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The first full-length study of the evolution of self and agency in ancient Israelite anthropology Conceptions of \"the self\" have received significant recent attention in philosophy, anthropology, and cultural history. Scholars argue that the introspective self of the modern West is a distinctive phenomenon that cannot be projected back onto the cultures of antiquity. While acknowledging such difference is vital, it can lead to an inaccurate flattening of the ancient self.     In this study, Carol A. Newsom explores the assumptions that govern ancient Israelite views of the self and its moral agency before the fall of Judah, as well as striking developments during the Second Temple period. She demonstrates how the collective trauma of the destruction of the Temple catalyzed changes in the experience of the self in Israelite literature, including first-person-singular prayers, notions of self-alienation, and emerging understandings of a defective heart and will. Examining novel forms of spirituality as well as sectarian texts, Newsom chronicles the evolving inward gaze in ancient Israelite literature, unveiling how introspection in Second Temple Judaism both parallels and differs from forms of introspective selfhood in Greco-Roman cultures.

At the beginning of the eighteenth century most European Jews lived in restricted settlements and urban ghettos, isolated from the surrounding dominant Christian cultures not only by law but also by language, custom, and dress. By the end of the century urban, upwardly mobile Jews had shaved their beards and abandoned Yiddish in favor of the languages of the countries in which they lived. They began to participate in secular culture and they embraced rationalism and non-Jewish education as supplements to traditional Talmudic studies. The full participation of Jews in modern Europe and America would be unthinkable without the intellectual and social revolution that was the Haskalah, or Jewish Enlightenment.Unparalleled in scale and comprehensiveness, The Jewish Enlightenment reconstructs the intellectual and social revolution of the Haskalah as it gradually gathered momentum throughout the eighteenth century. Relying on a huge range of previously unexplored sources, Shmuel Feiner fully views the Haskalah as the Jewish version of the European Enlightenment and, as such, a movement that cannot be isolated from broader eighteenth-century European traditions. Critically, he views the Haskalah as a truly European phenomenon and not one simply centered in Germany. He also shows how the republic of letters in European Jewry provided an avenue of secularization for Jewish society and culture, sowing the seeds of Jewish liberalism and modern ideology and sparking the Orthodox counterreaction that culminated in a clash of cultures within the Jewish community. The Haskalah's confrontations with its opponents within Jewry constitute one of the most fascinating chapters in the history of the dramatic and traumatic encounter between the Jews and modernity.The Haskalah is one of the central topics in modern Jewish historiography. With its scope, erudition, and new analysis, The Jewish Enlightenment now provides the most comprehensive treatment of this major cultural movement.

While premodern kabbalistic texts were not chronicles of historical events, they provided elaborate models for understanding the secret divine plan guiding human affairs. Hartley Lachter analyzes innovative kabbalistic doctrines, such as the idea of reincarnation and the notion of multiple successive universes, through which Jewish mystics sought to demonstrate that the misfortunes of Jewish history were in fact necessary steps toward redemption. Lachter argues that these works, mostly composed between the early 14th century and the generation affected by the Spanish expulsion in the early 16th century, enabled Jewish readers to make sense of the troubling misfortunes of their own time. Kabbalah and Catastrophe uncovers the remarkable variety of ways that kabbalists deployed esoteric tradition to argue that God had not abandoned the Jews to the inscrutable forces of history. Instead, they suggested to readers that Jews are history's primary actors, and that despite their small numbers and lack of military power, Jews nonetheless secretly push history forward. For scholars of Jewish mysticism and medieval Jewish history, Lachter articulates how premodern mystical texts can be crucial sources of insight into how Jews understood the meaning of history.

After Jerusalem, Bethel is the most frequently cited sanctuary in the Hebrew Bible. The book offers a detailed analysis of Bethel and its sanctuary from archaeological and biblical evidence. It reconstructs the history of Bethel and by analysing the presence of pro- and anti-Bethel propaganda, it argues that the latter, with its own pro-Jerusalem/Judah bias, has resulted in an unfair denigration of Bethel as an idolatrous place of worship. The study suggests that Bethel was a legitimate Yahwistic shrine and continued to be so even after the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel to the Assyrians. Hence, Bethel in a real sense was the principal means of configuring Israelite identity.

In Feeling Persecuted, Anthony Bale explores the medieval Christian attitude toward Jews, which included a pervasive fear of persecution and an imagined fear of violence enacted against Christians. As a result, Christians retaliated with expulsions, riots, and murders that systematically denied Jews the right to religious freedom and peace. Through close readings of a wide range of sources, Bale exposes the perceived violence enacted by the Jews and how the images of this Christian suffering and persecution were central to medieval ideas of love, community, and home. The images and texts explored by Bale expose a surprising practice of recreational persecution and show that the violence perpetrated against medieval Jews was far from simple anti-Semitism and was in fact a complex part of medieval life and culture. Bale's comprehensive look at medieval poetry, drama, visual culture, theology, and philosophy makes Feeling Persecuted an important read for anyone interested in the history of Christian-Jewish relations and the impact of this history on modern culture.

Through close readings of texts such as Ezra-Nehemiah. Philo of Alexandria, and 4Ezra, Hindy Najman develops the idea of a discourse tied to a founder, illuminating the nexus between revelation, interpretive authority, and the quest for perfection in ancient Judaism.

מחקר זה יסקור את יחסה של ההלכה היהודית בימי הביניים כלפי יחסי מין שאינם יכולים להוביל לפריון. המחקר יתמקד בבתי המדרש של גרמניה וצרפת, ובמעבר של ההלכה האשכנזית במאה השלוש עשרה לבית המדרש המתפתח בקטלוניה. ספר היסוד של ההלכה היהודית הוא התלמוד הבבלי, והדיונים ההלכתיים שהתפתחו בבתי המדרש של אשכנז וקטלוניה התמקדו במובאות התלמודיות. לכן נציג תחילה את הרקע התלמודי.

Bruce Chilton and Jacob Neusner study the points of comparisons and contrast between formative Christianity and Judaism. By identifying three categories of authority in each of the two religious worlds, they show how they have both worked in compelling or failing to get someone to do a given action. The arguments are introduced by a general discussion of the founding figures of the two religions, Moses and Jesus, and how their inherent authority distilled itself through the structure of their religious institutions and intellectual thoughts. Jacob Neusner is Distinguished Research Professor of Religious Studies at the University of South Florida and Professor of Religion at Bard College, New York. Bruce Chiltern is Bernard Idding Bell Professor of Religion at Bard College, New York.

This volume analyzes the emergence of Jewish and Christian discourses of \"religious violence\" within their Roman imperial context with an emphasis on the shared textual practices through which authoritative scriptural traditions were redeployed to represent, legitimate, and indeed sacralize violence.

No detailed description available for \"Freud's Dream of Interpretation\".