THE INTERPRETATION OF DIVINE WILL AS THE SOURCE OF JEWISH LAW IN THE CONTEXT OF THE POTENTIAL OF HUMAN‘S FREEDOM OF WILL

In the Bible the source of the law is the One God, that is the idea of the transcendence of law has a completely radical expression. The law is based on the will of the Creator God. Society development is considered by experts to be the foundation that objectively leads to the disappearance or change of the old and the emergence of new spheres of regulation, norms, institutions or branches of law. This paradigm of law development applies to Jewish law, but even more so to Jewish law concerns the danger of emasculation and formalization of any religious right over time and the work of interpreters. Thus, some rabbinical structures (such as the Sanhedrin) did not create new laws, but merely interpreted the existing code but their activities led to a change in the qualitative component of this right.

Mefistofele Triumphant—From the Ideal to the Real

Arrigo Boito sought to escape the limiting conventions of contemporary melodrama in order to revolutionize Italian opera. However, the most radical expression of that effort, his adaptation of Goethe’s Faust, Mefistofele (Mephistopheles), which premiered at La Scala in 1868, did not attain the desired result. In reworking the score, the composer took practical concerns into account, making the opera more pleasing to the mainstream audiences who demanded melodious vocal lines and a tighter dramatic pace. The revised version staged in Bologna in 1875 and the subsequent revivals marked an important turning point: what had been an avant-garde work now entered into the repertoire of all the major theaters. This chapter retraces Boito’s journey from the setback of the premiere to the success for which he strove so diligently, highlighting the creative process that forged a new relationship between poetry and music, which Giuseppe Verdi later exploited in his collaboration with the poet.

The Holocaust, Israel and 'the Jew'

This book is the first comprehensive study of postwar antisemitism in the Netherlands. It focuses on the way stereotypes are passed on from one decade to the next, as reflected in public debates, the mass media, protests and commemorations, and everyday interactions. The Holocaust, Israel and 'the Jew' explores the ways in which old stories and phrases relating to 'the stereotypical Jew' are recycled and modified for new uses, linking the antisemitism of the early postwar years to its enduring manifestations in today's world. The Dutch case is interesting because of the apparent contrast between the Netherlands' famous tradition of tolerance and the large numbers of Jews who were deported and murdered in the Second World War. The book sheds light on the dark side of this so-called 'Dutch paradox,' in manifestations of aversion and guilt after 1945. In this context, the abusive taunt 'They forgot to gas you' can be seen as the first radical expression of postwar antisemitism as well as an indication of how the Holocaust came to be turned against the Jews. The identification of 'the Jew' with the gas chamber spread from the streets to football stadiums, and from verbal abuse to pamphlet and protest. The slogan 'Hamas, Hamas all the Jews to the gas' indicates that Israel became a second marker of postwar antisemitism. The chapters cover themes including soccer-related antisemitism, Jewish responses, philosemitism, antisemitism in Dutch-Moroccan and Dutch- Turkish communities, contentious acts of remembrance, the neo-Nazi tradition, and the legacy of Theo van Gogh. The book concludes with a lengthy epilogue on 'the Jew' in the politics of the radical right, the attacks in Paris in 2015, and the refugee crisis. The stereotype of 'the Jew' appears to be transferable to other minorities.

The Holocaust, Israel and 'the Jew'

This book is the first comprehensive study of postwar antisemitism in the Netherlands. It focuses on the way stereotypes are passed on from one decade to the next, as reflected in public debates, the mass media, protests and commemorations, and everyday interactions. The Holocaust, Israel and 'the Jew' explores the ways in which old stories and phrases relating to 'the stereotypical Jew' are recycled and modified for new uses, linking the antisemitism of the early postwar years to its enduring manifestations in today's world. The Dutch case is interesting because of the apparent contrast between the Netherlands' famous tradition of tolerance and the large numbers of Jews who were deported and murdered in the Second World War. The book sheds light on the dark side of this so-called 'Dutch paradox,' in manifestations of aversion and guilt after 1945. In this context, the abusive taunt 'They forgot to gas you' can be seen as the first radical expression of postwar antisemitism as well as an indication of how the Holocaust came to be turned against the Jews. The identification of 'the Jew' with the gas chamber spread from the streets to football stadiums, and from verbal abuse to pamphlet and protest. The slogan 'Hamas, Hamas all the Jews to the gas' indicates that Israel became a second marker of postwar antisemitism. The chapters cover themes including soccer-related antisemitism, Jewish responses, philosemitism, antisemitism in Dutch-Moroccan and Dutch- Turkish communities, contentious acts of remembrance, the neo-Nazi tradition, and the legacy of Theo van Gogh. The book concludes with a lengthy epilogue on 'the Jew' in the politics of the radical right, the attacks in Paris in 2015, and the refugee crisis. The stereotype of 'the Jew' appears to be transferable to other minorities. Now also available as paperback!

The Redemptive ‘Maiden’

This chapter highlights the most radical expression of Jacob Frank's predilection for inverting conventional gender norms as the reversal of sexual identity in the figure of the messianic redeemer. It analyses Abraham Cardozo's tentative stipulation of a female herald of good tidings to Zion during the early stages of the Sabbatian movement. It also mentions the Noble Lady of Salonica, who maintained diplomatic relations with Jonathan Eybeschuetz and his sons even after Berukhyah's death. The chapter focuses on Sarah, Sabbatai Zevi's spouse, who believed herself to be the predestined spouse of the messiah. It explains how Sarah assimilated into her own person the mythical figure of the superior messianic bride.

Early Modern Moravianism

The Moravian Church or Unitas Fratrum was founded in 1457 as a radical expression of the Czech Reformation’s attempt to revive the apostolic church. It was the first Western church to endorse the idea of the church as a voluntary body of believers who covenant to live according to the Sermon on the Mount, which they considered the Law of God. Moravian bishop and educational theorist John Amos Comenius was one of the leading advocates for ecumenism and pacifism in Europe during the seventeenth century. The Unitas Fratrum was almost completely destroyed during the religious wars of the seventeenth century but was revived as part of the German Pietist movement in the eighteenth century under the leadership of Count Zinzendorf. Zinzendorf placed greater emphasis on religious experience than doctrinal precision in the life of the church. The most prominent theologian influenced by Moravianism was Friedrich Schleiermacher.

“Spit and Sing, My Yugoslavia”: New Partisans, social critique and Bosnian poetics of the patriotic

As “music of commitment,” in the period from the late 1970s to the late 1980s rock music in Yugoslavia had an important purpose of providing a popular-cultural outlet for the unique forms of socio-cultural critique that engaged with the realities and problems of Yugoslav society. The three “music movements” that embodied the new rock'n'roll spirit – New Wave, New Primitives, and New Partisans – used rock music to critique the country's “new socialist culture,” with the purpose of helping to eliminate the disconnect between the ideal and the reality of socialist Yugoslavia. This paper examines the New Partisans as the most radical expression of music of commitment through the works of its most important rock bands: Bijelo dugme, Plavi orkestar, and Merlin. The paper's argument is that the New Partisans’ socio-cultural engagement, animated by advocacy of Yugoslavism, was a counter-logic to the nationalist dissolution of a distinctly Yugoslav fabric of a socialist community in crisis. Thus, the movement's revolutionary “spirit of reconstruction” permeating its “poetics of the patriotic” was a mechanism of socio-cultural resistance to political, cultural and moral-ethical de-Yugoslavization of Yugoslav society. Its ultimate objective was to make the case that the only way into the future – if there was to be any – rested on strategic reanimation of the Partisan revolutionary past as the only viable socio-cultural foundation of the Yugoslav socialist community.