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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The serpent kills or the serpent gives life the kabbalist Abraham Abulafia's response to Christianity /
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Abraham Abulafia (1240 - c. 1291) founded an enormously influential branch of Jewish mysticism, referred to as the prophetic or ecstatic kabbalah. This book, from several perspectives, explores the impact of Christianity upon Abulafia. His copious writings evince an intense fascination with Christian themes, yet Abulafia's frequent diatribes against Jesus and Christianity reveal him to be deeply conflicted in his relationship to his southern European religious neighbors. This book undertakes a careful study of Abulafia's writings, suggesting that the recognition of an inner dynamic of attraction and revulsion toward the forbidden other provides a crucial key to understanding Abulafia's mystical hermeneutic and his meditative practice. It also demonstrates that Abulafia's uneasy relationship to Christianity shaped the very core of his mystical doctrine.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004194472 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
And they shall be one flesh : on the language of mystical union in Judaism /
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In "And They Shall Be One Flesh": On the Language of Mystical Union in Judaism , Adam Afterman offers an extensive study of mystical union and embodiment in Judaism. Afterman argues that Philo was the first to articulate the notion of unio mystica in Judaism and is the source of the henōsis mysticism in the later Neoplatonic tradition. The study provides a detailed analysis of the Jewish medieval trends that developed different forms of mystical union and mystical embodiment through the divine name and spirit. The book argues that the development of unitive mysticism in Judaism is the fruit of the creative synthesis of rabbinic Judaism and Hellenistic and Arab philosophy, and a natural outcome of the theological articulation of the idea of monotheism itself.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004328730 :
1873-9008 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Encountering the medieval in modern Jewish thought /
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The term "medieval" performs a great deal more intellectual work in modern Jewish Thought than simply acting as a referent to a particular historical era. During the nineteenth century, often for Jews who were increasingly alienated from their own tradition, the "medieval" functioned primarily as a bearer of identity in a rapidly changing and secular world. Each chapter in Encountering the Medieval in Modern Jewish Thought addresses a different return to the medieval, ranging from the Enlightenment to the contemporary period, that clothed itself in the language of renewal and of retrieval. The volume engages the full complexity and range of meaning the term "medieval" carries for modern Jewish Thought.
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Includes index. :
1 online resource (ix, 335 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004234062 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.