Download or read book The Image of Bar Kokhba in Traditional Jewish Literature written by Richard G. Marks and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2004-05-01 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Marks' painstaking investigation into the figure of Bar Kokhba in traditional Jewish literature has indeed provided a corrective to those on both sides of the Zionist political spectrum and in doing so he has once again shown that historical investigations are often quite useful in elucidating and clarifying various modern debates.-Jewish Political Studies Review"This is a very significant contribution to both Jewish literature and history. The materials which Marks works through are well-known, but at many points he offers original interpretations. He provides a comprehensive synthesis of all the historical interpretations of Bar Kokhba."-Richard D. Hecht, University of California, Santa BarbaraBar Kokhba led the Jewish rebellion against Rome in 132-135 A.D., which resulted in massive destruction and dislocation of the Jewish populace of Judea. In early rabbinic literature, Bar Kokhba was remembered in two ways: as an imposter claiming to be the Messiah and as a glorious military leader whose successes led Rabbi Akiva, one of the great rabbinic authorities of Jewish tradition, to acclaim him the Messiah. These two earliest images formed the core of most later perceptions of Bar Kokhba, so that he became the prototypical false messiah and the paradigmatic rebel of Jewish history.The Image of Bar Kokhba in Traditional Jewish Literature is a history of the perceptions that later Jewish writers living in the fourth through seventeenth centuries formed of this legendary hero-villain whose actions, in their eyes, had caused enormous suffering and disappointed messianic hopes. Richard Marks examines each writer's account individually and in the context of its period, exploring particularly political and religious implications. He builds a history of images and looks at larger patterns, such as the desacralizing of traditional imagery. His findings raise timely political questions about Bar Kokhba's image among Jews today.
Download or read book Holy War in Judaism written by Reuven Firestone and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-06-01 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Holy war, sanctioned or even commanded by God, is a common and recurring theme in the Hebrew Bible. Rabbinic Judaism, however, largely avoided discussion of holy war in the Talmud and related literatures for the simple reason that it became dangerous and self-destructive. Reuven Firestone's Holy War in Judaism is the first book to consider how the concept of ''holy war'' disappeared from Jewish thought for almost 2000 years, only to reemerge with renewed vigor in modern times. The revival of the holy war idea occurred with the rise of Zionism. As the necessity of organized Jewish engagement in military actions developed, Orthodox Jews faced a dilemma. There was great need for all to engage in combat for the survival of the infant state of Israel, but the Talmudic rabbis had virtually eliminated divine authorization for Jews to fight in Jewish armies. Once the notion of divinely sanctioned warring was revived, it became available to Jews who considered that the historical context justified more aggressive forms of warring. Among some Jews, divinely authorized war became associated not only with defense but also with a renewed kibbush or conquest, a term that became central to the discourse regarding war and peace and the lands conquered by the state of Israel in 1967. By the early 1980's, the rhetoric of holy war had entered the general political discourse of modern Israel. In Holy War in Judaism, Firestone identifies, analyzes, and explains the historical, conceptual, and intellectual processes that revived holy war ideas in modern Judaism.
Download or read book Dissident Rabbi written by Yaacob Dweck and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-08-06 with total page 498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A revelatory account of a spiritual leader who dared to assert the value of rabbinic doubt in the face of messianic certainty In 1665, Sabbetai Zevi, a self-proclaimed Messiah with a mass following throughout the Ottoman Empire and Europe, announced that the redemption of the world was at hand. As Jews everywhere rejected the traditional laws of Judaism in favor of new norms established by Sabbetai Zevi, and abandoned reason for the ecstasy of messianic enthusiasm, one man watched in horror. Dissident Rabbi tells the story of Jacob Sasportas, the Sephardic rabbi who alone challenged Sabbetai Zevi's improbable claims and warned his fellow Jews that their Messiah was not the answer to their prayers. Yaacob Dweck's absorbing and richly detailed biography brings to life the tumultuous century in which Sasportas lived, an age torn apart by war, migration, and famine. He describes the messianic frenzy that gripped the Jewish Diaspora, and Sasportas's attempts to make sense of a world that Sabbetai Zevi claimed was ending. As Jews danced in the streets, Sasportas compiled The Fading Flower of the Zevi, a meticulous and eloquent record of Sabbatianism as it happened. In 1666, barely a year after Sabbetai Zevi heralded the redemption, the Messiah converted to Islam at the behest of the Ottoman sultan, and Sasportas's book slipped into obscurity. Dissident Rabbi is the revelatory account of a spiritual leader who dared to articulate the value of rabbinic doubt in the face of messianic certainty, and a revealing examination of how his life and legacy were rediscovered and appropriated by later generations of Jewish thinkers.
Download or read book Encyclopedia of Jewish Folklore and Traditions written by Raphael Patai and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-03-26 with total page 1641 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This multicultural reference work on Jewish folklore, legends, customs, and other elements of folklife is the first of its kind.
Download or read book Fighting Words written by John Renard and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2012-12-31 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the critical issues in interreligious relations today is the connection, both actual and perceived, between sacred sources and the justification of violent acts as divinely mandated. Fighting Words makes solid text-based scholarship accessible to the general public, beginning with the premise that a balanced approach to religious pluralism in our world must build on a measured, well-informed response to the increasingly publicized and sensationalized association of terrorism and large-scale violence with religion. In his introduction, Renard provides background on the major scriptures of seven religious traditionsÑJewish, Christian (including both the Old and New Testaments), Islamic, BahaÕi, Zoroastrian, Hindu, and Sikh. Eight chapters then explore the interpretation of select facets of these scriptures, focusing on those texts so often claimed, both historically and more recently, as inspiration and justification for every kind of violence, from individual assassination to mass murder. With its nuanced consideration of a complex topic, this book is not merely about the religious sanctioning of violence but also about diverse ways of reading sacred textual sources.
Download or read book The Jewish Revolts Against Rome A D 66 135 written by James J. Bloom and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-01-10 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the first and second centuries A.D., the supremacy of the Roman Empire was aggressively challenged by three Jewish rebellions. The facts surrounding the initial uprising of A.D. 66-74 have been filtered through the biased accounts of Judeao Roman historian Flavius Josephus. Primary information regarding the subsequent Diaspora Revolt (A.D. 115-117) and the Bar Kochba Rebellion (A.D. 132-135) is limited to fragmentary anecdotes emphasizing the religious implications of the two insurrections. In contrast, this analytical history focuses objectively on the military aspects of all three Judean uprisings. The events leading up to each rebellion are detailed, while the nine appendices cover such topics as the nature and number of the Jewish rebels and the factual reliability of the controversial Josephus. One appendix hypothesizes an alternative history of the war between Jerusalem and Rome.
Download or read book Reader s Guide to Judaism written by Michael Terry and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-12-02 with total page 1768 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Reader's Guide to Judaism is a survey of English-language translations of the most important primary texts in the Jewish tradition. The field is assessed in some 470 essays discussing individuals (Martin Buber, Gluckel of Hameln), literature (Genesis, Ladino Literature), thought and beliefs (Holiness, Bioethics), practice (Dietary Laws, Passover), history (Venice, Baghdadi Jews of India), and arts and material culture (Synagogue Architecture, Costume). The emphasis is on Judaism, rather than on Jewish studies more broadly.
Download or read book Jewish War under Trajan and Hadrian written by William Horbury and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-09-18 with total page 652 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two major Jewish risings against Rome took place in the years following the destruction of Jerusalem - the first during Trajan's Parthian war, and the second, led by Bar Kokhba, under Hadrian's principate. The impact of these risings not only on Judaea, but also on Cyrene, Egypt, Cyprus and Mesopotamia, is shown by accounts in both ancient Jewish and non-Jewish literature. More recently discovered sources include letters and documents from fighters and refugees, and inscriptions attesting war and restoration. Historical evaluation has veered between regret for a pointless bloodbath and admiration for sustained resistance. William Horbury offers a new history of these risings, presenting a fresh review of sources and interpretations. He explores the period of Jewish war under Trajan and Hadrian not just as the end of an era, but also as a time of continuity in Jewish life and development in Jewish and Christian origins.
Download or read book Scroll Or the Sword written by Cohen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-01-02 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First Published in 1997. The title of this book is derived from an ancient Jewish teaching, attributed to a certain Rabbi Eleazar of Modi'in, who lived in the land of Israel during the third century of the common era. As far as we know, Rabbi Eleazar was the first sage to take homiletic advantage of the alliteration of safra and saifa, Aramaic terms which literally translate (respectively) as 'a scroll' and 'a sword'. A plain reading of this text leaves no doubt that its author intended to project a figurative contrast between two distinct spheres of human endeavour.
Download or read book Jewish War under Trajan and Hadrian written by and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Forgotten Sage written by Maurice D. Harris and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2019-05-30 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Just after the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E., there lived a poor and ugly nail-maker who was also, for a time, the leading rabbi of his generation. His name was Joshua ben Hananiah, and he helped give us the Judaism we know—the complicated, word-filled tradition of debates, multiple viewpoints, and endless questions. Through his humanity, humility, and occasional audacity, Joshua helped set Judaism on its course towards becoming the decentralized, multi-opinionated, exile-surviving, other-religion-respecting, pragmatic-yet-altruistic, wounded-yet-hopeful religion that it is at its best. And yet, inside and outside the Jewish community, few people know about him. This book wants to change that. In these pages, people of all faiths or backgrounds will find accessible and vivid translations of some of the most stunning stories in the Talmud and in Midrash. Rabbi Maurice Harris is a friendly guide through the texts and dramas of early rabbinic Judaism, providing general audiences with clear and compelling explanations of complex narratives, legal issues, and historical contexts. Venture inside this book and discover Rabbi Joshua ben Hananiah, one of the bravest and humblest heroes you'll ever meet in sacred literature.
Download or read book The Second Jewish Revolt written by Menahem Mor and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2016-04-18 with total page 618 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Second Jewish Revolt: The Bar Kokhba War, 132-136 C.E., Menahem Mor offers a detailed account on the Bar Kokhba Revolt in an attempt to understand the second revolt against the Romans. Since the Bar Kokhba Revolt did not have a historian who devoted a comprehensive book to the event, Mor used a variety of historical materials including literary sources (Jewish, Christian, Greek and Latin) and archaeological sources (inscriptions, coins, military diplomas, hideouts, and refuge complexes). The book reviews the causes for the outbreak while explaining the complexity of the territorial expansion of the Revolt. Mor portrays the participants and opponents as well as the attitudes of the non-Jewish population in Palestine. He exposes the Roman Army’s part in Judaea, the Jewish leadership and the implications of the Revolt.
Download or read book Tolerance and Intolerance in Early Judaism and Christianity written by Graham Stanton and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1998-05-28 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The essays in this book consider issues of tolerance and intolerance faced by Jews and Christians between approximately 200 BCE and 200 CE. Several chapters are concerned with many different aspects of early Jewish-Christian relationships. Five scholars, however, take a difference tack and discuss how Jews and Christians defined themselves against the pagan world. As minority groups, both Jews and Christians had to work out ways of co-existing with their Graeco-Roman neighbours. Relationships with those neighbours were often strained, but even within both Jewish and Christian circles, issues of tolerance and intolerance surfaced regularly. So it is appropriate that some other contributors should consider 'inner-Jewish' relationships, and that some should be concerned with Christian sects.
Download or read book Nationalizing Judaism written by David Ohana and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2017-06-05 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new book by historian David Ohana analyzes Zionism and the Israeli state as a theological ideology. The book pursues this provocative end by showing the dialectical tension between Judaism and Zionism. How has Zionism molded perceptions and images that were formed in the Jewish past, and to what extent were these Jewish themes reflected, modified, and crystallized in the national culture of the State of Israel? Nationalizing Judaism covers constituent topics such as Messianism, Utopianism, territorialism, collective memory, and political myths along with the critics that threatened to undermine Zionist appropriations and constructs. Thus, in addition to the 1942 “Million Plan” and territorial redemptionist views, the book discusses fundamental critiques of Messianism penned by the historians Gershom Scholem and Jacob Talmon and de-territorial perceptions of the Levant by the writer and the essayist Jacqueline Kahanoff. Nationalizing Judiasm closes with the nationalization of the desert, the vision of David Ben-Gurion (“the old man”) who proclaimed statehood in 1948, as shown by his funeral and the symbolic memory of his grave. In its attempt to acquire historical legitimation Zionism appropriated themes and myths from the Jewish past, yet these appropriations were differentiated as they had selectively culled elements that suited the national ethos. The book opens with Ben-Gurion’s messianic vision and comes full circle with his death in 1973.
Download or read book The Reception of Ancient Virtues and Vices in Modern Popular Culture written by Eran Almagor and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2017-07-31 with total page 438 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Ancient Virtues and Vices in Modern Popular Culture, Eran Almagor and Lisa Maurice offer a comprehensive collection of chapters dealing with the reception of antiquity in popular media of the modern era (19th-21st centuries). These media include theatrical plays, cinematic representations, Television drama, popular newspapers or journals, poems and outdoor festivals. For the first time in Classical Reception Studies, ancient Jewish literature and imagery are included in the discussion. The focus of the volume is both the continuity and variance between ancient and modern sets of values, which appear in the new interpretations of the ancient stories, figures and protagonists.
Download or read book Political Violence in Judaism Christianity and Islam written by Jonathan Fine and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2015-03-26 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religious political violence is by no means a new phenomenon, yet there are critical differences between the various historical instances of such violence and its more current permutations. Since the mid-1970s, religious fundamentalist movements have been seeking to influence world order by participating in local political systems. For example, Islamic fundamentalism is at the heart of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, the Christian fundamental right wing has seen a resurgence in Europe, and Jewish fundamentalism is behind the actions of Meir Kahane’s Kach movement and the settler movement. The shift in recent years from secular to religious political violence necessitates a reevaluation of contemporary political violence and of the concept of religious violence. This text analyzes the evolution of religious political violence, in both historical and contemporary perspectives. Since religious political violent events are usually associated with the term “terrorism,” the book first analyzes the origins of this controversial term and its religious manifestations. It then outlines and highlights the differences between secular and religious political violence, on ideological, strategic, and tactical levels before comparing the concept of Holy War in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Lastly, it shows how modern radical monotheistic religious groups interpret and manipulate their religious sources and ideas to advocate their political agendas, including the practice of violence. A unique comparative study of religious political violence across Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, this text features many international case studies from the Crusades to the Arab Spring.
Download or read book The Cambridge History of Judaism Volume 4 The Late Roman Rabbinic Period written by William David Davies and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1984 with total page 1178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This fourth volume covers the late Roman period to the rise of Islam.
