Philosophy

Four rational approaches to the Torah's Divine Origin, for those who value both intellectual integrity and the Jewish spiritual inheritance.

Is the Torah really Divine?

In this sequel to the groundbreaking work Permission to Believe, world renowned lecturer and educator Rabbi Lawrence Kelemen, Harvard graduate, presents four rational reasons to support the Divine origin of the Torah. Those who passionately value both intellectual integrity and their spiritual inheritance and those separated from their Jewish heritage only by healthy skepticism, will find in this book Permission to Receive.

This volume includes discussions of the axiological principles of faith that define the essence of Judaism, analyses of particular principles such as the nature of the Deity, providence, prophecy and revelation. Other topics addressed are tikkun olam and Jewish responsibilities in a non-Jewish society and obligations derived from natural law or a moral conscience.

Welcome to America's only Jewish prison . . . rugelach, blintzes, and a quest for vengeance from the highest tier of the US government

The scene is Otisville Prison, upstate New York. A crew of fraudsters, tax evaders, trigamists, and forgers discuss matters of right and wrong in a Talmudic study and prayer group, or "minyan," led by a rabbi who's a fellow convict.

As the only prison in the federal system with a kosher deli, Otisville is the penitentiary of choice for white-collar Jewish offenders, many of whom secretly like the place. They've learned to game the system, so when the regime is toughened to punish a newly arrived celebrity convict who has upset the 45th president, they find devious ways to fight back.

Shadowy forces up the ante by trying to "Epstein"--ie assassinate--the newcomer, and visiting poetry professor Deborah Liston ends up in dire peril when she sees too much. She has helped the minyan look into their souls. Will they now step up to save her?

Jonathan Stone brings the sensibility of Saul Bellow and Philip Roth to the post-truth era in a sharply comic novel that is also wise, profound, and deeply moral.

Distilling the teachings and thought of Rabbi Simha Bunim, one of the foremost figures in the Przysucha school of Hasidism, this study sheds light both on what students of the Pryzsucha tradition believed as well as on its influence on Polish Hasidism at large. Pryzsucha Hasidism believed in a service to God that demanded both passion and analytical study, and sought to understand the human being, rather than God himself. This exploration of Rabbi Bunim's thought illustrates how the spiritual leader was able to transform Przysucha Hasidism into a genuine movement and, in doing so, become the dominant personality in the Hasidic community in Poland during the early part of the 19th century.

The Jewish People in its very being constitutes a living protest against a world of hatred, violence and war. Radical Then, Radical Now is a powerful testimony to the amazing resilience of the Jewish people who have, through their endurance of four thousand years of persecution and exile, earned a unique place in history. Without land or power, they created an identity for themselves through their shared dreams of freedom, justice, dignity and human rights.

Yet far more than Jewish history is contained within the pages of this book. Jonathan Sacks reminds us all of the legacy of those dreams and of our responsibility to our fellow man. He challenges us to build a better world.

KNOWLEDGE Do we obtain reliable knowledge about the world from ongoing supernatural revelation, or from scientific investigation? NATURE Is it preferable to perceive God as working through nature, or through supernatural miracles? Are we surrounded by all kinds of supernatural forces and entities, such as demons and the Evil Eye? MITZVOTDo the commandments function to change our thoughts and behavior, or to manipulate mystical forces? Is Torah a Divine guide for life, or is it also a metaphysical blueprint for creation with all kinds of supernatural qualities? Rationalism vs. Mysticism is a thorough study of how these questions were answered very differently by various rabbinic scholars over history, reflecting two fundamentally different views of the nature of Judaism. Part One is an overview of many different aspects of these divergent schools of thought and their consequences, while Part Two contains in-depth studies of several topics. Rationalism vs. Mysticism will profoundly deepen your understanding of Judaism and many of the intellectual conflicts that have arisen in Jewish history.

A unifying thread in the prolific writings of Rabbi Steinsaltz was the intent to arouse and inspire his readers to live life more meaningfully and more spiritually. He frequently quoted the Rebbe of Kotzk, whose answer to the question of what human beings should see as the goal of their existence, was: 'Human beings were created to raise the heavens.' The ideas presented in this book can be seen as small rays of the brilliant light emanating from the mind of Rabbi Steinsaltz, their purpose being to awaken the hearts and thoughts of others.

A unifying thread in the prolific writings of Rabbi Steinsaltz was the intent to arouse and inspire his readers to live life more meaningfully and more spiritually. He frequently quoted the Rebbe of Kotzk, whose answer to the question of what human beings should see as the goal of their existence, was: 'Human beings were created to raise the heavens.' The ideas presented in this book can be seen as small rays of the brilliant light emanating from the mind of Rabbi Steinsaltz, their purpose being to awaken the hearts and thoughts of others.

Understanding the sacred text has been a wonderful yet elusive challenge through the ages. This book is a reading of the Bible, accessible to readers of all backgrounds and levels of familiarity with the biblical text. In contrast to previous works on the subject, Reading the Sacred Text focuses on the true meaning of the biblical text rather than the metaphorical or mystical interpretations. It retells, in a captivating and easy-to-follow narrative, the story of the Five Books of Moses, the first books of the Bible.

Understanding the sacred text has been a wonderful yet elusive challenge through the ages. This book is a reading of the Bible, accessible to readers of all backgrounds and levels of familiarity with the biblical text. In contrast to previous works on the subject, Reading the Sacred Text focuses on the true meaning of the biblical text rather than the metaphorical or mystical interpretations. It retells, in a captivating and easy-to-follow narrative, the story of the Five Books of Moses, the first books of the Bible.

This book is a history, an indictment, a lament, and an appeal, focusing on the messianic trend in Lubavitch hasidism. It demonstrates how those who affirm the dead Rebbe's messiahship have abandoned a Jewish core belief in favor of the doctrine of a second coming. It also decries the equanimity with which the standard- bearers of Orthodoxy have legitimated this development by continuing to recognize such believers as Orthodox Jews in good standing. This abandonment of the age-old Jewish resistance to a quintessentially Christian belief is a development of striking importance for the history of religions, and it is an earthquake in the history of Judaism. David Berger chronicles this development from a personal viewpoint. He describes the growing concern that impelled him to undertake an anti-messianist campaign - publications, correspondence, and the sponsorship of a Rabbinical Council of America resolution excluding this belief from authentic Judaism. He argues that a large number, almost certainly a substantial majority, of Lubavitch hasidism believe in the Rebbe's messiahship; a significant segment, including educators in the central institutions of the movement, maintain a theology that goes beyond posthumous messianism to the affirmation that the Rebbe is pure divinity. While many Jews see Lubavitch as a marginal phenomenon, its influence is in fact so remarkable that its representatives are poised to dominate Orthodox religious institutions in several major countries throughout the world. This book analyzes the boundaries of Judaism's messianic faith and its conception of God. It assesses the threat posed by Lubavitch messianists and points to the consequences, ranging from undermining a fundamental argument against the Christian mission to calling into question the kosher status of many foods and ritual objects prepared under Lubavitch supervision. Finally, it proposes a strategy to protect authentic Judaism from this assault. David Berger is Professor of History at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is a Fellow of the American Academy for Jewish Research, and from 1998 to 2000 was President of the Association for Jewish Studies. He is the author of The Jewish-Christian Debate in the High Middle Ages and co-author of Judaism's Encounter with Other Cultures: Rejection or Integration?.

This book is a history, an indictment, a lament, and an appeal, focusing on the messianic trend in Lubavitch hasidism. It demonstrates how those who affirm the dead Rebbe's messiahship have abandoned a Jewish core belief in favor of the doctrine of a second coming. It also decries the equanimity with which the standard- bearers of Orthodoxy have legitimated this development by continuing to recognize such believers as Orthodox Jews in good standing. This abandonment of the age-old Jewish resistance to a quintessentially Christian belief is a development of striking importance for the history of religions, and it is an earthquake in the history of Judaism. David Berger chronicles this development from a personal viewpoint. He describes the growing concern that impelled him to undertake an anti-messianist campaign - publications, correspondence, and the sponsorship of a Rabbinical Council of America resolution excluding this belief from authentic Judaism. He argues that a large number, almost certainly a substantial majority, of Lubavitch hasidism believe in the Rebbe's messiahship; a significant segment, including educators in the central institutions of the movement, maintain a theology that goes beyond posthumous messianism to the affirmation that the Rebbe is pure divinity. While many Jews see Lubavitch as a marginal phenomenon, its influence is in fact so remarkable that its representatives are poised to dominate Orthodox religious institutions in several major countries throughout the world. This book analyzes the boundaries of Judaism's messianic faith and its conception of God. It assesses the threat posed by Lubavitch messianists and points to the consequences, ranging from undermining a fundamental argument against the Christian mission to calling into question the kosher status of many foods and ritual objects prepared under Lubavitch supervision. Finally, it proposes a strategy to protect authentic Judaism from this assault. David Berger is Professor of History at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is a Fellow of the American Academy for Jewish Research, and from 1998 to 2000 was President of the Association for Jewish Studies. He is the author of The Jewish-Christian Debate in the High Middle Ages and co-author of Judaism's Encounter with Other Cultures: Rejection or Integration?.

Elegant, passionate, and filled with the love of God's creation, Abraham Joshua Heschel's The Sabbath has been hailed as a classic of Jewish spirituality ever since its original publication-and has been read by thousands of people seeking meaning in modern life.

In this brief yet profound meditation on the meaning of the Seventh Day, Heschel introduced the idea of an architecture of holiness that appears not in space but in time Judaism, he argues, is a religion of time: it finds meaning not in space and the material things that fill it but in time and the eternity that imbues it, so that the Sabbaths are our great cathedrals.

Featuring black-and-white illustrations by Ilya Schor

The earliest rabbinic commentary to the Book of Leviticus, the Sifra, is generally considered an exemplum of Rabbi Akiva's intensely scriptural school of interpretation. But, Azzan Yadin-Israel contends, the Sifra commentary exhibits two distinct layers of interpretation that bring dramatically different assumptions to bear on the biblical text: earlier interpretations accord with the hermeneutic principles associated with Rabbi Ishmael, the other major school of early rabbinic midrash, while later additions subtly alter hermeneutic terminology and formulas, resulting in an engagement with Scripture that is not interpretive at all. Rather, the midrashic terminology in the Sifra's anonymous passages is part of what Yadin-Israel calls a hermeneutic of camouflage, aimed at presenting oral traditions as though they were Scripture-based injunctions.

Scripture and Tradition offers a radical rereading of the Sifra and its authorship, with far-reaching ramifications for our understanding of rabbinic literature as a whole. Using this new understanding of the Sifra as his starting point, Yadin-Israel demonstrates a two fold break in the portrayal of Rabbi Akiva: hermeneutically, the sober midrashist who appeared in earlier rabbinic sources is transformed into an inspired, oracular interpreter of Scripture in the Babylonian Talmud; while the biographically unremarkable sage is recast as a youthful ignoramus who came to Torah study late in life. The dual transformations of Rabbi Akiva--like the Sifra's hermeneutic of camouflage--are motivated by an ideological shift toward a greater emphasis on scriptural authority and away from received traditions, an insight that sheds new light on the vexing question of midrash and oral tradition in rabbinic sources. Through this close examination of a notoriously difficult text, Scripture and Tradition recovers a vital piece of the history of Jewish thought.