The Kabbalah is a rich tradition of repeated attempts to achieve and portray direct experiences of God: its twelfth-and thirteenth-century beginnings in southern France and Spain are probed in Origins of the Kabbalah, a work crucial in Scholem's oeuvre. The book is a contribution not only to the history of Jewish medieval mysticism but also to the study of medieval mysticism in general and will be of interest to historians and psychologists, as well as to students of the history of religion.

    His witty and original book examines argumentation and its psychological importance in human conduct, and traces the connections between ancient rhetorical ideas and modern social psychology. In a new Introduction, he offers further reflections on rhetoric and social psychology, discusses the recent scholarship, and allows some forgotten voices in the history of rhetoric to be heard. This book will be enjoyable and provocative reading for scholars in social psychology, English language and the history of philosophy.

    The authors develop an analysis of the Holocaust's historical roots, its shattering impact on human civilization, and its decisive importance in determining the fate of the world. This revised edition takes into account developments in Holocaust studies since the first edition was published.

    A warm, profound guide for b'nei Torah.

    It includes a description of the techniques employed by his master, including the role of music. There is a discussion of the characteristics of his mystical experience and the erotic imagery by which it was expressed. Based on all the extant manuscript material of Abulafia, this book opens the way to a new understanding of Jewish mysticism. It points to the importance of the ecstatic Kabbalah for the later developments in mystical Judaism.

    Although modern psychology had elucidated many of the causes of human distress, and the knowledge has become a panacea. For the Jew, the timeless wisdom of the Torah and the guidelines for living provided by Jewishness could appear to be a solution. Yet, many who are commited to Jewishness are no less distressed. Indeed, they may be disappointed in their failure of their practice of Jewishness to achieve the elusive goals. The key to the problem may be man's misperception of reality, the reality of his very self. This is the theme of Let Us Make Man, wherein Dr. Abraham Twerski, a psychiatrist and a Torah scholar, brings together psychological insights and a wealth of wisdom inherent in Jewishness, to suggest a way in which people may come to know and value the most important component of their lives: themselves. The attainment of self-esteem through Jewishness may not be a simple task, but many people expend great effort to acquire what they believe to be their needs. In Let Us Make Man, Dr. Twerski contends that true self-awareness is most fundamental of all human needs, and can be attained through Jewishness.

    Rabbi Steinsaltz has chosen select individuals of particular importance, and has offered the reader a written sketch of that personality and his importance.

    

    A substantial introductory essay surveys the historiography and theoretical development of the history of cartography and situates the work of the multi-volume series within this scholarly tradition. Cartographic themes include an emphasis on the spatial-cognitive abilities of Europe's prehistoric peoples and their transmission of cartographic concepts through media such as rock art; the emphasis on mensuration, land surveys, and architectural plans in the cartography of Ancient Egypt and the Near East; the emergence of both theoretical and practical cartographic knowledge in the Greco-Roman world; and the parallel existence of diverse mapping traditions (mappaemundi, portolan charts, local and regional cartography) in the Medieval period.Throughout the volume, a commitment to include cosmographical and celestial maps underscores the inclusive definition of "map" and sets the tone for the breadth of scholarship found in later volumes of the series.

    The moving story of a young girl who learns of her grandfather's experience in Auschwitz and then helps him overcome his sensitivity about the number on his arm, this award-winning picture book gives young children "just enough" information about the Holocaust without overwhelming them.

    Here is an entirely new and complete English translation of Strauss's work, which takes as its ideal the exacting standards of accuracy that Strauss himself emphasized in his own work. It includes a prefatory essay introducing the argument of each of the four sections of Philosophy and Law.This is a fresh and challenging treatment of the perennial conflict between reason and revelation, or philosophy and religion. Strauss's key contention in this book is that the most influential modern approaches to this conflict have run aground in ways that reflect their loss of key insights developed by the medieval philosophers of Islam and their Jewish pupils, especially Maimonides. Strauss challenges the modern view that scientific enlightenment must ultimately amount to atheism, and that therefore there can be no such thing as enlightened religion. Through a careful, original, and detailed treatment of central works of the medieval Islamic-Jewish tradition, especially Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed, Strauss aims to recover their key insights into this question.

    The engrossing account of how a boy who grew up more interested in jazz than science became obsessed with physics and relativity during his first year at Harvard.

    Navy played major roles in radio's evolution, but early press coverage may have decisively steered radio in the direction of mass entertainment. Susan J. Douglas reveals the origins of a corporate media system that today dominates the content and form of American communication.

    Written over 40 years, this text seeks to: clarify the relation of certain aspects of Jewish thinking and Jewish living to contemporary intellectual movements; and to analyze those trends within Jewish life, which, surrendering to many ideologies, tend to weaken the teachings of Israel.

    This book presents these festivals as God's foreshadowing of the New Testament Christ and His various works of grace in the lives of all believers.

    Book I, concerned chiefly with Gnostic and Jewish Christian groups, deals with material which is also found in Nag Hammadi and other Gnostic writings and in such patristic authors as Irenaeus, Hippolytus et al, and reproduces documents not available elsewhere. Its translation has been found useful by students of Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism, patrologists, historians of religion, church historians, students of Judaism, and the theologically minded public.

    Rescue is the moving account of the lives, struggles and persecutions of the isolated black Jews of Ethiopa--and of their valiant journey across the country to their long-awaited rescue and absorption into Israeli society.

    This concise edition of a traditional Passover Haggadah serves as a meaningful and inspirational vehicle for those whose knowledge of Hebrew may be limited, but whose passion for freedom runs deep.

    The comforts and challenges of this book are thus as timely as when first published in 1987. With new reflections on the future of Judaism and Israel, Ellis underscores the enduring problem of justice. Ellis' use of liberation theology to make connections between the Holocaust and contemporary communities from the Third World reminds both Jews and oppressed Christians that they share common ground in the experiences of abandonment, suffering, and death. The connections also reveal that Jews and Christians share a common cause in the battle against idolatry--represented now by obsessions for personal affluence, national security, and ethnic survival. According to Ellis, Jews and Christians must never allow the reality of anti-Semitism to become an excuse for evading solidarity with the oppressed peoples--be they African, Asian, Latin American or, especially, Palestinian.--Archbishop Desmond Tutu, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and author of God Has a Dream

    The book is full of fascinations. -- New Yorker

    This Hellenistic worldview challenged the adequacy of the religion passed down to the Palestinian Jews of the second century B.C.E. by their ancestors. Ben Sira's training in both Judaic and Hellenistic literary traditions prepared him to meet this challenge. He vigorously opposed any compromise of Jewish values; and his teachings bolstered the faith and confidence of his people.Through its elegant poetry and vehement exhortations, The Wisdom of Ben Sira exposes the ill effects of sinful behavior on one's health, status, and spiritual and material well-being. Ben Sira's rigorous code of moral behavior was the measure of Jewish faithfulness in an era of ethical and religious bankruptcy.

    The Karaites contributed much to the Jewish literature of the Middle Ages, for they developed their own corpus of theological dogmas, liturgy, juristic exegesis, metaphysical concepts, secular poetry, apologetics, and sermons. This anthology—the first of its kind in any language of the West—provides excerpts from the early Karaite literature (down to about the year 1500) representing the full range of their thought and belief. All extracts have been translated directly from Arabic, Aramaic, and Hebrew original sources.“This book marks the first attempt in any language to present a chronological exposition of seven centuries of evolution of this interesting Jewish sect through a selection of excerpts from the writings of its spokesmen. . . . [A] pioneering achievement.”—Zvi Ankori, Jewish Social Studies“Will be of real interest. . . to historians of religion, sociologists of religion, students of Judaism, Talmudic scholars, students of comparative religious law, and scholars interested in the relation between Islam and Judaism in the Middle Ages.”—Maurice S. Friedman, The Journal of Religion“The book is an important addition to Qaraite literature in English.”—Isis“The texts are wisely chosen, carefully edited, and supplied with copious notes. An excellent introduction to each writer is given. The book is successful from every point of view.”—Edward Robertson, The Royal Asiatic Society“The commentaries of [the] scholars. . . are important additions to Jewish scholarly research.”—Jewish News