“Dass jede einzelne Sache, für die Israel sein Leben gab, in seinen Händen Bestand haben sollte . . .”: Individuelle und regional unabhängige Religiosität in der Mekhilta des Rabbi Jischmael

2010 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 244-285
Author(s):  
Susanne Plietzsch
Keyword(s):  
Religious Practice ◽  
Individual Responsibility ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Jewish Religion ◽  
Land Of Israel

AbstractThis paper argues that Mekhilta de-Rabbi Yishmael (MekhY) is distinguishing between local realities of Jewish religion (like the Temple, the Davidic kingdom, full jurisdiction, and even the land of Israel) and a local independent religiosity based on individual responsibility. MekhY pursues the interest to strengthen a regional independent Judaism of individual religious practice and deduces this concept from the Exodus-Sinai narrative. Shabbat is mentioned time and again as a paradigm of this perception of Jewish religiosity. The exegetical interest of MekhY can be shown already by its selection of Biblical texts, this will furthermore be demonstrated by means of four passages of this Midrash.

Biblical History in the Thought of R. Ḥaim David Halevy

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-94
Author(s):  
Idan Breier
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Conduct ◽  
The State ◽  
Active Part ◽  
Military Force ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
The Past ◽  
Prophetic Literature ◽  
Biblical History ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
The Temple

Abstract R. Ḥaim David Halevy was an exceptional voice in the Religious-Zionist camp in Israel. While espousing faithfulness to the halakhah, he recognized the importance of changing circumstances with respect both to halakhic rulings and philosophical issues arising in Hebrew law. He viewed the study of history as a practical imperative, necessary to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. Frequently adducing biblical texts, he argued that Israel must learn from the patriarchs and maintain a strong military force. In particular, the events leading to the destruction of the Temple and exile prompted him to posit that the State should remain neutral and not take an active part in international affairs. On the basis of the historiographical and prophetic literature, he maintained that fidelity to the divine covenant – i.e., ethical conduct – would safeguard Israel’s existence.

The People of the Book, 200 BCE–200 CE

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maristella Botticini ◽  
Zvi Eckstein
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Primary School ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
First Century ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
The People ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Jewish Religion

This chapter discusses the well-documented shift of the religious norm that transformed the Jews into the People of the Book. During the first century BCE, some Jewish scholars and religious leaders promoted the establishment of free secondary schools. A century later, they issued a religious ordinance requiring all Jewish fathers to send their sons from the age of six or seven to primary school to learn to read and study the Torah in Hebrew. With the destruction of the Second Temple, the Jewish religion permanently lost one of its two pillars (the Temple) and set out on a unique trajectory. Scholars and rabbis, the new religious leaders in the aftermath of the first Jewish–Roman war, replaced temple service and ritual sacrifices with the study of the Torah in the synagogue—the new focal institution of Judaism.

Jewish Religion in the Apocrypha

2021 ◽  
pp. 450-476
Author(s):  
Carla Sulzbach
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Rabbinic Judaism ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Early Judaism ◽  
Wisdom Of Solomon ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Jewish Religion

In this chapter, the Apocrypha are read through the lenses of Jewish observances in their original Second Temple era milieu, in their (dis-)continuity with biblical as well as post-Temple Rabbinic culture. This allows for these writings, all dating from the Graeco-Roman period, to be put on a trajectory from pre-exilic times (to which they were heir and to which they refer), through Second Temple times, to Rabbinic Judaism. The total known textual corpus dating from this period is much greater and also comprises the Pseudepigrapha, Qumran, and the Hellenistic-Jewish historians. Early Christian texts in their interaction with their Jewish subtexts, too, shed light on the development of Early Judaism of this period although these fall outside the purview of this article, which narrows its focus to a selection of representative examples, namely, 1 and 3 Maccabees, Tobit and Judith, the Additions to Daniel and to Esther, as well as the Wisdom of Solomon.

A Gold Ring in a Swine’s Snout (Prov 11:22)

2021 ◽  
pp. 121-150
Author(s):  
Laura Quick
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
The Body ◽  
Dominant Model ◽  
Golden Calf ◽  
Biblical Literature ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Material Evidence ◽  
Votive Offerings

This chapter explores jewellery in the Hebrew Bible in light of the material evidence from the ancient Levant. I consider the function of jewellery in biblical texts, focused upon how these objects modify and ritualize the body. The ability of jewellery to index personhood is utilized in order to explore and unpack the use of jewellery in votive offerings. Moving beyond these insights, I then turn to the recovery of amulets inscribed with biblical passages—the earliest written evidence for biblical literature. As amulets, these objects served an apotropaic, ritual function. In biblical texts, we see this in action in the production of the golden calf, which is made from the jewellery of the Israelites. Such items therefore provide access to dimensions of personal religion and religious worship carried out outside of the official sphere. But by making sure that jewellery was utilized in the furnishing of the Temple, the biblical writers circumscribe this personal piety, making it compliant to the larger dominant model of the official Temple cult.

Presence and Memory

2018 ◽  
pp. 60-107
Author(s):  
Alexandra Green
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Structure ◽  
Cultural Discourse ◽  
Wall Paintings ◽  
Great Achievement ◽  
The Buddha ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Selection Of

Chapter Two examines the depicted events and scenes as expressions of religious commemoration and as promoting particular social, political, and religious hierarchies. The relationships between the main, usually sculpted, Buddha image and the painted walls created a narrative structure that encompassed the temple interior as a whole and made the Buddha present within the space and in the contemporary moment. The mural sites created a place to remember and honor the Buddha, with the sculpted and painted biographical narratives making him available to contemporary Burmese. The wall paintings illustrated what was culturally praiseworthy to the Burmese, reinforced the relevance of these things socially, and inspired people to participate in the dominant cultural discourse. In the process of doing so, the commemorative imagery demonstrated the field of merit surrounding Gotama Buddha. It memorialized his great achievement and the awakenings of the Buddhas before him, presenting them to the current audience and preserving them for future ones. However, it is the structure of the paintings within the temple layout - the disposition of the images and the selection of stories - that integrated the representations of the Buddhas into a complete unit.

Levi's Elevation to the Priesthood in Second Temple Writings

1993 ◽  
Vol 86 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Kugel
Keyword(s):  
Special Functions ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Natural Consequence ◽  
Golden Calf ◽  
Biblical Narratives ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
Selection Of

In ancient Israel, the tribe of Levi was deemed to have a special connection with the service of God. Numerous biblical texts speak of the Levites asthepriestly tribe or attribute to them certain special functions connected with cultic worship. But why exactly had the Levites been selected for such honors, and how did their selection come about? Several biblical narratives appear to have been designed in order to answer this question. Thus, the selection of the Levites is at one point connected with their zealousness following the Golden Calf incident (Exod 32:25–29), while elsewhere God's choice of the Levites seems to follow as a natural consequence after the death of the Levite Aaron (see Deut 10:8) or, possibly, to be the result of Moses' words in his final blessing of this tribe before his death (Deut 33:8– 10).

Ancient Egyptian Religion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Korshi Dosoo
Keyword(s):  
Religious Practice ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Egyptian Religion ◽  
The World ◽  
Major Break ◽  
Funerary Rites ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Over Time

While ancient Egyptians had no conception of religion as a distinct sphere of life, modern scholars have identified a wide range of Egyptian beliefs and practices relating to the divine. Egyptian religion can be traced back to predynastic times, and it developed continuously until the decline of temple religion in the Roman Period. Three mythic cycles are key to its understanding: the creation of the world, and the related solar cycle, which describe the origin and maintenance of the world, and the Osiris cycle, which provides a justification for the human institutions of kingship and funerary rites. Egyptian religion may be seen as being centered on its temples, which functioned both as sites for the worship of the resident gods and the elaboration of their theologies and as important economic and political centers. In addition to gods, three other categories of divine beings played important roles in Egyptian religious practice: kings, sacred and divine animals, and the dead. The king was intimately involved in the temple religion, as the mediator between the divine and human spheres, the patron of the temples, and the beneficiary of his own rituals, while divine and sacred animals seem to have been likewise understood as living embodiments of divine power. Death was understood through a range of metaphors, to which the ritual response was to link the deceased to one or more of the cosmic cycles through practices aimed at translating them into the divine sphere and thus ensuring their continued existence. As with all aspects of the religion, these rituals changed over time but show remarkable consistency throughout recorded history. Alongside these rituals centered on temple, royal, and funerary cults, a number of personal religious practices have been reconstructed as well as one major break in continuity, the “Amarna Revolution,” in which the ruling king seems to have briefly instituted a form of monotheism.

Just Hindus

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 965-994
Author(s):  
Deepa Das Acevedo
Keyword(s):  
Case Law ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
Hindu Temple ◽  
Indian Constitution ◽  
Age Range ◽  
The Temple

What happens when courts reach “good” outcomes through “bad” reasoning? Are there limits to consequentialist jurisprudence? The Indian Supreme Court’s recent decision in IYLA v. State of Kerala offers important insights on both issues. IYLA, decided in September 2018, held that the Hindu temple at Sabarimala may not ban women aged ten to fifty from its premises even though devotees argue the exclusion is religiously mandated. Reactions to IYLA have been vehement and violent, and so far only two women in the prohibited age range have managed to visit the temple. Perhaps any outcome impinging on religious practice would have elicited such responses. Nevertheless, the Court’s analysis, which disregarded devotee perspectives in its eagerness to acknowledge the previously overlooked perspectives of women, is problematic insofar as it superficially upholds the Court’s reputation as a progressive institution while creating bad precedent by further damaging the “essential practices” doctrine. This article draws on case law and legal analysis to demonstrate how the Court’s reasoning paid short shrift to its own doctrines and to conflicting imperatives in the Indian Constitution. The Court’s (and ruling’s) failures underscore the extent to which winning good outcomes through bad reasoning should be sobering rather than satisfying.

Reorganizing the Cosmology: The Reinterpretation of Deities and Religious Practice by Protestants in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia

1996 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 350-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorraine V. Aragon
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Salvation Army ◽  
Ritual Practice ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
Central Sulawesi

Converted by Salvation Army missionaries in the 1920s, Tobaku people in western Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, have made Protestantism indigenous by re-classifying deities and interpreting biblical texts and teachings to support local political, moral, and spiritual expectations. This article discusses twentieth-century changes in deity concepts and ritual practice among the Tobaku.

scholarly journals The trees in the middle of Paradise (Gn 2:9) during the Great Lent: Orthodox hymnography as biblical interpretation

2021 ◽  
Vol 77 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Constantin H. Oancea
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Tree Of Life ◽  
Direct Connection ◽  
Interesting Aspect ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
Selection Of

The article examines the interpretation of the Scripture in Byzantine hymnography during the Great Lent. Some notable recent contributions focus on Andrew of Crete’s and Romanos the Melodist’s compositions, illustrating the hymnographic way of understanding the Scriptures. The author of this study presents a selection of stanzas from hymns of the Triodion that refer to the trees of Paradise. Hymnography perceives the trees in Genesis 2–3 in direct connection with the cross. Only rarely is the tree of life a metaphor for Jesus, as the shadow of the tree of the cross is seldom a metaphor for protection. Another interesting aspect in relation to hymnography is the fact that it represents a type of intertextual exegesis of biblical texts. Hymnographers interpret passages from Genesis by using texts from Psalms, Prophets and especially from the New Testament, combining images and biblical texts in the depiction of liturgical moments.Contribution: Compared with previous research, this article discusses some rare hymnographic interpretations (shadow of the cross; cross in the middle of the earth). The analysis accentuates that the hymnic approach to the Scripture is a form of intertextual exegesis.

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