Download or read book An Introduction to Jewish Theology Biblical and Rabbinic Concepts on God the Torah Life After Death and More written by Juan Marcos Bejarano Gutierrez and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2019-03-26 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rabbi Byron L. Sherwin, once noted that many Jews seemed convinced that since traditional Judaism is focused on Halachah, i.e., the practical observance of the commandments, any discussion about theology is superfluous. Some go as far as to say that traditional Judaism does not have a theology. The problem, of course, is that any discussion about God, the Torah, and the people of Israel immediately raises fundamental questions such as which God are we discussing, how was the Torah revealed, who are the people of Israel, etc. All these questions are the domain of theology, the study of religious beliefs. Perhaps part of the issue with the aforementioned assumptions is the lack of creeds or doctrinal statements along the lines of those embraced by Christiani-ty. Jewish theology is multifaceted and does not reflect the systematic nature of Christian thought. This fact does not diminish its depth, however.At first glance, the topics included in this volume may appear to be a series of disjointed and independent essays. These topics, in my opinion, cover recurring themes and questions that define much of Jewish theology. Any attempt to address Jewish theology comprehensively would require many volumes. This work is focused on a few key concepts only. It is intended for the beginner but hopefully contains sufficient information to also be of interest to the more advanced reader and prove the starting point towards greater study.Chapter one titled Creation, explores the differences between Mesopotamian worldviews and the Bible's notion of God's creation of the world. Judaism and in its earlier form, Israelite religion, did not arise in a vacuum. Similarities exist in the foundational stories of various neighboring cultures, but the differences found in the Torah reveal the heart of Jewish faith.The second chapter is titled Jewish Concepts Concerning God and briefly discusses ideas of God in biblical, rabbinic, and Kabbalistic thought. There are conflicting images of God in the Bible, and the developments in Jewish thought sought to address these differences. The third chapter is titled Who is a Jew? It addresses the age-old question of Jewish identity from the vantage point of classical rabbinic perspectives as well as from alternate points of view found in modern Jewish movements. The strengths and weaknesses of these different views are briefly discussed.The fourth chapter, Jewish Views of Afterlife, discusses the fascinating topic of life after death in biblical literature as well as in the later works written during the Second Temple Era, the rabbinic period, and into the medieval and modern periods.Chapter five titled Polarity in Jewish Thought delves into the subject of the Jewish alternative of descriptional theology to theological systems characterized by an emphasis on definition and classification. The next chapter, titled The Revelation at the Torah discusses the giving of the Torah at Sinai and covers the idea of the Torah as it is understood in traditional and non-traditional Jewish movements. A brief discus-sion on historical criticism is also included. In addition, the limits of prophetic revelation in the legislative pro-cess are also discussed.The subsequent chapter, The Land of Israel, surveys biblical and rabbinic perspectives on God's unique relationship to the Land of Israel. The last chapter titled Tikkun Olam address misconceptions regarding this prevalent but largely misunderstood idea. Tikkun Olam is often understood as a Jewish commitment to social justice. Its original meaning and the very different goals it envisions are deliberated.
Download or read book Doing Jewish Theology written by Neil Gillman and published by Jewish Lights Publishing. This book was released on 2010-08 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With clarity and passion, noted theologian Neil Gillman explores the importance of community, symbol and myth in evolution of Jewish thought and reveals extraordinary insights into the purpose of religion, our relationship with God and Jewish identity.
Download or read book Traces of God written by Neil Gillman and published by Jewish Lights Publishing. This book was released on 2008-09 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Probing and Powerful Look at the Role You Play in Shaping Your Relationship with God "No matter how hard we look, the God of Israel cannot be seen. Looking is not seeing, and seeing God is not like seeing an apple. It is much more like making a medical diagnosis on the basis of looking at a complex set of symptoms. Each of the symptoms is a dot. We can look at the dots and still miss the pattern." --from Part I The Torah is replete with references to hearing God but precious few references to seeing God. Seeing is complicated. What we look for and see are traces of God's presence in the world and in history, but not God. In order to identify those traces as reflections of divine presence, we need to re-examine how we see, what we see, and how we interpret that information. In this challenging and inspiring look at the dynamics of the religious experience, award-winning author and theologian Neil Gillman guides you into a new way of seeing the complex patterns in the Bible, history, and everyday experiences and helps you interpret what those patterns mean to you and your relationship with God. Examining faith and doubt, revelation and law, suffering and redemption, Gillman candidly deconstructs familiar biblical moments in order to help you develop and refine your own spiritual vision, so that you are able to discern the presence of God in unanticipated ways.
Download or read book Jewish Theology in Our Time written by David J. Wolpe and published by Jewish Lights Publishing. This book was released on 2012-12 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A powerful and challenging examination of what Jews believe today¿ by a new generation¿s dynamic and innovative thinkers. New in Paperback! At every critical juncture in Jewish history, Jews have understood a dynamic theology to be essential for a vital Jewish community. This important collection sets the next stage of Jewish theological thought, bringing together a cross section of interesting new voices from all movements in Judaism to inspire and stimulate discussion now and in the years to come. Provocative and wide-ranging, these invigorating and creative insights from a new generation¿s thought leaders provide a coherent and inspiring picture of Jewish belief in our time. The passionate voices of a new generation of Jewish thinkers continue the dialogue with God, examining the dynamics of what Jews can believe today. They explore: ¿ A dynamic God in process ¿ The canon of Jewish literature and its potential to be both contemporary and authentic to tradition ¿ Critical terms and categories for discussing Jewish theology ¿ The ongoing nature of the Jewish search for God ¿ Ruptures within the modern Jewish condition ¿ And much more
Download or read book Jewish Views of the Afterlife written by Simcha Paull Raphael and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-04-15 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in 1994, Jewish Views of the Afterlife is a classic study of ideas of afterlife and postmortem survival in Jewish tradition and mysticism. As both a scholar and pastoral counselor, Raphael guides the reader through 4,000 years of Jewish thought on the afterlife by investigating pertinent sacred texts produced in each era. Through a compilation of ideas found in the Bible, Apocrypha, rabbinic literature, medieval philosophy, medieval Midrash, Kabbalah, Hasidism and Yiddish literature, the reader learns how Judaism conceived of the fate of the individual after death throughout Jewish history. In addition, this book explores the implications of Jewish afterlife beliefs for a renewed understanding of traditional rituals of funeral, burial, shiva, kaddish and more. This newly released twenty-fifth anniversary edition presents new material on little-known Jewish mystical teachings on reincarnation, a chapter on “Spirits, Ghosts and Dybbuks in Yiddish Literature”, and a foreword by the renowned scholar of Jewish mysticism, Rabbi Arthur Green. Both historical and contemporary, this book provides a rich resource for scholars and laypeople and for teachers and students and makes an important Jewish contribution to the growing contemporary psychology of death and dying.
Download or read book The Life of Torah written by Jacob Neusner and published by . This book was released on 1974 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Our Lives As Torah written by Carol Ochs and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2002-02-28 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this powerful book, Carol Ochs shows us how to develop apersonal theology by examining our life stories, learning torecognize God at work in them, and bringing them into conversationwith Torah. Using timeless biblical texts as lenses to see thepresent, she helps us understand who we are and who God is for usby exploring the tightly interwoven basic elements of ourlives--our love, suffering, work, bodies, prayer, community, andexperiences of death. Through the process of seeing our experiences in relation toBiblical stories, we begin to recognize our lives as part of theongoing story of the Jewish people--as Torah. This insight allowsus to see these experiences as meaningful, not accidental, andopens us to recognizing God's power in and through all that happensto us. Rather than a collection of random events, our lives arepart of the Jewish people's ongoing adventure. Armed with ourpersonally shaped theology, we can face this adventure of living inthe vanguard of history with awareness and confidence.
Download or read book Believing and Its Tensions written by Rabbi Neil Gillman, PhD and published by Turner Publishing Company. This book was released on 2013-07-13 with total page 91 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An intimate and candid examination of the changing nature of belief and where it can lead us—from the life experience of one of Judaism's leading thinkers. For over five decades, Rabbi Neil Gillman has helped people think through the most challenging questions at the heart of being a believing religious person. In this intimate rethinking of his own theological journey he explores the changing nature of belief and the complexities of reconciling the intellectual, emotional and moral questions of his own searching mind and soul. If what we have in recognizing, speaking of and experiencing God is a wide-ranging treasury of humanly crafted metaphors, what, then, is the ultimate reality, the ultimate nature of God? What lies beyond the metaphors? If humanity was an active partner in revelation—if the human community participated in what was revealed and gave it meaning—what then should be the authority of Jewish law? How do we cope—intellectually, emotionally and morally—with suffering, the greatest challenge to our faith commitment, relationship with God and sense of a fundamentally ordered world? Death is inevitable but why is it built in as part of the total life experience?
Download or read book Thinking about God written by and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Jewish Theology written by Kaufmann Kohler and published by . This book was released on 1918 with total page 536 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Meet the Rabbis written by Brad H. Young and published by Baker Academic. This book was released on 2007-06-01 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Meet the Rabbis explains to the reader how rabbinic thought was relevant to Jesus and the New Testament world, and hence should be relevant to those people today who read the New Testament. In this sense, rabbinic thought is relevant to every aspect of modern life. Rabbinic literature explores the meaning of living life to its fullest, in right relationship with God and humanity. However, many Christians are not aware of rabbinic thought and literature. Indeed, most individuals in the Western world today, regardless of whether they are Christians, atheists, agnostics, secular community leaders, or some other religious and political persuasions, are more knowledgeable of Jesus' ethical teachings in the Sermon the Mount than the Ethics of the Fathers in a Jewish prayer book. The author seeks to introduce the reader to the world of Torah learning. It is within this world that the authentic cultural background of Jesus' teachings in ancient Judaism is revealed. Young uses parts of the New Testament, especially the Sermon on the Mount, as a springboard for probing rabbinic method. The book is an introduction to rabbinic thought and literature and has three main sections in its layout: Introduction to Rabbinic Thought, Introduction to Rabbinic Literature, and Meet the Rabbis, a biographical description of influential Rabbis from Talmudic sources.
Download or read book Classical Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism written by Bruce D. Chilton and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Among the world's religions, Christianity and Judaism are the most symmetrical. But in our day of religious tolerance, a tendency to overlook the vital differences between the two religions in the name of good will can undermine constructive Jewish-Christian dialogue. In this book, Bruce D. Chilton describes early Christian thought and Jacob Neusner describes early Judaic thought on fundamental issues such as creation and human nature, Christ and Torah, sin and atonement, and eschatology. At the end of each chapter, each assesses the other's perspective, and a final chapter explains why the authors believe theological confrontation--not just comparison--defines the task of interfaith dialogue today.
Download or read book Three Faiths One God written by Jacob Neusner and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2002 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In systematic descriptions, three of today's leading scholars detail the classical theologies of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and the authoritative texts of those theologies. They compare and contrast the three faiths, each of which has a set of doctrines, practices, and beliefs that addresses common issues.
Download or read book The Way Into Torah written by Dr. Norman J. Cohen and published by Turner Publishing Company. This book was released on 2012-01-09 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An accessible introduction to how to read, study, and understand Torah—the Bible and related sacred texts that have grown up around it. For everyone who wants to understand Torah, this book shows the way into an essential aspect of Judaism, and allows you to interact directly with the sacred texts of the Jewish tradition. Guided by Dr. Norman J. Cohen, rabbi and professor of midrash at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, The Way Into Torah helps us explore the origins and development of Torah, why it should be studied, and how to do it. What Torah is. The texts, and beyond: Not simply the Five Books of Moses, Torah refers to much more than written words. The different approaches to studying Torah. The many ways Jews have interacted with Torah through the ages and how, by learning to read Torah ourselves,we can connect it to our lives today. The levels of understanding Torah. How Torah can come alive in different ways, at different times; and how new meanings of Torah are discovered by its readers. Why Torah study is a part of the Jewish experience. How it allows us to experience God’s presence—and why the Rabbis called Torah study more important even than belief in God. This guide offers an entrance into the world of Torah, and to its meaning for our lives. The Way Into Torah shows us why reading Torah is not the same as reading anything else—and enables us to become a part of a chain of Jewish tradition that began millennia ago, and remains unbroken today.
Download or read book Aspects of Rabbinic Theology written by Solomon Schechter and published by Schocken. This book was released on 1961 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few writers have crafted such a classic statement of the nature of and concepts within rabbinic theology as did Solomon Schechter. Aspects of Rabbinic Theology distills for the uninitiated the basic principles, concepts, and ideas of Judaism, particularly as they are found in the Talmud and Midrash. Noted Jewish author Louis Ginzberg could say of Schechter, "He showed the . . . special Jewish conception of God and the universe, the special Jewish interpretation of the Bible." Key aspects of Jewish theology, such as the election of Israel, God's relationship to Israel, and the place of the Law, receive careful examination and vivid explanation. The notion of sin as rebellion and the nature of forgiveness and reconciliation with God, under Schechter's steady hand, likewise are disclosed in fresh and thought-provoking ways. Moreover, since "There is hardly any miracle recorded in the Bible for which a parallel might not be found in the Rabbinic literature" (from the introduction), any student of Judaism or Christianity readily recognizes the tremendous potential for increased understanding. Though written nearly ninety years ago, Aspects of Rabbinic Theology remains a clear and useful distillation of the essence of rabbinic Judaism.
Download or read book Torah from Heaven written by Norman Solomon and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 2018-02-19 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An intriguing consideration of the validity of traditional notions of divine revelation and authoritative interpretation in today's world.
Download or read book Does the Soul Survive 2nd Edition written by Rabbi Elie Kaplan Spitz and published by Turner Publishing Company. This book was released on 2015-02-06 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Near-death experiences? Past-life regression? Reincarnation? Are these sorts of things Jewish? With a blend of candor, personal questioning, and sharp-eyed scholarship, Rabbi Elie Kaplan Spitz relates his own observations and the firsthand accounts shared with him by others, experiences that helped propel his journey from skeptic to believer that there is life after life. From near-death experiences to reincarnation, past-life memory to the work of mediums, Rabbi Spitz explores what we are really able to know about the afterlife, and draws on Jewish texts to share that belief in these concepts—so often approached with reluctance—is in fact true to Jewish tradition. “The increasing interest and faith in survival of the soul may grow into a cultural wave that is as potentially transformative for society as the civil rights movement and feminism. A renewed faith in ‘the soul’s journeys’ will call for a reassessment of our priorities, and will enable traditional religions to renew and transform their adherents.” —from the Introduction
