This is the first step in a program of Hebrew learning for adults with no knowledge of the Hebrew alphabet. It is designed for English-speaking adults who primarily encounter the Hebrew language through Jewish religious life--the prayers and Torah readings in the synagogue, the blessings and rituals of Jewish home observances, and words or phrases arising out of a Jewish cultural context. Adult students who utilize this text will be able to participate more fully in the Hebrew-language aspects of contemporary Jewish life. Read more

Motivated college and adult students can read and write Hebrew in just six weeks. Students with no previous Hebrew exposure, or those who just need a quick review, will learn phonetic Hebrew reading, script writing, and a basic Hebrew vocabulary of 100 words.This primer satisfies the entry requirements for any Hebrew language program and is a particularly apt introduction to Hebrew: A Language Course. Read more

This book is designed to cover one year's work in Hebrew leading up to a full understanding of the language. It has been used by the author with his students for many years and the published text is the result of testing and refining over these years. Every attempt has been made to make the grammar clear and simple. For example, all Hebrew words are transliterated, as well as being given in the original for the first three-quarters of the book. The grammatical discussion is made as unsophisticated as possible for it is the author's intention that this book should also be of use to those who study Hebrew without a teacher. Read more

None

This popular set, the fruit of 27 years of intensive labor by an outstanding scholar of Judaica, opens the basic work of Jewish Oral Law to study. Every page of the Hebrew text of the Mishnah is accompanied by Rabbi Blackmans lucid and literal English translation. His enlightening introductions, supplements, and notes make this set indispensable. This attractive set includes the six volumes of the Mishnah. Read more

Exploring the subtle political philosophy within the Biblical narrative, this book presents enduring insights that complement Ancient Greek philosophy for contemporary political distinctions – uncovering overlooked socio-political ideologies to provide a unique perspective alongside the classical philosophical tradition.By adopting a sociological approach, Ronen Shovel interprets the Bible as a reflection of perspectives and ideologies, emphasizing the intricate dynamics between rulers and subjects, balancing justice, and power within societies. A key focus is the examination of holiness as a distinct political category, influencing institutions, ethics, justice, and even the use of force. This perspective challenges traditional religious scholarship, merging sociology with the concept of holiness.Holiness and Society enriches political philosophy, religious studies, and sociology, broadening their boundaries and offering fresh perspectives, serving as a bridge between antiquity and modernity, providing valuable insights into contemporary political thought. Read more

The Myth of the Twelve Tribes of Israel is the first study to treat the history of claims to an Israelite identity as an ongoing historical phenomenon from biblical times to the present. By treating the Hebrew Bible's accounts of Israel as one of many efforts to construct an Israelite history, rather than source material for later legends, Andrew Tobolowsky brings a long-term comparative approach to biblical and nonbiblical “Israelite” histories. In the process, he sheds new light on how the structure of the twelve tribes tradition enables the creation of so many different visions of Israel, and generates new questions: How can we explain the enduring power of the myth of the twelve tribes of Israel? How does “becoming Israel” work, why has it proven so popular, and how did it change over time? Finally, what can the changing shape of Israel itself reveal about those who claimed it? Read more

This volume presents a wide-ranging selection of Jewish theological responses to the Holocaust. It will be the most complete anthology of its sort, bringing together for the first time: (1) a large sample of ultra-orthodox writings, translated from the Hebrew and Yiddish; (2) a substantial selection of essays by Israeli authors, also translated from the Hebrew; (3) a broad sampling of works written in English by American and European authors. These diverse selections represent virtually every significant theological position that has been articulated by a Jewish thinker in response to the Holocaust. Included are rarely studied responses that were written while the Holocaust was happening. Read more

The Cambridge Companion to Jewish Theology offers an overview of Jewish theology, an aspect of Judaism that is equal in importance to law and ethics. Covering the period from antiquity to the present, the volume focuses on what Jews believe about God and also about the relation of God to humans and the world. Parts I and II cover exciting new research in Jewish biblical and rabbinic theology, medieval philosophy, Kabbalah (mysticism), and liturgy. Parts III and IV turn to modern theology with an exploration of works by leading figures, such as Rabbi Abraham I. Kook, Franz Rosenzweig, and Emmanuel Levinas, as well as the relation of theology to issues such as feminism and the Holocaust, and the relation of Judaism to other world religions. In Part V, the book explores how the insights of analytic philosophy have been integrated with Jewish theology. Read more

Between 2007 and 2011, Michael Eigen gave three seminars in Seoul, each running over three days and covering different aspects of psychoanalysis, spirituality and the human psyche. This book is based on a transcription of the third seminar, which took place in 2011, on the subject of Pain and Beauty. The first two were published as Madness and Murder (2010) and Faith and Transformation (2011).A conjunction of the pain that shatters and beauty that heals is made by many authors, including Bion, Winnicott, Milner, Meltzer, Perls, Ehrenzweig, Matte-Blanco, Schneur Zalman, Chuang-Tzu, Buber, Castaneda, and Levinas. These and others are used as windows of the psyche, adding to possibilities of experience and opening dimensions that bring us life. Eigen explores challenges of the human psyche, what we are up against and the resources difficulties can stimulate.This work spans many dimensions of human experience with interplay, fusions and oppositions of pain, beauty, terror, and wonder, and makes use of poetic and philosophical expressions of experience. It will be vital reading for psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, and all those with an interest in psychoanalytic and spiritual psychology. Read more

Of all the Bible's personalities, David is the most profoundly human. Courageous, cunning, and complex, he lives life to the hilt. Whatever he does, he does with all his might, exuding both vitality and vulnerability. No wonder it has been said that Israel revered Moses yet loved David. But what do we now know about the historical David? Why does his story stand at the center of the Bible? Why didn't the biblical authors present him in a more favorable light? And what is the special connection between him and Caleb – the Judahite hero remembered for his valor during the wars of conquest? In this groundbreaking study, Jacob L. Wright addresses all these questions and presents a new way of reading the biblical accounts. His work compares the function of these accounts to the role war memorials play over time. The result is a rich study that treats themes of national identity, statehood, the exercise of power, and the human condition. Read more

This book explores the state of the American Jewish world in the early 21st century, after decades of accelerating change that has transformed it and all other religious groups in the United States. It reveals a community in an unparalleled state of flux grappling with a society in which religious identity is more and more considered an individual choice, rather than an inheritance, and where fewer adults feel impelled to identify with any religious tradition at all. In chapters written by leading experts, the book examines the community’s evolving demographics, the direction of the principal denominational movements, contemporary religious trends, interactions with other American religious communities and engagements in the country’s secular politics. This text uniquely covers all these aspects of Judaism in America making it appealing to students and researchers in such fields as the sociology of religion, Judaism, and American history. Read more

None

These last three books of Josephus's Antiquities detail Jewish history between the establishment of direct Roman rule in Judea in 6 CE and the outbreak of the Judean rebellion against Rome in 66 - a rebellion that culminated in 70 with the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple. Along the way, these books also constitute the main source for the context in which Christianity was born. This volume offers a translation of Josephus's Greek text, along with a commentary that aims to clarify the history to which Josephus testifies and also its meaning for him as an exiled Jerusalemite and rebel-turned-historian. Read more

The Hekhalot literature is a motley collection of Hebrew and Aramaic documents dealing with mystical themes pertaining especially to God's throne-chariot. This volume presents English translations of an eclectic text with critical apparatus of most of the major Hekhalot texts. Read more

Early Childhood Jewish Education explores some of the fundamental questions of early childhood Jewish education in today’s societal, moral, and educational debates. The book examines the challenges of transmitting Jewish heritage using developmentally appropriate pedagogy in the context of modern democratic society through the lenses of multiculturalism, gender awareness, and constructivism. Researchers from Israel and the United States consider some of the core Jewish foundational subjects, including teaching the Bible, holidays and ceremonies, Hebrew, Jewish literature, and spirituality, as well as leadership issues in relation to these contemporary debates. The book represents the ongoing collaboration of leading researchers from Israel and the United States who have worked together since 2010 as the International Research Group on Jewish Education in the Early Years. Read more

In this book, Monika Amsler explores the historical contexts in which the Babylonian Talmud was formed in an effort to determine whether it was the result of oral transmission. Scholars have posited that the rulings and stories we find in the Talmud were passed on from one generation to the next, each generation adding their opinions and interpretations of a given subject. Yet, such an oral formation process is unheard of in late antiquity. Moreover, the model exoticizes the Talmud and disregards the intellectual world of Sassanid Persia. Rather than taking the Talmud's discursive structure as a sign for orality, Amsler interrogates the intellectual and material prerequisites of composers of such complex works, and their education and methods of large-scale data management. She also traces and highlights the marks that their working methods inevitably left in the text. Detailing how intellectual innovation was generated, Amsler's book also sheds new light on the content of the Talmud. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core. Read more

This book examines the origins of the evil creator idea chiefly in light of early Christian biblical interpretations. It is divided into two parts. In Part I, the focus is on the interpretations of Exodus and John. Firstly, ancient Egyptian assimilation of the Jewish god to the evil deity Seth-Typhon is studied to understand its reapplication by Phibionite and Sethian Christians to the Judeo-catholic creator. Secondly, the Christian reception of John 8:44 (understood to refer to the devil's father) is shown to implicate the Judeo-catholic creator in murdering Christ. Part II focuses on Marcionite Christian biblical interpretations. It begins with Marcionite interpretations of the creator's character in the Christian "Old Testament," analyzes 2 Corinthians 4:4 (in which "the god of this world" blinds people from Christ's glory), examines Christ's so-called destruction of the Law (Eph 2:15) and the Lawgiver, and shows how Christ finally succumbs to the "curse of the Law" inflicted by the creator (Gal 3:13). A concluding chapter shows how still today readers of the Christian Bible have concluded that the creator manifests an evil character. Read more

Brand New. Read more

A thrilling assortment of true stories involving pitiless men, who murdered in cold blood and stole millions on their way to becoming the top gangsters of their era. Men for whom the law meant nothing and the threat of prison held no fear. Gangsters who were cop-killers, ran entire neighborhoods, shunned their heritage and turned their back on the obligations of their religion, who cared for nothing, but with one glaring exception they were good to their mothers. Often typecast as superficial, vicious men who would kill at the drop of a hat, the men featured in this book are now shown in a different light. No longer the one-dimensional persons we have seen in other books, or portrayed in the press, this book now brings to life men like the legendary Arnold Rothstein, Dutch Schultz, Bugsy Siegel, and Meyer Lansky to name a few. Within these pages, we have an opportunity to alter our viewpoint for the first time, and see both sides of how these gangster celebrities really lived, and how they viewed their vast criminal enterprises simply as businesses, not evil. In But He Was Good to His Mother: The Lives and Crimes of Jewish Gangsters you will be introduced to:Arnold Rothstein, the original organized crime mastermind.Irving Wexler, better known as Waxey Gordon.Arthur Dutch Schultz Flegenheimer, Benjamin Bugsy Siegel, and Meyer Lansky, who along with Waxey Gordon were the original New York bootlegger moguls.The Cleveland Four Morris Moe Dalitz, Morris Kleinman, Sam Tucker and Louis Rothkopf.Al Capone's strategy and financial advisor, Jack 'Greasy Thumb' GuzlikThe 'Purple Gang' of the Detroit mob.You'll also be introduced to the history of Jewish involvement in crime in the United States going back into the 19th century. This will include:The immigration of German Jews to increase the population and the early crime history of the mid-1800s.The perils and pitfalls of the gangster life (including humorous incidents).The 'hit parade' of murderous contract and personal killings, mostly among their own circle by professional 'hit men'.The rigid family code of ethics that influenced even the worst among the gangsters.How some of these gangsters used their power to protect the Jewish community from attacks by others. Read more