Rabbinic Culture And Its Critics

Author : Daniel Frank
Publisher : Wayne State University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780814332375
Total Pages : 508 pages
Book Rating : 4.74/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Rabbinic Culture and Its Critics written by Daniel Frank and published by Wayne State University Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 508 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines dissent from rabbinic Judaism in the Middle Ages and Early Modern period to consider it as a category within the history and culture of the Jewish people. The influential leaders, institutions, and texts that make up rabbinic culture have held a central place in Judaism since the Middle Ages and have given Jewish cultures across the world remarkably uniform systems of law and doctrines into the modern period. Even so, dissent from mainstream rabbinic culture always existed, prompted by matters such as textual interpretation, differences of authority, and definitions of spirituality. Rabbinic Culture and Its Critics exposes some of the views of these often-overlooked critics, sectarians, and so-called heretics as an important historical category in Jewish culture. The book covers a wide span of time, from the days of the Babylonian Geonim, who first championed the Talmud in the early Middle Ages, to the period of the Maskilim, who promoted the Jewish Enlightenment in Europe during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In their introductory essay, Daniel Frank and Matt Goldish define Rabbinic culture and survey the various types of critiques leveled against it. Subsequent essays consider different forms of dissent in detail, including the Andalusian tradition of belletristic satire, Moses Maimonides' critical views of contemporary Jewish beliefs and practices, Karaite-Rabbanite polemics, the ambivalence toward rabbinic teachings among the communities of the Western Sephardi Diaspora, and the messianic movement surrounding Shabbatai Zvi. The essays in Rabbinic Culture and Its Critics offer a fresh, interdisciplinary perspective on Jewish dissent within a traditional society that cuts across temporal, geographical, and phenomenological boundaries. The volume will provide informative reading for scholars of Jewish studies and anyone with an interest in religious history.

Author : Talya Fishman
Publisher : Stanford University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780804728201
Total Pages : 406 pages
Book Rating : 4.08/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Shaking the Pillars of Exile written by Talya Fishman and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores a heretical blueprint for Jewish modernization written by a Venetian rabbi (under cover of pseudonym) in the early seventeenth century, almost two centuries before political emancipation. The analysis of this text, Kol Sakhal ("Voice of a Fool"), highlights the ways in which it harnessed concepts and methods drawn from the texts of rabbinic Judaism itself in order to reform Jewish culture from within. This book thus challenges the assumption that pre-modern Jewish society was culturally monolithic and unquestioningly obedient to rabbinic authority. In so doing, it raises fresh and unsettling questions about the periodization of Jewish history. Like the contemporaneous political and religious struggle that the Republic of Venice was waging against papal Rome, this remarkable Jewish attack on rabbinic authority targets—and revises—both the traditional historiography of sacred institutions and the legal canon itself. The text's very iconoclasm is shown to derive from the corpus of rabbinic Judaism, for the preservation of certain strains of inquiry in traditional sources makes them a virtual repository of tolerated dissent. Conjecture about the possible influence that a recently discovered work by a heretical Iberian Jewish convert to Catholicism may have had on the composition of "Voice of a Fool" leads to a discussion of the types of heterodoxy that threatened rabbinic Jewish communities in Italy and elsewhere in the early modern period. Reflections on the significance of the mask adopted by the text's author and on his (false) claim that the work was composed in 1500 in Spain facilitate speculation about his motives in trying to reinvent history. The second half of the book presents the first annotated English translation of "Voice of a Fool." Three appendixes analyze evidence concerning the date and place of the text's composition, the identification of its author, and its various manuscripts.

Author : Joseph R. Hacker
Publisher : University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN 13 : 081220509X
Total Pages : 334 pages
Book Rating : 4.91/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Hebrew Book in Early Modern Italy written by Joseph R. Hacker and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2011-08-19 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The rise of printing had major effects on culture and society in the early modern period, and the presence of this new technology—and the relatively rapid embrace of it among early modern Jews—certainly had an effect on many aspects of Jewish culture. One major change that print seems to have brought to the Jewish communities of Christian Europe, particularly in Italy, was greater interaction between Jews and Christians in the production and dissemination of books. Starting in the early sixteenth century, the locus of production for Jewish books in many places in Italy was in Christian-owned print shops, with Jews and Christians collaborating on the editorial and technical processes of book production. As this Jewish-Christian collaboration often took place under conditions of control by Christians (for example, the involvement of Christian typesetters and printers, expurgation and censorship of Hebrew texts, and state control of Hebrew printing), its study opens up an important set of questions about the role that Christians played in shaping Jewish culture. Presenting new research by an international group of scholars, this book represents a step toward a fuller understanding of Jewish book history. Individual essays focus on a range of issues related to the production and dissemination of Hebrew books as well as their audiences. Topics include the activities of scribes and printers, the creation of new types of literature and the transformation of canonical works in the era of print, the external and internal censorship of Hebrew books, and the reading interests of Jews. An introduction summarizes the state of scholarship in the field and offers an overview of the transition from manuscript to print in this period.

Author : Kevin MacDonald
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780759672215
Total Pages : 540 pages
Book Rating : 4.10/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Culture of Critique written by Kevin MacDonald and published by . This book was released on 2002-07 with total page 540 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Christine Hayes
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1351348639
Total Pages : 554 pages
Book Rating : 4.38/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Classic Essays in Early Rabbinic Culture and History written by Christine Hayes and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-04-17 with total page 554 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings together a set of classic essays on early rabbinic history and culture, seven of which have been translated into English especially for this publication. The studies are presented in three sections according to theme: (1) sources, methods and meaning; (2) tradition and self-invention; and (3) rabbinic contexts. The first section contains essays that made a pioneering contribution to the identification of sources for the historical and cultural study of the rabbinic period, articulated methodologies for the study of rabbinic history and culture, or addressed historical topics that continue to engage scholars to the present day. The second section contains pioneering contributions to our understanding of the culture of the sages whose sources we deploy for the purposes of historical reconstruction, contributions which grappled with the riddle and rhythm of the rabbis’ emergence to authority, or pierced the veil of their self-presentation. The essays in the third section made contributions of fundamental importance to our understanding of the broader cultural contexts of rabbinic sources, identified patterns of rabbinic participation in prevailing cultural systems, or sought to define with greater precision the social location of the rabbinic class within Jewish society of late antiquity. The volume is introduced by a new essay from the editor, summarizing the field and contextualizing the reprinted papers. About the series Classic Essays in Jewish History (Series Editor: Kenneth Stow) The 6000 year history of the Jewish peoples, their faith and their culture is a subject of enormous importance, not only to the rapidly growing body of students of Jewish studies itself, but also to those working in the fields of Byzantine, eastern Christian, Islamic, Mediterranean and European history. Classic Essays in Jewish History is a library reference collection that makes available the most important articles and research papers on the development of Jewish communities across Europe and the Middle East. By reprinting together in chronologically-themed volumes material from a widespread range of sources, many difficult to access, especially those drawn from sources that may never be digitized, this series constitutes a major new resource for libraries and scholars. The articles are selected not only for their current role in breaking new ground, but also for their place as seminal contributions to the formation of the field, and their utility in providing access to the subject for students and specialists in other fields. A number of articles not previously published in English will be specially translated for this series. Classic Essays in Jewish History provides comprehensive coverage of its subject. Each volume in the series focuses on a particular time-period and is edited by an authority on that field. The collection is planned to consist of 10 thematically ordered volumes, each containing a specially-written introduction to the subject, a bibliographical guide, and an index. All volumes are hardcover and printed on acid-free paper, to suit library needs. Subjects covered include: The Biblical Period The Second Temple Period The Development of Jewish Culture in Spain Jewish Communities in Medieval Central Europe Jews in Medieval England and France Jews in Renaissance Europe Jews in Early Modern Europe Jews under Medieval Islam Jews in the Ottoman Empire and North Africa

Author : Jonathan Karp
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 110813906X
Total Pages : 1154 pages
Book Rating : 4.69/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Cambridge History of Judaism: Volume 7, The Early Modern World, 1500–1815 written by Jonathan Karp and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-11-30 with total page 1154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This seventh volume of The Cambridge History of Judaism provides an authoritative and detailed overview of early modern Jewish history, from 1500 to 1815. The essays, written by an international team of scholars, situate the Jewish experience in relation to the multiple political, intellectual and cultural currents of the period. They also explore and problematize the 'modernization' of world Jewry over this period from a global perspective, covering Jews in the Islamic world and in the Americas, as well as in Europe, with many chapters straddling the conventional lines of division between Sephardic, Ashkenazic, and Mizrahi history. The most up-to-date, comprehensive, and authoritative work in this field currently available, this volume will serve as an essential reference tool and ideal point of entry for advanced students and scholars of early modern Jewish history.

Author : Samuel Joseph Kessler
Publisher : SBL Press
ISBN 13 : 1951498933
Total Pages : 243 pages
Book Rating : 4.31/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Formation of a Modern Rabbi written by Samuel Joseph Kessler and published by SBL Press. This book was released on 2022-12-16 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An intellectual biography that critically engages Adolf Jellinek’s scholarship and communal activities Adolf Jellinek (1821–1893), the Czech-born, German-educated, liberal chief rabbi of Vienna, was the most famous Jewish preacher in Central Europe in the second half of the nineteenth century. As an innovative rhetorician, Jellinek helped mold and define the modern synagogue sermon into an instrument for expressing Jewish religious and ethical values for a new era. As a historian, he made groundbreaking contributions to the study of the Zohar and medieval Jewish mysticism. Jellinek was emblematic of rabbi-as-scholar-preacher during the earliest, formative years of communal synagogues as urban religious space. In a world that was rapidly losing the felt and remembered past of premodern Jewish society, the rabbi, with Jellinek as prime exemplar, took hold of the Sabbath sermon as an instrument to define and mold Judaism and Jewish values for a new world.

Author : Yosef Kaplan
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300135513
Total Pages : 1392 pages
Book Rating : 4.10/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, Volume 5 written by Yosef Kaplan and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2023-03-21 with total page 1392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fifth volume of the Posen Library demonstrates through a rich array of texts and images the extraordinary diversity of Jewish life during the early modern period "A rich and varied gateway into the primary source material of early modern Jewish history that is very strong on geographical diversity. A magnificent achievement."--Adam Sutcliffe, King's College London The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, Volume 5, covering the early modern period (1500-1750), presents a variety of Jewish texts to demonstrate the diversity of Jewish culture and life. These texts originate from Eastern and Western Europe, the Americas, the Ottoman Empire, North Africa, Kurdistan, Persia, Yemen, India--in short, a worldwide diaspora. They embrace historical writing and religious scholarship, liturgical expression and economic records, ethics and personal devotion, correspondence and communal regulations, art and music, architecture and poetry. The simultaneous centrifugal and centripetal character of Jewish communities during this era illustrates the distinctiveness of the early modern period in Jewish history and informs developments in world history at large. Including texts written by women, a robust collection of images, and extensive material not previously accessible to English-language readers, this volume is rich, deep, and enlightening.

Author : Chaim N. Saiman
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691210853
Total Pages : 312 pages
Book Rating : 4.58/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Halakhah written by Chaim N. Saiman and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-29 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How the rabbis of the Talmud transformed Jewish law into a way of thinking and talking about everything Typically translated as "Jewish law," halakhah is not an easy match for what is usually thought of as law. This is because the rabbinic legal system has rarely wielded the political power to enforce its rules, nor has it ever been the law of any state. Even more idiosyncratically, the talmudic rabbis claim the study of halakhah is a holy endeavor that brings a person closer to God—a claim no country makes of its law. Chaim Saiman traces how generations of rabbis have used concepts forged in talmudic disputation to do the work that other societies assign not only to philosophy, political theory, theology, and ethics but also to art, drama, and literature. Guiding readers across two millennia of richly illuminating perspectives, this panoramic book shows how halakhah is not just "law" but an entire way of thinking, being, and knowing.

Author : Galit Hasan-Rokem
Publisher : Stanford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0804732272
Total Pages : 306 pages
Book Rating : 4.77/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Web of Life written by Galit Hasan-Rokem and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Web of Life weaves its suggestive interpretation of Jewish culture in the Palestine of late antiquity on the warp of a singular, breathtakingly tragic, and sublime rabbinic text, Lamentations Rabbah. The textual analyses that form the core of the book are informed by a range of theoretical paradigms rarely brought to bear on rabbinic literature: structural analysis of mythologies and folktales, performative approaches to textual production, feminist theory, psychoanalytical analysis of culture, cultural criticism, and folk narrative genre analysis. The concept of context as the hermeneutic basis for literary interpretation reactivates the written text and subverts the hierarchical structures with which it has been traditionally identified. This book reinterprets rabbinic culture as an arena of multiple dialogues that traverse traditional concepts of identity regarding gender, nation, religion, and territory. The author's approach is permeated by the idea that scholarly writing about ancient texts is invigorated by an existential hermeneutic rooted in the universality of human experience. She thus resorts to personal experience as an idiom of communication between author and reader and between human beings of our time and of the past. This research acknowledges the overlap of poetic and analytical language as well as the language of analysis and everyday life. In eliciting folk narrative discourses inside the rabbinic text, the book challenges traditional views about the social basis that engendered these texts. It suggests the subversive potential of the constitutive texts of Jewish culture from late antiquity to the present by pointing out the inherent multi-vocality of the text, adding to the conventionally acknowledged synagogue and academy the home, the marketplace, and other private and public socializing institutions.