Hasil untuk "Judaism"

P. Hyman

"The Jews of Modern France" explores the endlessly complex encounter of France and its Jews from just before the Revolution to the eve of the twenty-first century. In the late eighteenth century, some forty thousand Jews lived in scattered communities on the peripheries of the French state, not considered French by others or by themselves. Two hundred years later, in 1989, France celebrated the anniversary of the Revolution with the largest, most vital Jewish population in western and central Europe. Paula Hyman looks closely at the period that began when France's Jews were offered citizenship during the Revolution. She shows how they and succeeding generations embraced the opportunities of integration and acculturation, redefined their identities, adapted their Judaism to the pragmatic and ideological demands of the time, and participated fully in French culture and politics. Within this same period, Jews in France fell victim to a secular political antisemitism that mocked the gains of emancipation, culminating first in the Dreyfus Affair and later in the murder of one-fourth of them in the Holocaust. Yet up to the present day, through successive waves of immigration, Jews have asserted the compatibility of their French identity with various versions of Jewish particularity, including Zionism. This remarkable view in microcosm of the modern Jewish experience will interest general readers and scholars alike.

Franka Marquardt

Seyed Hossein Biriyai

In recent centuries, the newly discovered Jewish and Christian books, following the critical approach to the content of the Bible, which was one of the consequences of the Age of Enlightenment, led to a revision of the history and teachings of these religions. In fact, the researchers tried to approach a comprehensive and harmonious reading of the mentioned religions by using the discovered sources. In the meantime, although it is possible to use some data from Islamic sources as an efficient reference, it has not been paid much attention to. The common opinion about this sort of information in Islamic tradition is that according to the common belief of Muslims, all of them were received from the supernatural channel and therefore have no historical value; therefore, it cannot be helpful in solving the problem.  In the first step, this article has paid attention to the Qur'an, and based on the traditions, it has been guided to the inadmissibility of the historical approach to its verses; then the hadiths have been investigated, and the possibility of a historical approach toward them has been proved. In this regard, all traditions related to the history of religions were systematically identified, and their position was understood and determined; then, with the tool of the reference library collection and descriptive-analytical method, narrative reasons and evidence as well as its historical evidence were collected. In the end, the present study achieved four results of having the historical approach to hadiths. It seems that expressing a different report, confirming the contents of the Bible, supplementing the data in the mentioned books and reflecting a new report are the main results of the historical approach to religious traditions that will be effective in the research related to the Bible.

Michael Nosonovsky

I compare the status of a sacred language in two very different religious traditions. In Judaism, the Hebrew language is the language of liturgy, prayer, and the Written Law. The traditional way of reading Torah passages involved translating them into Aramaic, the everyday language of communication in the Middle East in the first half of the first millennium CE. Later, other Jewish languages, such as Yiddish, played a role similar to that of Aramaic in the Talmudic period, constituting a system referred to as the “Traditional Jewish Bilingualism”. Hebrew lexemes had denotations related to the realm of Biblical texts, while Aramaic/Yiddish lexemes had everyday references. Therefore, the act of translation connected the two realms or domains. The <i>Lucumí</i> (Santería) Afro-Cuban religion is a syncretic tradition combining Roman Catholicism with the <i>Ifá</i> tradition, which does not have a corpus of written sacred texts, however, it has its sacred language, the Lucumí (Anagó) language related to the Yoruba language of West Africa. While the Spanish-Lucumí bilingualism plays an important role in Santería rituals, the mechanisms of reference are very different from those of the Hebrew-Yiddish bilingualism in Judaism. In Santería, divinations about the meaning of Lucumí words play a role similar to the translations from Hebrew in Judaism. I further discuss the role of ritual dances in Santería for the transition from the sacred to the secular domain and a function of Hebrew epitaphs to connect the ideal world of Hebrew sacred texts to the everyday life of a Jewish community.

Teigan Goldsmith

Sara Moscone

Petrus Comestor’s Historia Scholastica is a broad biblical rewriting composed ca. 1160 in the milieu of the cathedral school of Paris and the abbey of St. Victor. Also known as the ‘popular Bible’, it was considered a pivotal biblical manual until the mid-16th century, as the over 800 extant manuscripts show. For his wide-raging work, Comestor uses a variegated pool of sources, among which one of the most important is Flavius Josephus, known to Comestor through its Latin translation. The use of Josephus in the Historia is unique in its extent and has received some scholarly attention, but further research ought to be made. This article highlights how Comestor not only uses the Jewish Antiquities to fill in the gaps in the biblical narrative, for example integrating the account of the Binding of Isaac with indirect speech between father and son extrapolated from the Antiquities, but also compares them with the Vulgate and the Septuagint, granting them the same authority to establish the historical truth of biblical history. Passages from the Historia Genesis and Exodi are analyzed to show how Comestor goes out of his way to reconcile Josephus’ account and the Vulgate, showing the remarkable authority which the Jewish historian has in his eyes.

Isaac Calvert

Research in Jewish studies as well as key passages from Judaism’s sacred texts describe teaching and learning as being among the most important, efficacious and sacred of God’s commandments. However, while this description is well-documented, the specific dynamics of education’s role within a framework of Judaic holiness remains underexplored. This article first lays a thorough foundation of Judaic sanctity, illustrating a theistic axiom at its core surrounded by several peripheral elements, including connection to God, knowledge of God, holiness as invitation, reciprocal holiness, awakening sacred potentiality and, as the purpose and apex of the entire system, <i>imitatio dei.</i> Having illustrated <i>imitatio dei</i> as a culminating purpose atop the entire system of Judaic holiness, I describe how teaching and learning as prescribed in sacred Jewish texts can be a potent means of achieving this end. Considering that teaching and learning are called <i>kaneged kulam,</i> or equal to all the other commandments of Judaism combined, I argue that education conducted in sacred ways prescribed by Jewish scripture can be considered among Judaism’s most sacred commandments, as well as a most efficacious means of realizing <i>imitatio dei</i> within a Jewish frame.

Patricia Snell Herzog, David P. King, Rafia A. Khader et al.

This paper seeks to advance the global study of religiosity and spirituality by conducting a meta-analysis of major approaches in the field. While the field, and thus the collected publications, are dominated by Western approaches, particular attention is paid in this analysis to publications from geographies that are not from the United States or Western Europe, especially these world regions: Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Similarly, while the study of religiosity is considerably centered around Christianity, this analysis extends beyond Christianity, to the extent possible in extant studies, to include publications investigating other world religious traditions, such as African spirituality, African witchcraft, Afro-Caribbean religious traditions, Buddhism, Confucianism, folk religions, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Mormonism, Neo-paganism, New Religious Movements (NRMs), Shamanism, Sikhism, Spiritism, Taoism, and spirituality generally. A total of 530 publications were reviewed, and the studies are categorized by unit of analysis into: Macro, micro, and meso-level. Measurement constructs include religious demography, culture, belonging, behaving, believing, bonding, religious salience, spiritual identities, religious networks, occupations, congregations, denominations, and faith-based organizations. Non-Western sources and approaches are analyzed toward furthering future research in under-studied world regions. Implications are drawn for the field, such as the need to geo-code publications at the country level.

Christensen Carsten Sander

The Book of Job and the story of Joseph, Son of Jacob, are both renowned as some of the greatest masterpieces, not only in the Bible, but also in all of the world literature ever. The text was written down in the sphere of ancient Israel’s perception of culture, religion and understanding of life. However, the Book of Job is one of the most mysterious scriptures in the Bible. Together with the two other Wisdom Books of the Old Testament – Proverbs and the Ecclesiastes – it is a unique text of the fundamental meaning of faith and justice in the Holy Book. In this article, the author tries to analyse some of the most profound theological and philosophical questions raised in the book of Job, by telling the story of Job from the land of Uz in the frame of the culture and religion of ancient Israel. Moreover, the question how the Book of Job is relevant for mankind in our days will be asked. The question will be tried answered through an analysis of the Russian movie “Leviathan” by the director Andrey Zvyagintsev.

Saverio Campanini

Johannes Buxtorf the Younger’s Latin translation of the Guide of the Perplexed (1629) is studied in its bibliographical, linguistic and paratextual features. The translator’s preface is analyzed in detail highlighting the peculiar intentions of Buxtorf in editing this medieval philosophical work. Its main function is identified by the translator as a mean towards learning Hebrew, although he was well aware that the original language of the Guide was rather Arabic. A specific ideological bias as to the function of the Guide in designing and promoting a “rational” Judaism, compatible with Protestant ideals is detected among the most interesting motives of this translation, one which would be destined to a long fortune among Christian Hebraists of the subsequent epochs.

Ruth Illman, Karin Hedner Zetterholm

Ledare för nummer 27/2 av Nordisk judaistik. Editorial for issue 27/2 of Scandinavian Jewish Studies

Tomasz M. Jankowski

The article is the first part of statistical analysis of marriage records of Jewish people from Piotrk&oacute;w Trybunalski for the period of 1808&ndash;1870. The author rises issues related to the age of entering into a marriage taking into consideration: social and economicfactors, permanent celibacy, prospective spouses&rsquo; origins, seasonality, and remarriage patterns. One of the most significant conclusions is the age of concluding a marriage which is the first one for both parties, it is assigned about 20 for women and 22 for men &ndash; distinctly lower than in non-Jewish urban communities in the 19th century, like in Piotrk&oacute;w Trybunalski. The author points out diversity in matrimonial customs among Jewish communities of Poland of that time. The statistical evidence from Piotrk&oacute;w Trybunalski does not provide full explanation of the observed differences. Both frequent marriages of widowers with single women, and the duration of widowhood among the group being studied fit into a model investigated in other (non-Jewish) communities, and are contrary to traditional Judaism recommendations.

Mariusz Rosik

Aphrahat, called the Persian Sage, was a Syriac-Christian of the 3-rd / 4-th century from Adiabene region of Persian Empire. He is an author of twenty-three sermons called Demonstrationes (sometimes also Homiliae). Almost half of them are concerned with the religion of Jews. It seems that some Christians in the Persian Church wanted to become Jews or to return to Judaism, or to incorporate Jewish traditions into Christianity In the article the author presents the main characteristics of Aphrahat’s view on Judaism. The Persian Sage is convinced that God had rejected one nation Israel and He choose Christians from many nations. His view on Judaism was one of the impulses to so-called theologia substitutionis.

Đurić Drago

In this paper, we will try to offer a blueprint for a more general discussion of the relation of how the question of religious tolerance appears in two documents that the Christian and Islamic traditions recognize and celebrate: namely, the Edict of Milan and the Constitution of Medina. These documents were revolutionary for their time. However, these documents alone, as well as religious teachings, on which they are based, cannot be the measure of relations in our time. They are presented in the conceptual framework and value system that prevailed at the time when these teachings and documents were created. Many relations the documents refer to no longer exist. For example, while the Edict of Milan affirms the general right to religion, and the Constitution of Medina affirms the mutual tolerance for Abrahamic, monotheistic religions - people who now declare themselves as atheists or agnostics are not even mentioned.

Lluís BALLESTER BRAGE, Antoni J. COLOM CAÑELLAS

The authors analyze the 16 early writings that W. Benjamin wrote between the ages of 19 and 23, all of which relate to educative matters, and where the decisive influence of G. Wyneken is shown. The issues that the young Walter Benjamin addresses are also studied, such as idealism and youth culture, the necessity of reform in schools and universities and also in moral, aesthetic and religious education as well as in juvenile sexuality. However, the most important thing is that in these works one can find the constants that characterize the rest of his production, such as his individualism, his obsession with his own childhood experiences, his contradictions and thematic transitions, his interest in aesthetics and art, the complexity of his work, his agnosticism and his consideration of Judaism as a cultural element, and above all his critical sense and his vocation for criticism which starts to become evident. Somehow in these articles of educative content one can discover many of the constants of what will be the subsequent work of this author.

Sonja K. Pilz

More than twenty years after the immigration of almost 200 000 refugees from the former Soviet Union, the Jewish community in Germany still faces a series of challenges and changes. One of the central questions necessary to define the diasporic nature of its diverse streams is that of the communities’ relation to the Land and State of Israel versus their commitment to their historical antecessor of anti-Zionist German Reform Judaism. Based on an analysis of its main prayerbook and of one of its daily prayers, the Amidah (עמידה), this article aims to explore the theology of Progressive Judaism in contemporary Germany. The texts depict a relationship characterized by warmth and the feeling of responsibility – nevertheless, the identity of German Progressive Jews is to a much higher level based on a worldwide connection to Progressive Judaism and the theologies at its heart than on regional loyalty. Thus, Progressive Judaism in Germany serves as an example of contemporary identity operating beyond the common notions of diaspora and homeland, of migration or journeys.

Stephan Marks

La vergüenza es un sentimiento universal, todos los seres humanos la conocen, − aunque tiene manifestaciones diferentes dependiendo de la cultura a la que se pertenece y según sí se es hombre o mujer. La vergüenza es un sentimiento “casero“ y torturador, que difícilmente se puede describir con palabras. Está íntimamente ligada a reacciones corporales como el sonrojo. Cuando nos avergonzamos nos sentimos como atropellados. Perdemos, por lo menos temporalmente, la serenidad y el autocontrol.

M. Walzer

Shalem Yahalom

Este estudio analiza el conflicto en torno al carácter de la oración de Roš ha-Šaná en el Sermón de Na?mánides (Rambán). Acre albergaba en el siglo XIII academias talmúdicas rivales, y en su Sermón de Roš ha-Šaná, Rambán confronta a las figuras fundacionales de la congregación tosafista de esa ciudad. Su controversia con sabios coetáneos puede leerse entre líneas y, a excepción de alguna otra referencia a otros asuntos, la mayor parte de su exposición halájica, junto a la manera en la que el material expuesto ha sido elegido, se dedica a combatir las decisiones de aquéllos. En sus Novellae, Rambán no había dudado en discutir tanto las decisiones halájicas tosafistas como las gueónico-andalusíes, pero en el sermón prefiere subrayar sus reservas acerca de aquéllas. De manera simultánea, el impulso de los tosafistas llegaba a su fin, pero las enseñanzas de Rambán florecían, y muchas innovaciones talmúdicas quedaron recogidas en Novellae de Rambán y de sus discípulos. Este trasvase constituye un punto de inflexión en el estudio del Talmud y, por ello, el enfrentamiento entre las academias de Acre puede verse como un microcosmos de ese proceso.

J. Guttmann, R. Werblowsky, D. W. Silverman