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Elephantine Revisited: New Insights into the Judean Community and Its Neighbors
By Margaretha Folmer. 2022
The Judean community at Elephantine has long fascinated historians of the Persian period. This book, with its stellar assemblage of…
important scholarly voices, provides substantive new insights and approaches that will advance the study of this well-known but not entirely understood community from fifth-century BCE Egypt. Since Bezalel Porten’s pioneering Archives from Elephantine, published in 1968, the discourse on the subject of the community of Elephantine during the Persian period has changed considerably, due to new data from excavations, the discovery and publication of previously unknown texts, and original scholarly insights and avenues of inquiry. Running the gamut from archaeological to linguistic investigations and encompassing legal, literary, religious, and other aspects of life in this Judean community, this volume stands at a crossroads of research that extends from Hebrew Bible studies to the history of early Jewish communities. It also features fourteen new Aramaic ostraca from Aswan. The volume will appeal to students and scholars of the Hebrew Bible and ancient Judaism, as well as to a wider audience of Egyptologists, Semitists, and specialists in ancient Near Eastern studies. In addition to the editor, the contributors to this volume include Annalisa Azzoni, Bob Becking, Alejandro F. Botta, Lester L. Grabbe, Ingo Kottsieper, Reinhard G. Kratz, André Lemaire, Hélène Nutkowicz, Beatrice von Pilgrim, Cornelius von Pilgrim, Bezalel Porten, Ada Yardeni, and Ran Zadok. Moreover, a video recording of an interview conducted with Porten on his long career in Elephantine studies accompanies the book through a link on the Eisenbrauns website.Kabbalah and Sex Magic: A Mythical-Ritual Genealogy (Magic in History)
By Marla Segol. 2021
In this provocative book, Marla Segol explores the development of the kabbalistic cosmology underlying Western sex magic. Drawing extensively on…
Jewish myth and ritual, Segol tells the powerful story of the relationship between the divine and the human body in late antique Jewish esotericism, in medieval kabbalah, and in New Age ritual practice.Kabbalah and Sex Magic traces the evolution of a Hebrew microcosm that models the powerful interaction of human and divine bodies at the heart of both kabbalah and some forms of Western sex magic. Focusing on Jewish esoteric and medical sources from the fifth to the twelfth century from Byzantium, Persia, Iberia, and southern France, Segol argues that in its fully developed medieval form, kabbalah operated by ritualizing a mythos of divine creation by means of sexual reproduction. She situates in cultural and historical context the emergence of Jewish cosmological models for conceptualizing both human and divine bodies and the interactions between them, arguing that all these sources position the body and its senses as the locus of culture and the means of reproducing it. Segol explores the rituals acting on these models, attending especially to their inherent erotic power, and ties these to contemporary Western sex magic, showing that such rituals have a continuing life. Asking questions about its cosmology, myths, and rituals, Segol poses even larger questions about the history of kabbalah, the changing conceptions of the human relation to the divine, and even the nature of religious innovation itself. This groundbreaking book will appeal to students and scholars of Jewish studies, religion, sexuality, and magic.Secuestrada: Una historia de la vida real (Atria Espanol)
By Leszli Kalli. 2007
Para los cuarenta y seis ocupantes del avión Fokker 50 de Avianca, que volaba de Bucaramanga a Bogotá, el 12…
de abril de 1999 se convirtió en una pesadilla. Guerrilleros encapuchados secuestraron el avión y lo hicieron aterrizar en una pista abandonada. Entre los pasajeros viajaba Leszli Kálli, una joven de dieciocho años que soñaba vivir una experiencia facinante en un kibutz en Israel. En los campamentos de la guerrilla, Leszli escribió este diario en el que detalla el drama de estar privada de su libertad, las jornadas a pie por senderos sembrados de trampas y minas quiebrapatas, la solidaridad y los conflictos entre los secuestrados, las relaciones con los guerrilleros, a veces afectadas por discusiones, a veces por atracciones y afectos. La especial sensibilidad y el carácter recio de Leszli quedaron consignados en sus cuadernos, en los dibujos y juegos que se intercalan en sus páginas, en las cartas que escribió a Dios, a sus padres y a sus hermanos. Su amor por los animales la enfrentó a guerrilleros y amigos, y hasta a su padre, quien se horrorizó cuando ella le confesó que tenÍa de mascotas, bajo su camastro, a una serpiente y una tarántula. Este diario tambiên contiene la conmovedora defensa de la libertad que hace Leszli, su reclamo por un paÍs justo y sus alegatos contra procedimientos inhumanos de la guerrilla como el secuestro. Son centenares de páginas escritas con rabia, con lágrimas, con ternura, con la impotencia que siente al estar secuestrada.Professor of Apocalypse: The Many Lives of Jacob Taubes
By Jerry Z. Muller. 2022
The controversial Jewish thinker whose tortured path led him into the heart of twentieth-century intellectual lifeScion of a distinguished line…
of Talmudic scholars, Jacob Taubes (1923–1987) was an intellectual impresario whose inner restlessness led him from prewar Vienna to Zurich, Israel, and Cold War Berlin. Regarded by some as a genius, by others as a charlatan, Taubes moved among yeshivas, monasteries, and leading academic institutions on three continents. He wandered between Judaism and Christianity, left and right, piety and transgression. Along the way, he interacted with many of the leading minds of the age, from Leo Strauss and Gershom Scholem to Herbert Marcuse, Susan Sontag, and Carl Schmitt. Professor of Apocalypse is the definitive biography of this enigmatic figure and a vibrant mosaic of twentieth-century intellectual life.Jerry Muller shows how Taubes&’s personal tensions mirrored broader conflicts between religious belief and scholarship, allegiance to Jewish origins and the urge to escape them, tradition and radicalism, and religion and politics. He traces Taubes&’s emergence as a prominent interpreter of the Apostle Paul, influencing generations of scholars, and how his journey led him from crisis theology to the Frankfurt School, and from a radical Hasidic sect in Jerusalem to the center of academic debates over Gnosticism, secularization, and the revolutionary potential of apocalypticism.Professor of Apocalypse offers an unforgettable account of an electrifying world of ideas, focused on a charismatic personality who thrived on controversy and conflict.An estimated forty thousand Jews were murdered during the Russian Civil War between 1918 and 1922. As the Dust of…
the Earth examines the Yiddish and Russian literary response to the violence (pogroms) and the relief effort, exploring both the poetry of catastrophe and the documentation of catastrophe and care.Brilliantly weaving together narrative fiction, poetry, memoirs, newspaper articles, and documentary, Harriet Murav argues that poets and pogrom investigators were doing more than recording the facts of violence and expressing emotions in response to it. They were interrogating what was taking place through a central concept familiar from their everyday lifeworld—hefker, or abandonment. Hefker shaped the documentation of catastrophe by Jewish investigators at pogrom sites impossibly tasked with producing comprehensive reports of chaos. Hefker also became a framework for Yiddish writers to think through such incomprehensible violence by creating new forms of poetry. Focusing less on the perpetrators and more on the responses to the pogroms, As the Dust of the Earth offers a fuller understanding of the seismic effects of such organized violence and a moving testimony to the resilience of survivors to process and cope with catastrophe.To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People
By Noah Feldman. 2024
A New York Times BestsellerA leading public intellectual’s timely reckoning with how Jews can and should make sense of their…
tradition and each other. What does it mean to be a Jew? At a time of worldwide crisis, venerable answers to this question have become unsettled. In To Be a Jew Today, the legal scholar and columnist Noah Feldman draws on a lifelong engagement with his religion to offer a wide-ranging interpretation of Judaism in its current varieties. How do Jews today understand their relationship to God, to Israel, and to each other—and live their lives accordingly?Writing sympathetically but incisively about diverse outlooks, Feldman clarifies what’s at stake in the choice of how to be a Jew, and discusses the shared “theology of struggle” that Jews engage in as they wrestle with who God is, what God wants, or whether God exists. He shows how the founding of Israel has transformed Judaism itself over the last century—and explores the ongoing consequences of that transformation for all Jews, who find the meaning of their Jewishness and their views about Israel intertwined, no matter what those views are. And he examines the analogies between being Jewish and belonging to a large, messy family—a family that often makes its members crazy, but a family all the same. Written with learning, empathy and clarity, To Be a Jew Today is a critical resource for readers of all faiths.Judaism Is About Love: Recovering the Heart of Jewish Life
By Shai Held. 2024
A profound, startling new understanding of Jewish life, illuminating the forgotten heart of Jewish theology and practice: love.A dramatic misinterpretation…
of the Jewish tradition has shaped the history of the West: Christianity is the religion of love, and Judaism the religion of law. In the face of centuries of this widespread misrepresentation, Rabbi Shai Held—one of the most important Jewish thinkers in America today—recovers the heart of the Jewish tradition, offering the radical and moving argument that love belongs as much to Judaism as it does to Christianity. Blending intellectual rigor, a respect for tradition and the practices of a living Judaism, and a commitment to the full equality of all people, Held seeks to reclaim Judaism as it authentically is. He shows that love is foundational and constitutive of true Jewish faith, animating the singular Jewish perspective on injustice and protest, grace, family life, responsibilities to our neighbors and even our enemies, and chosenness.Ambitious and revelatory, Judaism Is About Love illuminates the true essence of Judaism—an act of restoration from within.The Meaning of Yiddish
By Benjamin Harshav. 2024
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out…
and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1990.Civil Religion in Israel: Traditional Judaism and Political Culture in the Jewish State
By Charles S. Liebman, Eliezer Don-Yehiya. 2024
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out…
and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1983.The Collected Works of Spinoza, Volume II: One-volume Digital Edition
By Benedictus De Spinoza. 2016
The second and final volume of the most authoritative English-language edition of Spinoza's writingsThe Collected Works of Spinoza provides, for…
the first time in English, a truly satisfactory edition of all of Spinoza's writings, with accurate and readable translations, based on the best critical editions of the original-language texts, done by a scholar who has published extensively on the philosopher's work.The centerpiece of this second volume is Spinoza’s Theological-Political Treatise, a landmark work in the history of biblical scholarship, the first argument for democracy by a major philosopher, and a forceful defense of freedom of thought and expression. This work is accompanied by Spinoza’s later correspondence, much of which responds to criticism of the Theological-Political Treatise. The volume also includes his last work, the unfinished Political Treatise, which builds on the foundations of the Theological-Political Treatise to offer plans for the organization of nontyrannical monarchies and aristocracies.The elaborate editorial apparatus—including prefaces, notes, glossary, and indexes—assists the reader in understanding one of the world’s most fascinating, but also most difficult, philosophers. Of particular interest is the glossary-index, which provides extensive commentary on Spinoza’s technical vocabulary.A milestone of scholarship more than forty-five years in the making, The Collected Works of Spinoza is an essential edition for anyone with a serious interest in Spinoza or the history of philosophy.The Bible Doesn't Say That: 40 Biblical Mistranslations, Misconceptions, and Other Misunderstandings
By Joel M. Hoffman. 2016
The Bible Doesn't Say That explores what the Bible meant before it was misinterpreted over the past 2,000 years. Acclaimed…
translator and biblical scholar Dr. Joel M. Hoffman walks the reader through dozens of mistranslations, misconceptions, and other misunderstandings about the Bible. In forty short, straightforward chapters, he covers morality, life-style, theology, and biblical imagery, including: *The Bible doesn't call homosexuality a sin, and it doesn't advocate for the one-man-one-woman model of the family that has been dubbed "biblical." *The Bible's famous "beat their swords into plowshares" is matched by the militaristic, "beat your plowshares into swords." *The often-cited New Testament quotation "God so loved the world" is a mistranslation, as are the titles "Son of Man" and "Son of God." *The Ten Commandments don't prohibit killing or coveting. What does the Bible say about violence? About the Rapture? About keeping kosher? About marriage and divorce? Hoffman provides answers to all of these and more, succinctly explaining how so many pivotal biblical answers came to be misunderstood.For This We Left Egypt?: A Passover Haggadah for Jews and Those Who Love Them
By Dave Barry, Alan Zweibel, Adam Mansbach. 2017
The book you hold before you is no ordinary Haggadah. If you’ve ever suffered through a Seder, you’re well aware…
of the fact that the entire evening can last as long as the exodus from Egypt itself. There are countless stories, dozens of blessings, and far too many handwashings while the meal turns cold. Now prepare to be entertained by another version of the book that’s responsible for this interminable tradition.With this hilarious parody Haggadah from the comedic minds of Dave Barry, Alan Zweibel, and Adam Mansbach, good Jews everywhere will no longer have to sit (and sleep) through a lengthy and boring Seder. In For This We Left Egypt?, the authors will be take you through every step of the Seder, from getting rid of all the chametz in your home by setting it on fire with a kosher blowtorch to a retelling of the Passover story starring Pharaoh Schmuck and a burning bush that sounds kind of like Morgan Freeman, set against the backdrop of the Promised Land—which turned out not to be a land of milk and honey but rather one of rocks and venomous scorpions the size of Yorkshire terriers. You then eat a celebratory brisket and wrap up the whole evening by taking at least forty-five minutes to say good-bye to everyone.So gather all the Jews in your life (even the few who don’t appear to be long-suffering) and settle in for a fun way to pass the time while waiting for Elijah to show up.The Big Redhead Book: Inside the Secret Society of Red Hair
By Erin La Rosa. 2017
The Big Redhead Book: Inside the Secret Society of Red Hair is an inside look into one of the most…
elite societies in the world—the real two percent. Well, you know, the two percent of the world's population that are natural redheads, at least. This book has equal parts pop culture, ginger facts, and humorous stories about what it's like to actually have red hair. It's loaded with everything you'd ever want to know about us reds; how we're scientifically different from the norms (non-redheads), how we've been stereotyped in pop culture, and the do's and don'ts of having a red in your life, among other things!Whether you are a redhead, know a redhead, or are just an enthusiast, this book explores the realities, the myths, and where red hair actually originates (it’s not Ireland). Author Erin La Rosa not only delivers the facts, statistics, and undeniable realities of being a ginger, but she also weaves in her own personal and hilarious stories about being red. Being a redhead is not just a hair color, it’s a lifestyle—and this book is your own exclusive peek into that fabulous world.Some surprising facts about redheads that you will discover include:- The association between redheads and humor came from redheaded slaves in ancient Greece- There are over 30 leading or recurring redhead characters in Disney and Pixar films... that's a lot when you remember we're only two percent of the world's population!- Redhead women allegedly have more sex, more threesomes, and more orgasms than other women... or do they? Let's find out!- Some Egyptian rulers dyed their hair red to assert their power (looking at you, Cleopatra)- And redheads need more anesthesia at the dentist, because they're not going down without a fightUpon the Head of the Goat: A Childhood in Hungary, 1939–1944
By Aranka Siegal. 1981
The classic true story of one child's experiences during the holocaust.Nine-year-old Piri describes the bewilderment of being a Jewish child…
during the 1939-1944 German occupation of her hometown (then in Hungary and now in the Ukraine) and relates the ordeal of trying to survive in the ghetto. Upon the Head of the Goat is the winner of the 1982 Boston Globe - Horn Book Award for Nonfiction and a 1982 Newbery Honor Book.“This is a book that should be read by all those interested in the Holocaust and what it did to young and old.” —Isaac Bashevis SingerAncient Judaism
By Max Weber. 1952
Weber’s classic study which deals specifically with: Types of Asceticism and the Significance of Ancient Judaism, History and Social Organization…
of Ancient Palestine, Political Organization and Religious Ideas in the Time of the Confederacy and the Early Kings, Political Decline, Religious Conflict and Biblical Prophecy.Babylonian Jews and Sasanian Imperialism in Late Antiquity
By Null Simcha Gross. 2024
From the image offered by the Babylonian Talmud, Jewish elites were deeply embedded within the Sasanian Empire (224-651 CE). The…
Talmud is replete with stories and discussions that feature Sasanian kings, Zoroastrian magi, fire temples, imperial administrators, Sasanian laws, Persian customs, and more quotidian details of Jewish life. Yet, in the scholarly literature on the Babylonian Talmud and the Jews of Babylonia , the Sasanian Empire has served as a backdrop to a decidedly parochial Jewish story, having little if any direct impact on Babylonian Jewish life and especially the rabbis. Babylonian Jews and Sasanian Imperialism in Late Antiquity advances a radically different understanding of Babylonian Jewish history and Sasanian rule. Building upon recent scholarship, Simcha Gross portrays a more immanent model of Sasanian rule, within and against which Jews invariably positioned and defined themselves. Babylonian Jews realized their traditions, teachings, and social position within the political, social, religious, and cultural conditions generated by Sasanian rule.The Jewish Holidays: A Guide & Commentary
By Michael Strassfeld. 2011
The coeditor of the enormously popular Jewish Catalog "help[s] readers understand more fully the meaning of our holidays and thereby…
to observe these festivals . . . with a greater devotion and joy."--Rabbi Alexander M. SchindlerJudentum in Bewegung: Die Entstehung gleichgeschlechtlicher Elternschaft in Israel
By Sibylle Lustenberger. 2024
In Israel, wo das orthodoxe Rabbinat historisch sanktionierten Einfluss auf die rechtlichen Definitionen von Ehe und Elternschaft hat, wirft gleichgeschlechtliche…
Elternschaft elementare Fragen auf, wie zum Beispiel, was Zugehörigkeit zum nationalen Kollektiv schafft, wer die Autorität hat, die Normen der Reproduktion zu definieren, und wo das orthodoxe Judentum beginnt und endet. Judentum in Bewegung behandelt diese Fragen aus einer transgenerationalen Perspektive, die darauf achtet, wie religiös informierte Regeln, Normen und Praktiken der Weitergabe von materiellem Besitz, Namen und gesellschaftlicher Zugehörigkeit angewendet und verändert werden. Lustenberger präsentiert eine detaillierte ethnographische Beschreibung des dynamischen Zusammenspiels zwischen Verwandtschaft, Religion und Staat und hinterfragt damit die allgemein verbreitete Annahme, dass gleichgeschlechtliche Elternschaft in einer radikal säkularen Sphäre existiert, die im krassen Gegensatz zum orthodoxen Judentumsteht. Sie nimmt gleichgeschlechtliche Elternschaft als Prisma, durch die sich die Gesellschaft als Ganzes widerspiegelt, um zu untersuchen wie sich gesellschaftliche Strukturen verändern und welche Flexibilität und Spielraum organisierte Religionen dabei aufweisen.Jews and Muslims in German Print Media: Integration and Multiculturalism Versus Antisemitism and Islamophobia
By Jolanda van der Noll, Katharina F. Gallant. 2024
This book uses a comparative research design to analyze the reporting on the Jewish minority and the Muslim minority in German…
newspapers from 2010-2019, asking whether minorities are truly treated as equals in the reporting of the mainstream German media. After providing historical and socio-political context for both groups as minority populations in Germany, the authors make use of qualitative and quantitative methods to examine sentiment and determine whether the media demonstrates a unifying or a well-differentiated portrayal of the two groups. The findings show that reporting on these groups is not as unbiased as many in Germany believe. Drawing on frameworks including the needs-based model of reconciliation, the revised integrated threat theory, and the model of acculturation strategies, the book then discusses the implications for both journalistic reporting and broader social policies in support of a constructive encounter of dominant andnon-dominant groups in a diverse society. This book will be of interest to scholars and students in the field of migration, integration and intergroup relations, as well as those in communication, media studies, and discourse analysis.Torah Anthology: (the Patriarchs) From Abraham Until Jacob (Torah Anthology - Me'am Lo'ez #2)
By Rabbi Yaakov Culi. 1989
The Torah Anthology here brings to life the story of the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, vividly describing their role…
in the birth of the Jewish people. Rabbi Yaacov Culi weaves the Talmudic and Midrashic traditions into the story itself. Anthology of the major classical commentaries is presented, not as a dry textual analysis, but as living drama. Here we accompany Abraham on his historic pilgrimage to the Holy Land, following nothing but the Divine call. We partake in the excitement of his great battle against the Four Kings, and literally feel the emotions at the sacrifice of Isaac. The beginnings of the conflict between the two rival brothers, Jacob and Esau, are presented in such living detail, it is almost as if we are eavesdropping. The Torah Anthology is a clear, modern translation of Me'am Lo'ez, hailed as "the outstanding work of Ladino literature" Written by Rabbi Yaakov Culi, one of the greatest Sepharadie sages of his time, the book was first published in 1730. It changed the spiritual climate of the entire Mediterranean region. Eastern Jews esteemed Me'am Lo'ez as a major classic, affording it virtually the same status as the Talmud and Midrash. Many count Me'am Lo'ez among the best commentaries ever written on the Torah-in any language. The book is a veritable encyclopedia of Jewish knowledge. (Translated by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan)