What do we know about the history, literature, and religion of Judaism in its formative age? How do we know it, and why does it matter? In Studying Classical Judaism, renowned scholar and author Jacob Neusner addresses these and other important questions. Applying many of the same methods Christian scholars use to study Christianity, Neusner outlines what we now know about ancient Judaism. He points out the core-belief of normative Judaism and reveals the methodological underpinnings of the most cogent and up-to-date interpretations of the texts that determined classical Judaism.
Seeking how to be an observant Jew in the modern world, Rosenzweig refused to reduce the traditions of Jewish law to mere rituals, customs, and folkways. His aim for himself and for others was to find Judaism by living it, and to live it by knowing it more deeply."--BOOK JACKET.
Judith Abrams, author of the highly acclaimed The Talmud for Beginners, Volumes I & II, creates yet another way of making Talmud study easy and accessible for the novice. Rabbi Abrams has chosen to work with the Steinsaltz Edition of the Talmud, edited and with commentary by Adin Steinsaltz, one of the greatest Jewish thinkers of the twentieth century. This volume is a must for both student and teacher.
This brief survey text tells the story of Judaism. Through the lens of modern biblical scholarship, Christine Elizabeth Hayes explores the shifting cultural contexts-the Babylonian exile, the Roman Empire, the Byzantine period, the rise of Christianity-that affected Jewish thought and practice, and laid the groundwork for the Talmudic era and its modern legacy. Thematic chapters explore the evolution of Judaism through its beginnings in biblical monotheism, the Second Temple Period in Palestine, the interaction of Hellenism and Judaism, the spread of rabbinic authority, and the essence of ethno-religious Jewish identity.
Over the past 45 years Professor Pieter W. van der Horst contributed extensively to the study of ancient Judaism and early Christianity. The 24 papers in this volume, written since his early retirement in 2006, cover a wide range of topics, all of them concerning the religious world of Judaism and Christianity in the Hellenistic, Roman, and early Byzantine era. They reflect his research interests in Jewish epigraphy, Jewish interpretation of the Bible, Jewish prayer culture, the diaspora in Asia Minor, exegetical problems in the writings of Philo and Josephus, Samaritan history, texts from ancient Christianity which have received little attention (the poems of Cyrus of Panopolis, the Doctrina Jacobi nuper baptizati, the Letter of Mara bar Sarapion), and miscellanea such as the pagan myth of Jewish cannibalism, the meaning of the Greek expression ‘without God,’ the religious significance of sneezing in pagan antiquity, and the variety of stories about pious long-sleepers in the ancient world (pagan, Jewish, Christian).
The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Studies reflects the current state of scholarship in the field as analyzed by an international team of experts in the different and varied areas represented within contemporary Jewish Studies. Unlike recent attempts to encapsulate the current state of Jewish Studies, the Oxford Handbook is more than a mere compendium of agreed facts; rather, it is an exhaustive survey of current interests and directions in the field.
Early in his political career, Adolf Hitler declared the importance of what he called “an antisemitism of reason.” Determined not to rely solely on traditional, cruder forms of prejudice against Jews, he hoped that his exclusionary and violent policies would be legitimized by scientific scholarship. The result was a disturbing, and long-overlooked, aspect of National Socialism: Nazi Jewish Studies. Studying the Jew investigates the careers of a few dozen German scholars who forged an interdisciplinary field, drawing upon studies in anthropology, biology, religion, history, and the social sciences to create a comprehensive portrait of the Jew—one with devastating consequences. Working within the universities and research institutions of the Third Reich, these men fabricated an elaborate empirical basis for Nazi antisemitic policies. They supported the Nazi campaign against Jews by defining them as racially alien, morally corrupt, and inherently criminal. In a chilling story of academics who perverted their talents and distorted their research in support of persecution and genocide, Studying the Jew explores the intersection of ideology and scholarship, the state and the university, the intellectual and his motivations, to provide a new appreciation of the use and abuse of learning and the horrors perpetrated in the name of reason.
The Jewish intellectual tradition has a long and complex history that has resulted in significant and influential works of scholarship. In this book, the authors suggest that there is a series of common principles that can be extracted from the Jewish intellectual tradition that have broad, even life-changing, implications for individual and societal achievement. These principles include respect for tradition while encouraging independent, often disruptive thinking; a precise system of logical reasoning in pursuit of the truth; universal education continuing through adulthood; and living a purposeful life. The main objective of this book is to understand the historical development of these principles and to demonstrate how applying them judiciously can lead to greater intellectual productivity, a more fulfilling existence, and a more advanced society.
One of the outstanding interpreters of Jewish culture in the twentieth century has been Erwin Rosenthal. This book contains some of his most influential work, ranging from the nature of Jewish political thought, both classical and medieval, to Christian reactions to Judaism and to varying approaches to the study of the Bible.
