Wealth Poverty And Charity In Jewish Antiquity

Author : Gregg E. Gardner
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520386906
Total Pages : 301 pages
Book Rating : 4.07/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Wealth, Poverty, and Charity in Jewish Antiquity written by Gregg E. Gardner and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2022-05-24 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Charity is central to the Jewish tradition. In this formative study, Gregg E. Gardner takes on this concept to examine the beginnings of Jewish thought on care for the poor. Focusing on writings of the earliest rabbis from the third century c.e., Gardner shows how the ancient rabbis saw the problem of poverty primarily as questions related to wealth—how it is gained and lost, how it distinguishes rich from poor, and how to convince people to part with their wealth. Contributing to our understanding of the history of religions, Wealth, Poverty, and Charity in Jewish Antiquity demonstrates that a focus on wealth can provide us with a fuller understanding of charity in Jewish thought and the larger world from which Judaism and Christianity emerged.

Author : Leonard J. Greenspoon
Publisher : Purdue University Press
ISBN 13 : 1612494277
Total Pages : 379 pages
Book Rating : 4.72/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Wealth and Poverty in Jewish Tradition written by Leonard J. Greenspoon and published by Purdue University Press. This book was released on 2015-10-15 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Economic inequity is an issue of worldwide concern in the twenty-first century. Although these issues have not troubled all people at all times, they are nonetheless not new. Thus, it is not surprising that Judaism has developed many perspectives, theoretical and practical, to explain and ameliorate the circumstances that produce serious economic disparity. This volume offers an accessible collection of articles that deal comprehensively with this phenomenon from a variety of approaches and perspectives. Within this framework, the fourteen authors who contributed to Wealth and Poverty in Jewish Tradition bring a formidable array of experience and insight to uncover interconnected threads of conversation and activities that characterize Jewish thought and action. Among the questions raised, for which there are frequently multiple responses: Is the giving of tzedakah (generally, although imprecisely, translated as charity) a command or an impulse? Does the Jewish tradition give priority to the donor or to the recipient? To what degree is charity a communal responsibility? Is there something inherently ennobling or, conversely, debasing about being poor? How have basic concepts about wealth and poverty evolved from biblical through rabbinic and medieval sources until the modern period? What are some specific historical events that demonstrate either marked success or bitter failure? And finally, are there some relevant concepts and practices that are distinctively, if not uniquely, Jewish? It is a singular strength of this collection that appropriate attention is given, in a style that is both accessible and authoritative, to the vast and multiform conversations that are recorded in the Talmud and other foundational documents of rabbinic Judaism. Moreover, perceptive analysis is not limited to the past, but also helps us to comprehend circumstances among todays Jews. It is equally valuable that these authors are attuned to the differences between aspirations and the realities in which actual people have lived.

Author : Mark R. Cohen
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 1400853583
Total Pages : 409 pages
Book Rating : 4.88/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Jewish Self-Government in Medieval Egypt written by Mark R. Cohen and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2014-07-14 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Under three successive Islamic dynasties--the Fatimids, the Ayyubids, and the Mamluks--the Egyptian Office of the Head of the Jews (also known as the Nagid) became the most powerful representative of medieval Jewish autonomy in the Islamic world. To determine the origins of this institution, Mark Cohen concentrates on the complex web of internal and external circumstances during the latter part of the eleventh century. Originally published in 1981. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Author : Mark R. Cohen
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 1400826780
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.80/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Poverty and Charity in the Jewish Community of Medieval Egypt written by Mark R. Cohen and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2009-01-10 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What was it like to be poor in the Middle Ages? In the past, the answer to this question came only from institutions and individuals who gave relief to the less fortunate. This book, by one of the top scholars in the field, is the first comprehensive book to study poverty in a premodern Jewish community--from the viewpoint of both the poor and those who provided for them. Mark Cohen mines the richest body of documents available on the matter: the papers of the Cairo Geniza. These documents, located in the Geniza, a hidden chamber for discarded papers situated in a medieval synagogue in Old Cairo, were preserved largely unharmed for more than nine centuries due to an ancient custom in Judaism that prohibited the destruction of pages of sacred writing. Based on these papers, the book provides abundant testimony about how one large and important medieval Jewish community dealt with the constant presence of poverty in its midst. Building on S. D. Goitein's Mediterranean Society and inspired also by research on poverty and charity in medieval and early modern Europe, it provides a clear window onto the daily lives of the poor. It also illuminates private charity, a subject that has long been elusive to the medieval historian. In addition, Cohen's work functions as a detailed case study of an important phenomenon in human history. Cohen concludes that the relatively narrow gap between the poor and rich, and the precariousness of wealth in general, combined to make charity "one of the major agglutinates of Jewish associational life" during the medieval period.

Author : Michael L. Satlow
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1351137042
Total Pages : 212 pages
Book Rating : 4.41/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Judaism and the Economy written by Michael L. Satlow and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-09-03 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Judaism and the Economy is an edited collection of sixty-nine Jewish texts relating to economic issues such as wealth, poverty, inequality, charity, and the charging of interest. The passages cover the period from antiquity to the present, and represent many different genres. Primarily fresh translations, from their original languages, many appear here in English for the first time. Each is prefaced by an introduction and the volume as a whole is introduced by a synthetic essay. These texts, read together and in different combinations, provide a new lens for thinking about the economy and make the case that religion and religious values have a place in our own economic thinking. Judaism and the Economy is a useful new resource for educators, students, and clergy alike.

Author : Adat Achim Synagogue
Publisher : People's Rabbi
ISBN 13 : 0982816308
Total Pages : 135 pages
Book Rating : 4.01/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Secrets of Jewish Wealth Revealed written by Adat Achim Synagogue and published by People's Rabbi. This book was released on 2010-11-18 with total page 135 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Samuel C. Heilman
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 9780520219656
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.51/5 ( download)

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Download or read book When a Jew Dies written by Samuel C. Heilman and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This account of the traditional customs that are practiced when a Jewish person dies provides an anthropological perspective on Jewish rites of mourning, and explains the cultural meaning behind Jewish practices and traditions.

Author : Samuel C. Heilman
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520247639
Total Pages : 374 pages
Book Rating : 4.35/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Sliding to the Right written by Samuel C. Heilman and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2006-07-25 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Heilman is one of the most productive, interesting, and important sociologists writing about Jewish communities in the world today. This book is a significant snapshot, filled with Heilman's fine-grained observations of particular cultural practices such as humor, posters, and Rabbi portraits. Heilman is a first-rate thinker, an excellent researcher whose work is richly empirical, and an unusually clear and lively writer."—Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, author of Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums, and Heritage

Author : Julia R. Lieberman
Publisher : Lexington Books
ISBN 13 : 1498560865
Total Pages : 274 pages
Book Rating : 4.63/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Charity in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Traditions written by Julia R. Lieberman and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2017-07-25 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection compares and contrasts the historical practice of charity among the three Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The international group of contributors analyzes such topics as virtue, poverty, wealth, and justifications for charity with an aim toward intercultural understanding.

Author : A. J. Berkovitz
Publisher : University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN 13 : 1512824194
Total Pages : 275 pages
Book Rating : 4.93/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Life of Psalms in Jewish Late Antiquity written by A. J. Berkovitz and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2023-06-20 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Bible shaped nearly every aspect of Jewish life in the ancient world, from activities as obvious as attending synagogue to those which have lost their scriptural resonance in modernity, such as drinking water and uttering one's last words. And within a scriptural universe, no work exerted more force than the Psalter, the most cherished text among all the books of the Hebrew Bible. A Life of Psalms in Jewish Late Antiquity clarifies the world of late ancient Judaism through the versatile and powerful lens of the Psalter. It asks a simple set of questions: Where did late ancient Jews encounter the Psalms? How did they engage with the work? And what meanings did they produce? A. J. Berkovitz answers these queries by reconstructing and contextualizing a diverse set of religious practices performed with and on the Psalter, such as handling a physical copy, reading from it, interpreting it exegetically, singing it as liturgy, invoking it as magic and reciting it as an act of piety. His book draws from and contributes to the fields of ancient Judaism, biblical reception, book history and the history of reading.