You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
This volume brings together a diverse collection of studies related to the cycle of Jewish holy days. Each chapter illustrates in a different way the interplay between the received teachings of the Torah and the vital impact of interpretations by diverse types of personalities, ideologies, historical events and communal dynamics. The articles are written from a sympathetic, but non-dogmatic perspective by an expert in the academic study of the Jewish religion. They were originally published as newspaper columns, and are designed to entertain as much as to educate the intelligent non-specialist.
This collection of essays from various topics in Jewish history and traditional religious literature demonstrates the diverse aspects of Jewish tradition that can still speak with familiarity to modern 'western' culture. Though the essays are on topics such as religious custom and scholarship, community, liturgy, and interfaith relationships, they are designed for a non-academic audience, using humour and insight to stress themes that speak to contemporary situations.
How were holidays chosen and taught in biblical Israel, and what did they have to do with the creation narrative? Michael LeFebvre considers the calendars of the Pentateuch, arguing that dates were added to Old Testament narratives not as journalistic details but to teach sacred rhythms of labor and worship. LeFebvre then applies this insight to the creation week, finding that the days of creation also serve a liturgical purpose.
The book describes commercial activity in the Jewish community in Roman Palestine and the interactions between these different components of a controlled system. The book also discusses methods for determining prices and price enforcement, the views of the different marketors, and the status of the synagogue as center of commercial activity.
The subjects of rhetoric, history, and theology intersect in unique ways within New Testament and early Christian literature. The contributors of this volume represent a wide range of perspectives but share a common interest in the interpretation of these texts in light of their rhetorical, historical, and theological elements. What results is a fresh and perceptive reading of the New Testament and early Christianity literature.
In the course of history, Italian sculptors have "sculpted" in their works diverse interpretations of the Bible, Greek mythology and current events. This book illustrates the creative means artists, from Donatello to Canova, used to interpret freely the various texts and episodes, claiming the supreme liberty of art. Guy Shaked studied art and music at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In 1999 he received an Italian government grant to expand his research in Italian sculpture in Rome. Some of his recent studies have won international acclaim.
For many years, the historical-critical quest for a reconstruction of the origin(s) and development of the Pentateuch or Hexateuch has been dominated by the documentary hypothesis, the heuristic power of which has produced a consensus so strong that an interpreter who did not operate within its framework was hardly regarded as a scholar. However, the relentless march of research on this topic has continued to yield new and refined analyses, data, methodological tools, and criticism. In this spirit, the contributions to this volume investigate new ideas about the composition of the Pentateuch arising from careful analysis of the biblical text against its ancient Near Eastern background. Cover...
Interiority and Law presents a groundbreaking reassessment of a medieval Jewish classic, Baḥya ibn Paquda's Guide to the Duties of the Hearts. Michaelis reads this work anew as a revolutionary intervention in Jewish law, or halakha. Overturning perceptions of Baḥya as the shaper of an ethical-religious form of life that exceeds halakha, Michaelis offers a pioneering historical and conceptual analysis of the category of "inner commandments" developed by Baḥya. Interiority and Law reveals that Baḥya's main effort revolved around establishing a new legal formation—namely, the "duties of the hearts"—which would deal entirely with human interiority. Michaelis takes up the implications...
Presented are seminal discussions by leading scholars covering a spectrum of tradition and providing valuable insights into the Ten Commandments.