewish women who intermarried during the twentieth century and demonstrates that many of them not only remained Jewish but, paradoxically, became more Jewish, perhaps in response to the challenge of having a non-Jewish spouse. An invaluable addition to the scant scholarly literature on intermarriage, this volume shows that in intermarriage, as in so much else, gender matters." -- Jonathan D. Sarna,author of American Judaism: A History"This compelling, impeccably researched book should make a huge difference in how we understand the contentious issue of intermarriage in the Jewish community. By putting Jewish women into the center of the story, McGinity offers a fresh perspective that challenges standard interpretations. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of Jewish life in America as well as for all those concerned with present-day patterns, policies, and outreach programs." -- Joyce Antler,Samuel Lane Professor of American Jewish History and Culture at Brandeis University"“C. Wright Mills used the term “sociological imagination” to describe the insight a person has who “understand[s] the larger historical scene in terms of its meaning for the inner life and external career of a variety of individuals.” In this regard McGinity’s book reveals her own strong sociological imagination." * American Jewish History *"A fascinating read for those interested in Jewish history or women’s history, as well as for those concerned about the future of the Jewish community." * Washington Jewish Week *Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Immigrant Jewesses Who Married "Out" 2. Intermarriage in an Age of Domesticity 3. Intermarriage Was A-Changin' 4. Revitalization from Within Conclusion Afterword Appendix Notes Selected Index About the Author

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Book SynopsisThe author of this book recounts the history of the Ashkenazic Jewish experience in medieval western Europe from the 5th to 15th centuries, focusing on interaction between Jews and Christians during this formative period.Trade ReviewGlick's examination of the social experience of Jews living among Christians in medieval Europe is fascinating. . . . The Crusades, the Jews' relegation from merchants to moneylenders, and Jewish settlement in and subsequent expulsion from England allow Glick to realize his hypothesis. Glick makes this history come alive. An excellent choice for academic, seminary, and public libraries.

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Book SynopsisExploring the subject of Jewish philosophy as a controversial construction site in the project of modernity, this book examines the implications of the different and often conflicting notions at stake in the debate on the question of what Jewish philosophy is or could be.Trade Review"Goetschel persuasively argues for Jewish philosophy as a field that does not articulate the meaning of an identity-stance, but as a mode of inquiry that shows how the practice of philosophy has not yet, and perhaps never will, reach the universality at which it aims. For him, only such a critical spirit can portend a better future and produce a robust civil society. He shows us how his view continues the arguments of the earliest strata of modern Jewish philosophy, how many contemporary academics have gone wrong in thinking that Jewish philosophy is a discipline that puts forth a unique positive content, and offers readers two Swiss Jewish exemplars -- Margarete Susman and Hermann Levin Goldschmidt -- from whom scholars can reclaim the field's original critical energy." -- -Martin Kavka Florida State University "Goetschel's new book is provocative, compelling, and profound. Tracing the influence of the thought of Spinoza, Mendelssohn, Rosenzweig, and Susman, among others, he shows how philosophy's claim to universality is necessarily undermined through its complex and troubled relation to Jewish philosophy This book dramatically and definitively refigures the distinction between Greek and Hebrew thought upon which contemporary Western philosophy rests... Essential reading for anyone interested in how philosophy became what it is ... what it still could become." -- -Moira Gatens -University of Sidney "In this stunningly erudite and imaginative study, Willi Goetschel argues that it is precisely because the very notion of a Jewish philosophy is contested that one may discern its overarching significance. While dilating on the "particularistic" concerns of their community from the perspective of universal reason, Jewish philosophers in effect challenge philosophy to revise its conception of the unity of truth and to embrace difference and alterity as defining constituents of the universal." -- -Paul Mendes-Flohr Professor Emeritus, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem "A lively and intriguing account of many of the leading thinkers and controversies in Jewish philosophy, the text never fails to be both intelligent and provocative." -- -Oliver Leaman University of Kentucky

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Book SynopsisThis book explores the influence of Roman imperialism on the development of Messianic themes in Judaism in the fifth through the eight centuries CE. It pays special attention to the ways in which Roman imperial ideology and imperial eschatology influenced Jewish representations of the Messiah and Messianic age. Topics addressed in the book include: representations of the Messianic kingdom of Israel as a successor to the Roman Empire, the theme of imperial renewal in Jewish eschatology and its Roman parallels, representations of the emperor in late antique literature and art and their influence on the representations of the Messiah, the mother of the Messiah in late antique and Byzantine cultural contexts, and the figure of the last Roman Emperor in Christian and Jewish tradition.Table of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Esau, Jacob's brother; 2. Coronation in the temple; 3. Mother of the Messiah; 4. Renovatio imperii; 5. King Messiah; Conclusion; Abbreviations; Bibliography.

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Book SynopsisThis book traces the interpretive career of Leviticus 18:3, a verse that forbids Israel from imitating its neighbors. Beth A. Berkowitz shows that ancient, medieval and modern exegesis of this verse provides an essential backdrop for today's conversations about Jewish assimilation and minority identity more generally. The story of Jewishness that this book tells may surprise many modern readers for whom religious identity revolves around ritual and worship. In Leviticus 18:3's story of Jewishness, sexual practice and cultural habits instead loom large. The readings in this book are on a micro-level, but their implications are far-ranging: Berkowitz transforms both our notion of Bible-reading and our sense of how Jews have defined Jewishness.Trade Review'… [a] profoundly impressive study …' Mara Benjamin, Religious Studies Review'Berkowitz's chapters are a wellspring of information on defining Jewish identity from epochs of Jewish life, culled mainly from scriptural verses as interpreted in traditional rabbinic sources … this volume is a welcome and needed repository of classic rabbinic legal discussion, disputation, and decisions concerning keeping Judaism and maintaining Jewish survival in the proximity of adaptation and assimilation … this book, with its erudite scholarship, is a worthwhile read.' The Catholic Biblical QuarterlyTable of Contents1. Introduction: law, identity, and Leviticus 18:3; 2. The question of Israelite distinctiveness: paradigms of separatism in Leviticus 18:3; 3. Allegory and ambiguity: Jewish identity in Philo's De Congressu; 4. A narrative of neighbors: rethinking universalism and particularism in patristic and rabbinic writings; 5. The limits of 'their laws' in midrash halakhah; 6. A short history of the people of Israel from the patriarchs to the Messiah: constructions of Jewish difference in Leviticus rabbah; 7. Syncretism and anti-syncretism in the Babylonian Talmud; 8. The judaization of reason: the Tosafists, Nissim Gerondi, and Joseph Colon; 9. Women's wear and men's suits: Ovadiah Yosef's and Moshe Feinstein's discourses of Jewishness; 10. Conclusion: an 'upside-down people'?

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Book SynopsisTalmudic legislation prescribed penalty for a Jew to testify in a non-Jewish court, against a fellow Jew, to benefit a gentile - for breach of a duty of loyalty to a fellow Jew. Through close textual analysis, Saul Berman explores how Jewish jurists responded when this virtue of loyalty conflicted with values such as Justice, avoidance of desecration of God''s Name, deterrence of crime, defence of self, protection of Jewish community, and the duty to adhere to Law of the Land. Essential for scholars and graduate students in Talmud, Jewish law and comparative law, this key volume details the nature of these loyalties as values within the Jewish legal system, and how the resolution of these conflicts was handled. Berman additionally explores why this issue has intensified in contemporary times and how the related area of ''Mesirah'' has wrongfully come to be prominently associated with this law regulating testimony.Trade Review'This is a fascinating book about the history of a particular halachic (Jewish legal) concept; namely, the issue of a Jew providing testimony against a fellow Jew in a non-Jewish court. … The book is a masterpiece of legal analysis and a brilliant case study of tracing an interesting and relevant legal concept through nearly two thousand years of legal history. … The writing is clear and lucid, and even though it is structured in a manner similar to a legal treatise, this book can be understood by anyone interested in the subject matter at hand or someone with an even basic familiarity with Jewish law.' David Tesler, Association of Jewish LibrariesTable of ContentsAcknowledgements; Introduction; 1. The use of non-Jewish courts: the Tannaitic period; 2. Legislative constraint on testimony: the Amoraic period; 3. Rejected rationales of testimonial restriction: the Gaonic period into the period of the Rishonim; 4. Creation of a duty to testify against fellow Jews in non-Jewish courts in the period of the Rishonim: i.e. under what circumstances could testimony in an honest non-Jewish court be required by Jewish law (and testimony then be permissible even in corrupt non-Jewish courts)?; 5. The tension between responsa and codification: not every good ruling makes a good rule Maharam Mintz, Rabbi Joseph Caro and Rabbi Moshe Isserlis; 6. Further expansion of the duty to testify against fellow Jews in non-Jewish courts in the period of the Acharonim: R. Yaacov Emden; 7. Contemporary attempts to revert to the original law of Rava: expanding the boundaries of loyalty; 8. Conclusion: reflections on loyalty and law; Bibliography; Index.

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Book Synopsis1 and 2 Kings unfolds an epic narrative that concludes the long story of Israel''s experience with institutional monarchy, a sequence of events that begins with the accession of Solomon and the establishment of the Jerusalem temple, moves through the partition into north and south, and leads inexorably toward the nation''s destruction and the passage to exile in Babylon. Keith Bodner''s The Theology of the Book of Kings provides a reading of the narrative attentive to its literary sophistication and theological subtleties, as the cast of characters - from the royal courts to the rural fields - are variously challenged to resist the tempting pathway of political and spiritual accommodations and instead maintain allegiance to their covenant with God. In dialogue with a range of contemporary interpreters, this study is a preliminary exploration of some theological questions that arise from the Kings narrative, while inviting contemporary communities of faith into deeper engagement with thTable of Contents1. Towards the theology of the Book of Kings; 2. Dynasty and succession; 3. Palace and temple; 4. Kingdom and division; 5. Prophets and apostasy; 6. Upheaval and reprieve; 7. Demolition and exile; 8. The theology of kings past and present.

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Book SynopsisMost Jesus specialists agree that the Temple incident led directly to Jesus'' arrest, but the precise relationship between Jesus and the Temple''s administration remains unclear. Jesus and the Temple examines this relationship, exploring the reinterpretation of Torah observance and traditional Temple practices that are widely considered central components of the early Jesus movement. Challenging a growing tendency in contemporary scholarship to assume that the earliest Christians had an almost uniformly positive view of the Temple''s sacrificial system, Simon J. Joseph addresses the ambiguous, inconsistent, and contradictory views on sacrifice and the Temple in the New Testament. This volume fills a significant gap in the literature on sacrifice in Jewish Christianity. It introduces a new hypothesis positing Jesus'' enactment of a program of radically nonviolent eschatological restoration, an orientation that produced Jesus'' conflicts with his contemporaries and inspired the first attTrade Review'There is much to be commended in this book. Jesus and the Temple is a very readable and well-researched investigation into the circumstances of Jesus's death. … an engaging read and one full of tantalizing possibilities. Joseph's arguments deserve to be taken seriously by anyone interested in the study of the historical Jesus and the question of why he died.' Timothy Wardle, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society'… this is an excellent scholarly work on the historical Jesus and an insightful resource for both undergraduate and graduate courses on the topic.' Yongbom Lee, HorizonsTable of Contents1. The death of Jesus as an historical and theological problem; 2. The eschatological Torah; 3. The eschatological Temple; 4. The Temple controversy; 5. Redescribing the Temple incident: towards a new model of eschatological restoration; 6. The Jewish Christian rejection of animal sacrifice; 7. The dying savior; Summary and conclusion.

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Book SynopsisA collection of studies in bioethics and society that appeals both to scholars and students of bioethics and to those interested in understanding the specific embeddedness of biomedical technologies in a given society. Its interdisciplinary structure broadens the potential readership to students in law, medicine, humanities and social sciences.Trade Review'Bioethics and Biopolitics in Israel thoughtfully and systematically addresses questions of biomedical ethics within the context of a political setting in which core moral assumptions of health and well-being too often take back seats to existential tensions of discord and survival. Looking compellingly beneath the headlines, the book uncovers vital new insights about the ways that ostensibly liberal projects morph to serve conservative ideologies; and about the oft-surprising and frequently complex alliances that can form across boundaries and borders when health serves as a potential framework for common cause.' Jonathan Metzl, Vanderbilt University, Tennessee, and author of The Protest Psychosis'A must-read for any scholar of bioethics, medical sociology, and STS who wants to understand the discourse of bioethics and how this discourse is embedded in national, historical, and cultural contexts. This book is an important contribution to the self-reflection of bioethics as a discipline.' Silke Schicktanz, University of Göttingen, and author of Comparative Empirical Bioethics: Dilemmas of Genetic Testing and Euthanasia in Israel and GermanyTable of ContentsIntroduction: bioethics in Israel Hagai Boas, Nadav Davidovitch, Yael Hashiloni-Dolev, Dani Filc and Shai J. Lavi; Part I. Bioethics as Biopolitics: 1. Biosecuritization of public health preparedness in Israel and Palestine: from traditional bioethics to public health ethics Nadav Davidovitch and Benjamin Langer; 2. Republican bioethics Dani Flic; 3. From bioethics to biopolitics in recent Israeli legislation about force-feeding hunger-striking inmates Yoav Kenny; 4. A cognitive dissonant health system: can we combat racism without admitting it exists? Hadas Ziv; 5. Nothing about us without us: a disability challenge to bioethics Sagit Mor; Part II. Familialism and Reproduction: 6. The effect of Jewish-Israeli family ideology on policy regarding reproductive technologies Yael Hashiloni-Dolev ; 7. 'Quiet, dependent, nice and loyal: surrogacy agencies discourse of international surrogacy Hedva Eyal and Adi Moreno; 8. Palestinian fertility in Israeli sphere Himmat Zu'bi; 9. Childbirth in Israel: home birth and newborn screening Margherita Brusa and Yechiel Bar Ilan; 10. 'Life after death': the Israeli approach to posthumous reproduction Vardit Ravitsky and Ya'arit Bokek-Cohen; Part III. Is There an Israeli Exception?: 11. Reckless or pioneering? Public health genetics services in Israel Aviad E. Raz ; 12. The end-of-life decision-making process in Israel: bioethics, law and the practice of doctors Roy Gilbar and Nili Karako-Eyal; 13. Organ donation, brain death and the limits of liberal bioethics Hagai Boas and Shai J. Lavi; 14. Towards an Israeli medical ethics Michael Weingarten; 15. Tilting the frame: Israeli suicide as an alternative to suicide in Israel Haim Hazan and Raquel Romberg.

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Book SynopsisMoses Maimonides (11381204) was arguably the single most important Jewish thinker of the Middle Ages, with an impact on the later Jewish tradition that was unparalleled by any of his contemporaries. In this volume of new essays, world-leading scholars address themes relevant to his philosophical outlook, including his relationship with his Islamicate surroundings and the impact of his work on subsequent Jewish and Christian writings, as well as his reception in twentieth-century scholarship. The essays also address the nature and aim of Maimonides'' philosophical writing, including its connection with biblical exegesis, and the philosophical and theological arguments that are central to his work, such as revelation, ritual, divine providence, and teleology. Wide-ranging and fully up-to-date, the volume will be highly valuable for those interested in Jewish history and thought, medieval philosophy, and religious studies.Table of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Maimonides and the Almohads Herbert A. Davidson; 2. Al-Ghazālī's purported 'Influence' on Maimonides: a dissenting voice in trending scholarship Y. Tzvi Langermann; 3. Maimonides on the intellects of women and gentiles Hannah Kasher; 4. What the Guide of the Perplexed is really about Kenneth R. Seeskin; 5. On or above the Ladder? Maimonidean and anti-Maimonidean readings of Jacob's Ladder James T. Robinson; 6. Reading the Guide of the Perplexed as an intellectual challenge Sarah Klein Braslavy; 7. Jewish ritual as trial in the Guide of the Perplexed Yehuda Halper; 8. Maimonides on the divine authorship of the law Charles H. Manekin; 9. Divine knowledge and providence in the Guide of the Perplexed Daniel Davies; 10. The world and the rye: perplexity about ends in Guide of the Perplexed iii.13 and iii.25 David Wirmer; 11. Early quotations from Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed in the Latin Middle Ages Diana Di Segni; 12. Pines' agendas for reading the Guide of the Perplexed from 1963 to 1979 Josef Stern; 13. How to begin to study Strauss' 'How to Begin to Study the Guide of the Perplexed' Warren Zev Harvey.

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Book SynopsisIn recent years, martyrdom and political violence have been conflated in the public imagination. Rubén Rosario Rodríguez argues that martyr narratives deserve consideration as resources for resisting political violence in contemporary theological reflection. Underlying the three Abrahamic monotheistic traditions is a shared belief that God requires liberation for the oppressed, justice for the victims and, most demanding of all, love for the political enemy. Christian, Jewish and Muslim martyr narratives that condone political violence - whether terrorist or state-sponsored - are examined alongside each religion''s canon, in order to evaluate how central or marginalized these discourses are within their respective traditions. Primarily a work of Christian theology in conversation with Judaism and Islam, this book aims to model religious pluralism and cooperation by retrieving distinctly Christian sources that nurture tolerance and facilitate coexistence, while respecting religious difference.Trade Review'This is an exceptional academic contribution to the historical study of martyrdom among the classic Abrahamic religions, but also to its contemporary religious, political, and cultural relevance. It is a highly ambitious project that will leave an enduring mark in the always pertinent field of religiosity and human sacrifice. I strongly recommend its careful and critical reading.' Luis N. Rivera-Pagán, Henry Winters Luce Professor in Ecumenics Emeritus, Princeton Theological Seminary, New Jersey'Christian Martyrdom and Political Violence is a serious and important work in constructive Christian theological ethics, intending to rescue the concept of martyrdom from contemporary corruptions - corruptions so grave that the very concept of martyrdom risks being discredited. This is a groundbreaking book which I recommend highly.' Rev. David P. Gushee, Distinguished Professor of Christian Ethics and Director of the Center for Theology and Public Life, Mercer University, Georgia'Rosario-Rodriguez's attempt at a fundamental theology built around the narratives of martyrdom is a remarkable synthesis of long and serious work in the fields of liberation theology, biblical studies, systematics, interreligious dialogue, 'world church' studies, and moral theology; it is something truly new, and opens a whole fertile field of inquiry. I am especially impressed by the care and integrity with which he approaches Islamic martyr narratives without either assimilating them to the Christian narratives or creating a false partition between their theological meanings.' David Hart, Fellow of The Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Studies'Not only does this book offer a knowledgeable and self-critical reconstruction of the concept of Christian martyrdom, it also makes a plea for a living Christian witness in the globalized world of the twenty-first century.' Paul Schroffner, translated from Zeitschrift fur katholische Theologie 'Chapter 3, probably the strongest chapter, discusses the meaning of martyrs and martyrdom in the Jewish and Muslim Scriptures, in 'conversation with the book's central narrative about Christian martyrdom as nonviolent political resistance'. There is a very careful analysis of the Muslim interpretation of jihad ('struggle'), along with the Christian concept of just war. This chapter also offers a trenchant critique of Christian Zionism, along with Islamist violence, Israeli nationalism, and misuse of just war theory in the American 'war on terror'. These, Rosario Rodríguez asserts, do not reflect their parent traditions, but rather 'imperialist ideologies', like that of ancient Rome, which Christian martyrdom attempted to subvert.' Journal of Religion and Violence'[Rubén Rosario] Rodríguez astutely emphasizes that only forgiveness modeled on that of Jesus will break the cycle of violence. This book is an exemplary effort to sort out how a Christian comparative theology of martyrdom would appear. Ultimately, no religion can justify itself without reference to other religions which accompany it through history, sometimes peacefully and sometimes as antagonists. The author has credibly demonstrated that a viable Christian theology of martyrdom can be written and has honored the memory of its witnesses.' Michael T. McLauglin, Reading Religion'For scholars of Christian ethics … [Rubén Rosario Rodríguez] demonstrates that liberation theology is an essential literature for Christian ethics in the twenty-first century with almost unprecedented persuasion. With derision for 'contextual theology,' many Christian ethicists continue to doubt liberation theology's capacity to speak to our most urgent global problems. Rosario's work ought to disabuse the field of this shallow dismissal, demonstrating liberation theology's enormous potential to grapple with the problem of political violence across religious traditions.' Nichole M. Flores, Journal of the Society of Christian EthicsTable of Contents1. Scripture and political violence; 2. Early Christian martyrdom and political violence; 3. Comparative martyrologies; 4. Martyrdom or political violence?; 5. On becoming a 'faithful witness' today.

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Book SynopsisJewish and Christian apocalypses have captivated theologians, writers, artists, and the general public for centuries, and have had a profound influence on world history from their initial production by persecuted Jews during the second century BCE, to the birth of Christianity - through the demise of the Western Roman Empire and the medieval period, and continuing into modernity. Far from being an outlier concern, or an academic one that may be relegated to the dustbin of history, apocalyptic thinking is ubiquitous and continues to inform nearly all aspects of modern-day life. It addresses universal human concerns: the search for identity and belonging, speculation about the future, and (for some) a blueprint that provides meaning and structure to a seemingly chaotic world. The Cambridge Companion to Apocalyptic Literature brings together a field of leading experts to provide a comprehensive overview of the subject.Trade Review'This is a rich, wide-ranging and sometimes provocative collection which brings together serious scholarship adapted to a wider readership … consistently thought-provoking, informative, and full of leads for further exploration.' Roger Pooley, The Glass'… the volume usefully addresses multiple dimensions of apocalyptic studies - definition, characteristics, purpose, and adaptation to changing circumstances.' W. L. Pitts Jr, Choice'This is a very well written and researched collection of essays presented in a balanced and structured way, and it is strongly recommended for both students and scholars of apocalypticism, biblical literature, reception history, and worldviews.' Gerbern S. Oegema, Society of Biblical Literature'… a valuable publication which offers a diachronic perspective on the complex history of the apocalyptical literature …' Octavian-Adrian Negoita, NumenTable of Contents1. Through a glass darkly: time, the end, and the essence of apocalyptica Colin McAllister; 2. Apocalpyticism as a worldview in ancient Judaism and Christianity John J. Collins; 3. Introduction to the Book of Revelation Ian Paul; 4. The gnostic apocalypses Dylan M. Burns; 5. Exegetic the apocalypse with the Donatist communion Jesse A. Hoover; 6. Tests of faith, rebirth out of corruption or endless cycles of regeneration: experiments in the restoration of the late Roman Empire Brian Duvick; 7. Latin reception of the apocalypse in the early Middle Ages E. Ann Matter; 8. Exegesis of the Apocalypse in the tenth century Francis X. Gumerlock; 9. The end of the world at the ends of the Earth: apocalyptic thought in medieval Ireland John Carey; 10. Byzantine apocalyptic literature András Kraft; 11. Joachim of Fiore and the apocalyptic revival of the twelfth century Brett Edward Whalen; 12. Apocalpytic sensibility in renaissance Europe Ian Boxall; 13. 'Pride and vanity of the imagination, that disdains to follow this world's fashion': apocalypticism in the age of reason Christopher Rowland; 14. The formation of antichrist in medieval western Christian thought Kevin L. Hughes; 15. From Dabiq to Jerusalem: trajectories of contemporary Salafi-Jihadi apocalypticism David Cook; 16. American evangelicals and the apocalypse Daniel G. Hummel; 17. Apocalypticism in the contemporary world Lorenzo DiTommaso.

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Book SynopsisThis book discusses the emergence of self-knoweldge in rabbinic literature, highlighting a unique and surprising development in Talmudic jurisprudence, whereby legal decision-making came to incorporate personal and subjective information. The book is intended for scholars of religion and Late Antiquity, but is written in an accessible style to appeal to a broader audience.Trade Review'In Law and Self-Knowledge in the Talmud, Ayelet Hoffmann Libson insightfully links the Talmudic rabbis' accommodation of subjectivity in the law to a surprising willingness to limit their own power. An erudite and persuasive challenge to prevailing Foucauldian accounts of the rabbinic project.' Christine Hayes, Yale University, Connecticut'In this extraordinary, subtle book, the history of consciousness meets scholarly Talmudic analysis. The results are illuminating to both fields, as Libson reveals new perspectives on important Jewish legal problems while deepening our understanding of spiritual and ritual self-scrutiny in late antiquity. Law and Self-Knowledge in the Talmud will repay close reading by scholars of religion, law, consciousness, and the interplay between the three.' Noah Feldman, Harvard University Law School, Massachusetts'This is a vitally important book. It enters into an important conversation/controversy with a major new thought and demonstrates the validity of that thought as well. The controversy is whether or not there was a turn in the conception of the 'individual' in rabbinic literature. Joshua Levinson has argued for a significant turn towards interiority and a self from biblical to rabbinic literature, while Ishay Rosen-Zvi has argued on the basis of Palestinian rabbinic literature that this is a misreading. In this book, the author makes a stunning contribution by showing that both are right (and both wrong). There is such a turn; it takes place, however, according to Libson, in amoraic Babylonia. This conclusion, it cannot be emphasized enough, is of major significance for the interpretation of the history of Jewish ideas. The book is marked by extraordinary sophistication both with respect to the sensitive historicizing interpretation of rabbinic texts as well as the infrequent but always judicious reference to both comparative and theoretical texts.' Daniel Boyarin, University of California, BerkeleyTable of Contents1. The inward turn in rabbinic literature; 2. Knowledge of the body: the case of sensation; 3. Asserting the needs of the body; 4. Between body and mind: the suffering self; 5. Self-knowledge and a wife's autonomy.

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Book SynopsisEphrem, one of the earliest Syriac Christian writers, lived on the eastern outskirts of the Roman Empire during the fourth century. Although he wrote polemical works against Jews and pagans, and identified with post-Nicene Christianity, his writings are also replete with parallels with Jewish traditions and he is the leading figure in an ongoing debate about the Jewish character of Syriac Christianity. This book focuses on early ideas about betrothal, marriage, and sexual relations, including their theological and legal implications, and positions Ephrem at a precise intersection between his Semitic origin and his Christian commitment. Alongside his adoption of customs and legal stances drawn from his Greco-Roman and Christian surroundings, Ephrem sometimes reveals unique legal concepts which are closer to early Palestinian, sectarian positions than to the Roman or Jewish worlds. The book therefore explains naturalistic legal thought in Christian literature and sheds light on the rise of Syriac Christianity.Table of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Creating a primary bond: what is betrothal?; 2. During betrothal: is premarital cohabitation an option?; 3. Creating a marital bond: can rape determine marital status?; 4. Breaking a marital bond: what do fornication and adultery do?; 5. Discussion and conclusions.

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Book SynopsisAlthough the archaeological evidence indicates a prosperous and thrivingGalileein the early first century CE, the Gospel texts suggest a society under stress, where the rich were flourishing at the expense of the poor. In this multi-disciplinary study, Rosemary Margaret Luff contributes to current debates concerning the pressures on early first-century Palestinian Jews, particularly with reference to socio-economic and religious issues. She examines Jesus within his Jewish environment in order to understand why he rose to prominence when he did, and what motivated him to persevere with his mission. Luff''s study includes six carefully-constructed essays that examine Early Christian texts against the wider background of late Second Temple Judaic literature,together with the material evidence ofGalilee and Judea (Jerusalem). Synthesizinga wide range of archaeological and textual data for the first time, she offers new insights into the depth of social discontent and its role in the rise of Christianity.Trade Review'The book is especially helpful in recording archaeological evidence that counters reconstructions of Jesus's Galilee based on sociological modeling.' A.-J. Levine, Choice'… it is by far the best study of what bones and other archaeological evidence for human and animal disease can tell us about the early 1st-century context of the Gospels yet published. The book deserves to be widely read by archaeologists, ancient historians and religious studies scholars for this alone, let alone its other contributions. However, the principal feature of the volume is that it contributes to situating the study of the early 1st-century 'Holy Land' firmly within the mainstream archaeology of the Roman provinces.' Ken Dark, Journal of Anglo-Israel Archaeological SocietyTable of ContentsIntroduction; Part I. Memories of Jesus: The Textual Evidence: 1. Discontent in early first-century Galilee and Judea; 2. Jesus, the Temple, and the chief priests; 3. The character and Legacy of Jesus; Part II. Jesus in Context: The Archaeological Evidence: 4. Jewish identities and the distribution of ethnic indicators; 5. Health hazards in first-century Palestine; 6. Status, power, and wealth; Conclusion.

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Book SynopsisWhat makes Israeli law Israeli? Why is the word ''Jewish'' almost entirely absent from Israeli legislation? How did Israel succeed in eluding a futile and dangerous debate over identity, and construct a progressive, independent, original and sophisticated legal system? Law and Identity in Israel attempts to answer these questions by looking at the complex bond between Zionism and the Jewish culture. Forging an original and ''authentic'' Israeli law that would be an expression and encapsulation of Israeli-Jewish identity has been the goal of many Jewish and Zionist jurists as well as public leaders for the past century. This book chronicles and analyzes these efforts, and in the process tackles the complex meaning of Judaism in modern times as a religion, a culture, and a nationality. Nir Kedar examines the challenges and difficulties of expressing Judaism, or transplanting it into, the laws of the state of Israel.Trade Review'Kedar's book stands as an important chapter in the study of the history of Israeli law. It provides a valuable overview both for readers who are familiar with this history and also those who are not.' Inbal Blau and Omer Aloni, Comparative Legal HistoryTable of ContentsIntroduction: law as an expression of Jewish culture; Part I. Seeking to Fashion National Law: 1. Law and culture in early Zionist literature; 2. The Hebrew peace courts: the Yishuv judicial system that failed; 3. The Hebrew law society: an abortive attempt to fashion a Jewish-Hebrew national code of law; 4. Why a Jewish-Hebrew system of law was not instituted at independence; 5. A Hebrew constitution for the Jewish state: how did the cultural dispute prevent the promulgation of a written constitution; 6. Jewish law and legislation in Israel; Part II. The Resurgence of Cultural Conflict: 7. Jewish heritage and a Jewish democratic state: the identity discourse returns to the legal debate; 8. The identity turn and the Jewish and democratic state; Part III. Zionism, Democracy, Law, and Culture: 9. Zionism: making and preserving Hebrew culture; 10. Israeli law as a lieu de mémoire of national identity and culture; Conclusion: list of legal cases.

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Book SynopsisMedieval theology had an important influence on later philosophy which is visible in the empiricisms of Russell, Carnap, and Quine. Other thinkers, including McDowell, Kripke, and Dennett, show how we can overcome the distorting effects of that theological ecosystem on our accounts of the nature of reality and our relationship to it. In a different philosophical tradition, Hegel uses a secularized version of Christianity to argue for a kind of human knowledge that overcomes the influences of late-medieval voluntarism, and some twentieth-century thinkers, including Benjamin and Derrida, instead defend a Jewish-influenced notion of the religious sublime. Frank B. Farrell analyzes and connects philosophers of different eras and traditions to show that modern philosophy has developed its practices on a terrain marked out by earlier theological and religious ideas, and considers how different philosophers have both embraced, and tried to escape from, those deep-seated patterns of thought.Trade Review'This wide-ranging and fascinating book should be required reading for anyone who is interested in placing twentieth-century philosophy in intellectual history, not just the history of philosophy.' John McDowell, University of PittsburghTable of ContentsAcknowledgments; Introduction: the thinning out of the world; 1. Empiricism and theology; 2. John McDowell: rejecting the defensive move inward; 3. Aristotle redivivus: on Saul Kripke; 4. Hegel, theology, and Pippin's reading of Hegel; 5. Walter Benjamin: incarnation or radical incommensurability?; 6. Rolling back the Protestant Reformation: Wittgenstein and Dennett; 7. McDowell (II): active and passive faculties and the theological framework; 8. Derrida, the religion of the sublime, and the messianic; 9. Literature today and the sublime absence of aesthetic experience; 10. Where do we go from here?; Bibliography; Index.

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Book SynopsisAnthony Keddie investigates the changing dynamics of class and power at a critical place and time in the history of Judaism and Christianity - Palestine during its earliest phases of incorporation into the Roman Empire (63 BCE70 CE). He identifies institutions pertaining to civic administration, taxation, agricultural tenancy, and the Jerusalem Temple as sources of an unequal distribution of economic, political, and ideological power. Through careful analysis of a wide range of literary, documentary, epigraphic, and archaeological evidence, including the most recent discoveries, Keddie complicates conventional understandings of class relations as either antagonistic or harmonious. He demonstrates how elites facilitated institutional changes that repositioned non-elites within new, and sometimes more precarious, relations with privileged classes, but did not typically worsen their economic conditions. These socioeconomic shifts did, however, instigate changing class dispositions. JudaeaTrade Review'Anthony Keddie's study of class and power in first century Judea brings refreshing realism to the study of a period that is often viewed through the lens of the history of ideas. At the same time, he appreciates that texts do not simply reflect economic realities, but are constructive attempts to shape the changing ideologies of class. An excellent contribution to the study of the matrix of the Christian movement.' John J. Collins, Yale University, Connecticut'Were Jesus' movement and the First Jewish Revolt consequences of increased income inequality and the exploitation of the lower classes in Roman Palestine? Through a detailed analysis of literary sources and archaeological evidence, Keddie convincingly argues against this view, concluding that changes to class distinctions under Roman rule occurred only gradually, and with a mixed impact on non-elites. Keddie's book is required reading for anyone seeking to understand the socio-economic circumstances under which Jesus' movement emerged.' Jodi Magness, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill'This book is invaluable for situating the New Testament stories in the context of a real world. The 70 page bibliography is also a fingerlickin' resource.' Henry Wansbrough, Church Times'… a valuable reference for scholars and graduate students.' Michael Kochenash, Religious Studies ReviewTable of Contents1. Urban development and the new elites; 2. Land tenancy and agricultural labor: 'the land is mine'; 3. Taxation: render unto Caesar and the local elites; 4. Economy of the sacred; 5. Material culture from table to grave; Conclusion; Appendix A. Herodian rulers; Appendix B. High priests during the Early Roman period; Appendix C. Palmyra duties (137 CE).

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Book SynopsisMost studies on violence in the Hebrew Bible focus on the question of how modern readers should approach the problem. But they fail to ask how the Hebrew Bible thinks about that problem in the first place. In this work, Matthew J. Lynch examines four key ways that writers of the Hebrew Bible conceptualize and critique acts of violence: violence as an ecological problem; violence as a moral problem; violence as a judicial problem; violence as a purity problem. These four ''grammars of violence'' help us interpret crucial biblical texts where violence plays a lead role, like Genesis 4-9. Lynch''s volume also offers readers ways to examine cultural continuity and the distinctiveness of biblical conceptions of violence.Table of ContentsIntroduction; Part I. Violence and Ecology: 1. A brother's blood on the land; 2. The cosmic ecology of violence; 3. Covenant and the restraint of violence in creation; Part II. Violence and Moral Speech: 4. Violent deceitfulness in the scheming heart; 5. The violence of arrogant speech; Part III. Violence and Justice: 6. The outcry of violence; 7. Judicial responses to violence; 8. Violence and the divine avenger; Part IV. Violence and Impurity: 9. Violence and the problem of impurity: key texts; 10. The rhetoric of violence and impurity; Conclusion; Appendix. Biblical terms for violence.

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Book SynopsisIn 1914, seven million Jews across Eastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean were caught in the crossfire of warring empires in a disaster of stupendous, unprecedented proportions. In response, American Jews developed a new model of humanitarian relief for their suffering brethren abroad, wandering into American foreign policy as they navigated a wartime political landscape. The effort continued into peacetime, touching every interwar Jewish community in these troubled regions through long-term refugee, child welfare, public health, and poverty alleviation projects. Against the backdrop of war, revolution, and reconstruction, this is the story of American Jews who went abroad in solidarity to rescue and rebuild Jewish lives in Jewish homelands. As they constructed a new form of humanitarianism and re-drew the map of modern philanthropy, they rebuilt the Jewish Diaspora itself in the image of the modern social welfare state.Trade Review'The Great War was a pivotal moment in the evolution of humanitarian activism. Granick's landmark study breaks new ground by recognizing the central place of Jews and Jewish causes at this critical juncture: it represents essential reading not just for Jewish historians, but for historians of US foreign policy, humanitarian activism and global civil society.' Abigail Green, author of Moses Montefiore: Jewish Liberator, Imperial Hero'Jaclyn Granick's book is a pathbreaking study. Within the growing research on the history of the aid sector's formative period after the First World War it fills an important gap. It will serve as an invaluable reference with regard to the distinct role of American Jewish organizations.' Daniel Maul, author of The International Labour Organization: 100 Years of Global Social Policy'This is a pioneering monograph on global Jewish social policy from the First World War through the 1920s. Granick deftly illustrates the synergy between American-Jewish funders and administrative experts in Europe, their Herculean efforts to assist Jews in war-torn regions, and the challenges they faced as trans-national actors in a world increasingly defined by nation-states.' Derek Penslar, author of Shylock's Children: Economics and Jewish Identity in Modern Europe'Overall, Granick tells an important story that contextualizes the relative positions of European, Palestinian, and American Jewish communities between the world wars … Recommended.' A. Lieberman Colgan, Choice Magazine'Jaclyn Granick illustrates how the destruction wreaked by World War I was transformative, not only in the annals of Jewish history, but also in the history of humanitarian activism. Mining archives in places as dis­parate as New York, Washington, Geneva, Cincinnati, and Jerusalem and sift­ing through doc­u­ments in numer­ous lan­guages, Granick shows how the war and its devastation created 'a long-lasting systemic change across the Jewish world.' This change was wrought by a group of actors, who Granick painstak­ing­ly brings to life with her nuanced understanding of archival documents as well as their silences.' The Jewish Book Council'The history and the memory of the Great War, named after its enormous, unsurpassed scale, is often overshadowed by the horrors of the Holocaust. Granick addresses this frequently under-appreciated and overlooked historical event with compelling arguments concerning the (dis)continuity of humanitarian practices … Her innovative study is a powerful account of intricacies and ramifications of the war that mobilized communities all around the world.' Joanna Zofia Spyra, Jewish History'Jaclyn Granick's meticulous and compelling monograph is an important contribution to contemporary Jewish history and to the international history of World War I and the postwar era … This critical, wide-ranging analysis enables us to think anew about Jewish international humanitarianism during a pivotal decade and to revise our understanding of its reach and effectiveness.' Carole Fink, American Jewish History'Granick, in writing of the American ascendancy during and after World War I and, with it, that of American Jews, shows how, among epic political transformations on the world stage, the conflict created both a new type of refugee-one with no home to return to-and a new type of international private relief organization that had to work in concert with governmental agencies … The stories Bemporad, Granick, and Veidlinger tell in their very different books remind us how much our world is an heir to the violent legacy of World War I. Yet they also show, as the war in Ukraine underscores, that perhaps we do not have to be trapped in this past.' Magda Teter, New York Review of Books'The book is ambitious and covers a lot of ground, both in terms of territory and the types of programs it considers. By considering the broad range of American Jewish humanitarian work, however, Granick is able to offer readers a deeper understanding of the profound impact of World War I and its often-underappreciated role in reshaping the structures of the Jewish world.' Jessica Cooperman, Journal of Jewish Identities'Spending time with Granick's Jewish humanitarians has been a thrilling adventure … this beautiful book, a meticulous, essential, and gorgeous cartography of Jewish humanitarianism at the time of the Great War.' Ilse Josepha Lazaroms, Journal of the Fondazione'Jaclyn Granick's impressively researched study … sheds much light on the politics of relief in this era.' Eugene M. Avrutin, The Journal of Modern History'Granick's study is … geographically wide-ranging, consistently addresses gender issues, and focuses on unique topics such as food relief, health and medical concerns, children, and credit as a form of reconstruc-tion.' Shannon L. Fogg, European Journal of Jewish StudiesTable of ContentsPreface; Terms, Acronyms, and Abbreviations; Introduction; 1. War Sufferers: Moving Money in War; 2. The Hungry: Establishing In-Kind Relief in the Field; 3. Refugee: Solutions without Resolution; 4. The Sick: Jewish Fitness through Jewish Health; 5. Child: Welfare for a Contested Jewish Future; 6. The Impoverished: Credit as Reconstruction; Epilogue; Bibliography; Index.

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Book SynopsisEmpire-critical and postcolonial readings of Revelation are now commonplace, but scholars have not yet put these views into conversation with Jewish trauma and cultural survival strategies. In this book, Sarah Emanuel positions Revelation within its ancient Jewish context. Proposing a new reading of Revelation, she demonstrates how the text''s author, a first century CE Jewish Christ-follower, used humor as a means of resisting Roman power. Emanuel uses multiple critical lenses, including humor, trauma, and postcolonial theory, together with historical-critical methods. These approaches enable a deeper understanding of the Jewishness of the early Christ-centered movement, and how Jews in antiquity related to their cultural and religious identity. Emanuel''s volume offers new insights and fills a gap in contemporary scholarship on Revelation and biblical scholarship more broadly.Trade Review'Meticulously researched and delightfully written, Sarah Emanuel's book offers an original, intriguing and entertaining interpretation of the book of Revelation. Emanuel deftly combines trauma, humor and postcolonial theories to uncover a Hellenistic Jewish book that deploys comic sarcasm and mockery of Rome as a Jewish survival tactic for a traumatized community. This is a must read for anyone who has puzzled over the meaning behind the strange beasts and violent burnings of Revelation.' Colleen M. Conway, Seton Hall University, New Jersey'Many people say Revelation 'resists' Roman domination, but Roasting Rome shows us how that work is done. Grounded in a rich set of case studies in the ancient world, including Jewish political resistance, Sarah Emanuel shows us how Revelation deploys humor as a weapon to subvert imperial pretensions. She also demonstrates how Revelation's biting humor comes with its own corrosive dangers, a timely lesson for modern readers.' Greg Carey, Lancaster Theological Seminary, Pennsylvania'… this book demonstrates a rich engagement with several bodies of theoretical literature. It offers excellent introductory discussions of postcolonial theory, trauma theory, humor theory, and dialogism for readers in biblical studies … generative and engaging readings of Revelation. Emanuel's monograph is well worth the attention of readers of Revelation, as well as anyone interested in postcolonial theory, trauma theory, and humor in biblical studies.' Olivia Stewart Lester, The Bible and Critical TheoryTable of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Backgrounds, backdrops, and other important starting points; 2. Survival of the humorist; 3. The comic truth; 4. The trick revealed; 5. I pledge allegiance to the lamb; Conclusion.

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Book SynopsisThis book is for scholars and students of the ideas, literatures, and cultures of early Christianity and late antiquity, ancient philosophers, and historians of theology. It offers new perspectives on early Christian modes of knowing and ordering knowledge in relation to changing discourses, institutions, and material culture of late antiquity.Table of Contents1. Modes of knowing and the ordering of knowledge in early Christianity Lewis Ayres, Michael Champion, Matthew R. Crawford; 2. The beginnings of a Christian doctrine of the spiritual senses before Origen Jane Heath; 3. Health, medicine, and philosophy in the school of Justin Martyr Jared Secord; 4. The structure of the ascetic self in Irenaeus of Lyons Paul Saieg; 5. The order of education and knowledge in clement of Alexandria Matyáš Havrda; 6. Origen's institutions and the shape of biblical scholarship Peter Martens; 7. Dialogue and catalogue: Fate, free-will, and epistemology in the Book of the Laws of the Countries Scott Johnson; 8. Iamblichus on divination and prophecy Peter Struck; 9. Cyprian, scripture and socialisation: forming faith in the catechumenate and beyond Edwina Murphy; 10. Sacrificial knowing: Cyprian and early Christian ritual knowledge Andrew McGowan; 11. Learning the language of God: tables in early Christian texts Andrew Riggsby; 12. The Aëtian Placita and the church fathers: creative use of a distinctive mode of ordering knowledge David Runia; 13. Nicaea's frame: the organisation of creedal knowledge in late antiquity and modernity Andrew Radde-Gallwitz; 14. The Arian controversy and the problem of image(s) Rebecca Lyman; 15. Imaging Ephrem the author Jeffrey Wickes; 16. Homilies as 'Modes of Knowing': an exploration on the basis of Greek patristic sermons (ca. 350-ca. 450 CE) Johan Leemans; 17. Dissemination of biblical narratives, motifs, and figures through early Christian inscriptions and homilies Cilliers Breytenbach; 18. How to make use of pagan knowledge without separating oneself from the church's milk: the function of otherness in Gregory of Nyssa's theory of self-perfection Jan Stenger; 19. Female characters as modes of knowing in late imperial dialogues: the body, desire, and the intellectual life Dawn LaValle Norman; 20. The Christianity of Latin Christian poetry Mark Edwards; 21. Ambrose's hymns as modes of knowing the 'Real' Brian Dunkle; 22. Confused voices: sound and sense in the later Augustine Carol Harrison; 23. Precision and the limits of human autopsy in Augustine's critique of pagan divination Michael Hanaghan; 24. Duplex via: authority and reason at Cassiciacum Gerald Boersma; 25. The object of our gaze: visual perception as a mode of knowing Robin Jensen; 26. Reconsidering the tholos image in the Eusebian canon tables: symbols, space, and books in the late antique Christian imagination Matthew Crawford; 27. Condemning the glutton of the monastery: rhetorical strategies and the epistemology of Philoxenus of Mabbug Jeanne-Nicole Mellon Saint-Laurent; 28. Evagrius of Ponticus on lupē: Distress and cognition between philosophy, medicine, and monasticism Jonathan Zecher; 29. Liturgical modes of knowing: coming to know God (and oneself) in sixth-century hymns and homilies Sarah Gador-Whyte; 30. Prolegomena to philosophy and the ascetic ordering of knowledge Michael Champion; 31. Bureaucratic modes of knowing in the late roman empire Sara Ahbel-Rappe; 32. The dissemination and appropriation of legal knowledge in the age of Justinian Peter Sarris; 33. The ordering of knowledge in four late patristic Christological handbooks Dirk Krausmüller; 34. World and empire: contrasting the cosmopolitan visions of Maximus the Confessor and George of Pisidia in seventh century Byzantium Paul Blowers; 35. Boethius on the ordering of knowledge John Magee; 36. Ordering emotional communities: modes of knowing in Gregory the Great Bronwen Neil; 37. Creating knowledge and knowing creation in late antique theological and scientific writing Helen Foxhall Forbes; 38. Hierarchies of knowledge in the works of Bede Zachary Guiliano; 39. Epilogue Teresa Morgan.

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Book SynopsisThe essays in A Modern Jew in Search of Soul are a compassionate and intellectual composite of Jewish voices, sharing their personal ideas, beliefs and experiences from many perspectives. Among the authors are several rabbis: orthodox, conservative, reform and even, as one described himself, rebellious. Still other authors are psychologists and physicians, Jungian Analysts and professors, artists, as well as other contributing Jewish community members. Although many are American, we also include several contributors with extensive experience in Israel and Europe. The cohesive thread running through the writing and the diversity of ideas about A Modern Jew in Search of Soul is fascinating. The essays within this book are informative, inspiring and illuminating.

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Book SynopsisIn 1940, Rav Yehuda Ashlag published the first, and only copy of the paper, The Nation. After WWII, he wrote The Writings of the Last Generation, contemplating the causes and solutions to anti-Semitism. This book contains these writings, as well as The Nation. These writings are bold, inspiring, and make you wonder what our lives would be like had we known about them earlier, or if we would adopt some of his ideas henceforth.

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Book SynopsisIn "Together Forever", Michael Laitman tells us that if we are patient and endure the trials we encounter along our life''s path, we will become stronger, braver, and wiser. Instead of growing weaker, we will learn to create our own magic and our own wonders as only a magician can. In this warm, tender tale, the author shares with children and parents alike some of the gems and charms of the spiritual world. The storyline introduces a kind magician who wishes to have a friend, and to teach his friend all the magic that he knows. He creates all kinds of objects and animals, but his best friend and student is the man that he creates. The story describes how the magician teaches the man to be like him -- a great and kind magician -- and explains that every one of us can become like the magician, if it is our wish. The wisdom of Kabbalah is filled with spellbinding stories. "Together Forever" is yet another gift from this ageless source of wisdom, whose lessons make our lives richer, easier, and far more fulfilling.

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Book SynopsisLaitman introduces several extraordinary concepts that weave into a complete solution: 1) The crisis is essentially not financial, but psychological: People have stopped trusting each other, and where there is no trust there is no trade, but only war, isolation, and pain. 2) This mistrust is a result of a natural process that''s been evolving for millennia and is culminating today. 3) To resolve the crisis, we must first understand the process that created the alienation. 4) The first, and most important, step to understanding the crisis is to inform people about this natural process through books, such as Bail Yourself Out, TV, cinema, and any other means of communication. 5) With this information, we will "revamp" our relationships and build them on trust, collaboration, and yes, care. This mending process will guarantee that we, and our families, prosper in a world of plenty.

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Book SynopsisThe Egotist tracks its author, Jesse Bogner''s, development from a hedonistic New Yorker to a Kabbalist, on a path to find the meaning of life. This book offers a glimpse into the misunderstood world of Kabbalah and how the collective plea of Kabbalists has the power to correct the egos of individuals and the world at large. Never before has a Kabbalah student, in such excruciating detail, illuminated the nature of his own spiritual development.

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Book SynopsisRachael is one of the the most effective advocates of the argument that there are immense practical benefits, and even a demanding moral necessity to investigate and uncover the intricacies of religious faith... Her ability to penetrate so deeply into other peoples modes of religious expression and belief, whether they stand in light or in darkness, is remarkable and unique. At the same time, her voice of where to direct her gaze, whether at Christian media accounts of Jews in the period of the Second World War or the sexual machinations of cults of the late twentieth century or the struggles of women to make a place for themselves in religious institutions, is both brave and expansive. - Rabbi Prof. Fred Morgan. Rachael Kohns insightful comments, inform, inspire, and provoke: a lovely combination of scholarly research, journalistic clarity and personal passion. -- Prof Amy-Jill Levine, New Testament and Jewish Studies, Vanderbilt University. Rachael Kohn understands the issues she writes about at the deepest level and as well as providing a way through the thorniest controversies always keeps a sense of the shape of the whole argument... This is a superb volume. Greg Sheridan, foreign editor, The Australian, author of God is Good for You.

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Book SynopsisHow did the written word serve as an authoritative source in the ancient world? What does it mean that some works became so popular as to merit dedicated interpretive commentaries? And does any direct relationship exist between the various methods of interpretation and styles of composition in these commentaries? The present work sets out to provide some solid answers to such questions. At the heart of this book stands a comparative analysis of ancient cuneiform commentary texts from mid-to-late first millennium Mesopotamia and early Jewish commentaries -- known as pesharim -- from the turn of the common era found in caves near Khirbet Qumran. Though some aspects of Mesopotamian hermeneutics may have influenced Jewish exegesis, likely through Jewish Aramaic scribes, the actual Mesopotamian practice of composing commentary texts exerted little-to-no influence on the compositional techniques of the pesharim. Nevertheless, many textual difficulties in the Qumran pesharim can be explained as the result of an accretion of interpretations over an extended period of time -- practice detailed in the textual record of the Mesopotamian commentaries. What is more, these commentaries reveal important evidence about both the way in which and the extent to which such works functioned as authoritative sources. As a result, this book advocates a shift away from discussing textual authority in simple binary terms, both in ancient and modern contexts, to functional descriptions of literary authority.

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Book SynopsisIn their long history, Jews encountered political, social, cultural, and religious crises which threatened not only their very existence but Jewish identity as well. Examples for such crises include the Babylonian Exile, the so-called Hellenistic Religious reforms, the first and second Jewish war, the inquisition, and the Shoah, but also the encounter of modernity or socio-economic developments. Political, cultural, and religious crises did not coin Jewish culture, thought, and religion but forced Jews from the very beginnings of Judaism until today to rethink and shape their Jewish identity anew. This volume asks how Jews coped with events that threatened Jewish existence, culture, and religion and how they responded to them. Each crisis was different in nature and evoked hence different developments in Jewish culture, thought, and religion.

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Book SynopsisThis volume presents the proceedings of an international and interdisciplinary symposium on the intertextuality of ancient literature and its medieval and modern receptions. It engages with the topic of intertextuality in four regards:1. What constitutes a Text and what constitutes an Intertext: text texture - textuality in archaeology, iconography and literature? 2. Forms of Intertextuality: including the aspect of oral and written text. 3. Tradition and Transmission of Texts and Intertexts: examples of intertextuality. 4. Intertextuality and Canon: aspects of the specificity of intertextuality in canonical contexts.

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Book SynopsisBennie H. Reynolds analyzes of the language (poetics) of ancient Jewish historical apocalypses. He investigates how the dramatis personae, i.e., deities, angels/demons, and humans are described in the Book of Daniel (chapters 2, 7, 8, and 10-12) the Animal Apocalypse (1 Enoch 85-90), 4QFourKingdoms(a-b) ar, the Book of the Words of Noah (1QapGen 5 29-18?), the Apocryphon of Jeremiah C, and 4QPseudo-Daniel(a-b) ar. The primary methodologies for this study are linguistic- and motif-historical analysis and the theoretical framework is informed by a wide range of ancient and modern thinkers including Artemidorus of Daldis, Ferdinand de Saussure, Charles Peirce, Leo Oppenheim, Claude Levi-Strauss, and Umberto Eco. The most basic contention of this study is that the data now available from the Dead Sea Scrolls significantly alter how one should conceive of the genre apocalypse in the Hellenistic Period. This basic contention is borne out by five primary conclusions. For example, while some apocalypses employ symbolic language to describe the actors in their historical reviews, others use non-symbolic language. Some texts, especially from the Book of Daniel, are mixed cases. Among the apocalypses that use symbolic language, a limited and stable repertoire of symbols obtain across the genre and bear witness to a series of conventional associations. While several apocalypses do not use symbolic ciphers to encode their historical actors, they often use cryptic language that may have functioned as a group-specific language. The language of apocalypses indicates that these texts were not the domain of only one social group or even one type or size of social group.

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Book SynopsisThe aim of the present conference volume is to study the interrelationship of literary and material approaches to historical investigation of gender. Paradigmatically the significance and meaning of gender and sexuality is explored in the context of private and public, religious and secular spaces. Historical, cultural, and social norms (and deviations) of daily life are examined through the lens of textual, archaeological, and art historical investigations to interpret relics of ancient Israelite, Jewish, and Christian communities from the Iron Age through Late Antiquity. Scholars from varied disciplines such as biblical and classical archaeology, epigraphy, Old and New Testament exegesis and religious studies assembled to engage in a dialogue involving both texts and material culture.

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