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Contributors describe the key points of controversy and concern that currently engage scholars in most areas of Judaic research. Respondents discuss the contributors' views, marking out areas of disagreement and delineating avenues for further research and debate. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, ztz"l, was one of the most prominent teachers of Modern Orthodox Jewry. Dr. Moshe Sokolow, Associate Dean of the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education, collects fourteen articles and essays about how Rabbi Soloveitchik understood ideas central to Jewish life, such as the relationship between man and God, the role and centrality of prayer from historical and philosophical perspectives, belief in redemption, the role of Zionism in Judaism, and many others. Dr. Sokolow masterfully weaves in Talmudic, traditional, and modern sources to provide the reader with a deeper understanding of the Rav's position, and a broader grasp of the full range of Jewish approaches to these fundamental questions.
This volume contains studies on the weekly Torah portion (parashah/sidrah) evoking the memorable and influential style of Nehama Leibowitz. Using lesser-known published works by Nehama and notes of her private lessons, Moshe Sokolow elucidates the text and its classic commentaries in a manner that engages readers, making them active participants in Torah study.
Jewish Theology Unbound challenges the widespread misinterpretation of Judaism as a religion of law as opposed to theology. James A. Diamond provides close readings of the Bible, classical rabbinic texts, Jewish philosophers, and mystics from the ancient, medieval, and modern period, which communicate a profound Jewish philosophical theology on human nature, God, and the relationship between the two. The study begins with an examination of questioning in the Hebrew Bible, demonstrating that what the Bible encourages is independent philosophical inquiry into how to situate oneself in the world ethically, spiritually, and teleologically. It explores such themes as the nature of God through the various names by which God is known in the Jewish intellectual tradition, love of others and of God, death, martyrdom, freedom, angels, the philosophical quest, the Holocaust, and the state of Israel, all in light of the Hebrew Bible and the way it is filtered through the rabbinic, philosophical, and mystical traditions.
The Commentary on the Torah of Rashi (Shlomo Yitzhaki; 1040-1105) stands out as the most important Jewish Bible commentary of all time. The Commentary has shaped perceptions of the meaning of Judaism's foundation document, the Torah, among leading scholars, lay readers, and initiates in Jewish learning for more than nine centuries. It remains the classic commentary on Judaism's classic text. Lawee's book explores how and why the Commentary has left so indelible an imprint on generations of Jews and the processes that turned it into the closest thing Judaism has to a canonical commentary on scripture.
The first critical study of how Maimonides has been read by leading Orthodox rabbis in our time shows that some have tried to liberate themselves from his influence, others have built on his ideas generating vibrant controversy, and yet others have sought to recreate Maimonides in their own image.
Paperback edition of a favorite text on the literary creativity and communal involvement in the production of the Tosafist corpus. The Jews of northern France, Germany, and England, known collectively as Ashkenazic Jewry, have commanded the attention of scholars since the beginnings of modern Jewish historiography. Over the past century, historians have produced significant studies about Jewish society in medieval Ashkenaz that have revealed them as a well-organized, creative, and steadfast community. Indeed, the Franco-Russian Jewry withstood a variety of physical, political, and religious attacks in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries to produce an impressive corpus of Talmudic and halakh...
Hebrew Texts in Jewish, Christian and Muslim Surroundings offers a new perspective on Judaism, Christianity and Islam as religions of the book. Their problematic relation seems to indicate that there is more that divides than unites these religions. The present volume will show that there is an intricate web of relations between the texts of these three religious traditions. On many levels readings and interpretations intermingle and influence each other. Studying the multifaceted history of the way Hebrew texts were read and interpreted in so many different contexts may contribute to a better understanding of the complicated relation between Jews, Christians and Muslims. These studies are dedicated to Dineke Houtman honouring her work as professor of Jewish-Christian relations.
Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed addressed Jews of his day who felt challenged by apparent contradictions between Torah and science. We Are Not Alone: A Maimonidean Theology of the Other uses Maimonides’ writings to address Jews of today who are perplexed by apparent contradictions between the morality of the Torah and their conviction that all human beings are created in the image of God and are the object of divine concern, that other religions have value, that genocide is never justified, and that slavery is evil. Individuals who choose to emphasize the moral and universalist elements of Jewish tradition can often find support in positions explicitly held by Maimonides or implied by his teachings. We Are Not Alone offers an ethical and universalist vision of traditionalist Judaism.
The Maimonides Review of Philosophy and Religion is an annual collection of double-blind peer-reviewed articles that seeks to provide a broad international arena for an intellectual exchange of ideas between the disciplines of philosophy, theology, religion, cultural history, and literature and to showcase their multifarious junctures within the framework of Jewish studies. Contributions to the Review place special thematic emphasis on scepticism within Jewish thought and its links to other religious traditions and secular worldviews. The Review is interested in the tension at the heart of matters of reason and faith, rationalism and mysticism, theory and practice, narrativity and normativity, doubt and dogma.