Author: Uriel Da Costa
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004246975
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 615
Book Description
Da Costa's long-lost book rejects the divine origin of the rabbinic tradition. His insight was that what he calls Pharisaism is irreconcilable with the religion of the Pentateuch and therefore cannot derive from the same source. He claims, for example, that the Law of Moses does not allow for a belief in an afterlife for individual human beings. Concomitantly he denied the Mosaic origin of the notion of eternal punishment. The rabbinic reading of the Mosaic Law appeared to him almost as great a falsification as the Christian one. Yet there could be no reversion to Christianity and despite his deep rift with the synagogue he still believed in ultimate redemption for the Jewish people. As he so dramatically declares in his closing sonnet, Israel's rehabilitation depends on its shedding man-made doctrines, and holding fast to the Law in its purity.
Examination of Pharisaic Traditions
Author: Uriel Da Costa
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004246975
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 615
Book Description
Da Costa's long-lost book rejects the divine origin of the rabbinic tradition. His insight was that what he calls Pharisaism is irreconcilable with the religion of the Pentateuch and therefore cannot derive from the same source. He claims, for example, that the Law of Moses does not allow for a belief in an afterlife for individual human beings. Concomitantly he denied the Mosaic origin of the notion of eternal punishment. The rabbinic reading of the Mosaic Law appeared to him almost as great a falsification as the Christian one. Yet there could be no reversion to Christianity and despite his deep rift with the synagogue he still believed in ultimate redemption for the Jewish people. As he so dramatically declares in his closing sonnet, Israel's rehabilitation depends on its shedding man-made doctrines, and holding fast to the Law in its purity.
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004246975
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 615
Book Description
Da Costa's long-lost book rejects the divine origin of the rabbinic tradition. His insight was that what he calls Pharisaism is irreconcilable with the religion of the Pentateuch and therefore cannot derive from the same source. He claims, for example, that the Law of Moses does not allow for a belief in an afterlife for individual human beings. Concomitantly he denied the Mosaic origin of the notion of eternal punishment. The rabbinic reading of the Mosaic Law appeared to him almost as great a falsification as the Christian one. Yet there could be no reversion to Christianity and despite his deep rift with the synagogue he still believed in ultimate redemption for the Jewish people. As he so dramatically declares in his closing sonnet, Israel's rehabilitation depends on its shedding man-made doctrines, and holding fast to the Law in its purity.
Exame Das Tradições Phariseas
Author: Uriel Da Costa
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9789004099234
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 612
Book Description
The retrieval in 1990 of what is probably the sole surviving copy of Uriel da Costa's book, outlawed and burnt in 1624, is an almost miraculous boon for humanity. Da Costa's "Exame," supplemented by da Silva's "Tratado," merits a prominent place in the history of thought, Judaism and Portuguese Literature.
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9789004099234
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 612
Book Description
The retrieval in 1990 of what is probably the sole surviving copy of Uriel da Costa's book, outlawed and burnt in 1624, is an almost miraculous boon for humanity. Da Costa's "Exame," supplemented by da Silva's "Tratado," merits a prominent place in the history of thought, Judaism and Portuguese Literature.
Amsterdam's People of the Book
Author: Benjamin E. Fisher
Publisher: Hebrew Union College Press
ISBN: 0878201890
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 331
Book Description
The Spanish and Portuguese Jews of seventeenth-century Amsterdam cultivated a remarkable culture centered on the Bible. School children studied the Bible systematically, while rabbinic literature was pushed to levels reached by few students; adults met in confraternities to study Scripture; and families listened to Scripture-based sermons in synagogue, and to help pass the long, cold winter nights of northwest Europe. The community's rabbis produced creative, and often unprecedented scholarship on the Jewish Bible as well as the New Testament. Amsterdam's People of the Book shows that this unique, Bible-centered culture resulted from the confluence of the Jewish community's Catholic and converso past with the Protestant world in which they came to live. Studying Amsterdam's Jews offers an early window into the prioritization of the Bible over rabbinic literature -- a trend that continues through modernity in western Europe. It allows us to see how Amsterdam's rabbis experimented with new historical methods for understanding the Bible, and how they grappled with doubts about the authority and truth of the Bible that were growing in the world around them. Amsterdam's People of the Book allows us to appreciate how Benedict Spinoza's ideas were in fact shaped by the approaches to reading the Bible in the community where he was born, raised, and educated. After all, as Spinoza himself remarked, before becoming Amsterdam's most famous heretic and one of Europe's leading philosophers and biblical critics, he was "steeped in the common beliefs about the Bible from childhood on."
Publisher: Hebrew Union College Press
ISBN: 0878201890
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 331
Book Description
The Spanish and Portuguese Jews of seventeenth-century Amsterdam cultivated a remarkable culture centered on the Bible. School children studied the Bible systematically, while rabbinic literature was pushed to levels reached by few students; adults met in confraternities to study Scripture; and families listened to Scripture-based sermons in synagogue, and to help pass the long, cold winter nights of northwest Europe. The community's rabbis produced creative, and often unprecedented scholarship on the Jewish Bible as well as the New Testament. Amsterdam's People of the Book shows that this unique, Bible-centered culture resulted from the confluence of the Jewish community's Catholic and converso past with the Protestant world in which they came to live. Studying Amsterdam's Jews offers an early window into the prioritization of the Bible over rabbinic literature -- a trend that continues through modernity in western Europe. It allows us to see how Amsterdam's rabbis experimented with new historical methods for understanding the Bible, and how they grappled with doubts about the authority and truth of the Bible that were growing in the world around them. Amsterdam's People of the Book allows us to appreciate how Benedict Spinoza's ideas were in fact shaped by the approaches to reading the Bible in the community where he was born, raised, and educated. After all, as Spinoza himself remarked, before becoming Amsterdam's most famous heretic and one of Europe's leading philosophers and biblical critics, he was "steeped in the common beliefs about the Bible from childhood on."
The Retelling of Chronicles in Jewish Tradition and Literature
Author: Isaac Kalimi
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 1575066025
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 416
Book Description
Isaac Kalimi reveals the history of the book of Chronicles from Hellenistic times to the beginning of critical biblical scholarship at the dawn of the 17h century. This comprehensive examination focuses, first and foremost, on the use of Chronicles in Jewish societies through the generations and highlights the attitudes and biases of writers, translators, historians, artists, exegetes, theologians, and philosophers toward the book. The reader is made aware of what the biblical text has meant and what it has “accomplished” in the many contexts in which it has been presented. Throughout the volume, Kalimi strives to describe the journey of Chronicles not only along the route of Jewish history and interpretation but also in relation to the book’s non-Jewish heritage (namely, Christianity), demonstrating the differences and distinctiveness of the former. In contrast, the majority of commentaries on Chronicles written from the mid-19th century to the present day have contained little or nothing about the application, interpretation, and reception history of Chronicles by Jews and Christians for hundreds of years.
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 1575066025
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 416
Book Description
Isaac Kalimi reveals the history of the book of Chronicles from Hellenistic times to the beginning of critical biblical scholarship at the dawn of the 17h century. This comprehensive examination focuses, first and foremost, on the use of Chronicles in Jewish societies through the generations and highlights the attitudes and biases of writers, translators, historians, artists, exegetes, theologians, and philosophers toward the book. The reader is made aware of what the biblical text has meant and what it has “accomplished” in the many contexts in which it has been presented. Throughout the volume, Kalimi strives to describe the journey of Chronicles not only along the route of Jewish history and interpretation but also in relation to the book’s non-Jewish heritage (namely, Christianity), demonstrating the differences and distinctiveness of the former. In contrast, the majority of commentaries on Chronicles written from the mid-19th century to the present day have contained little or nothing about the application, interpretation, and reception history of Chronicles by Jews and Christians for hundreds of years.
The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, Volume 5
Author: Posen Library of Jewish culture and civilization (Lucerne, Switzerland)
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300135513
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1392
Book Description
The fifth volume of the Posen Library demonstrates through a rich array of texts and images the extraordinary diversity of Jewish life during the early modern period "A rich and varied gateway into the primary source material of early modern Jewish history that is very strong on geographical diversity. A magnificent achievement."--Adam Sutcliffe, King's College London The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, Volume 5, covering the early modern period (1500-1750), presents a variety of Jewish texts to demonstrate the diversity of Jewish culture and life. These texts originate from Eastern and Western Europe, the Americas, the Ottoman Empire, North Africa, Kurdistan, Persia, Yemen, India--in short, a worldwide diaspora. They embrace historical writing and religious scholarship, liturgical expression and economic records, ethics and personal devotion, correspondence and communal regulations, art and music, architecture and poetry. The simultaneous centrifugal and centripetal character of Jewish communities during this era illustrates the distinctiveness of the early modern period in Jewish history and informs developments in world history at large. Including texts written by women, a robust collection of images, and extensive material not previously accessible to English-language readers, this volume is rich, deep, and enlightening.
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300135513
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1392
Book Description
The fifth volume of the Posen Library demonstrates through a rich array of texts and images the extraordinary diversity of Jewish life during the early modern period "A rich and varied gateway into the primary source material of early modern Jewish history that is very strong on geographical diversity. A magnificent achievement."--Adam Sutcliffe, King's College London The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, Volume 5, covering the early modern period (1500-1750), presents a variety of Jewish texts to demonstrate the diversity of Jewish culture and life. These texts originate from Eastern and Western Europe, the Americas, the Ottoman Empire, North Africa, Kurdistan, Persia, Yemen, India--in short, a worldwide diaspora. They embrace historical writing and religious scholarship, liturgical expression and economic records, ethics and personal devotion, correspondence and communal regulations, art and music, architecture and poetry. The simultaneous centrifugal and centripetal character of Jewish communities during this era illustrates the distinctiveness of the early modern period in Jewish history and informs developments in world history at large. Including texts written by women, a robust collection of images, and extensive material not previously accessible to English-language readers, this volume is rich, deep, and enlightening.
Judaism in Christian Eyes
Author: Yaacov Deutsch
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199974357
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 321
Book Description
This book examines Christian ethnographic writing about the Jews in early modern Europe, offering a systematic historical analysis of this literary genre and arguing its importance for understanding both the period in general and Jewish-Christian relations in particular. The book focuses on nearly 80 texts from Western Europe (mostly Germany) that describe the customs and ceremonies of contemporary Jews, containing both descriptions and illustrations of their subjects. Deutsch is one of the first scholars to study these unique writings in detail. Examining books in which Christian authors describe Jewish life, he provides new interpretations of Christian perceptions of Jews, Christian Hebraism, and the attention paid by Hebraists to contemporary Jews and Judaism. These works also present new perspectives on the study of religion, developments in the field of anthropology and ethnography, and on internal Christian debates that arose from the portrayal of Jewish life. Despite the lack of attention by modern scholars, some of these books were extremely popular in their time and represent one of the important ways by which perceptions of Jews were disseminated during the period. The key claim of this study is that, although almost all of the descriptions of Jewish customs and ceremonies are accurate, their authors chose to concentrate mainly on details that portray Jewish ceremonies as anti-Christian, superstitious, and ridiculous and to show the deviation of Judaism from Biblical law. Deutsch argues that such descriptions are better defined as "polemical ethnographies". Nevertheless, he claims that despite their polemical tendency these texts represent a shift from writing about Judaism as a religion to writing about Jews, and from a mode of writing based on stereotypes to one that is based on direct contact and observation.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199974357
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 321
Book Description
This book examines Christian ethnographic writing about the Jews in early modern Europe, offering a systematic historical analysis of this literary genre and arguing its importance for understanding both the period in general and Jewish-Christian relations in particular. The book focuses on nearly 80 texts from Western Europe (mostly Germany) that describe the customs and ceremonies of contemporary Jews, containing both descriptions and illustrations of their subjects. Deutsch is one of the first scholars to study these unique writings in detail. Examining books in which Christian authors describe Jewish life, he provides new interpretations of Christian perceptions of Jews, Christian Hebraism, and the attention paid by Hebraists to contemporary Jews and Judaism. These works also present new perspectives on the study of religion, developments in the field of anthropology and ethnography, and on internal Christian debates that arose from the portrayal of Jewish life. Despite the lack of attention by modern scholars, some of these books were extremely popular in their time and represent one of the important ways by which perceptions of Jews were disseminated during the period. The key claim of this study is that, although almost all of the descriptions of Jewish customs and ceremonies are accurate, their authors chose to concentrate mainly on details that portray Jewish ceremonies as anti-Christian, superstitious, and ridiculous and to show the deviation of Judaism from Biblical law. Deutsch argues that such descriptions are better defined as "polemical ethnographies". Nevertheless, he claims that despite their polemical tendency these texts represent a shift from writing about Judaism as a religion to writing about Jews, and from a mode of writing based on stereotypes to one that is based on direct contact and observation.
The Marrano Factory
Author: António José Saraiva
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9789004120808
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 464
Book Description
First published in Portuguese in 1969, this is the only work by Antonio Jose Saraiva available in English and the only single-volume history devoted primarily to the working of the Portuguese Inquisition, a most lucid and compact survey. "The Marrano Factory" argues that the Portuguese Inquisition s stated intention of extirpating heresies and purifying Portuguese Catholicism was a monumental hoax; the true purpose of the Holy Office was the fabrication rather than the destruction of "Judaizers."
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9789004120808
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 464
Book Description
First published in Portuguese in 1969, this is the only work by Antonio Jose Saraiva available in English and the only single-volume history devoted primarily to the working of the Portuguese Inquisition, a most lucid and compact survey. "The Marrano Factory" argues that the Portuguese Inquisition s stated intention of extirpating heresies and purifying Portuguese Catholicism was a monumental hoax; the true purpose of the Holy Office was the fabrication rather than the destruction of "Judaizers."
Hebraic Aspects of the Renaissance
Author: Ilana Zinguer
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004212558
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 309
Book Description
This collection of essays offers a fresh look into Christian-Jewish cultural interactions during the Renaissance and beyond. Christian scholars, it is shown, were deeply immersed in a variety of Hebrew sources, while their Jewish counterparts imbibed the culture of Humanism.
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004212558
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 309
Book Description
This collection of essays offers a fresh look into Christian-Jewish cultural interactions during the Renaissance and beyond. Christian scholars, it is shown, were deeply immersed in a variety of Hebrew sources, while their Jewish counterparts imbibed the culture of Humanism.
Shaking the Pillars of Exile
Author: Talya Fishman
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804728201
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 406
Book Description
This book explores a heretical blueprint for Jewish modernization written by a Venetian rabbi (under cover of pseudonym) in the early seventeenth century, almost two centuries before political emancipation. The analysis of this text, Kol Sakhal ("Voice of a Fool"), highlights the ways in which it harnessed concepts and methods drawn from the texts of rabbinic Judaism itself in order to reform Jewish culture from within. This book thus challenges the assumption that pre-modern Jewish society was culturally monolithic and unquestioningly obedient to rabbinic authority. In so doing, it raises fresh and unsettling questions about the periodization of Jewish history. Like the contemporaneous political and religious struggle that the Republic of Venice was waging against papal Rome, this remarkable Jewish attack on rabbinic authority targetsand revisesboth the traditional historiography of sacred institutions and the legal canon itself. The text's very iconoclasm is shown to derive from the corpus of rabbinic Judaism, for the preservation of certain strains of inquiry in traditional sources makes them a virtual repository of tolerated dissent. Conjecture about the possible influence that a recently discovered work by a heretical Iberian Jewish convert to Catholicism may have had on the composition of "Voice of a Fool" leads to a discussion of the types of heterodoxy that threatened rabbinic Jewish communities in Italy and elsewhere in the early modern period. Reflections on the significance of the mask adopted by the text's author and on his (false) claim that the work was composed in 1500 in Spain facilitate speculation about his motives in trying to reinvent history. The second half of the book presents the first annotated English translation of "Voice of a Fool." Three appendixes analyze evidence concerning the date and place of the text's composition, the identification of its author, and its various manuscripts.
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804728201
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 406
Book Description
This book explores a heretical blueprint for Jewish modernization written by a Venetian rabbi (under cover of pseudonym) in the early seventeenth century, almost two centuries before political emancipation. The analysis of this text, Kol Sakhal ("Voice of a Fool"), highlights the ways in which it harnessed concepts and methods drawn from the texts of rabbinic Judaism itself in order to reform Jewish culture from within. This book thus challenges the assumption that pre-modern Jewish society was culturally monolithic and unquestioningly obedient to rabbinic authority. In so doing, it raises fresh and unsettling questions about the periodization of Jewish history. Like the contemporaneous political and religious struggle that the Republic of Venice was waging against papal Rome, this remarkable Jewish attack on rabbinic authority targetsand revisesboth the traditional historiography of sacred institutions and the legal canon itself. The text's very iconoclasm is shown to derive from the corpus of rabbinic Judaism, for the preservation of certain strains of inquiry in traditional sources makes them a virtual repository of tolerated dissent. Conjecture about the possible influence that a recently discovered work by a heretical Iberian Jewish convert to Catholicism may have had on the composition of "Voice of a Fool" leads to a discussion of the types of heterodoxy that threatened rabbinic Jewish communities in Italy and elsewhere in the early modern period. Reflections on the significance of the mask adopted by the text's author and on his (false) claim that the work was composed in 1500 in Spain facilitate speculation about his motives in trying to reinvent history. The second half of the book presents the first annotated English translation of "Voice of a Fool." Three appendixes analyze evidence concerning the date and place of the text's composition, the identification of its author, and its various manuscripts.
Marsilio Ficino
Author: Michael J. B. Allen
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9789004118553
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 536
Book Description
This volume consists of 21 essays on Marsilio Ficino (1433-99), the Florentine scholar-philosopher-magus-priest who was the architect of Renaissance Platonism. They cast fascinating new light on his theology, philosophy, and psychology as well as on his influence and sources.
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9789004118553
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 536
Book Description
This volume consists of 21 essays on Marsilio Ficino (1433-99), the Florentine scholar-philosopher-magus-priest who was the architect of Renaissance Platonism. They cast fascinating new light on his theology, philosophy, and psychology as well as on his influence and sources.