Holiness and Judaism

2018 ◽  
pp. 23-88
Author(s):  
Alan L. Mittleman
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Jewish Tradition ◽  
Emile Durkheim ◽  
Rabbinic Judaism ◽  
The Bible ◽  
A Value ◽  
The People ◽  
Sacred And Profane ◽  
The World ◽  
Land Of Israel

This chapter reconstructs the meanings of holiness from representative texts of the Jewish tradition. The discussion is anchored on two claims. First, biblical thought does not divide the world into a neat dualism of sacred and profane. Second, the Bible and subsequent Judaism conceive of holiness in three different ways: holiness sometimes refers to a property, holiness indicates a status, and holiness is a value or project. These three characteristics of holiness are examined in detail using the Bible. The chapter is primarily concerned with the ideas of the holiness of the people of Israel and the holiness of the Land of Israel. It considers the sacred/profane dichotomy by focusing on the views of twentieth-century scholars such as Emile Durkheim, Rudolf Otto, and Mircea Eliade. It also explores holiness and purity as they relate to God before concluding with an analysis of holiness in ancient and medieval rabbinic Judaism.

The Bible and Israeli Identity

AJS Review ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anita Shapira
Keyword(s):  
Jewish People ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Holy Trinity ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Historical Continuity ◽  
The People ◽  
The Status ◽  
National Life ◽  
National Romanticism ◽  
Land Of Israel

ldquo;In our two thousand years of exile, we have not totally lost our creativity, but the sheen of the Bible dulled in exile, as did the sheen of the Jewish people. Only with the renewal of the homeland and Hebrew independence have we been able to reassess the Bible in its true, full light,” Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, wrote in 1953. This statement illustrates several core attitudes of the Jewish national renaissance movement towards the Bible. Ben-Gurion depicted a direct relationship between the state of the Jewish people and the status of the Bible: The two rose and fell together. His words are reminiscent of philosopher Martin Buber, Revisionist leader Zeءev Jabotinsky, and others, all of whom postulated a symbiotic relationship between the Jewish people and the land of Israel: “Just as the Jewish people need the land to live a full life, so the land needs the Jewish people to be complete” wrote Buber. The Bible, according to Ben-Gurion, was the third component of the Jewish “holy trinity” of people, land, and book. It served as testimony of Jewish national life in the land of Israel in former times, as a blueprint for reestablishing this way of life, as proof of a glorious past and promise for the future. It nurtured a national romanticism and both inspired and buttressed universal ideas; it was the bedrock of myth and epos, of earthliness and valor, and also of a system of ethics and faith that rein in and restrain muscle and brawn. It was paradoxical proof of both Jewish uniqueness and Jewish similitude, “like all the nations” (I Samuel 8:5); “materialism” and “spirituality”; historical continuity and historical severance between the people and the land.

From the Cradle of the Nation to the Most Expensive Serbian Word: Changes in Serbian Public Language in the Last Decade of the Twentieth Century

2008 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 625-640
Author(s):  
Marija Šajkaš
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Public Language ◽  
The People ◽  
The World ◽  
The Rich

We cannot educate our children in the spirit of cosmopolitism, but instruct them to love their homeland instead. We have to put the big ideology in their little heads.Danilo Ž. Marković, Serbian Minister of Education in a speech to school managers of the Banat district, Daily Borba, 19 March 1993The words people use reflect their view of the world. In totalitarian societies the primary goal of a regime's language is to influence public opinion. A closer inspection of the most exploited phrases in Serbian public discourse in the period of the late 1980s until 2000 reveals a strong presence of propagandistic language. Thus, it can be argued that the consequences of Slobodan Milošević's politics are visible not only in the devastation of the people and the country but also in the sphere of Serbian public discourse. It is not only that his politics influenced the language. Rather, it is precisely because of the rich and diversified propaganda language of the regime that Slobodan Milošević's was able to maintain his firm grip on power in Serbia for 13 years.

scholarly journals PENYEMBUHAN DALAM JEMAAT DITINJAU DARI SUDUT THEOLOGI

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 78-88
Author(s):  
Rencan Carisma Marbun
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Gospel Of John ◽  
Divine Healing ◽  
Mental Life ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The People ◽  
The World ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
General Provision

AbstractIn the Bible, we do not see the description of pain and healing as we haveencountered in the world of medicine. However, from a number of terms thebackground or meaning can be known. In the Old Testament, sickness is due to someone experiencing in their body something incomplete, or “badevents”. He does not experience normal bodily and mental life, perhaps due to infection, imbalance (harmony), or backward health, so he is called sick (holi). We see that healing is one of the responsibilities that humans can do for people who suffer from illness. The role of doctor and his remedybecomes and seems to indicate his responsibility towards the sufferingperson, who is deficient in reaffirming the people (cf. the term “hzk piel” in Jeremiah 30:21; 34: 4). In the New Testament, we do not find theimpression of illness arising as a sign of God's punishment, but instead inJesus’ ministry, He healed people, a sign of reestablishing the order of life with God (cf. Luke 4:18). Healing is generally an act or a way to heal the sick, and it can also be mentioned that healing is divine. Healing in Greek is called in the plural meaning the gifts of healing. The healing of miracles in the Gospel of John emphasizes the dynamic work of God and the sign (Greek: semeia) of His power. Disease is not only a result of sin, but also shows God’s work (9:3). So it is clear that healing miracles is not only valid individually, locally, or temporarily physical meaning, but also in general, provision and spiritual.Keywords: Healing, Congregation

scholarly journals Reformation af grundtvigianismen

1983 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-92
Author(s):  
Viggo Mortensen
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Basis ◽  
General View ◽  
Collection System ◽  
World Picture ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The People ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The World ◽  
Open Debate ◽  
Narrative Account

The Reformation of GrundtvigianismBy Viggo MortensenA review of The Vartov Book 1982, published by Kirkeligt Samfunds Forlag. This yearbook is a forum for all-round discussion and open debate. It does not regard the Bible as an a-historical heaven-sent book, but contains reliably informative articles, amongst others a narrative account by Finn Jacobi of the stories concerning Mary, the mother of Jesus. Two other articles attempt to read Grundtvig in the light of K. E. Løgstrup by drawing their theoretical basis from Løgstrup in order to reform the rigidified grundtvigianism.Løgstrup’s theology, according to Ole Jensen, is a modern grundtvigian theology. The grundtvigianism that was victorious in the last century was in fact victorious unto death, insofar as it forgot the critical barb in Grundtvig’s concept of folkelighed (that which is of the people). But Ole Jensen finds this criticism revitalized in L.gstrup’s posthumous essay collection System and Symbol from 1982. Svend Andersen’s article on the world-picture and the creation idea is also indirectly a criticism of those who allow a natural scientific general view to gain a monopoly on the description and interpretation of reality. He advocates a dialogue between theology and the natural sciences.

scholarly journals Woody Allen’s Broadway Danny Rose: Dialoguing with Jewish Tradition

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 763
Author(s):  
Bart J. Koet
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
British Empire ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
Jewish Tradition ◽  
Cultural Consciousness ◽  
The West ◽  
Religious Context ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

It is the thesis of this article that a secular form of the biblical Exodus pattern is used by Woody Allen in his Broadway Danny Rose. In the history of the Bible, and its interpretation, the Exodus pattern is again and again used as a model for inspiration: from oppression to deliverance. It was an important source of both argument and symbolism during the American Revolution. It was used by the Boer nationalists fighting the British Empire and it comes to life in the hand of liberation theology in South America. The use of this pattern and its use during the seder meal is to be taken loosely here: Exodus is not a theory, but a story, a “Big Story” that became part of the cultural consciousness of the West and quite a few other parts of the world. Although the Exodus story is in the first place an account of deliverance or liberation in a religious context and framework, in Broadway Danny Rose it is used as a moral device about how to survive in the modern wilderness.

scholarly journals Babel

2009 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 52-76
Author(s):  
Nina Gładziuk ◽  
Paweł Janowski
Keyword(s):  
17Th Century ◽  
Social World ◽  
The Self ◽  
Public Order ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The People ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
English Speaking World

What interests us here is the fact that Babel as a figure of confusion became almost the self-named epithet of 17th-century England. All the participants of the debate that took place during the revolution or the postbellum associated Babel with the conceptual chaos of the civil war. The lively “pamphlet war” then brought a pluralistic forum for public opinion in which all the confused languages of politics were equal. When all could read the Bible, everyone could read the story of Babel in their own way. But nothing could reconcile those who read the divine right of kings in it with those who read the divine right of the people in it. In the 17th century, Babel was seen as a figure of discursive confusion, as the confusion was experienced in the form of fanatical languages of arguing sects. Liberalism, if the English-speaking world is acknowledged to be its cradle, constitutes an attempt to escape the impasse of the discursive Babel via the legalistic means of the state of law. According to Hobbes, the irreversible multitude of languages makes one ask what public order can reconcile nominalism in the sphere of political opinion with the social Diaspora of individuals released from the bonds of status or corporation. How to build a state while one Christian faith is disintegrating into many sects fighting each other? How to build a state in the chronic pluralism of the social world and multifaceted dissociation of the traditional community? This is why Babel as a figure of confusion provides the primary conceptual capacity for the liberal organization of the world.

Prophets in the Hebrew Bible

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack R. Lundbom
Keyword(s):  
18Th Century ◽  
Near East ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Jewish Tradition ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The People ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Hebrew Prophets

“Prophets” in the ancient world were individuals said to possess an intimate association with God or the gods, and conducted the business of transmitting messages between the divine and earthly realms. They spoke on behalf of God or the gods, and on occasion solicited requests from the deity or brought to the deity requests of others. The discovery of texts from the ancient Near East in the 19th and early 20th centuries has given us a fuller picture of prophets and prophetic activity in the ancient world, adding considerably to reports of prophets serving other gods in the Bible and corroborating details about prophets in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Two collections are important: (1) letters from the 18th-century Mari written during the reigns of Yasmaḫ-Addu (c. 1792–1775) and Zimri-Lim (c. 1774–1760); and (2) the 7th-century annals of Assyrian kings Esarhaddon (680–669) and Assurbanipal (668–627). Prophecies at Mari are favorable for the most part, and censures of the king, when they occur, are not harsh. Many simply remind the king of some neglect or give him some warning. One tells the king to practice righteousness and justice for anyone who has been wronged. None censures the people of Mari as biblical prophecies do the people of Israel. Assyrian oracles are largely oracles of peace and wellbeing, typically giving assurance to the king about matters of succession and success in defeating enemies. If prophets admonish the king, it is a mild rebuke about the king ignoring a prior oracle or not having provided food at the temple. According to the Bible, Israel’s prophetic movement began with Samuel, and it arose at the time when people asked for a king. Prophets appear all throughout the monarchy and into the postexilic period, when Jewish tradition believed prophecy had ceased. Yet, prophets reappear in the New Testament and early church: Anna the prophetess, John the Baptist, Jesus, and others. Paul allows prophets to speak in the churches, ranking them second only to apostles. Hebrew prophets give messages much like those of other ancient Near Eastern prophets, but what makes them different is that they announce considerably more judgment—sometimes very harsh judgment—on Israel’s monarchs, leading citizens, and the nation itself. Israel’s religion had its distinctives. Yahweh was bound to the nation by a covenant containing law that had to be obeyed. Prophets in Israel were therefore much preoccupied with indicting and judging kings, priests, other prophets, and an entire people for covenant disobedience. Also, in Israel the lawgiver was Yahweh, not the king. In Mari, as elsewhere in the ancient Near East, the king was lawgiver. Deuteronomy contains tests for true and false prophets, to which prophets themselves add other disingenuine marks regarding their contemporaneous prophetic colleagues. Hebrew prophets from the time of Amos onward speak in poetry and are skilled in rhetoric, using an array of tropes and knowing how to argue. Their discourse also contains an abundance of humor and drama. Speaking is supplemented with symbolic action, and in some cases the prophets themselves became the symbol.

Contemporary Jewish Readings of the Prophets

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marvin A. Sweeney
Keyword(s):  
Social Roles ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The People ◽  
Book Of The Twelve ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Land Of Israel

Contemporary Jewish critical scholars share many methodological foundations and viewpoints with their Christian counterparts, but there are nevertheless areas of distinctive concern to Jewish interpreters of the Bible in general and the prophets in particular. This chapter therefore addresses issues faced by Jewish scholars in the field., namely, the place of the prophets in the Tanak, i.e. the Jewish version of the Bible; the historical and social roles of the prophets; and treatment of exile, repentance, and restoration of the people to the Temple and the land of Israel in each of the books of the Latter Prophets, including Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Book of the Twelve Prophets. Examples of scholars treated include Ehud Ben Zvi, Julie Galambush, Moshe Greenberg, Tamar Kamionkowski, Shalom Paul, Dalit Rom-Shiloni, Benjamin Sommer, Emanuel Tov, and the author.

It's time to think

2020 ◽  
pp. 84-87
Author(s):  
G. Muradov
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Current Situation ◽  
Personal View ◽  
The People ◽  
The World

The article expresses the author’s personal view of the current situation in the world and contains an appeal to today's youth to protect the truth about the most terrible war of the twentieth century, about the great feat of the people.

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