Kategoria BISAC: Religion >> Judaism - History

The thesis of "Torah Mora" makes Torah the 'emotional DNA" God provided for our use and benefit. Just as DNA instructs the body on its proper...

Each nation is unique in its own way. What is it that makes Jewish people unique? "The Jews: are They Human?"; this was the title of the book by a British-Canadian author and painter, Wyndham Lewis, published in the thirties. Winston Churchill wrote that "they are beyond all questions the most formidable and the most remarkable race which has ever appeared in the world." Vladimir Solovyev, a Russian religious philosopher, was convinced that the world rotated around the Jewish axis. On the other hand, Nancy Yos, a convert, recently wrote about Jews: "I have found after all the books,...

In this book, Jacob Neusner gives an introductory, systematic, and holistic account of the theology and practice of Rabbinic Judaism, which emerged, along with Christianity, from antiquity and formed the classical statement of Judaism to the present day. He offers a description of beliefs and practices, theology as expressed in mythic narratives, and norms of ritual and symbolic behavior. Neusner also discusses: revelation and scripture, the doctrine of God, the definition of the holy, the chain of tradition embodied in the story of the written and oral Torah, the intervention of God in...

This book, the first of two volumes, offers a comprehensive history of Israelite religion. It is a part of the Old Testament Library series.

The Old Testament Library provides fresh and authoritative treatments of important aspects of Old Testament study through commentaries and general surveys. The contributors are scholars of international standing.

This book, the second of two volumes, offers a comprehensive history of Israelite religion. It is a part of the Old Testament Library series.

The Old Testament Library provides fresh and authoritative treatments of important aspects of Old Testament study through commentaries and general surveys. The contributors are scholars of international standing.

Niels Peter Lemche focuses on the way Israelites understood themselves at different points in history--before, within, and after the monarchy. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding Israel's rich history.

Volumes in the Library of Ancient Israel draw on multiple disciplines--such as archaeology, anthropology, sociology, linguistics, and literary criticism--to illuminate the everyday realities and social subtleties these ancient cultures experienced. This series employs sophisticated methods resulting in original contributions that depict the reality of...

Scribes and Schools is an examination of the processes which led to the canonization of the Hebrew Bible. Philip Davies sheds light on the social reasons for the development of the canon and in so doing presents a clear picture of how the Bible came into being.

Volumes in the Library of Ancient Israel draw on multiple disciplines--such as archaeology, anthropology, sociology, linguistics, and literary criticism--to illuminate the everyday realities and social subtleties these ancient cultures experienced. This series employs sophisticated methods resulting in original...

In this new edition of a best-selling classic, Shaye Cohen offers a thorough analysis of Judaism's development from the early years of the Roman Empire to the formative period of rabbinic Judaism. Cohen's synthesis of religion, literature, and history offers deep insight into the nature of Judaism at this key period, including the relationship between Jews and Gentiles, the function of Jewish religion in the larger community, and the development of normative Judaism and other Jewish sects. In addition, Cohen provides clear explanations concerning the formation of the biblical canon and the...

This introductory textbook on the history of Judaism, written by one of the foremost scholars in the field, is ideal for college freshmen and high school seniors. The book includes chapters on the Pentateuch and the definition of Israel, the Torah and the Mishnah and Judaism's way of life, the Talmud and Judaism's worldview, and the definition and nature of God in Judaism. The book concludes with a discussion of why Judaism has succeeded through centuries of competition with Christianity and Islam, and a chapter on exemplary figures in the emergence of Judaism. The book also includes a...

Beyond the Synagogue Gallery recounts the emergence of new roles for American Jewish women in public worship and synagogue life. Karla Goldman's study of changing patterns of female religiosity is a story of acculturation, of adjustments made to fit Jewish worship into American society.

Goldman focuses on the nineteenth century. This was an era in which immigrant communities strove for middle-class respectability for themselves and their religion, even while fearing a loss of traditions and identity. For acculturating Jews some practices, like the ritual bath, quickly...

In the mid-seventeenth century, Shabbatai Zvi, a rabbi from Izmir, claimed to be the Jewish messiah, and convinced a great many Jews to believe him. The movement surrounding this messianic pretender was enormous, and Shabbatai's mission seemed to be affirmed by the numerous supporting prophecies of believers. The story of Shabbatai and his prophets has mainly been explored by specialists in Jewish mysticism. Only a few scholars have placed this large-scale movement in its social and historical context.

Matt Goldish shifts the focus of Sabbatean studies from the theology of Lurianic...

A comprehensive treatment of visionary experience in some of the main texts of Jewish mysticism, this book reveals the overwhelmingly visual nature of religious experience in Jewish spirituality from antiquity through the late Middle Ages. Using phenomenological and critical historical tools, Wolfson examines Jewish mystical texts from late antiquity, pre-kabbalistic sources from the tenth to the twelfth centuries, and twelfth- and thirteenth-century kabbalistic literature. His work demonstrates that the sense of sight assumes an epistemic priority in these writings, reflecting and...

Historians of the European Jewish experience have long marginalized the intellectual achievement of Jews in England, where it was assumed no seminal figures contributed to the development of modern Jewish thought. In this first comprehensive account of the emergence of Anglo-Jewish thought in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, David Ruderman impels a reconsideration of the formative beginnings of modern European Jewish culture. He uncovers a vibrant Jewish intellectual life in England during the Enlightenment era by examining a small but fascinating group of hitherto neglected Jewish...

This collection of original materials provides a sweeping view of medieval and early modern Jewish ritual and religious practice. Including such diverse texts as ritual manuals, legal codes, mystical books, autobiographical writings, folk literature, and liturgical poetry, it testifies to the enormous variety of practices that characterized Judaism in the twelve hundred years between 600 and 1800 C.E. Its focus on religious practice and experience--how Judaism was actually lived by people from day to day--makes this anthology unique among the few sourcebooks available.

The...