Judaism Today

Author : Dan Cohn-Sherbok
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 201 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2013-02-13
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781441112200

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Judaism Today by Dan Cohn-Sherbok Pdf

For nearly four millennia Judaism was essentially a unified religious system based on shared traditions. Despite the emergence of various sub-groups through the centuries such as the Sadducees, Pharisees, Essenes, Karaites, Shabbateans and Hasadim, Jewry was united in the belief in a providential God who had chosen the Jews as his special people and given them a code of law. In the modern period, however, the Jewish religion has fragmented into a series of separate denominations with competing ideologies and theological views. Despite the creation of the State of Israel, the Jewish people are deeply divided concerning the most fundamental issues of belief and practice. Judaism Today gives an account of the nature of traditional Judaism, provides an introduction to the various divisions that currently exist in the Jewish world and identifies and discusses contemporary issues with which the Jewish faith engages in the twenty-first century. This refreshing new approach focuses on how Judaism is actually perceived and practised by Jews themselves and the problems currently facing Jews worldwide.

Author : Tony Bayfield
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 385 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 2019-09-05
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781472962096

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Being Jewish Today by Tony Bayfield Pdf

'A deeply humane, learned and personal reflection on Jewish identity' Rowan Williams 'This inspiring book has made me a better Jew, one who understands more, who knows more' Daniel Finkelstein 'This remarkable book takes us on a journey: geographic, historical, cultural, philosophical, political, autobiographical and, yes, religious' Michael Marmot Being Jewish Today gives an account of both the journey of a particular British Jew and the journey of millions of women and men through today's perplexing and difficult world. With honesty and integrity Rabbi Tony Bayfield breaks new ground in exploring the meaning of Jewish identity and its relationship to Jewish tradition and belief. He does so from the perspective of a person fully integrated into the modern Western world. The rigorous questions he asks of his Jewishness, Judaism and the Jewish God are therefore substantially the same as those asked by individuals of all faiths and none. Beginning with an account of the journey of Jewish people and thought from ancient times to the present day, Bayfield goes on to consider Jewish identity, Israel as land and the scourge of anti-Semitism. He then turns to the twin concerns of Torah: Halakhah – practice, and Aggadah – ethics, along with the matter of belief in a world faced with global extinction. Finally, in addressing the manifest injustice of life, Rabbi Bayfield confronts the widely evaded questions of universal suffering and divine inaction. Drawing on key religious and secular thinkers who contribute to the force of his argument, Bayfield's masterful, challenging and urgent book will appeal to all Jews, whether religious or cultural, and to anyone curious about the nature of Judaism and religion today.

Author : Emanuel Feldman
Publisher : Mesorah Publications
Page : 316 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 2000
Category : Religion
ISBN : 089906034X

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On Judaism by Emanuel Feldman Pdf

Author : Ari L. Goldman
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2007-10-02
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781416536024

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Being Jewish by Ari L. Goldman Pdf

Discussing the tenets and practice of Judaism from both a contemporary and a historical perspective, a comprehensive and insightful exploration of the nature of Judaism, its spiritual heritage, and its rituals offers a non-ideological framework for its viewpoint. Reprint. 17,500 first printing.

Author : Jack Wertheimer
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 396 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2020-03-31
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780691202518

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The New American Judaism by Jack Wertheimer Pdf

Winner of the National Jewish Book Award in American Jewish Studies—an engaging firsthand portrait of American Judaism today American Judaism has been buffeted by massive social upheavals in recent decades. Like other religions in the United States, it has witnessed a decline in the number of participants over the past forty years, and many who remain active struggle to reconcile their hallowed traditions with new perspectives—from feminism and the LGBTQ movement to "do-it-yourself religion" and personally defined spirituality. Taking a fresh look at American Judaism today, Jack Wertheimer, a leading authority on the subject, sets out to discover how Jews of various orientations practice their religion in this radically altered landscape. Which observances still resonate, and which ones have been given new meaning? What options are available for seekers or those dissatisfied with conventional forms of Judaism? And how are synagogues responding? Offering new and often-surprising answers to these questions, Wertheimer reveals an American Jewish landscape that combines rash disruption and creative reinvention, religious illiteracy and dynamic experimentation.

Author : Behrman House
Publisher : Behrman House Publishing
Page : 582 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 1986
Category : Religion
ISBN : 087441315X

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Reform Judaism Today by Behrman House Pdf

Recounts the evolution of Reform Judaism into a quintessentially American form of Jewish life and worship.

Author : John D. Rayner
Publisher : Berghahn Books
Page : 260 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 1997-12
Category : Religion
ISBN : 157181972X

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An Understanding of Judaism by John D. Rayner Pdf

This is the first of two volumes of edited sermons spanning the greater part of the second half of the twentieth century, and the first major collection of sermons from a Liberal Jewish point ofview produced in Britain since Claude G. Montefiore's Truth in Religion of 1906. It combines forthrightly radical thinking with spirituality, love of Jewish tradition, and an abundance of carefully documented quotations from classical Jewish sources. This combination yields many fresh insights into the interpretation of Scripture, as examined in Part I, and the significance ofthe Jewish festivals dealt with in Part II, and brings out the relevance of both to present-day intellectual and social issues. Both Parts will be found to contain many original ideas, novel formulations, and occasional touches of humour.

Author : Maristella Botticini,Zvi Eckstein
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 346 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 2012
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780691144870

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The Chosen Few by Maristella Botticini,Zvi Eckstein Pdf

Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein show that, contrary to previous explanations, this transformation was driven not by anti-Jewish persecution and legal restrictions, but rather by changes within Judaism itself after 70 CE--most importantly, the rise of a new norm that required every Jewish male to read and study the Torah and to send his sons to school. Over the next six centuries, those Jews who found the norms of Judaism too costly to obey converted to other religions, making world Jewry shrink. Later, when urbanization and commercial expansion in the newly established Muslim Caliphates increased the demand for occupations in which literacy was an advantage, the Jews found themselves literate in a world of almost universal illiteracy. From then forward, almost all Jews entered crafts and trade, and many of them began moving in search of business opportunities, creating a worldwide Diaspora in the process.

Author : Louis Jacobs
Publisher : Behrman House, Inc
Page : 196 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 1970
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0874410142

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Jewish Thought Today by Louis Jacobs Pdf

Gift of Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut.

Author : John D. Rayner
Publisher : Berghahn Books
Page : 220 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 1998
Category : Religion
ISBN : 1571819738

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A Jewish Understanding of the World by John D. Rayner Pdf

Judaism, Zionism and the State of Israel, world events, social issues, and Jewish-Christian relations.

Author : Pinchas H. Peli
Publisher : University of Texas Press
Page : 290 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2010-07-05
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780292787940

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Torah Today by Pinchas H. Peli Pdf

The central element of Jewish worship is the yearly cycle of reading the first five books of the Bible, the Five Books of Moses, called the Torah in Hebrew. Torah Today, a compilation of fifty-four essays that grew out of Pinchas Peli's Torah column in the Jerusalem Post, comments upon the weekly readings from the Torah. Written in a wonderfully clear style, each essay brings the reader closer to the rich spiritual world of Torah as it confronts the challenges of modern society. This reissue of Torah Today, with a new preface by Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis, makes this classic work available to a new generation of Bible students.

Author : David Nirenberg
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 348 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2014-10-20
Category : History
ISBN : 9780226168937

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Neighboring Faiths by David Nirenberg Pdf

This book represents the culmination of David Nirenberg’s ongoing project; namely, how Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived with and thought about each other in the Middle Ages, and what the medieval past can tell us about how they do so today. There have been scripture based studies of the three "religions of the book” that claim descent from Abraham, but Nirenberg goes beyond those to pay close attention to how the three religious neighbors loved, tolerated, massacred, and expelled each other--all in the name of God--in periods and places both long ago and far away. Whether Christian Crusaders and settlers in Islamic-ruled lands, or Jewish-Muslim relations in Christian-controlled Iberia, for Nirenberg, the three religions need to be studied in terms of how each affected the development of the other over time, their proximity of religious and philosophical thought as well as their overlapping geographies, and how the three "neighbors” define (and continue to define) themselves and their place in the here-and-now--and the here-after--in terms of one another. Arguing against exemplary histories, static models of tolerance versus prosecution, or so-called Golden Ages and Black Legends, Nirenberg offers here instead a story that is more dynamic and interdependent, one where Muslim, Jewish, and Christian communities have re-imagined themselves, not only as abstractions of categories in each other’s theologies and ideologies, but by living with each other every day as neighbors jostling each other on the street. From dangerous attractions leading to interfaith marriage, to interreligious conflicts leading to segregation, violence, and sometimes extermination, to strategies of bridging the interfaith gap through language, vocabulary, and poetry--Nirenberg aims to understand the intertwined past of the three faiths as a way for their heirs to coproduce the future.

Author : Ester R. Taus
Publisher : University Press of America
Page : 216 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2008
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0761836357

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Torah for Today by Ester R. Taus Pdf

"a series of articles written by Esther Taus for the monthly Temple Beth El publication, the Bulletin." - publisher's web site. "The order of presentation of the essays follows the reading program of Reform Judaism, which starts with the High Holy Days (usually in September), and continues for a twelve-month study of the Pentateuch (Bible). "

Author : Rabbi Edward Feinstein
Publisher : Jewish Lights Publishing
Page : 193 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2014-09-24
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781580237925

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The Chutzpah Imperative by Rabbi Edward Feinstein Pdf

Reconnect with Judaism’s most important contribution to humanity—and redeem our world. “The gift of Judaism is an understanding of what it means to be a human being—what we can do, what we can hope for, how we can live with purpose, what is expected of us. It is a celebration of human freedom, human possibility and human responsibility. Judaism is a way to live a heroic life, to construct a life devoted to values that are eternal, values of ultimate significance. The reward of a Jewish life is walking the world with a profound faith that you matter, your life matters, your dreams matter. I call this chutzpah.” —from the Introduction In this clarion call for a new way to “do Judaism,” award-winning spiritual leader Rabbi Edward Feinstein urges us to recover this message of Jewish self-empowerment—or chutzpah—to reshape our world. He walks us through the history of chutzpah—from the early chapters of Genesis, Jewish biblical law and the Rabbis of the Talmud to the mystics of medieval Spain and the European Hasidic tradition, Zionism and post-Holocaust thought. By showing us the ever-presence of chutzpah in Judaism he reveals the inner story of the Jewish People’s soul as well as the meaning that Judaism’s deepest purpose and most precious treasure has for us today.

Author : Noah Feldman
Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Page : 311 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2024-03-05
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780374721008

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To Be a Jew Today by Noah Feldman Pdf

A leading public intellectual’s timely reckoning with how Jews can and should make sense of their tradition and each other. What does it mean to be a Jew? At a time of worldwide crisis, venerable answers to this question have become unsettled. In To Be a Jew Today, the legal scholar and columnist Noah Feldman draws on a lifelong engagement with his religion to offer a wide-ranging interpretation of Judaism in its current varieties. How do Jews today understand their relationship to God, to Israel, and to each other—and live their lives accordingly? Writing sympathetically but incisively about diverse outlooks, Feldman clarifies what’s at stake in the choice of how to be a Jew, and discusses the shared “theology of struggle” that Jews engage in as they wrestle with who God is, what God wants, or whether God exists. He shows how the founding of Israel has transformed Judaism itself over the last century—and explores the ongoing consequences of that transformation for all Jews, who find the meaning of their Jewishness and their views about Israel intertwined, no matter what those views are. And he examines the analogies between being Jewish and belonging to a large, messy family—a family that often makes its members crazy, but a family all the same. Written with learning, empathy and clarity, To Be a Jew Today is a critical resource for readers of all faiths.