Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed addressed Jews of his day who felt challenged by apparent contradictions between Torah and science. We Are Not Alone: A Maimonidean Theology of the Other uses Maimonides’ writings to address Jews of today who are perplexed by apparent contradictions between the morality of the Torah andtheir conviction that all human beings are created in the image of God and are the object of divine concern, that other religions have value, that genocid...

This is the first complete translation of Vikuaḥ 'al Ḥokhmat ha-Kabbalah, a literary-philosophical dialogue composed by the great Italian Jewish scholar Samuel David Luzzatto (1800-1865), also known as Shadal. Originally published in Hebrew in 1852, the Dialogue depicts a multi-faceted and acrimonious disputation between two scholars, who debate the authority and authenticity of Jewish mystical traditions. This work subjects Kabbalah, along with its textual centerpiece ...

Over the centuries, the messianic tradition has provided the language through which modern Jewish philosophers, socialists, and Zionists envisioned a utopian future. Michael L. Morgan, Steven Weitzman, and an international group of leading scholars ask new questions and provide new ways of thinking about this enduring Jewish idea. Using the writings of Gershom Scholem, which ranged over the history of messianic belief and its conflicted role in the Jewish imagination, these essays put asid...

A rich study of Jews and Jewish history that offers a unique look at a people who have persevered through unspeakable adversity and have contributed incredible advancements to the world we know today.How have the Jews survived through so many millennia while other civilizations have declined and perished? What qualities mark the culture that has produced Moses, Christ, Spinoza, Marx, Freud, and Einstein?From ancient Palestine through Europe and Asia, to Ame...

The Zohar Bereshith to Lekh Lekhaby Nurho de ManharThe Zohar is a Kabbalistic commentary on the Hebrew Bible."This is the only extensive translation of a portion of the Zohar, the longest and one of the most important texts of the Kabbalah[..]The Zohar is a Kabbalistic commentary on the Hebrew Bible. Long before the 'Bible Code,' Jewish scholars were attempting to wring deep meaning out of every syllable of the text of the Hebrew Bible, using numerology, gema...

Becoming Jewish is the first all-inclusive, step-by-step guide to converting to Judaism. Steven Carr Reuben, a highly respected rabbi, and Jennifer S. Hanin, a convert to the faith, lead readers through the conversion process, providing the right mix of advice, resources and humor for the journey.Jews-to-be often find the steps to Judaism foreign, complex, and mysterious. From learning an ancient language, to entering the mikvah (ritual bath), to choosing a Hebrew name, to circumcis...

In "The Life of Flavius Josephus," the renowned Jewish historian offers a reflective autobiography that provides a multifaceted view of his life, set against the tumultuous backdrop of first-century Judea. Josephus'Äô literary style blends eloquent prose with vivid anecdotes, revealing both his personal experiences and the cultural milieu of Hellenistic and Roman influences surrounding him. This work serves as a crucial historical document, offering insights into the socio-political condit...

A "witty and accessible look at Scripture" that explores what the Bible meant before two millennia of mistranslations and misinterpretations ( Publishers Weekly, starred review).In this fascinating book, acclaimed translator and biblical scholar Dr. Joel M. Hoffman walks the reader through dozens of mistranslations, misconceptions, and other misunderstandings about the Bible. In forty short, straightforward chapters, he covers morality, lifestyle, theology,...

Is Judaism a religion, a culture, a nationality--or a mixture of all of these? In How Judaism Became a Religion, Leora Batnitzky boldly argues that this question more than any other has driven modern Jewish thought since the eighteenth century. This wide-ranging and lucid introduction tells the story of how Judaism came to be defined as a religion in the modern period--and why Jewish thinkers have fought as well as championed this idea.Ever since the Enlightenment, Jewish ...

The Catskills (“Cat Creek” in Dutch), America’s original frontier, northwest of New York City, with its seven hundred thousand acres of forest land preserve and its five counties—Delaware, Greene, Sullivan, Ulster, Schoharie; America’s first great vacationland; the subject of the nineteenth-century Hudson River School paintings that captured the almost godlike majesty of the mountains and landscapes, the skies, waterfalls, pastures, cliffs . . . refuge and home to poets and gangsters, tyco...

Leah Trachtman-Palchan was an ordinary woman who lived an extraordinary life. This was a life of migration, dissent, exile and survival. Born in the final years of Tsarist Russia, her family was forced to leave their small town following the repeated pogroms of the Civil War era. A two year voyage followed, bringing them all to British Mandate Palestine in 1921. Here what seems like a typical Jewish story of migration from Eastern Europe in the early twentieth century took an unexpected tu...

Menaḥem Mendel Schneerson (1902-1994) was the seventh and seemingly last Rebbe of the Habad-Lubavitch dynasty. Marked by conflicting tendencies, Schneerson was a radical messianic visionary who promoted a conservative political agenda, a reclusive contemplative who built a hasidic sect into an international movement, and a man dedicated to the exposition of mysteries who nevertheless harbored many secrets. Schneerson astutely masked views that might be deemed heterodox by the canons of ort...