Jewish Mystical Leaders and Leadership in the 13th Century

Jewish Mystical Leaders and Leadership in the 13th Century PDF Author: Moshe Idel
Publisher: Jason Aronson, Incorporated
ISBN: 1461629160
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
To find more information about Rowman & Littlefield titles please visit us at www.rowmanlittlefield.com.

Jewish Mystical Leaders and Leadership in the 13th Century

Jewish Mystical Leaders and Leadership in the 13th Century PDF Author: Moshe Idel
Publisher: Jason Aronson, Incorporated
ISBN: 1461629160
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
To find more information about Rowman & Littlefield titles please visit us at www.rowmanlittlefield.com.

Regional Identities and Cultures of Medieval Jews

Regional Identities and Cultures of Medieval Jews PDF Author: Javier Castano
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
ISBN: 1786949903
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 363

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Book Description
The origins of Judaism’s regional ‘subcultures’ are poorly understood, as are Jewish identities other than ‘Ashkenaz’ and ‘Sepharad’. Through case studies and close textual readings, this volume illuminates the role of geopolitical boundaries, cross-cultural influences, and migration in the medieval formation of Jewish regional identities.

Suffering Time: Philosophical, Kabbalistic, and Ḥasidic Reflections on Temporality

Suffering Time: Philosophical, Kabbalistic, and Ḥasidic Reflections on Temporality PDF Author: Elliot R. Wolfson
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004449345
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 799

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Book Description
No one theory of time is pursued in the essays of this volume, but a major theme that threads them together is Wolfson’s signature idea of the timeswerve as a linear circularity or a circular linearity, expressions that are meant to avoid the conventional split between the two temporal modalities of the line and the circle.

Entangled Histories

Entangled Histories PDF Author: Elisheva Baumgarten
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812248686
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
Entangled Histories: Knowledge, Authority, and Jewish Culture in the Thirteenth Century provides a multifaceted account of Jewish life in Europe and the Mediterranean basin at a time when economic, cultural, and intellectual encounters coincided with heightened interfaith animosity.

Sacred Trash

Sacred Trash PDF Author: Adina Hoffman
Publisher: Schocken
ISBN: 080521223X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD FINALIST WINNER OF THE 2012 AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION’S SOPHIE BRODY AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN JEWISH LITERATURE Sacred Trash tells the remarkable story of the Cairo Geniza—a synagogue repository for worn-out texts that turned out to contain the most vital cache of Jewish manuscripts ever discovered. This tale of buried communal treasure weaves together unforgettable portraits of Solomon Schechter and the other modern heroes responsible for the collection’s rescue with explorations of the medieval documents themselves—letters and poems, wills and marriage contracts, Bibles, money orders, fiery dissenting religious tracts, fashion-conscious trousseaux lists, prescriptions, petitions, and mysterious magical charms. Presenting a pan­oramic view of almost a thousand years of vibrant Mediterranean Judaism, Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole bring contemporary readers into the heart of this little-known trove, whose contents have rightly been dubbed “the Living Sea Scrolls.” Part biography, part meditation on the supreme value the Jewish people has long placed in the written word, Sacred Trash is above all a gripping tale of adventure and redemption. (With black-and-white illustrations throughout.)

The Cultures of Maimonideanism

The Cultures of Maimonideanism PDF Author: James T. Robinson
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9047427963
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 452

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Book Description
In the history of Jewish thought, no individual scholar has exercised more influence than Maimonides (1138-1204) – philosopher and physician, legal scholar and communal leader. This collection of papers, originating at the 2007 EAJS colloquium, places primary emphasis on this influence – not on Maimonides himself but the many movements he inspired. Using Maimonideanism as an interpretive lens, the authors of this volume – representing a variety of fields and disciplines – develop new approaches to and fresh perspectives on the peculiar dynamic of Judaism and philosophy. Focusing on social and cultural processes as well as philosophical ideas and arguments, they point toward an original reconceptualization of Jewish thought.

From Something to Nothing

From Something to Nothing PDF Author: Harry Fox
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527535037
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 562

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Book Description
Jewish mysticism approaches God as no-thing or nothing, reflecting Judaism’s traditional identification of God as incorporeal. Whereas technical philosophical language often employed to discuss Jewish mysticism has a tendency to ward off otherwise interested readers, this study sufficiently breaks down the technical language of Jewish mysticism in its various expressions to allow a beginner to benefit from what may otherwise be indescribable and only approached by consideration of what is not rather than what is. Integral to the title, From Something to Nothing, is the concept that God cannot be something, because that would be restricting, so God is simply no-thing. Ironically, the conventional religious expression for the biblical notion of creation is “something from nothing”, whereas the title of this volume is its precise opposite, which may at first seem to be illogical – creation in reverse. However, in a volume dedicated to various deliberations on magic and mysticism, the ultimate reality may receive expression as nothingness, that is, no-thingness, no quality associated with things. What adds to our difficulty today is that nothingness is inextricably linked with silence. Is silence also an element or indication of an ultimate reality or its absence? Or is it merely the reflection of nothing whatsoever? This is at the heart of modern debates between atheists and believers. Believers feel that even this silence speaks to this ultimate reality, whereas atheists claim that if you cannot show it, then you do not know it. In other words, believers are victims of their own wishful thinking. From Something to Nothing memorializes Canadian mystic and scholar Zalman Schachter Shalomi, z”l, engaging in particular aspects that he addressed at some phase of his colourful and erudite life, providing the reader with a broad spectrum of both phenomenological and intellectual topics.

Enlightened Contemporaries

Enlightened Contemporaries PDF Author: Steve Kanji Ruhl
Publisher: Monkfish Book Publishing
ISBN: 1948626144
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 167

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Book Description
Enlightened Contemporaries is the first book to compare the lives and teachings of three of the world's most admired spiritual masters: Francis of Assisi, the Christian saint; Dogen, the great Zen Buddhist teacher; and Rumi, the Islamic Sufi master. They lived during the same turbulent century. They integrated mystical experiences of the sacred into their lives, and they can inspire us to do the same. Enlightened Contemporaries combines robust scholarship with brisk, engaging, lyrical prose. Offering a thorough introduction for the general reader as well as specialists, it will appeal to those who enjoy an interfaith approach to spiritual exploration, one that links Christian, Buddhist, and Islamic mystical teachings within a vibrant historical context and shows how they not only complement each other but remain profoundly relevant in the twenty-first century. Bringing Saint Francis, Dogen, and Rumi vividly to life as complex and compelling human beings, Enlightened Contemporaries lucidly explains their spiritual paths, explores the dynamic age in which these three pioneering teachers struggled and triumphed, and investigates their remarkable poetry. It also deftly examines how Francis, Dogen, and Rumi engaged the world in the context of five shared themes: spiritual love, nature, the body, the role of women, and balancing retreat from society with active involvement. By interweaving the spiritual lives of these Christian, Buddhist, and Muslim teachers, Enlightened Contemporaries will help readers enhance their own lives and find new paths of spiritual understanding.

Like Angels on Jacob's Ladder

Like Angels on Jacob's Ladder PDF Author: Harvey J. Hames
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791479188
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
This book explores the career of Abraham Abulafia (ca. 1240–1291), self-proclaimed Messiah and founder of the school of ecstatic Kabbalah. Active in southern Italy and Sicily where Franciscans had adopted the apocalyptic teachings of Joachim of Fiore, Abulafia believed the end of days was approaching and saw himself as chosen by God to reveal the Divine truth. He appropriated Joachite ideas, fusing them with his own revelations, to create an apocalyptic and messianic scenario that he was certain would attract his Jewish contemporaries and hoped would also convince Christians. From his focus on the centrality of the Tetragrammaton (the four letter ineffable Divine name) to the date of the expected redemption in 1290 and the coming together of Jews and Gentiles in the inclusiveness of the new age, Abulafia's engagement with the apocalyptic teachings of some of his Franciscan contemporaries enriched his own worldview. Though his messianic claims were a result of his revelatory experiences and hermeneutical reading of the Torah, they were, to no small extent, dependent on his historical circumstances and acculturation.

The Rabbi, the Goddess, and Jung

The Rabbi, the Goddess, and Jung PDF Author: Naomi Ruth Lowinsky
Publisher: Fisher King Press
ISBN: 1771690364
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
A sanctuary for the soul—In The Rabbi, the Goddess, and Jung, Naomi Ruth Lowinsky shows us how to create a sacred space by cultivating one’s inner life. Admitting that this is not an easy practice in our hectic, fearful times, she demonstrates how the word from within orients—whether it comes as gift or disturbance, guest or ghost, riddle or revelation. It may force a confrontation with one’s worst fears. It may visit in nightmare images, such as the enormous spider with hairy legs and eight baleful eyes that appeared in a dream, come to warn, it would seem, of the perils facing human nature and Mother Nature. It is essential, especially in difficult times, to make space for what the Kabbalah calls “the beyond that lies within”—the still small voice of the Self, the long view of the wisdom traditions. In this collection of poetic, visionary essays, Lowinsky tells stories of the Lady Tree who showed up when she was six, and has wandered in and out of her life, revealing her Goddess nature. Active imagination enables her to work out unfinished business with ancestors including her father and Jung. Dreams introduce her to her spirit guides, and to a dancing rabbi who insists she study Kabbalah. And that scary spider turns out to be Grandmother Spider, a creator goddess who has the power, if we recognize Her, to help us reweave our relationship with earth.