Hasdai Crescas on Codification, Cosmology and Creation : The Infinite God and the Expanding Torah /
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This work focuses on the conception of God of the medieval Jewish philosopher and legal scholar, Hasdai Crescas (1340-1410/11). It demonstrates that Crescas' God is infinitely creative and good and explores the parallel that Crescas implicitly draws between God as creator and legislator, which is rooted in his understanding of the Deity as continuously involved in generative activity through the outpouring of goodness and love as manifest by multiple, simultaneous and successive worlds and a perpetually expanding Torah. It also reviews the Maimonidean background for Crescas' position and suggests that Crescas is countering Maimonides' stance that creation is limited to a single moment and Maimonides' notion of the Torah as perfect and immutable.
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This work focuses on the conception of God of the medieval Jewish philosopher and legal scholar, Hasdai Crescas (1340-1410/11). It demonstrates that Crescas' God is infinitely creative and good and explores the parallel that Crescas implicitly draws between God as creator and legislator. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004518650
9789004518643
Depeche Mode. Jacob Taubes between Politics, Philosophy, and Religion /
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Jacob Taubes is one of the most significant intellectual figures in the more recent German intellectual scene-and beyond. However, Taubes was either dismissed as a highly controversial character, or as a mere commentator of ongoing debates, or the reception was restricted to his considerations on religion and the ambivalences of secularity. This volume challenges these reductions by putting Taubes' original, albeit marginalised, texts into new, sometimes surprising contexts. Furthermore, it relates familiar topics in his oeuvre to lesser-known themes that are still highly pertinent for contemporary discussions on faith, modernity, and the limits of politics.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004505100
9789004505094
Hasdai Crescas on Codification, Cosmology and Creation : The Infinite God and the Expanding Torah /
:
This work focuses on the conception of God of the medieval Jewish philosopher and legal scholar, Hasdai Crescas (1340-1410/11). It demonstrates that Crescas' God is infinitely creative and good and explores the parallel that Crescas implicitly draws between God as creator and legislator, which is rooted in his understanding of the Deity as continuously involved in generative activity through the outpouring of goodness and love as manifest by multiple, simultaneous and successive worlds and a perpetually expanding Torah. It also reviews the Maimonidean background for Crescas' position and suggests that Crescas is countering Maimonides' stance that creation is limited to a single moment and Maimonides' notion of the Torah as perfect and immutable.
:
This work focuses on the conception of God of the medieval Jewish philosopher and legal scholar, Hasdai Crescas (1340-1410/11). It demonstrates that Crescas' God is infinitely creative and good and explores the parallel that Crescas implicitly draws between God as creator and legislator. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004518650
9789004518643
Winged Words: Benjamin, Rosenzweig, and the Life of Quotation /
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This is the first book to explore the role of quotation in modern Jewish thought. Weaving back and forth from Benjamin to Rosenzweig, the book searches for the recovery of concealed and lost meaning in the community of letters, sacred scripture, the collecting of books, storytelling, and the life of liturgy. It also explores how the legacy of Goethe can be used to develop new strata of religious and Jewish thought. We learn how quotation is the binding tissue that links language and thought, modernity and tradition, religion and secularism as a way of being in the world.
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1 online resource (307 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004680210
A History of Modern Jewish Religious Philosophy : Volume IV: The Crisis of Humanism (II). The End of the Jewish Center in Germany /
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The last generation of German Jewish philosophers brought the long, tragic history of German-Jewish creative thought to a close in a blaze of glory, while transitioning to the new Jewish creative centers in Israel and America. The best known (Buber, Rosenzweig, Baeck, Strauss, Scholem) and the less known (Breuer, Birnbaum, Klatzkin, Aviad-Wolfsberg, Guttmann) are thoroughly explicated here, with generous primary text citations appearing in English for the first time, making this a rich sourcebook and reference for the thinkers presented.
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1 online resource :
9789004533127
9789004533134
Hekhalot literature in translation : major texts of Merkavah mysticism /
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The Hekhalot literature is a motley collection of textually fluid and often textually corrupt documents in Hebrew and Aramaic which deal with mystical themes pertaining especially to God's throne-chariot (the Merkavah). They were composed between late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, with roots in earlier traditions and a long and complex subsequent history of transmission. This volume presents English translations of eclectic critical texts, with a full apparatus of variants, of most of the major Hekhalot documents: Hekhalot Rabbati ; Sar Torah ; Hekhalot Zutarti ; Ma'aseh Merkavah ; Merkavah Rabba ; briefer macroforms: The Chapter of R. Nehuniah ben HaQanah , The Great Seal-Fearsome Crown , Sar Panim , The Ascent of Elijah ben Avuyah , and The Youth ; and the Hekhalot fragments from the Cairo Geniza.
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1 online resource (443 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004252165 :
1873-9008 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Existential Philosophy of Etty Hillesum : An Analysis of Her Diaries and Letters.
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In The Existential Philosophy of Etty Hillesum Meins G.S. Coetsier breaks new ground by demonstrating the Jewish existential nature of Etty Hillesum's spiritual and cultural life in light of the writings of Martin Buber, Emmanuel Levinas and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Hillesum's diaries and letters, written between 1941 and 1943, illustrate her struggle to come to terms with her personal life in the context of the Second World War and the Shoah. By finding God under the rubble of the horrors, she rediscovers the divine presence between humankind, while taking up responsibility for the Other as a way to embrace justice and compassion. In a fascinating, accessible and thorough study, Coetsier dispels much of the confusion that assails readers when they are exposed to the bewildering range of Christian and Jewish influences and other cultural interpretations of her writings. The result is a convincing and profound picture of Etty Hillesum's path to spiritual freedom.
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1 online resource (xxvii, 635 pages, [7] pages of plates) : illustrations. :
9789004266100 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Emil L. Fackenheim : philosopher, theologian, Jew /
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Emil L. Fackenheim: Philosopher, Theologian, Jew is a scholarly tribute to Fackenheim's memory. Fackenheim's combination of erudition and generosity served to inspire a lifetime of philosophical inquiry, and a number of his students are represented in this volume. The volume, in order to provide a forum through which to introduce his thought to a broader audience, covers a wide spectrum of Fackenheim's work including biographical, philosophical, and theological aspects of his thought that have not been addressed adequately in the past. Elie Wiesel, a close personal friend to Fackenheim for over 30 years, has provided the Foreword for the volume.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical (p. [323]-330) and references and indexes. :
9789047429340 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Without any doubt Gersonides on method and knowledge /
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Gersonides-Rabbi Levi ben Gershom (Provence, 1288-1344)-was a multifaceted thinker. Endowed with his original and critical mind, he did not accept the authority of his predecessors but investigated every matter for himself. His extraordinary attention to method-both of inquiry and of writing-stands out clearly in his own work and in his reading of certain biblical books. The eight articles on Gersonides' thought and method collected in this volume address four main topics: Gersonides' methods of inquiry and composition; the use of introductions in his own works and in biblical books; his method in the supercommentaries on Averroes; and his methods of biblical exegesis. \'Klein-Braslavi's (sic) book...is highly recommended for all libraries that take seriously philosophy, the life of the mind and cognition.\' David B. Levy, Touro College
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004206991 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Zwischen Philosophie und Gesetz : Jüdische philosophie und theologie von 1933 bis 1938 /
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Despite the revival of intellectual history in recent years, there is still relatively little research into German-Jewish intellectual history between 1933 and 1938. The present work studies for the first time the important discussions of the period from the debate between Leo Strauss and Julius Guttmann, Alexander Altmann's contribution to "Jewish theology," to the reception of the work of Franz Rosenzweig and Martin Heidegger as well as the works of David Baumgardt and Fritz Heinemann. Many now forgotten texts of those discussions have been made accessible here. All the leading figures presented in this study were sooner or later forced to choose between "philosophy" and "law."
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [317]-334). :
9789047442745 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
A history of modern Jewish religious philosophy.
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The culmination of Eliezer Schweid's life-work as a Jewish intellectual historian, this five-volume work provides a comprehensive, interdisciplinary account of the major thinkers and movements in modern Jewish thought, in the context of general philosophy and Jewish social-political historical developments, with extensive primary source excerpts. Volume Two, \'The Birth of the Jewish Historical Studies and the Modern Jewish Religious Movements,\' discusses the major Jewish thinkers of central and eastern Europe before 1881, in connection with the movements they fostered: German-Jewish Wissenschaft (Zunz), Reform (Formstecher, Samuel Hirsch, Geiger), Neo-Orthodoxy (S. D. Luzzatto, Steinheim, Samson Raphael Hirsch), Positive-Historical (Frankel, Graetz), and Neo-Haredi (Kalischer, Malbim, Hayyim Volozhiner, Salanter). In addition, extensive attention is given to the thinkers of the east-European Haskalah, both earlier (Levinsohn, Rubin, Schorr, Mieses, Abraham Krochmal) and later proto-Zionist thinkers (Zweifel, Smolenskin, Pines, Lilienblum).
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1 online resource (xii, 330 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004290372 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Studies in medieval Jewish intellectual and social history : festschrift in honor of Robert Chazan /
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For more than four decades Robert Chazan has been a copious source of original insights into the history and culture of medieval European Jewry, challenging conventional wisdom with profound erudition and sober analysis. In this volume, thirteen leading Judaicists and medievalists engage subjects that have been of particular concern to Professor Chazan during his distinguished career: the history of the Jewish communities in Western Christendom during the Middle Ages, Jewish-Christian interactions in medieval Europe, medieval Jewish Biblical exegesis and religious literature, and historical representations of the experience of medieval Jewry. Taken together they offer a comprehensive portrait of the state of the field of medieval Jewish studies.
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1 online resource (342 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004222366 :
1873-9008 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The cultures of Maimonideanism : new approaches to the history of Jewish thought /
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In the history of Jewish thought, no individual scholar has exercised more influence than Maimonides (1138-1204) - philosopher and physician, legal scholar and communal leader. This collection of papers, originating at the 2007 EAJS colloquium, places primary emphasis on this influence - not on Maimonides himself but the many movements he inspired. Using Maimonideanism as an interpretive lens, the authors of this volume - representing a variety of fields and disciplines - develop new approaches to and fresh perspectives on the peculiar dynamic of Judaism and philosophy. Focusing on social and cultural processes as well as philosophical ideas and arguments, they point toward an original reconceptualization of Jewish thought.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [409]-436) and index. :
9789047427964 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Spirituality in the writings of Etty Hillesum : proceedings of the Etty Hillesum Conference at Ghent University, November 2008 /
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Much of the previous scholarship on Etty Hillesum (1914-1943) was done by individual scholars within the analyses of their fields. After the proceedings of the international Etty Hillesum Congress at Ghent University in November 2008, this Congress volume is the first joined effort by more than twenty Hillesum experts worldwide. It is an absorbing account of international scholarship on the life, works, and vision of the Dutch Jewish writer Etty Hillesum, whose life was shaped by the totalitarian Nazi regime. Hillesum's diaries and letters illustrate her heroic struggle to come to terms with her personal life in the context of World War II. Building on new interest in theology, philosophy, and psychology, this book revives Hillesum research with a comprehensive rereading of both her published works and lesser-known secondary discourses on her life. The result is fascinating. With the current explosion of interest in inter-religious dialogue, peace studies, Judaism, the holocaust, gender studies, and mysticism, it is clear that this Congress volume will be invaluable to students and scholars in various disciplines.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004188594 :
1873-9008 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Knowledge of God and the development of early Kabbalah /
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In Knowledge of God and the Development of Early Kabbalah , Jonathan Dauber offers a fresh consideration of the emergence and early development of Kabbalah against the backdrop of a re-evaluation of the relationship between early Kabbalistic and philosophic discourse. He argues that the first Kabbalists adopted a philosophic ethos that was foreign to traditional Rabbinic Judaism but had taken root in Languedoc and Catalonia under the influence of newly available philosophical materials. In this ethos, the act of investigating God was accorded great religious significance, and it was its adoption by the first Kabbalists that helped spur them to engage in their investigations of God and, in so doing, develop Kabbalah.
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1 online resource (x, 275 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p.[253]-268 ) and index. :
9789004234277 :
1873-9008 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The mystery of the earth : mysticism and Hasidism in the thought of Martin Buber /
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Challenging the prevalent view that in order to establish his "Dialogical" thought Martin Buber had to forsake his earlier "mystical" work, Israel Koren demonstrates instead that mystical paradigms serve as the foundation for Buber's dialogue and endow it with greater depth. While most scholars portray Buber's dialogical thought mainly in its Western and modern philosophical background, the author examines Buber's interpretation of Hasidic themes such as Devekut (attachment to God) among others, in order to establish that his dialogical writings evolved out of his interpretation of Judaism in general, his understanding of the Hasidic conception of the world and the mission of man in Hasidism in particular. Buber's work is therefore shown to be original mystical neo-Hasidic thought, which serves as a new link in the historical chain of Jewish mysticism.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [369]-386) and indexes. :
9789004181243 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Philosophy, theology, and politics : a reading of Benedict Spinoza's Tractatus theologico-politicus /
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The interpretation of Spinoza's theologico-political teaching remains a matter of controversy. Is Spinoza simply addressing contemporary difficulties in The Netherlands of the late 1660s? Or is he attempting to solve a more basic and enduring human problem? In this book, it is argued that against the background of contemporary concerns, Spinoza treats the more fundamental "natural problem" of reconciling those who live by "the dictates of reason" with those who live by "the urgings of the passions." Based upon his accounts of theology, human nature, and politics, Spinoza fashions a theocratic or "theologico-political solution" to the "natural problem" by holding that the "universal religion" and the democratic liberalism of the treatise share a common purpose. Thus, Spinoza becomes a "new Moses."
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [245]-249) and index. :
9789047432753 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Seeing with both eyes : Ephraim Luntshitz and the Polish-Jewish renaissance /
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This is an integrated study of the revival of philosophical studies in 16th-century central-European Jewry focusing on seven major thinkers and especially on the intellectual development of Ephraim Luntshitz (1550-1619). Preoccupation with philosophy is traced through Moses Isserles, Solomon Luria, Mordecai Jaffe, Abraham Horowitz, Eliezer Ashkenazi, Maharal of Prague, and Ephraim Luntshitz. Analysis of these thinkers' intellectual affiliations is based on close analysis of their primary texts, of which a generous selection is provided in translation for the first time. This work advances the scholarly study of 16th-century Polish-Jewish culture, the Polish Jewish Renaissance, the philosophical interests of Ashkenazic Jewry, Jewish responses to Renaissance humanism and the Reformation, and the early-modern background for the 18th-century Jewish Enlightenment.
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1 online resource. :
"English and Hebrew titles of primary works": pages [xv]-xvi.
Includes bibliographical references (p. [215]-220) and index. :
9789047432746 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The classic Jewish philosophers : from Saadia through the Renaissance /
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This book provides a standard reference of the major medieval Jewish philosophers, as well as an eminently readable narrative of the course of medieval Jewish philosophical thought, presented as a response to the spiritual-intellectual challenges facing Judaism in that period. The accounts of Saadia, Bahya, Halevi, Maimonides, and Crescas are among the fullest available in English. Other thinkers discussed in depth include Israeli, Ibn Gabirol, Gersonides, and Albo; the work also includes capsule summaries of Bar Hiyya, Falaquera, Albalag, Duran, Abravanel and others. All of the summaries place the philosophical thought of these important thinkers in the context of the historical challenges and religious concerns of their age. This book is also available in paperback.
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Originally published as ha-Filosofim ha-gedolim shelanu, Miskal/Yediot Aharonot Books, 1999. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [469]-474) and indexes. :
9789047423522 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The national element in Hermann Cohen's philosophy and religion /
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Hermann Cohen was a passionate philosopher whose national engagement was an integral component of his work. This national engagement comprised a cultural 'Germanness' (Deutschtum), ethically oriented to the state, and a religious Judaism beyond the political. These two forms of \'nationality\' influenced Cohen's system of philosophy and his Jewish thought from his broadest to his most subtle points. The National Element in Hermann Cohen's Philosophy and Religion explores Cohen's views on World War I, Zionism, Jewish orthodoxy, assimilation, and racism. Then it looks at his system: logical dispositions of the idea of nationality, the ethics of the nation-state, and Cohen's aesthetics of national elements of expression. In connection with that, the study explores the Jewish dimension of nationality, a cornerstone for the concept of revelation and communal service in Cohen's Religion of Reason Out of the Sources of Judaism .
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1 online resource (xv, 258 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004232617 :
1873-9008 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.