Opening the Gates of Interpretation

Opening the Gates of Interpretation PDF Author: Mordechai Z. Cohen
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004189327
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 597

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Book Description
This study highlights the contributions of the great philosopher-talmudist Moses Maimonides to the rationalist, “plain sense” (peshat) tradition of Jewish Bible exegesis, assessing his place in the Geonic-Andalusian school and showing how he harnessed Greco-Arabic learning to open new hermeneutical possibilities.

Opening the Gates of Interpretation

Opening the Gates of Interpretation PDF Author: Mordechai Z. Cohen
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004189327
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 597

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Book Description
This study highlights the contributions of the great philosopher-talmudist Moses Maimonides to the rationalist, “plain sense” (peshat) tradition of Jewish Bible exegesis, assessing his place in the Geonic-Andalusian school and showing how he harnessed Greco-Arabic learning to open new hermeneutical possibilities.

The Rule of Peshat

The Rule of Peshat PDF Author: Mordechai Z. Cohen
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812252128
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description
An exploration of the theoretical underpinnings of the philological method of Jewish Bible interpretation known as peshat Within the rich tradition of Jewish biblical interpretation, few concepts are as vital as peshat, often rendered as the "plain sense" of Scripture. Generally contrasted with midrash—the creative and at times fanciful mode of reading put forth by the rabbis of Late Antiquity—peshat came to connote the systematic, philological-contextual, and historically sensitive analysis of the Hebrew Bible, coupled with an appreciation of the text's literary quality. In The Rule of "Peshat," Mordechai Z. Cohen explores the historical, geographical, and theoretical underpinnings of peshat as it emerged between 900 and 1270. Adopting a comparative approach that explores Jewish interactions with Muslim and Christian learning, Cohen sheds new light on the key turns in the vibrant medieval tradition of Jewish Bible interpretation. Beginning in the tenth century, Jews in the Middle East drew upon Arabic linguistics and Qur'anic study to open new avenues of philological-literary exegesis. This Judeo-Arabic school later moved westward, flourishing in al-Andalus in the eleventh century. At the same time, a revolutionary peshat school was pioneered in northern France by the Ashkenazic scholar Rashi and his circle of students, whose methods are illuminated by contemporaneous trends in Latinate learning in the Cathedral Schools of France. Cohen goes on to explore the heretofore little-known Byzantine Jewish exegetical tradition, basing his examination on recently discovered eleventh-century commentaries and their offshoots in southern Italy in the twelfth century. Lastly, this study focuses on three pivotal figures who represent the culmination of the medieval Jewish exegetical tradition: Abraham Ibn Ezra, Moses Maimonides, and Moses Nahmanides. Cohen weaves together disparate Jewish disciplines and external cultural influences through chapters that trace the increasing force acquired by the peshat model until it could be characterized, finally, as the "rule of peshat": the central, defining feature of Jewish hermeneutics into the modern period.

Interpreting Scriptures in Judaism, Christianity and Islam

Interpreting Scriptures in Judaism, Christianity and Islam PDF Author: Mordechai Z. Cohen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316546160
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 399

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Book Description
This comparative study traces Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scriptural interpretation from antiquity to modernity, with special emphasis on the pivotal medieval period. It focuses on three areas: responses in the different faith traditions to tensions created by the need to transplant scriptures into new cultural and linguistic contexts; changing conceptions of the literal sense and its importance vis-à-vis non-literal senses, such as the figurative, spiritual, and midrashic; and ways in which classical rhetoric and poetics informed - or were resisted in - interpretation. Concentrating on points of intersection, the authors bring to light previously hidden aspects of methods and approaches in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. This volume opens new avenues for interdisciplinary analysis and will benefit scholars and students of biblical studies, religious studies, medieval studies, Islamic studies, Jewish studies, comparative religions, and theory of interpretation.

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.

The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion

The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion PDF Author: Adele Berlin
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199730040
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 962

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Book Description
"The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion has been the go-to resource for students, scholars, and researchers in Judaic Studies since its 1997 publication. Now, The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion, Second Edition focuses on recent and changing rituals in the Jewish community that have come to the fore since the 1997 publication of the first edition, including the growing trend of baby-naming ceremonies and the founding of gay/lesbian synagogues. Under the editorship of Adele Berlin, nearly 200 internationally renowned scholars have created a new edition that incorporates updated bibliographies, biographies of 20th-century individuals who have shaped the recent thought and history of Judaism, and an index with alternate spellings of Hebrew terms. Entries from the previous edition have been be revised, new entries commissioned, and cross-references added, all to increase ease of navigation research." -- Provided by publisher.

Rashi, Biblical Interpretation, and Latin Learning in Medieval Europe

Rashi, Biblical Interpretation, and Latin Learning in Medieval Europe PDF Author: Mordechai Z. Cohen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108609023
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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Book Description
In this volume, Mordechai Z. Cohen explores the interpretive methods of Rashi of Troyes (1040–1105), the most influential Jewish Bible commentator of all time. By elucidating the 'plain sense' (peshat) of Scripture, together with critically selected midrashic interpretations, Rashi created an approach that was revolutionary in the talmudically-oriented Ashkenazic milieu. Cohen contextualizes Rashi's commentaries by examining influences from other centers of Jewish learning in Muslim Spain and Byzantine lands. He also opens new scholarly paths by comparing Rashi's methods with trends in Latin learning reflected in the Psalms commentary of his older contemporary, Saint Bruno the Carthusian (1030–1101). Drawing upon the Latin tradition of enarratio poetarum ('interpreting the poets'), Bruno applied a grammatical interpretive method and incorporated patristic commentary selectively, a parallel that Cohen uses to illuminate Rashi's exegetical values. Cohen thereby brings to light the novel literary conceptions manifested by Rashi and his key students, Josef Qara and Rashbam.

Nahmanides

Nahmanides PDF Author: Moshe Halbertal
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300257015
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 451

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Book Description
A broad, systematic account of one of the most original and creative kabbalists, biblical interpreters, and Talmudic scholars the Jewish tradition has ever producedRabbi Moses b. Nahman (1194–1270), known in English as Nahmanides, was the greatest Talmudic scholar of the thirteenth century and one of the deepest and most original biblical interpreters. Beyond his monumental scholastic achievements, Nahmanides was a distinguished kabbalist and mystic, and in his commentary on the Torah he dispensed esoteric kabbalistic teachings that he termed “By Way of Truth.”This broad, systematic account of Nahmanides’s thought explores his conception of halakhah and his approach to the central concerns of medieval Jewish thought, including notions of God, history, revelation, and the reasons for the commandments. The relationship between Nahmanides’s kabbalah and mysticism and the existential religious drive that nourishes them, as well as the legal and exoteric aspects of his thinking, are at the center of Moshe Halbertal’s portrayal of Nahmanides as a complex and transformative thinker.

Print, Power, and Cultural Hegemony

Print, Power, and Cultural Hegemony PDF Author: Federico Dal Bo
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3111393151
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
Federico Dal Bo examines the design of early Hebrew books from the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, focusing not only on the words in these early books but also on how they were arranged on the page. He follows in the tradition of scholars such as Christopher de Hamel, Marvin J. Heller, and David Stern, who have explored the importance of these Hebrew books in influencing Jewish learning and attracting the interest of Christians. The author discusses important prints, such as the first Talmud and rabbinical bibles, which marked a shift from being for Jewish readers only to being for both Jews and Christians. The collaboration between Jewish editors and Christian printers changed the way these books looked and the audience for whom they were intended. At first, these early prints copied the style of handwritten Hebrew manuscripts. The simple layout could be difficult to read, especially for long books like the Bible or Talmud. But over time, influenced by the humanism of the Italian Renaissance, the layout became more complex. The book also looks at how the layout changed from full-page commentaries to a more complicated design in which the main text and commentaries shared the same page. This shift challenged the idea of who was the primary author and emphasized the role of editors. The layout, with the main text in the center and the commentaries on the sides, created a kind of unwritten rule for how to read religious texts. Dal Bo's study also includes new information about a 1553 trial in which the Talmud was burned. Overall, it explores how the layout of these early Hebrew books shaped cultural power and influenced how people read.

The Temple of Jerusalem: From Moses to the Messiah

The Temple of Jerusalem: From Moses to the Messiah PDF Author: Steven Fine
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004214712
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 421

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Book Description
The Temple of Jerusalem: From Moses to the Messiah brings together an interdisciplinary and broad-ranging international community of scholars to discuss aspects of the history and continued life of the Jerusalem Temple in Western culture, from biblical times to the present. This volume is the fruit of the inaugural conference of the Yeshiva University Center for Israel Studies, which convened in New York City on May 11-12, 2008 and honors Professor Louis H. Feldman, Abraham Wouk Family Professor of Classics and Literature at Yeshiva University. Feldman is the doyen of modern scholarship on Judaism in the Greco-Roman period, focusing on the writings of Flavius Josephus. A beloved mentor to generations of Yeshiva University students and of scholars across the globe, Professor Feldman has taught at YU since 1955. "The articles are consistently of high quality. This book is highly recommended for any academic collection in Jewish studies." Jim Rosenbloom, Judaica Librarian, Brandeis University; President, Association of Jewish Libraries

Signs of Salvation

Signs of Salvation PDF Author: Mark Randall James
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1725261685
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
Peter Ochs is one of today’s most influential Jewish philosophers and the cofounder of the practice of Scriptural Reasoning. Signs of Salvation: A Festschrift for Peter Ochs celebrates Ochs’ deep and wide-ranging contributions to theology, philosophy, interreligious dialogue, and conflict resolution studies. The volume offers a rich and rigorous introduction to Peter Ochs’ extensive body of work and his philosophy of scriptural pragmatism. In addition, it presents engaging essays by Ochs’ colleagues, friends, and former students, who reflect on the impact his work has had on their academic field and their own thought. Contributors raise questions about the task of philosophy and the nature of reasoning, the appropriate function and limits of the Western academy, the practice of Scriptural Reasoning and its significance for interreligious dialogue, and the future of modern theology. With contributions from: Robert Gibbs Nicholas Adams Daniel Weiss Jim Fodor Jacob Goodson Emily Filler Rumi Ahmed Basit Koshul Nauman Faizi Rachel Muers Eliot Wolfson Steven Kepnes Shaul Magid Mike Higton Tom Greggs Susannah Ticciati Stanley Hauerwas