Avodah: Ancient Poems for Yom Kippur is the first major translation of one of the most important genres of the lost literature of the ancient synagogue. Known as the Avodah piyyutim, this liturgical poetry was composed by the synagogue poets of fifth- to ninth-century Palestine and sung in the synagogues on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Although it was suppressed by generations of rabbis, its ornamental beauty and deep exploration of sacred stories ensured its popularity for centuries.
Piyyut literature can teach us much about how ancient Jews...
Avodah: Ancient Poems for Yom Kippur is the first major translation of one of the most important genres of the lost literature of the anci...
For centuries, Jews have been known as the -people of the book.- It is commonly thought that Judaism in the first several centuries CE found meaning exclusively in textual sources. But there is another approach to meaning to be found in ancient Judaism, one that sees it in the natural world and derives it from visual clues rather than textual ones. According to this conception, God embedded hidden signs in the world that could be read by human beings and interpreted according to complex systems.
In exploring the diverse functions of signs outside of the realm of the written word,...
For centuries, Jews have been known as the -people of the book.- It is commonly thought that Judaism in the first several centuries CE found meaning e...
In exploring the social background of early Jewish mysticism, Scholastic Magic tells the story of how imagination and magic were made to serve memory and scholasticism. In the visionary literature that circulated between the fifth and ninth centuries, there are strange tales of ancient rabbis conjuring the angel known as Sar-Torah, the "Prince of the Torah." This angel endowed the rabbis themselves with spectacular memory and skill in learning, and then taught them the formulas for giving others these gifts. This literature, according to Michael Swartz, gives us rare glimpses...
In exploring the social background of early Jewish mysticism, Scholastic Magic tells the story of how imagination and magic were made to ser...
