L'imitatio Dei Dans Le Targum Et la Aggada


Book Description

L'importance de la notion d'exemple divin dans le judaisme ressort de l'importance des actes et qualites auxquels, des l'Ecriture, elle sert de motif, de son enseignement officiel et populaire dans les Targums, voir de son echo liturgique, et de la multitude des textes qui la developpent. Le Targum, traduction officielle de l'Ecriture, beneficie, grace a l'usage liturgique commun, de certaines prerogatives de celle-la: sacralisation donc fixation relatives. Les enseignements vehicules par le Targum sont ceux qui a l'epoque de leur insertion, ont ete consciemment choisis non seulement comme orthodoxes, mais comme fondamentaux et susceptibles d'une large divulgation. Quel est le moment de l'insertion de la notion d'imitation de Dieu dans le Targum, a quels moments et dans quels contextes historiques et exegetiques le bloc targumique et, auparavant, les elements qui le constituent, se sont elabores, quelles sont, dans ces contextes, les mutations de ce bloc, de ces elements qui l'ont constitue, telles sont les questions qui ont motive cette recherche dans les textes contemporains ou anterieures qui constituent, avec le Targum, la litterature rabbinique.




Language Politics and Language Survival


Book Description

Language Politics and Language Survival: Yiddish among the haredim in post-war Britain outlines the history and development of the Yiddish language as it is used among Ultra-Orthodox Jews in contemporary Britain. The language policies of these communities are analysed and placed within the greater socio-historical and religious context of rabbinic justifications for the use of Jewish languages, and of Yiddish in particular. Reasons for the general abandonment of Yiddish outside of the haredi world are also summarized and placed in juxtaposition with the Yiddish language of loyalty of the haredim. Yiddish language and corpus planning in haredi schools is analysed using communal documents and newspaper articles, educational assessments of Jewish schools compiled by Her Majesty's Inspectors, a number of interviews with communal educators, tape recordings of lessons given in Yiddish, and observations made during my own visits to haredi educational institutions. A significant part of this book is dedicated to the analysis of the Yiddish language itself as it is currently used in Britain. The analysis of spoken Yiddish is based on recordings of speech patterns collected in the course of field work in haredi schools in London and Manchester and focuses primarily on dialectal usage based on religious sect and the geographic region within Britain. A brief sociological analysis of haredi literature in Yiddish is provided in order to demonstrate the ideological function of Yiddish language texts in contemporary Britain, and in the haredi world in general. The primary materials used for this are texts produced by, and published within, the haredi communities of Britain.




Kabbalah and Ecology


Book Description

Kabbalah and Ecology is a groundbreaking book that resets the conversation about ecology and the Abrahamic traditions. David Mevorach Seidenberg challenges the anthropocentric reading of the Torah, showing that a radically different orientation to the more-than-human world of nature is not only possible, but that such an orientation also leads to a more accurate interpretation of scripture, rabbinic texts, Maimonides and Kabbalah. Deeply grounded in traditional texts and fluent with the physical sciences, this book proposes not only a new understanding of God's image but also a new direction for restoring religion to its senses and to a more alive relationship with the more-than-human, both with nature and with divinity.




The Routledge Companion to the Qur'an


Book Description

The Routledge Companion to the Qur’an offers an impressive and comprehensive overview of the formative scripture of Islam. Including a wide number of scholarly approaches to the Qur’an by both established authorities and emergent voices, the 40 chapters in this volume represent the latest word on the academic understanding of the Muslim scripture. The Qur’an is spoken of in scholarship across disciplines; it is the beating heart of a living community of believers; it is a work of beauty and a basis for art and culture; it is a profoundly significant historical artifact; and it is a mysterious survivor from the Late Ancient Arabic-speaking world. This Handbook accompanies the reader into the many worlds that the Qur’an lives in, from its ancient settings, to its internal drama, and through the 1,400 years of discussion and debate about its meaning. Bringing diverse approaches to the Qur’an together in one volume The Routledge Companion to the Qur’an represents the vibrancy of the field of Qur’anic Studies today. This Handbook is essential reading for students and researchers in religious studies and Islamic studies. It will also be very useful for those in related fields, such as area studies, sociology, anthropology, and history.




The Fourfold Gospel, Volume 2


Book Description

In the spirit of Ludolph of Saxony (c. 1295-1378) and Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556), The Fourfold Gospel invites the reader into the mystery of God's redemption in Jesus Christ. All the parallel passages in the Gospels are glossed together, along with the unique material, using a medieval interpretive approach called the Quadriga or the acronym PaRDeS in Hebrew. Meditating on the literal, canonical, moral, and theological senses of Scripture offers a scaffolding for the spiritual formation of the reader. This volume focuses on the summoning and purgative stage of discipleship--the Sermon on the Mount--as well as participating in Christ's healing of creation.




The Fourfold Gospel, Volume 1


Book Description

In the spirit of Ludolph of Saxony (c. 1295–1378) and Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556), The Fourfold Gospel invites the reader into the mystery of God’s redemption in Jesus Christ. All the parallel passages in the Gospels are glossed together, along with the unique material, using a medieval interpretive approach called the Quadriga or the acronym PaRDeS in Hebrew. Meditating on the literal, canonical, moral, and theological senses of Scripture offers a scaffolding for the spiritual formation of the reader. This volume, in addition to a thorough introduction to the method and the Gospels, focuses on the beginning of the story—the birth, baptism, and temptations of Christ.




Adaptations and Innovations


Book Description




Pythagoreans and Essenes


Book Description

This study attempts to answer the question of the origins of the non-biblical features of the Essenes' way of life. It is clear that their project was founded in biblical and Jewish realities. Where did those elements come from that appear not to have been derived from these sources? That they have their origins in Greek, and specifically Pythagorean, customs is an idea that recurs regularly in the history of scholarship and has had some notable supporters in the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries, including E Zeller, E Schuer, I Levy, F C Cumont and M J Lagrange. Recent scholars seem more reluctant to accept such views. The inquiry will take the reader through the available sources, then a series of comparative studies with possible parallels in Greece and elsewhere, to see whether and in what terms the question of Pythagorean influences on Essenism can be answered.




Elenchus of Biblica


Book Description