Kategoria BISAC: Religion >> Judaism - Rituals & Practice

These studies provide an overview of rituals of marriage in Early Judaism. The first deals with the reception of Levirate law in Deut. 25:5-10 and the curtailment of Levirate marriage in favor of Halitza. The second shows, on the basis of the Book of Tobit, how aspects of marriage rituals can be traced into rabbinic times. Finally, an analysis of the marriage of the Samaritan woman in John 4:16-18 completes the volume.

• The most extensive study of the interrelated history of two monuments, Solomon's Temple and The Dome of the Rock, drawing on an exhaustive review of all the visual and textual evidence
• Relayed as a gripping narrative, allowing readers to re-enter and experience the emotions and the visceral reality of the major events in its history
• Integrates illustration with the text to offer a highly detailed and...

Judaism, like all the great religions, has a strand within it that sees inward devotion, the opening of the human heart to God s presence, to be the purpose of its entire edifice of praxis, liturgy, and way of life. This voice is not always easy to hear in a tradition where so much attention is devoted to the how rather than the why of religious living. The devotional claim, certainly a key part of Judaism s biblical heritage, has reasserted itself in the teachings of individual mystics and in the emergence of religious movements over the long course of Jewish history. This...

The Passover was celebrated by Jesus and the disciples the last time they were together. Now popular speaker and writer Rabbi Evan Moffic brings an understanding to the Last Supper that will forever change how Christians celebrate Communion and prepare for Easter. Beginning with the Hebrew Bible and Jewish history, Rabbi Moffic shows how these inform the roots of Christianity as he weaves together history, theology, Jewish practice and observances. Then he provides the background and resources for Christians seeking to experience an authentic Jewish Passover Seder and integrate it into...

I. L. Peretz (1852-1915), the father of modern Yiddish literature, was a master storyteller and social critic who advocated a radical shift from religious observance to secular Jewish culture. Wisse explores Peretz's writings in relation to his ideology, which sought to create a strong Jewish identity separate from the trappings of religion.

Profound, honest, and masterfully written--Between Gods forces us to reexamine our beliefs and the extent to which they define us.

Growing up in a tight-knit Christian family, Alison Pick went to church regularly. But as a teenager, she discovered a remarkable family secret: her paternal grandparents fled from the Czech Republic at the start of WWII because they were Jewish. Tragically, other family members who hesitated to emigrate were sent to Auschwitz.

Haunted by the Holocaust, Alison's grandparents established themselves in their new lives as Christians. Not even...

Keter is a close reading of fifty relatively brief Jewish texts, tracing the motif of divine coronation from Jewish esoteric writings of late antiquity to the Zohar, written in thirteenth-century Spain. In the course of this investigation Arthur Green draws a wide arc including Talmudic, Midrashic, liturgical, Merkavah, German Hasidic, and Kabbalistic works, showing through this single theme the spectrum of devotional, mystical, and magical views held by various circles of Jews over the course of a millennium or more. The first portion of the work deals with late antiquity,...

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...

An innovative handbook to the world of the Jewish mystics that opens up a window onto a higher reality.

"When we embark upon the path of the mystic ... this earthly plane is no longer the focus of our lives. Rather, it is the invisible realm of the soul that draws us toward it. We become aware that there are worlds upon worlds beyond the material existence in which we live.... This understanding illuminates] our ascent into the Timeless Expanses of Infinity."
from The Divine Structure of Reality

This unique guide to the world of the Jewish mystics will...

The Days of Awe and the month leading up to them in the Hebrew calendar are truly a gift. Each day offers not only the opportunity to reflect back on the past year but also the chance to look forward to the possibilities that lie ahead in the year to come. Many of us are eager for resources to help us bring the greatest possible meaning to these sacred days. For Every Season is just such a resource.

With daily meditations and insights into High Holiday liturgy, this new journal-format book offers each of us the opportunity to reflect not just in thought but in writing on...