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Providing a concise but comprehensive overview of Joseph B. Soloveitchik’s larger philosophical program, this book studies one of the most important modern Orthodox Jewish thinkers. It incorporates much relevant biographical, philosophical, religious, legal, and historical background so that the content and difficult philosophical concepts are easily accessible. The volume describes his view of Jewish law (Halakhah) and how he takes the view to answer the fundamental question of Jewish philosophy, the question of the "reasons" for the commandments. It shows how numerous of his disparate books, essays, and lectures on law, specific commandments, and Jewish religious phenomenology, can be wo...
In the attempts to unify divided peoples on the basis of a shared past, both historical and mythical, this book illumines aspects of cultural nationalism common since the Middle Ages. As an edited work, the Bible includes texts mostly depicting long-gone historical eras extending over several centuries. Following on from Aberbach’s previous work National Poetry, Empires, and War, this book argues that works of this nature – notably the Mujo-Halil songs in Albania, the Irish stories of Cuchulain, the songs of the Nibelungen in Germany, or the Finnish legends collected in The Kalevala – have an ancient precedent in the Hebrew Bible (to which national literatures often allude and refer), ...
A close study of three of Soloveitchik's most influential disciples in Jewish thought and philosophy
Early Israel offers the most sweeping reinterpretation of the Pentateuch since the nineteenth-century Documentary Hypothesis. Engaging a dozen-plus modern academic disciplines—from anthropology, biblical studies, Egyptology and semiotics, to linguistics, cognitive poetics and consciousness studies; from religious studies, Jewish studies, psychoanalysis and literary criticism, to mysticism studies, cognitive psychology, phenomenology and philosophy of mind—it wrests from the Pentateuch an outline of the heretofore undiscovered ancient Israelite mystical-initiatory tradition of the First Temple priests. The book effectively launches a new research area: Pentateuchal esoteric mysticism, akin to a "center" or "organizing principle" discussed in biblical theology. The recovered priestly system is discordant vis-à-vis the much-later rabbinical project. This volume appeals to a diverse academic community, from Biblical and Jewish studies to literary studies, religious studies, anthropology, and consciousness studies.
Providing a concise but comprehensive overview of Joseph B. Soloveitchik’s larger philosophical program, this book studies one of the most important modern Orthodox Jewish thinkers. It incorporates much relevant biographical, philosophical, religious, legal, and historical background so that the content and difficult philosophical concepts are easily accessible. The volume describes his view of Jewish law (Halakhah) and how he answers the fundamental question of Jewish philosophy, namely, the “reasons” for the commandments. It shows how many of his disparate books, essays, and lectures on law, specific commandments, and Jewish religious phenomenology can be woven together to form an el...
What does rabbinical Judaism have to teach us about the way the mind works? How do the rabbis of the Talmud, Middle Ages, and our own time shed light on emotional disturbances, and on the cognitive-behavioral therapies used to treat them? In this panoramic view of rabbinical Judaism, psychiatrist Ronald Pies MD shows how cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and rational emotive behavioral therapy (REBT) rely on psychological principles found in both ancient and modern Judaic writings. "The interplay between thought and deed is a central feature of Judaic affirmation. Control the thought and the deed will follow. Dr. Ronald Pies's book explores this connection in depth, and the inter-relationships that he weaves are at once illuminating and empowering." -Rabbi Dr. Reuven P. Bulka
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Further Essays addresses aspects of early Hebrew book publication, among them book arts, little known authors, places of publication, and miscellaneous subjects. Book arts addresses pressmarks representing publishers motifs, several unusual, and the varied usage of biblical verses to entitle books. The second section focusses on the works of rabbis and scholars, once prominent but not well remembered today, noting their achievements and their varied books, encompassing such topics as biblical commentaries, Talmudic novellae, philosophy, and poetry. Several locations once important, also not well remembered today are addressed; Further Essays concludes with articles on other unrelated book topics.
In this erudite new work, Elliot R. Wolfson explores philosophical gnosis in the writings of Susan Taubes, Gillian Rose, and Edith Wyschogrod. The juxtaposition of these three extraordinary, albeit relatively neglected, philosophers provides a prism through which Wolfson scrutinizes the interplay of ethics, politics, and theology. The bond that ties together the diverse and multifaceted worldviews promulgated by Taubes, Rose, and Wyschogrod is the mutual recognition of the need to enunciate a response to the calamities of the twentieth century based on an incontrovertible acknowledgment of the decadence and malevolence of human beings, without, however, succumbing to acrimony and despair. Th...
Offering a radical critique of contemporary Israeli and diaspora fiction by major writers of the generation after Amos Oz and Philip Roth, this book asks searching questions about identity formation in Jewish spaces in the twenty-first century and posits global, transnational identities instead of the bipolar Israel/diaspora model. The chapters put into conversation major authors such as Jonathan Safran Foer, Nicole Krauss, Michael Chabon, and Nathan Englander with their Israeli counterparts Zeruya Shalev, Eshkol Nevo, and Etgar Keret and shows that they share common themes and concerns. Read through a postmodern lens, their preoccupation with failed marriage and failed ideals brings to the fore the crises of home, nation, historical destiny, and collective memory in contemporary secular Jewish culture. At times provocative, at others iconoclastic, this innovative study must be read by anyone concerned with Jewish culture and identity today, whether scholars, students, or the general reader.