Iggud: Selected Essays in Jewish Studies. Volume 1. The Bible and Its World, Rabbinic Literature and Jewish Law, and Jewish Thought

2011 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 130-131
Author(s):  
Wout van Bekkum
Keyword(s):  
Jewish Studies ◽  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Jewish Law ◽  
Jewish Thought ◽  
The Bible

SageBook: Toward a cross-generational social network for the Jewish sages’ prosopography

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 676-695
Author(s):  
Maayan Zhitomirsky-Geffet ◽  
Gila Prebor
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Quantitative Analysis ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Jewish Law ◽  
Related Data ◽  
Jewish Thought ◽  
Argumentation Analysis

Abstract In this research we devised and implemented a semi-automatic approach for building a SageBook–a cross-generational social network of the Jewish sages from the Rabbinic literature. The proposed methodology is based on a shallow argumentation analysis leading to detection of lexical–syntactic patterns which represent different relationships between the sages in the text. The method was successfully applied and evaluated on the corpus of the Mishna, the first written work of the Rabbinic Literature which provides the foundation to the Jewish law development. The constructed prosopographical database and the network generated from its data enable a large-scale quantitative analysis of the sages and their related data, and therefore might contribute to the research of the Talmudic literature and evolution of the Jewish thought throughout the two last millennia.

Jerusalem and “the Jew:” Biopolitics Between Blake and Spinoza

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Whitson
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Jewish Law ◽  
Christian Identity ◽  
Textual Production ◽  
Jewish Thought ◽  
Romantic Poetry ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Critics exploring the relationship between Romantic poetry and Judaism have noted several places within William Blake’s poetry that seem to display philo-Semetic tendencies. This essay argues that Blake’s relationship with Jewish thought is much more complicated. It utilizes Spinoza’s understanding of the affect to rethink the contexts of Blake’s remarks about Judaism and “the Jew.” For Spinoza, the problem of the affect is a problem of reading and understanding what one is reading. This is particularly difficult, since the affects only confusedly make up what is called “the body”—whether this is a corporeal, political, or epistemological body. He applies this affectual problem of reading to his study of Biblical texts in the Theological Political Treatise, noting that Jewish law, in particular the Decalogue, only applies to the time and place of its production. Despite this, there are attempts to make a coherent message out of the Decalogue that can be transmitted outside of its spatio-temporal context. Blake has similar comments to make about the textual production of the Bible. According to Blake, the Bible is not a coherent document, and is rather made to be coherent by political bodies wishing to make a single, docile Christian identity. This paper uses these comments by Blake and Spinoza in a close reading of what is seemingly the most obvious example of Blake’s philo-semetic ideas: his address “To the Jews” in Jerusalem. I argue that whatever comments Blake makes about Jewish identity cannot be read outside of the complicated biopolitical contexts emerging from the address. Readers must fashion a disciplinary body for Blake that has philo-semetic beliefs and believe that this body pre-exists the time and space of its textual production in order to make conclusions about Blake’s relationship to Judaism. This process is precisely what Blake critiques in the essay.

The Question of God’s Perfection

2021 ◽  
pp. 014610792110306
Author(s):  
Cornell Collin
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Biblical Theology ◽  
The State ◽  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Central Question ◽  
Theological Interpretation ◽  
World Religions ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Present Essay

Is God perfect? The recent volume entitled The Question of God’s Perfection stages a conversation on that topic between mostly Jewish philosophers, theologians, and scholars of rabbinic literature. Although it is neither a work of biblical theology nor a contribution to the theological interpretation of scripture, The Question of God’s Perfection yields stimulating results for these other, intersecting projects. After briefly describing the volume’s central question and contents, the present essay situates the volume’s offerings within the state of the biblical-theological and theological-interpretive fields. In its next section, it considers—and compares— The Question of God’s Perfection with one twentieth-century theological antecedent, the Dutch theologian K.H. Miskotte. In closing, it poses questions for ongoing discussion. The Question of God’s Perfection: Jewish and Christian Essays on the God of the Bible and Talmud, edited by Yoram Hazony & Dru Johnson. Philosophy of Religion – World Religions 8. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2019. ISBN 9789004387959

scholarly journals Introduction to the Theme: The Jerusalem Temple in History, Memory, and Ritual

AJS Review ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-269
Author(s):  
Hayim Lapin ◽  
Marjorie Lehman
Keyword(s):  
Jewish History ◽  
Jewish Studies ◽  
Source Material ◽  
Literary Analysis ◽  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Jerusalem Temple ◽  
Methodological Approaches

The following group of essays emerged out of a seminar held at the Association for Jewish Studies conference in 2015. As section heads of Jewish History and Culture in Antiquity and Rabbinic Literature and Culture, tasked to think about how to address gaps in our fields, we recognized that despite a large amount of scholarship available on the Jerusalem Temple and its priesthood, there was a dearth of cross-disciplinary scholarly exchange, especially between ancient Jewish historians and those of us who engage in literary analysis of rabbinic sources. As a result, our divisions joined together to create “The Jerusalem Temple in History, Memory, and Ritual,” taking advantage of the “seminar” format at the conference. Twelve scholars, each working with different source material and employing different methodological approaches, participated.

The Legal Basis for the Prohibition on Abortion in Jewish Law

1980 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel B. Sinclair
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Jewish Law ◽  
Legal Basis ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Biblical Law ◽  
Foetal Development ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
The Church

One of the main issues in almost every treatment of abortion in Jewish Law is the legal basis for its prohibition. The recent trend in Rabbinic literature to categorise abortion as a form of homicide, proscribed by Biblical law, seems to constitute a break with the classical Rabbinic view, according to which abortion is neither homicide, nor directly prohibited in the major literary sources of Jewish Law, i.e. the Bible and the Talmud. Moreover, in the few instances in which abortion is discussed in these sources, it would seem that no such prohibition exists.This article will analyse the Biblical and Talmudic passages which deal with abortion, and survey the various Rabbinic opinions as to the legal basis for its prohibition. Particular attention will be paid to the argument that abortion is a biblically-proscribed form of homicide, and to the reasons which may underlie the adoption of that argument by a number of authorities in recent times. We will also analyse the significance in Jewish Law of the stages of foetal development.Our analysis will be both historical and normative, and in this context it will be a valuable exercise to compare the position in Jewish Law to that in the Canon Law of the Church of Rome. Although the Church Fathers held that abortion was a form of homicide, and the contemporary position of the Catholic Church reflects this attitude strictly and unswervingly, the Medieval Canonists adopted the distinction between the formed and the unformed foetus, based on a tradition derived from the Septuagint version of the Biblical passage dealing with the consequences of striking a pregnant woman (Ex. 21:22–23).

Philo of Alexandria

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
David T. Runia
Keyword(s):  
Early Church ◽  
The Political ◽  
Greek Language ◽  
Greek Philosophy ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Philo Of Alexandria ◽  
Jewish Thought ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Hellenistic Judaism ◽  
The City

Philo of Alexandria, also known as Philo Judaeus or Philo the Jew, is the most significant representative of Hellenistic Judaism, the ancient movement of Jewish thought and literature written in the Greek language. He was born around 15 bce and died sometime after 41 ce. All his life he was resident in the Hellenized metropolis of Alexandria, where he and his family played a prominent role in the Jewish community and in the political affairs of the city. Many of his writings are extant. They offer a unique access to a mode of thinking that is based on the Bible and Jewish traditions, but is deeply influenced by Hellenism and in particular the doctrines of Greek philosophy. His allegorical method of exegesis and his theology in turn exercised a strong influence on the thought of the early Church Fathers, who ensured the survival of his works.

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