Holy Men and Hunger Artists

Holy Men and Hunger Artists PDF Author: Eliezer Diamond
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195137507
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 239

Get Book Here

Book Description
The existence of ascetic elements within rabbinic Judaism has generally been either overlooked or actually denied. Diamond shows that rabbinic asceticism does indeed exist. This asceticism is mainly secondary, rather than primary, in that the rabbis place no value on self-denial in and of itself.

Holy Men and Hunger Artists

Holy Men and Hunger Artists PDF Author: Eliezer Diamond
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195137507
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 239

Get Book Here

Book Description
The existence of ascetic elements within rabbinic Judaism has generally been either overlooked or actually denied. Diamond shows that rabbinic asceticism does indeed exist. This asceticism is mainly secondary, rather than primary, in that the rabbis place no value on self-denial in and of itself.

Demonic Desires

Demonic Desires PDF Author: Ishay Rosen-Zvi
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812204204
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 265

Get Book Here

Book Description
In Demonic Desires, Ishay Rosen-Zvi examines the concept of yetzer hara, or evil inclination, and its evolution in biblical and rabbinic literature. Contrary to existing scholarship, which reads the term under the rubric of destructive sexual desire, Rosen-Zvi contends that in late antiquity the yetzer represents a general tendency toward evil. Rather than the lower bodily part of a human, the rabbinic yetzer is a wicked, sophisticated inciter, attempting to snare humans to sin. The rabbinic yetzer should therefore not be read in the tradition of the Hellenistic quest for control over the lower parts of the psyche, writes Rosen-Zvi, but rather in the tradition of ancient Jewish and Christian demonology. Rosen-Zvi conducts a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the some one hundred and fifty appearances of the evil yetzer in classical rabbinic literature to explore the biblical and postbiblical search for the sources of human sinfulness. By examining the yetzer within a specific demonological tradition, Demonic Desires places the yetzer discourse in the larger context of a move toward psychologization in late antiquity, in which evil—and even demons—became internalized within the human psyche. The book discusses various manifestations of this move in patristic and monastic material, from Clement and Origin to Antony, Athanasius, and Evagrius. It concludes with a consideration of the broader implications of the yetzer discourse in rabbinic anthropology.

The Mishnaic Sotah Ritual

The Mishnaic Sotah Ritual PDF Author: Ishay Rosen-Zvi
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004227989
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 302

Get Book Here

Book Description
This study analyzes the specific textual formation of Mishna Sotah. Diverging significantly from its origins in the book of Numbers, the Mishnaic ritual was traditionally read by scholars as an "ancient Mishna", narrating an actual ritual practiced in the second temple. In contrast to this generally accepted view, this book claims that while Sotah does contain some traditions, its overall composition has a clear ideological and academic form. Furthermore, comparisons with parallel Tannaitic sources reveal the ideological redaction, which carefully selected only those opinions which support its rewriting of the ritual as a public punitive ritual, while rejecting all reservations and opposition to its specific punitive character – even ignoring the possibility of innocence of the suspected adulteress. The author’s groundbreaking conclusion is that, regardless of the form the real ritual did or did not take at the temple, the specific Mishnaic ritual was (re)invented by the rabbis in the second century C.E. From its very inception, it was purely textual, reflecting rabbinic imagination rather than memory.

Saints and Sanctity in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Saints and Sanctity in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam PDF Author: Alexandre Coello de la Rosa
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351391291
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Get Book Here

Book Description
A common objective of saint veneration in all three Abrahamic religions is the recovery and perpetuation of the collective memory of the saint. Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all yield intriguing similarities and differences in their respective conceptions of sanctity. This edited collection explores the various literary and cultural productions associated with the cult of saints and pious figures, as well as the socio-historical contexts in which sainthood operates, in order to better understand the role of saints in monotheistic religions. Using comparative religious and anthropological approaches, an international panel of contributors guides the reader through three main concerns. They describe and illuminate the ways in which sanctity is often configured. In addition, the diverse cultural manifestations of the cult of the saints are examined and analysed. Finally, the various religious, social, and political functions that saints came to play in numerous societies are compared and contrasted. This ambitious study covers sanctity from the Middle Ages until the contemporary period, and has a geographical scope that includes Europe, Central Asia, North Africa, the Americas, and the Asian Pacific. As such, it will be of use to scholars of the history of religions, religious pluralism, and interreligious dialogue, as well as students of sainthood and hagiography.

Early Christian Monastic Literature and the Babylonian Talmud

Early Christian Monastic Literature and the Babylonian Talmud PDF Author: Michal Bar-Asher Siegal
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107023017
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 245

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book examines literary analogies in Christian and Jewish sources, culminating in an in-depth analysis of connections between Christian monastic texts and Babylonian Talmudic traditions.

The Oldest Cure in the World

The Oldest Cure in the World PDF Author: Steve Hendricks
Publisher: Abrams
ISBN: 1647000025
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 525

Get Book Here

Book Description
“An illuminating exploration of the rich and varied history—and myriad health benefits—of fasting.” —Wall Street Journal When should we eat, and when shouldn’t we? The answers to these simple questions are not what you might expect. As Steve Hendricks shows in The Oldest Cure in the World, stop eating long enough, and you’ll set in motion cellular repairs that can slow aging and prevent and reverse diseases like diabetes and hypertension. Fasting has improved the lives of people with epilepsy, asthma, and arthritis, and has even protected patients from the worst of chemotherapy’s side effects. But for such an elegant and effective treatment, fasting has had a surprisingly long and fraught history. From the earliest days of humanity and the Greek fathers of medicine through Christianity’s “fasting saints” and a 19th-century doctor whose stupendous 40-day fast on a New York City stage inaugurated the modern era of therapeutic fasting, Hendricks takes readers on a rich and comprehensive tour. Threaded throughout are Hendricks’s own adventures in fasting, including a stay at a luxurious fasting clinic in Germany and in a more spartan one closer to home in Northern California. This is a playful, insightful, and persuasive exploration of our bodies and when we should—and should not—feed them.

Sexuality in the Babylonian Talmud

Sexuality in the Babylonian Talmud PDF Author: Yishai Kiel
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316797260
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 313

Get Book Here

Book Description
Within this close textual analysis of the Babylonian Talmud, Yishai Kiel explores rabbinic discussions of sex in light of cultural assumptions and dispositions that pervaded the cultures of late antiquity and particularly the Iranian world. By negotiating the Iranian context of the rabbinic discussion alongside the Christian backdrop, this groundbreaking volume presents a balanced and nuanced portrayal of the rabbinic discourse on sexuality and situates rabbinic discussions of sex more broadly at the crossroads of late antique cultures. The study is divided into two thematic sections: the first centers on the broader aspects of rabbinic discourse on sexuality while the second hones in on rabbinic discussions of sexual prohibitions and the classification of permissible and prohibited partnerships, with particular attention to rabbinic discussions of incest. Essential reading for scholars and graduate students of Judaic studies, early Christianity, and Iranian studies, as well as those interested in religious studies and comparative religion.

What Is the Mishnah?

What Is the Mishnah? PDF Author: Shaye J. D. Cohen
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674278771
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 545

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Mishnah is the foundational document of rabbinic Judaism—rabbinic law is based on the Talmud which, in turn, is based on the Mishnah. Yet its sources, genre, and purpose are obscure. What Is the Mishnah? collects papers by leading scholars from the United States, Europe, and Israel and gives a clear sense of the direction of Mishnah studies.

New Approaches to the Study of Biblical Interpretation in Judaism of the Second Temple Period and in Early Christianity

New Approaches to the Study of Biblical Interpretation in Judaism of the Second Temple Period and in Early Christianity PDF Author: Gary Anderson
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004207430
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 317

Get Book Here

Book Description
This volume illustrates the ways in which the discovery of the scrolls has altered our paradigms of biblical interpretation, investigating connections within and between Jewish and Christian interpretive texts.

Hermeneutics of Holiness

Hermeneutics of Holiness PDF Author: Naomi Koltun-Fromm
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019988997X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 326

Get Book Here

Book Description
In Hermeneutics of Holiness , Naomi Koltun-Fromm examines the ancient nexus of holiness and sexuality and explores its roots in the biblical texts as well as its manifestations throughout ancient and late-ancient Judaism and early Syriac Christianity. In the process, she tells the story of how the biblical notions of "holy person" and "holy community" came to be defined by the sexual and marriage practices of various interpretive communities in late antiquity. Koltun-Fromm seeks to explain why sexuality, especially sexual restraint, became a primary demarcation of sacred community boundaries among Jews and Christians in fourth-century Persian-Mesopotamia. She charts three primary manifestations of holiness: holiness ascribed, holiness achieved, and holiness acquired through ritual purity. Hermeneutics of Holiness traces the development of these three concepts, from their origin in the biblical texts to the Second Temple literature (both Jewish and Christian) to the Syriac Christian and rabbinic literature of the fourth century. In so doing, this book establishes the importance of biblical interpretation for late ancient Jewish and Christian practices, the centrality of holiness as a category for self-definition, and the relationship of fourth-century asceticism to biblical texts and interpretive history.