The Babylonian Talmud is often cited as the bedrock upon which Judaism stands. And yet, it remains a closed book for the majority of Jews. Since the Talmud's composition does not follow the rules of Western writing, beginning learners are often thwarted in their first attempts to "swim in the sea of Talmud." These modern learners often experience rabbinic literature as a sort of stream-of-consciousness writing that seems to wobble off-track quite frequently. Frustrated, these learners often give up. To understand the Babylonian Talmud (also called the Bavli) readers need to understand its...

This is the dramatic story of how the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, a voluntary, humanitarian organization supported by American Jewry, made its entry into the isolated, poverty-stricken world.

This is a study of the relationship between two cognate religious components of Judaism, the laws of the Pentateuch and the corpus of Halakhah set forth by the Mishnah-Tosefta-Yerushalmi-Bavli.

This book presents an inductive account, through systematic inquiry into data, of the hermeneutics of the principal documents of Rabbinic Judaism. It undertakes a hypothetical-logical reconstruction of the thought-processes that generated the category-formations of the Halakhah, that is, the exegesis of the hermeneutics of Halakhic exegesis.

The three volumes of Collected Essays on Philosophy and on Judaism by Marvin Fox (former President of the Association of Jewish Studies) present Fox's thoughts on the relationship between Judaism and Philosophy. Coverage in volume one is Greek Philosophy and Maimonides. These select essays offer, to a new generation of scholars of Jewish thought and Philosophy, an important introduction to the field.

This work is a collection of essays on the Palestinian Judaic background of Mark 5:1-20; Luke 4:16-30; the name Judas 'Iscariot'; Luke 19:41-44; John 8:56-58; Matt 24:28; Luke 17:37; Luke 13:34b, and Matthew 23:37b.

This work investigates Rabbi David ibn Abi Zimra (Radbaz), a leading 16th century rabbinic authority who assumed the role of rendering 'just' decisions, which were occasionally at the expense of conventional law. The author explores Radbaz's decision-making in terms of his insight into the broader purposes of codified law, sensitivity, and overall rationality.

In How Not to Study Judaism, Examples and Counter-Examples, Jacob Neusner presents a collection of essays and book reviews that identify the wrong way of conducting the academic study of Judaism. Pointing readers toward the right way to pursue the academic study of Judaism, Nuesner's focus is on the study of the literature of Judaism and the culture of the Jewish community.

The Continuing Agony addresses the crucial and painful issues that continue to plague Christian-Jewish relations after Auschwitz. Despite these obstacles, the essays in this book profess hope for the future of a Jewish-Catholic dialogue.

Spirituality and Law is an in-depth evaluation of martyrdom impulses in Christianity and Judaism. Author Abraham Gross analyzes the spiritual yearning of martyrdom in each religion over a period of 1,500 years, from the 2nd to the 16th century. Special attention is given to the Roman period, 9th century Cordova, and 13th-15th century Franciscans.