Jewish Studies
An Ottoman Century
This sweeping look at the city and the District of Jerusalem in the 17th century paints a vivid picture of life in an Ottoman province.
I and Tao
Presents a new view of the Taoist classic, The Chuang Tzu, through the lens of Buber’s translation and his philosophy developed in I and Thou and later works.
Maimonides on the "Decline of the Generations" and the Nature of Rabbinic Authority
Shows to what extent and in what fashion Jews are bound to accept the opinions and the pronouncements of religious authorities.
Memories of Migration
Offers a comparative historical study of women’s migration from Russia and Italy to New York at the turn of the 20th century. Taking an interdisciplinary and global perspective, the book examines the causes and consequences of women’s migration, contrasting the adaptation experiences of Jewish and Italian women.
Circle in the Square
This book deals with the issue of gender in Jewish mysticism showing the thematic correlation of eroticism and esotericism that is central to the kabbalah.
Commandment and Community
This book includes contemporary Jewish political practice, and both systematic and historical treatments of issues in Jewish political theory and legal thought.
Between Jerusalem and Benares
This book stands at the crossroads between Jerusalem and Benares and opens a long awaited conversation between two ancient religious traditions. It represents the first serious attempt by a group of eminent ...
Moses Mendelssohn and the Enlightenment
Moses Mendelssohn, the author of numerous works on natural theology and ethics, was also the first modern philosopher of Judaism. This book places Mendelssohn's thought within the context of the Leibnizian-Wolffian ...
Esther in Medieval Garb
This comprehensive history, the first to appear in English, gives a vivid portrayal of the Book of Esther's role in the intellectual and cultural life of Jews in the Middle Ages. Much of the study is ...
Summoning
This book explores the variety of ways that the Jewish understanding of the Covenant relates to the notion of a contract or a shared grammar as developed in recent structural and post-structural theory. ...
Rav Avraham Itzhak Hacohen Kook
This is the first comprehensive philosophical-theological study of the mystical thought of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (1865-1935), the Chief Rabbi of Palestine prior to the establishment of the state of ...
The Footprints of God
This book traces one exegetical, interpretative principal, divine accommodation, in Jewish and Christian thought from the first to the nineteenth century. The focus is upon major figures and the place ...
Urban Social Movements in Jerusalem
Hasson explores the development of eight urban protest organizations in Israel, revealing how social deprivation is transformed into organized patterns of activity. To investigate how and why urban movements ...
Society and Settlement
This book scrutinizes the interrelationships between Jewish spatial organization and social structure and change in Palestine/Israel. Kellerman analyzes the development of nationwide and regional settlements, ...
The Paradoxical Ascent to God
This book is a study of the Habad Hasidism movement, an influential part of the Hasidic Movement, which originated in the eigteenth century. Habad was founded by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi (1745-1813) ...
Imagining the Jewish Future
During a time of rapid change in the American Jewish community, an outstanding group of Jewish scholars and professionals address the critical problems and future prospects of American Jewry. They discuss ...
The Hidden and Manifest God
This book represents the first wide-scale presentation and interpretation of pre-kabbalistic, Jewish mysticism. This is the Hekhalot or Merkavah mysticism. The emphasis is on the conceptions of God, the ...
Accidents of Influence
For Norma Rosen, the Holocaust is the central event of the twentieth century. In this book, she examines the relationship of post-Holocaust writers to their work in terms of subject, language, imagery, ...
In the Shadow of History
This book focuses on the Iberian Jews and conversos, Jews who converted to Christianity. It explores the idea of the "other" in both Jewish and Christian traditions, the differences between the perspectives ...
The Books of Contemplation
The earliest medieval Jewish mystical writings, or kabbalah, date from the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. This is the first book to focus on the most prodigious group active at that time—the ...
Maimonides on Judaism and the Jewish People
Maimonides on Judaism and the Jewish People explores Maimonides' philosophical psychology, his ethics, his views on prophecy, providence, and immortality, his understanding of the place of gentiles in ...
Between Exile and Return
This innovative study of the modern Hebrew writer, S. Y. Agnon, offers new insight into his literary transformations of Jewish themes and sources. With particular attention to Kafka, Hoffman situates ...
Critical Essays on Israeli Society, Politics, and Culture
Critical Essays on Israeli Society, Politics, and Culture is the second volume in a series devoted to imaginative and critical consideration of recent books on Israel. It is a forum allowing some of the ...
From Tradition to Commentary
This book examines Torah and its interpretation both as a recurring theme in the early rabbinic commentary and as the very practice of the commentary. It studies the phenomenon of ancient rabbinic scriptural ...
Between Worlds
It is a work of sound scholarship dealing with an interesting historical figure and his unique cultural world. The author focuses correctly on the transition from Italian to Ottoman Jewish culture in ...