Download or read book Friendship in Jewish History Religion and Culture written by Lawrence Fine and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2021-02-04 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ubiquity of friendship in human culture contributes to the fallacy that ideas about friendship have not changed and remained consistent throughout history. It is only when we begin to inquire into the nature and significance of the concept in specific contexts that we discover how complex it truly is. Covering the vast expanse of Jewish tradition, from ancient Israel to the twenty-first century, this collection of essays traces the history of the beliefs, rituals, and social practices surrounding friendship in Jewish life. Employing diverse methodological approaches, this volume explores the particulars of the many varied forms that friendship has taken in the different regions where Jews have lived, including the ancient Near East, the Greco-Roman world, Europe, and the United Sates. The four sections—friendship between men, friendship between women, challenges to friendship, and friendships that cross boundaries, especially between Jews and Christians, or men and women—represent and exemplify universal themes and questions about human interrelationships. This pathbreaking and timely study will inspire further research and provide the groundwork for future explorations of the topic. In addition to the editor, the contributors are Martha Ackelsberg, Michela Andreatta, Joseph Davis, Glenn Dynner, Eitan P. Fishbane, Susannah Heschel, Daniel Jütte, Eyal Levinson, Saul M. Olyan, George Savran, and Hava Tirosh-Samuelson.

Download or read book Friendship in the Hebrew Bible written by Saul M. Olyan and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2017-01-10 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first comprehensive study of friendship in the Hebrew Bible Friendship, though a topic of considerable humanistic and cross disciplinary interest in contemporary scholarship, has been largely ignored by scholars of the Hebrew Bible, possibly because of its complexity and elusiveness. Filling a significant gap in our knowledge and understanding of biblical texts, Saul M. Olyan provides this original, accessible analysis of a key form of social relationship. In this thorough and compelling assessment, Olyan analyzes a wide range of texts, including prose narratives, prophetic materials, psalms, pre-Hellenistic wisdom collections, and the Hellenistic-era wisdom book Ben Sira. This in-depth, contextually sensitive, and theoretically engaged study explores how the expectations of friends and family members overlap and differ, examining, among other things, characteristics that make the friend a distinct social actor; failed friendship; and friendships in narratives such as those of Ruth and Naomi, and Jonathan and David. Olyan presents a comprehensive look at what constitutes friendship in the Hebrew Bible.

Download or read book What I Wish My Christian Friends Knew about Judaism written by Robert Schoen and published by Stone Bridge Press, Inc.. This book was released on 2020-10-13 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "From the Sabbath to circumcision, from Hanukkah to the Holocaust, from bar mitzvah to bagel, how do Jewish religion, history, holidays, lifestyles, and culture make Jews different, and why is that difference so distinctive that we carry it from birth to the grave?" This accessible introduction to Judaism and Jewish life is especially for Christian readers interested in the deep connections and distinct differences between their faith and Judaism, but it is also for Jews looking for ways to understand their religion--and explain it to others. First released in 2002 and now in an updated edition.

Download or read book Letters to Josep written by Levy Daniella and published by . This book was released on 2016-03-30 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a collection of letters from a religious Jew in Israel to a Christian friend in Barcelona on life as an Orthodox Jew. Equal parts lighthearted and insightful, it's a thorough and entertaining introduction to the basic concepts of Judaism.

Download or read book Love Friendship and Faith in Europe 1300 1800 written by L. Gowing and published by Springer. This book was released on 2005-10-14 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This ground-breaking volume explores the terrain of friendship against the historical backdrop of early modern Europe. In these thought-provoking essays the terms of friendship are explored - from the most intimate and erotically charged to the reciprocities of village life. This is a rich offering in social and cultural history that is attuned to the pervasive language of religion. A hidden history is revealed - of friendships that we have lost, and of friendships starkly, and movingly, familiar.

Download or read book The Men We Loved written by Danny Kaplan and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2006 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Follows selected stories of friendship ranging over early childhood, school, the workplace, and some unique war experiences. This book explores the symbolism of friendship in rituals for the fallen soldiers, the commemoration of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and the national infatuation with recovering bodies of missing soldiers".--BOOKJACKET.

Download or read book Jews on the Frontier written by Shari Rabin and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2019-12-15 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner, 2017 National Jewish Book Award in American Jewish Studies presented by the Jewish Book Council Finalist, 2017 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, presented by the Jewish Book Council An engaging history of how Jews forged their own religious culture on the American frontier Jews on the Frontier offers a religious history that begins in an unexpected place: on the road. Shari Rabin recounts the journey of Jewish people as they left Eastern cities and ventured into the American West and South during the nineteenth century. It brings to life the successes and obstacles of these travels, from the unprecedented economic opportunities to the anonymity and loneliness that complicated the many legal obligations of traditional Jewish life. Without government-supported communities or reliable authorities, where could one procure kosher meat? Alone in the American wilderness, how could one find nine co-religionists for a minyan (prayer quorum)? Without identity documents, how could one really know that someone was Jewish? Rabin argues that Jewish mobility during this time was pivotal to the development of American Judaism. In the absence of key institutions like synagogues or charitable organizations which had played such a pivotal role in assimilating East Coast immigrants, ordinary Jews on the frontier created religious life from scratch, expanding and transforming Jewish thought and practice. Jews on the Frontier vividly recounts the story of a neglected era in American Jewish history, offering a new interpretation of American religions, rooted not in congregations or denominations, but in the politics and experiences of being on the move. This book shows that by focusing on everyday people, we gain a more complete view of how American religion has taken shape. This book follows a group of dynamic and diverse individuals as they searched for resources for stability, certainty, and identity in a nation where there was little to be found.

Download or read book Jewish Virtue Ethics written by Geoffrey D. Claussen and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2023-08-01 with total page 427 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is good character? What are the traits of a good person? How should virtues be cultivated? How should vices be avoided? The history of Jewish literature is filled with reflection on questions of character and virtue such as these, reflecting a wide range of contexts and influences. Beginning with the Bible and culminating with twenty-first-century feminism and environmentalism, Jewish Virtue Ethics explores thirty-five influential Jewish approaches to character and virtue. Virtue ethics has been a burgeoning field of moral inquiry among academic philosophers in the postwar period. Although Jewish ethics has also flourished as an academic (and practical) field, attention to the role of virtue in Jewish thought has been underdeveloped. This volume seeks to illuminate its centrality not only for readers primarily interested in Jewish ethics but also for readers who take other approaches to virtue ethics, including within the Western virtue ethics tradition. The original essays written for this volume provide valuable sources for philosophical reflection.

Download or read book Traces of a Jewish Artist written by Kerry Wallach and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2024 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Jews of Iran written by Hassan Sarbakhshian and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2022-08-30 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book reveals one of the most beautiful and complicated untold stories of our time. Westerners often imagine Jews in Iran as a captive and oppressed community, alienated within their home nation yet restricted from leaving it. The reality is much more complex. Jews of Iran is a photographic journey through twenty-first-century Iran, providing a unique view of the country’s Jewish community in situations typically unknown to the Western world. Photojournalist Hassan Sarbakhshian spent two years living among Iran’s Jewish communities, joining them for holidays, family gatherings, and travels, and—with the help of fellow journalist Parvaneh Vahidmanesh—documenting how they lived. Moving beyond the well-known state and regional confrontations, the photos that Sarbakhshian took tell a broader story about a community of people who live in the figurative and literal middle. They are Iranian nationals by birth and by choice, and they are Jews by religious affiliation. Full loyalty to their country is expected, even as their ancestral homeland is at odds with their political homeland. This photographic chronicle illuminates the grey zone that they inhabit. Featuring over one hundred full-color photos, contextualized with extensive annotations, and accompanied by a substantive introduction written by historian Lior B. Sternfeld, Jews of Iran calls into question Western views of this religious community.

Download or read book Enhancing Values of Dignity Democracy and Diversity in Higher Education written by Tamar Ketko and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-09-30 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contesting a gradual disregard for the values of Dignity, Democracy, and Diversity in higher education, this volume explores best practices from universities and colleges in Israel and the USA to illustrate how these values can offer a holistic values framework for higher education globally. Presenting a range of interdisciplinary chapters from fields including history, philosophy, memorial studies, cultural, political, gender, and religious studies, the text considers how these values can be reflected in policy and practice across all areas of the university, including teaching and learning, admissions, students’ affairs, staff well-being, and institutional identity. The volume highlights constructive theories, experimental models, and case studies that collectively inform a holistic framework for moral, ethical, and equitable higher education worldwide. Offering key insights into the relevant discourse regarding local and global events that have impacted both Israelis and Americans, this volume will appeal to researchers in the fields of higher education, sociology of education, and philosophy of education, as well as postgraduates and scholars with interests in the transformation of higher education in light of contemporary times and challenges.

Download or read book The Light of Learning written by Glenn Dynner and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2024-01-02 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The available sources on Hasidic society at the turn of the twentieth century create an impression of discontented Jewish youth and panicked parents, but not inexorable crisis and decline. Though the First World War and post-war pogroms further destabilized Hasidic society, they inadvertently created opportunities for the reinvention and revitalization of traditionalist education. The challenges of the early twentieth century would prove more galvanizing than demoralizing for certain visionary, reform-minded Hasidic leaders"--

Download or read book Faithful Friends written by Rabbi Richard Chapin and published by Amika Press. This book was released on 2014-01-17 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two dear friends, forty-two years after their graduation from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, one a rabbi, the other a teacher of English, engage in dialogue on modern subjects from Jewish and Catholic perspectives. Along the way they reveal their personal histories and journeys of faith as they discuss the timeless topics of Faith, Tragedy, Spirituality, Sex, Marriage, Tradition, Disappointment, Anger, Temptation, Forgiveness, Care for the Elderly, the Afterlife, and Life Flexibility.Embedded within these reflections is a friendship that has endured and grown throughout their lifetimes. Sharing mutual family joys and sorrows, watching children mature and take their place in the world, and even rooting unabashedly for their hometown professional football team, the Buffalo Bills, have informed their conversations since they first met as freshmen some four and one-half decades ago.This is a book that teaches about the similarities and differences between Judaism and Catholicism. Yet it is less an academic study than a warm and candid conversation that reveals an acquired wisdom and a commitment shared by both friends and authors to their respective religious worlds, but even more so, to the human condition.

Download or read book Interfaith Engagement Beyond the Divide written by Johannes M. Luetz and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-12-02 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book features reflections by scholars and practitioners from diverse religious traditions. It posits that the global challenges facing humanity today can only be mastered if humans from diverse faith traditions can meaningfully collaborate in support of human rights, reconciliation, sustainability, justice, and peace. Seeking to redress common distortions of religious mis- and dis-information, the book aims to construct interreligious common ground ‘beyond the divide’. Organised into three main sections, the book features sixteen conceptual, empirical, and practice-informed chapters that explore spirituality across faiths and cultures. Chapter 1 delineates the state of the art in relation to interfaith engagement, Chapters 2–8 advance theoretical research, Chapters 9–12 discuss empirical perspectives, and Chapters 13–16 showcase field projects and recount stories and lived experiences. Comprising works by scholars, professionals, and practitioners from around the globe, Interfaith Engagement Beyond the Divide: Approaches, Experiences, and Practices is an interdisciplinary publication on interreligious thought and engagement: Assembles a curated collection of chapters from numerous countries and diverse religious traditions; Addresses interfaith scholarship and praxis from a range of interdisciplinary perspectives; Comprises interfaith dialogue and collaborative research involving authors of different faiths; Envisions prospects for peace, interreligious harmony in diversity, and a world that may be equitably and enduringly shared. The appraisal of present and future challenges and opportunities, framed within a context of public policy and praxis, makes this interdisciplinary publication a useful tool for teaching, research, and policy development. Chapter 16 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Download or read book Laws of the Spirit written by Ariel Evan Mayse and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2024-05-28 with total page 522 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The compelling vision of religious life and practice found in Hasidic sources has made it the most enduring and successful Jewish movement of spiritual renewal of all time. In this book, Ariel Evan Mayse grapples with one of Hasidism's most vexing questions: how did a religious movement known for its radical views about immanence, revelation, and the imperative to serve God with joy simultaneously produce strict adherence to the structures and obligations of Jewish law? Exploring the movement from its emergence in the mid-1700s until 1815, Mayse argues that the exceptionality of Hasidism lies not in whether its leaders broke or upheld rabbinic norms, but in the movement's vivid attempt to rethink the purpose of Jewish ritual and practice. Rather than focusing on the commandments as law, he turns to the methods and vocabulary of ritual studies as a more productive way to reckon with the contradictions and tensions of this religious movement as well as its remarkable intellectual vitality. Mayse examines the full range of Hasidic texts from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, from homilies and theological treatise to hagiography, letters, and legal writings, reading them together with contemporary theories of ritual. Arguing against the notion that spiritual integrity requires unshackling oneself from tradition, Laws of the Spirit is a sweeping attempt to rethink the meaning and significance of religious practice in early Hasidism.

Download or read book Friendship Across Religions written by Alon Goshen-Gottstein and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2018-08-08 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Friendship is an outcome of, as well as a condition for, advancing interfaith relations. However, for friendship to advance, there must be legitimation from within and a theory of how interreligious relations can be justified from the resources of different faith traditions. Friendship Across Religions explores these very issues, seeking to develop a robust theory of interreligious friendship from the resources of each of the participating traditions. It also features individual cases as models and precedents for such relations—in particular, the friendship of Gandhi and Charlie Andrews, his closest personal friend. Contributors: Balwant Singh Dhillon, Timothy J. Gianotti, Alon Goshen-Gottstein, Maria Reis Habito, Ruben L. F. Habito, Ryan McAnnally-Linz, Stephen Butler Murray, Eleanor Nesbitt, Anantanand Rambachan, Meir Sendor, Johann M. Vento, and Miroslav Volf

Download or read book Entangled Histories written by Elisheva Baumgarten and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2016-11-29 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Halakhic innovation to blood libels, from the establishment of new mendicant orders to the institutionalization of Islamicate bureaucracy, and from the development of the inquisitorial process to the rise of yeshivas, universities, and madrasas, the long thirteenth century saw a profusion of political, cultural, and intellectual changes in Europe and the Mediterranean basin. These were informed by, and in turn informed, the religious communities from which they arose. In city streets and government buildings, Jews, Christians, and Muslims lived, worked, and disputed with one another, sharing and shaping their respective cultures in the process. The interaction born of these relationships between minority and majority cultures, from love and friendship to hostility and violence, can be described as a complex and irreducible "entanglement." The contributors to Entangled Histories: Knowledge, Authority, and Jewish Culture in the Thirteenth Century argue that this admixture of persecution and cooperation was at the foundation of Jewish experience in the Middle Ages. The thirteen essays are organized into three major sections, focusing in turn on the exchanges among intellectual communities, on the interactions between secular and religious authorities, and on the transmission of texts and ideas across geographical, linguistic, and cultural boundaries. Rather than trying to resolve the complexities of entanglement, contributors seek to outline their contours and explain how they endured. In the process, they examine relationships not only among Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communities but also between communities within Judaism—those living under Christian rule and those living under Muslim rule, and between the Jews of southern and northern Europe. The resulting volume develops a multifaceted account of Jewish life in Europe and the Mediterranean basin at a time when economic, cultural, and intellectual exchange coincided with heightened interfaith animosity. Contributors: Elisheva Baumgarten, Piero Capelli, Mordechai Z. Cohen, Judah Galinsky, Elisabeth Hollender, Kati Ihnat, Ephraim Kanarfogel, Katelyn Mesler, Ruth Mazo Karras, Sarah J. Pearce, Rami Reiner, Yossef Schwartz, Uri Shachar, Rebecca Winer, Luke Yarbrough.