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Vegetarianism, Ecology, and Business Ethics
This volume contains three essays of interrelated themes: vegetarianism, ecology, and business ethics. Each theme is examined from a halachic, ethical, philosophical, and socio-economic viewpoint, and is closely analyzed within the broad spectrum of Judaic sources. All of this leads to a number of practical conclusions, which seek to illuminate the challenging situations in each field.
On Changes in Jewish Liturgy
This book demonstrates the complexity, fluidity and variety in Jewish liturgy, and discusses the possible parameters of change, be it in additions, deletions, alterations, and/or corrections, so as to reflect the contemporary situation and its sensitivities. It will stimulate thought and discussion and lead to a deeper appreciation of the nature of the liturgy, and an ability to find greater meaning in prayer.
On the Relationship of Mitzvot Between Man and His Neighbor and Man and His Maker
"This volume examines the relationship between the two major categories of mitzvot: ritual mitzvot (between man and his Maker) and social-interpersonal mitzvot (between man and his neighbor). It is argued that when there is a clash between mitzvot of these two categories, the interpersonal mitzvot almost always override those of a ritual nature"--
Meaning and Relevance
When people speak, their words never fully encode what they mean, and the context is always compatible with a variety of interpretations. How can comprehension ever be achieved? Wilson and Sperber argue that comprehension is a process of inference guided by precise expectations of relevance. What are the relations between the linguistically encoded meanings studied in semantics and the thoughts that humans are capable of entertaining and conveying? How should we analyse literal meaning, approximations, metaphors and ironies? Is the ability to understand speakers' meanings rooted in a more general human ability to understand other minds? How do these abilities interact in evolution and in cognitive development? Meaning and Relevance sets out to answer these and other questions, enriching and updating relevance theory and exploring its implications for linguistics, philosophy, cognitive science and literary studies.
The Jewish Life Cycle
This volume describes the major "rites of passage" of the Jewish life cycle. From birth, through circumcision, to marriage, divorce, sickness, death and mourning, Daniel Sperber presents detailed descriptions of the major customs attending these events. These customs are examined in light of their original sources, their integration and evolution in varying Jewish communities, and the popular explanations given for their practice, both historically and today. This book draws on the whole spectrum of rabbinic literature, comparing its stories and explanations with folk beliefs of other cultures throughout the world. Sperber makes use of a wide range of resources--medieval and modern, legal, f...
Why Jews Do what They Do
Explanations on the whys and wherefores of many Jewish customs.
The Enigma of Reason
“Brilliant...Timely and necessary.” —Financial Times “Especially timely as we struggle to make sense of how it is that individuals and communities persist in holding beliefs that have been thoroughly discredited.” —Darren Frey, Science If reason is what makes us human, why do we behave so irrationally? And if it is so useful, why didn’t it evolve in other animals? This groundbreaking account of the evolution of reason by two renowned cognitive scientists seeks to solve this double enigma. Reason, they argue, helps us justify our beliefs, convince others, and evaluate arguments. It makes it easier to cooperate and communicate and to live together in groups. Provocative, entertai...
Rethinking Symbolism
"The main thrust of this book is to deliver a major critique of materialist and rationalist explanations of social and cultural forms, but the in the process Sahlins has given us a much stronger statement of the centrality of symbols in human affairs than have many of our 'practicing' symbolic anthropologists. He demonstrates that symbols enter all phases of social life: those which we tend to regard as strictly pragmatic, or based on concerns with material need or advantage, as well as those which we tend to view as purely symbolic, such as ideology, ritual, myth, moral codes, and the like. . . ."—Robert McKinley, Reviews in Anthropology
The City in Roman Palestine
This book is a study of the city and urban life in Roman Palestine during the Talmudic period, 100-400 B.C. Rather than focus on a specific city, Daniel Sperber synthesizes what is known about city life in Talmudic Palestine to create a paradigmatic hypothetical Palestinian city. Drawing on numerous literary records for his information, he describes the structure and use of many physical aspects of the city, such as its markets, pubs, streets, bathhouses, roads, walls, toilets, and water supply. Rounding out the study is a chapter describing the archeological evidence, written by Sperber's colleague, Professor Joshua Schwartz. With the recent upsurge of interest in urbanization in the Greco-Roman world, The City in Roman Palestine will attract not only scholars of Judaic literature and history, but also classicists and ancient historians.
