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This important collection of essays by leading scholars of rabbinics reflects the current methodological approaches to the study of midrash. The volume situates midrash within the broader contexts of hermeneutics, rabbinics and postmodern studies, and thus presents a comprehensive view of the kinds of issues scholars in the field are engaging.
"Comparative Perspectives on Judaisms and Jewish Identities makes a unique contribution, building on but not duplicating Sharot's earlier work. There is no comparable work that covers all of these periods and particular cases."---Harriet Hartman, professor of sociology at Rowan University --
This volume abandons the document-based approach of standard introductions and investigates aggregates of classical rabbinic texts through three broad perspectives – intertextuality, east and west, halakhah and aggadah – generating fresh insights that will reset the scholarly agenda.
Explores the full diversity of Black Jews, including bi-racial Jews of both matrilineal and patrilineal descent; adoptees; black converts to Judaism; and Black Hebrews and Israelites, who trace their Jewish roots to Africa and challenge the dominant western paradigm of Jews as white and of European descent. The book showcases the lives of Black Jews, demonstrating that racial ascription has been shaping Jewish selfhood for centuries. It reassesses the boundaries between race and ethnicity, offering insight into how ethnicity can be understood only in relation to racialization and the one-drop rule. Within this context, Black Jewish individuals strive to assert their dual identities and find acceptance within their communities. Putting to rest the notion that Jews are white and the Black Jews are therefore a contradiction, the volume argues that we cannot pigeonhole Black Hebrews and Israelites as exotic, militant, and nationalistic sects outside the boundaries of mainstream Jewish thought and community life. it spurs us to consider the significance of the growing population of self-identified Black Jews and its implications for the future of American Jewry.
Drawing upon the concepts of cultural and linguistic hybridity developed by Homi Bhabha, Salman Rushdie, Mikhail Bakhtin, and others, Garroway suggests that the first generation of Gentile converts were uncertain whether they had become Jews or remained Gentiles in the wake of their baptism into Christ.
The book investigates omissions in the textual transmission of the Hebrew scriptures. Literary criticism (Literarkritik) commonly assumes that later editors only expanded the older text; omissions would not have taken place. This axiom is implied in analyses and introductions to the methodology. The book investigates the validity of the axiom. After a review of literature, books of methodology, and past research, texts from different parts of the Hebrew Bible are discussed with this aim in view. The investigated texts consist of examples which preserve documented evidence about editorial changes. Passages with variant editions are compared in order to understand omissions as an editorial tec...
This project presents in three volumes the Mishnah’s and the Tosefta’s first division, Zera‘im (Agriculture), organized in eleven topical tractates, together with a systematic history of the law of Zeraim in the Mishnah. To the exposition of the Halakhah on the chosen topic, the Mishnah-tractates are primary but complemented by the Tosefta’s presentation of its collection of glosses of the Mishnah’s law and supplements to that law. The Mishnah’s and the Tosefta’s tractates are integrated, with the Tosefta’s complement given in the setting of the Mishnah’s rules, and the whole is given in English translation. The presentation in each case encompasses an introduction, a form-analytical translation and commentary, a systematic integration of the Tosefta’s compositions into the Mishnah’s laws, an explanation of the details of the law, and an inquiry into how the Halakhah of the Mishnah and that of the Tosefta intersect, item by item.
The Mishnah is the foundational document of rabbinic Judaism—all of rabbinic law, from ancient to modern times, is based on the Talmud, and the Talmud, in turn, is based on the Mishnah. But the Mishnah is also an elusive document; its sources and setting are obscure, as are its genre and purpose. In January 2021 the Harvard Center for Jewish Studies and the Julis-Rabinowitz Program on Jewish and Israeli Law of the Harvard Law School co-sponsored a conference devoted to the simple yet complicated question: “What is the Mishnah?” Leading scholars from the United States, Europe, and Israel assessed the state of the art in Mishnah studies; and the papers delivered at that conference form the basis of this collection. Learned yet accessible, What Is the Mishnah? gives readers a clear sense of current and future direction of Mishnah studies.
Ronald Allen and Gilbert Bartholomew introduce preachers to verse-by-verse preaching, in which the preacher interprets the passage unit by unit and the sermon unfolds much like a commentary on the Bible. They note its applicability in a variety of settings and occasions, and offer practical suggestions for preparing a sermon in this style, including sample sermons from different genres and tips for keeping verse-by-verse sermons fresh, vital, and engaging.
The Encyclopedia of Midrash provides a systematic account of biblical interpretation in Judaism. While emphasizing the Rabbinic literature, it also covers interpretation of Scripture in a number of distinct canons, ranging from the Targumic literature and Dead Sea Scrolls to the New Testament and Church Fathers. The Encyclopedia of Midrash provides readers with a depth and breadth of treatment of Midrash unavailable in any other single source. Through the writings of top scholars in each of their fields, it sets out the current state of the question for each of the many topics discussed in its pages. The print edition is available as a set of two volumes (9789004141667).