Description
Book SynopsisSwimming against the Current comprises a collection of essays celebrating the career and achievements of Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller, who served as Executive Director of Hillel at UCLA for forty years and continues to be an influential leader in the Los Angeles and wider American Jewish community. These articles, like the honoree, challenge intellectual convention and accepted wisdom by breaking new ground in how they approach their subjects. They are divided into four categories that hold special interest for Seidler-Feller: Bible and Talmud, Jewish Thought and Theology, Modern Jewish History and Sociology, and Zionism and Jewish Politics. The volume also includes a sketch of Seidler-Feller's life and work, a bibliography of his publications, and tributes by students and colleagues.
Table of Contents
- Introduction: A Portrait of Chaim Seidler-Feller
- Shaul Seidler-Feller and David N. Myers
- Bibliography of Publications by Chaim Seidler-Feller
- Part I. The Sources of the Tradition: Bible and Talmud
- Order as Meaning: Juxtaposition in the Bible
- Isaac Gottlieb
- Behind Every Great Prophet Is a Woman: The Women in Exodus 2 in Talmudic Interpretation
-
Shana Strauch Schick
- Study of Torah as a Discourse of Violence: Milhamtah shel Torah, Variations on a Theme
- Aryeh Cohen
- Discipleship in Rabbinic Literature
-
Moshe Halbertal
- Secular Legal Paradigms and Talmudic Law: Rav Tsa'ir on Legal Loopholes
-
Elana Stein Hain
- Part II. Jewish Thought and Theology
- Buber, Scholem, and the Me'or enayim: Another Perspective on a Great Controversy
-
Avraham Yizhak (Arthur) Green
- On Not Finishing the Work: A Commentary on Avot 2:16 143
- Michael Walzer
- The Faith of Abraham
-
Howard Wettstein
- The Ascent and Decline of the "Historical Jew"
-
Moshe Idel
- Divine Command Theory in Jewish Law and Ethics
-
Elliot N. Dorff
- Part III. Modern Jewish History and Sociology
- Polio Season: Transformations of Philip Roth's "Jewish Mother" from Sophie Portnoy to Marcia Steinberg
-
Sylvia Barack Fishman
- Go to School, Work, Marry, Have Children, Be Jewish: Jewish Women and Jewish Men in the United States and Israel
-
Sergio DellaPergola
- The Day of Reckoning: Max Radin and the Rule of Law in International War Crimes
-
Eugene R. Sheppard
- Antisemitism: Reflections and Ruminations
-
Deborah E. Lipstadt
- Part IV. Zionism and Jewish Politics
- Sovereignty and Ethics in the Thought of Rabbi Ḥayyim David Halevi
-
Suzanne Last Stone
- Rabbi Shlomo Goren on the Maimonidean Law of Siege: An Essay on the Ethics of Jewish Warfare
-
David Ellenson
- Invoking the Indigenous, for and against Israel
-
Carole Goldberg
- Jewish Folk Art and Ideology: The Śimhat Torah Flag through the Ages
-
Shalom Sabar
-
Student Tributes
- Meira Wolkenfeld
- Adam Greenwald
- Mayim Bialik
- Jonathan Jacoby
-
Colleague Tributes
- Laurie L. Levenson
- Edward Feld
- David Berner
-
Saul Andron
- List of Contributors
