Search results for ""Author Jacob Neusner""

This theological commentary to the Rabbinic Midrash explores a simple proposition, in three parts: I. The reading of Scripture by principal parts of the Rabbinic Midrash is formed by compositions and composites that are animated by a cogent theological system. II. These primary components of the Midrash-compilations, further, are in part aimed at systematic demonstrations of theorems of a theological character. III. While forming a principal part of a large theological structure and system, each document is unique.

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How does the inner logic of the Aggadah, its narrative and theology (whether systematic or merely episodic) match the deepest rationality of the Halakhah, its norms and foci and points of tension and remission of tension? The answer emerges from the comparison and contrast of the large, organizing aggregates of the Halakhah and of the Aggadah. The Halakhic and the Aggadic category formations are explained fully. In the Mishnah-Tosefta-Yerushalmi-Bavli we have the best of all possible Halakhic category-formations for the purpose of defining the structure of Israel's inner life, the social order of the kingdom of priests and the holy people that God had in mind in bringing Israel into being. In the Rabbah-midrash compilations and their companions, we have the best of all possible Aggadic category formations for the purpose of narrating the working of the system of Israel's public life, the story of that kingdom of priests and holy people in history. These are presented in two distinct exercises, deductive and inductive. The dual discourse tells a continuous story.

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The Native Category-Formations of the Aggadah, Volume I is an attempt to identify the category-formations that comprise the Aggadic, or theological-exegetical-narrative. Through an inquiry of the theological and exegetical components of the Aggadah, Neusner analyses how the authoritative documents of Rabbinic Judaism form a continuous statement.

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Placing himself within the context of the Gospel of Matthew, Neusner imagines himself in a dialogue with Jesus of Nazareth and pays him the supreme Judaic gesture of respect: making a connection with him through an honest debate about the nature of God's One Truth. Neusner explains why the Sermon on the Mount would not have convinced him to follow Jesus and why, by the criterion of the Torah of Moses, he would have continued to follow the teachings of Moses. He explores the reasons Christians believe in Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of Heaven, while Jews continue to believe in the Torah of Moses and a kingdom of priests and holy people on earth. This revised and expanded edition, with a foreword by Donald Akenson, creates a thoughtful and accessible context for discussion of the most fundamental question of why Christians and Jews believe what they believe.

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With the conversion of Constantine in AD 312, Christianity began a period of political and cultural dominance that it would enjoy until the twentieth century. Jacob Neusner contradicts the prevailing view that following Christianity's ascendancy, Judaism continued to evolve in isolation. He argues that because of the political need to defend its claims to religious authenticity, Judaism was forced to review itself in the context of a triumphant Christianity. The definition of issues long discussed in Judaism - the meaning of history, the coming of the Messiah, and the political identity of Israel - became of immediate and urgent concern to both parties. What emerged was a polemical dialogue between Christian and Jewish teachers that was unprecedented. In a close analysis of texts by the Christian theologians Eusebius, Aphrahat, and Chrysostom, and of central Jewish works such as the Talmud of the Land of Israel, the Genesis Rabbah, and the Leviticus Rabbah, Neusner finds that both religious groups turned to the same corpus of Hebrew scripture to examine the same fundamental issues. As Neusner demonstrates, the conclusions drawn in these texts shaped the dialogue between the two religions for the rest of their shared history in the West.

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This theological commentary to the Rabbinic Midrash explores a simple proposition, in three parts: I. The reading of Scripture by principal parts of the Rabbinic Midrash is formed by compositions and composites that are animated by a cogent theological system. II. These primary components of the Midrash-compilations, further, are in part aimed at systematic demonstrations of theorems of a theological character. III. While forming a principal part of a large theological structure and system, each document is unique.

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Pesqita deRab Kahana constitutes a whole that vastly exceeds the sum of the parts. The theology of the document is stated by that whole, on its own but also through the parts. The components of the document derive from the common theology of Rabbinic Judaism. Most are interchangeable, serviceable for other documents of a comparable character. The theology particular to this document comes to expression only when the entirety of the composite comes into view.

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This book provides an introduction to Judaism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries for all students of Judaism and world religions, and covers major movements that have been developed. Written by a leading teacher and researcher, each chapter features a clear and authoritative introduction to its subject, accompanied by a reading by a specialist in the particlular field.

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The purpose of this study is to identify the propositions of the principal Midrash-compilations of formative Judaism. Continuing with the theme of volume Seven, devoted to Sifra, Jacob Neusner proceeds to Sifré to Numbers and Sifré to Deuteronomy. It is, further, to place these propositions, where established, into a relationship with those that characterize the canon as a whole. This volume presents both what is in common to the animating theology of Rabbinic Judaism in all its documentary components and what is unique to Sifré to Numbers and Sifré to Deuteronomy, respectively.

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