Do you want to understand Jesus of Nazareth, his apostles, and the rise of early Christianity? Reading the Old Testament is not enough, writes Matthias Henze in this slender volume aimed at the student of the Bible. To understand the Jews of the Second Temple period, it's essential to read what they wrote-and what Jesus and his followers might have read-beyond the Hebrew scriptures. Henze introduces the four-century gap between the Old and New Testaments and some of the writings produced during this period (different Old Testaments, the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, the Dead Sea Scrolls); discusses how these texts have been read from the Reformation to the present, emphasizing the importance of the discovery of Qumran; guides the student's encounter with select texts from each collection; and then introduces key ideas found in specific New Testament texts that simply can't be understood without these early Jewish intertestamental writings-the Messiah, angels and demons, the law, and the resurrection of the dead. Finally, he discusses the role of these writings in the parting of the ways between Judaism and Christianity. Mind the Gap broadens curious students' perspectives on early Judaism and early Christianity and welcomes them to deeper study.

What is exile? What is diaspora? What is Zionism? Jewish identity today has been shaped by prior generations' answers to these questions, and the future of Jewish life will depend on how we respond to them in our own time. In The Necessity of Exile: Essays from a Distance, celebrated rabbi and scholar Shaul Magid offers an essential contribution to this intergenerational process, inviting us to rethink our current moment through religious and political resources from the Jewish tradition.

On many levels, Zionism was conceived as an attempt to end the exile of the Jewish people, both politically and theologically. In a series of incisive essays, Magid challenges us to consider the price of diminishing or even erasing the exilic character of Jewish life. A thought-provoking work of political imagination, The Necessity of Exile reclaims exile as a positive stance for constructive Jewish engagement with IsraelPalestine, antisemitism, diaspora, and a broken world in need of repair.

A rabbi's lifelong journey to discover the source and inspiration of Hasidism.

As a student of Abraham Joshua Heschel's at Jewish Theological Seminary sixty years ago, Burt Jacobson was moved to devote his life to the study of Israel Baal Shem Tov--the founder of Hasidism. Heschel considered the Baal Shem the greatest Jewish teacher and communal leader of the last 1,000 years. Living in the Presence: A Personal Quest for the Baal Shem Tov is a wide-ranging portrait, revealing numerous facets of the Baal Shem Tov's biography and revolutionary thought previously unknown. Through his knowledge of the world's wisdom traditions, and personal journey, Rabbi Jacobson is able to place the Baal Shem in the company of the great world spiritual teachers. He reveals the Baal Shem's vision as an ecstatic mystical encounter that opened to the transcendent unity of existence. It was this that inspired his love and compassion for all creation, especially for the people he met. His disciples testified that their experience of these truths transformed how they understood their own identities as manifestations of the Divine, altered how they lived as spiritual leaders of their communities, and laid the foundations for Hasidism as a movement.

Throughout his book Jacobson presents and evaluates insights of historians and scholars, but it is also filled with personal stories about Jacobson's own struggle with his Jewish identity and his encounter with the Baal Shem as his spiritual teacher. Both a tour de force and a labor of love, this book will quickly become the most essential work on the subject ever published in English.

This Very Short Introduction starts by outlining the basics of practical Judaism, including: festivals, prayers, customs, and various sects - and goes on to consider how Judaism has responded to, and dealt with, a number of key issues and debates, including the impact of the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel. In this new edition, Solomon considers issues of contemporary Judaism in the 21st century, incorporating new material on the relationship between the Muslim faith and Judaism, the rise of Zohar and Kabala, and considers how the faith deals with issues such as homosexuality and gay marriage.

ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

In this insightful and completely updated tome, esteemed rabbi and bestselling author Joseph Telushkin helps answer the question of what it means to be a Jew, in the largest sense. Widely recognized as one of the most respected and indispensable reference books on Jewish life, culture, tradition, and religion, Jewish Literacy covers every essential aspect of the Jewish people and Judaism. In 352 short and engaging chapters, Rabbi Telushkin discusses everything from the Jewish Bible and Talmud to Jewish notions of ethics to antisemitism and the Holocaust; from the history of Jews around the world to Zionism and the politics of a Jewish state; from the significance of religious traditions and holidays to how they are practiced in daily life. Whether you want to know more about Judaism in general or have specific questions you'd like answered, Jewish Literacy is sure to contain the information you need.

Rabbi Telushkin's expert knowledge of Judaism makes the updated and revised edition of Jewish Literacy an invaluable reference. A comprehensive yet thoroughly accessible resource for anyone interested in learning the fundamentals of Judaism, Jewish Literacy is a must for every Jewish home.

The very word Jew continues to arouse passions as does no other religious, national, or political name. Why have Jews been the object of the most enduring and universal hatred in history? Why did Hitler consider murdering Jews more important than winning World War II? Why has the United Nations devoted more time to tiny Israel than to any other nation on earth?

In this seminal study, Dennis Prager and Joseph Telushkin attempt to uncover and understand the roots of antisemitism--from the ancient world to the Holocaust to the current crisis in the Middle East. Why the Jews? offers new insights and unparalleled perspectives on some of the most recent, pressing developments in the contemporary world, including:

-The replicating of Nazi antisemitism in the Arab world
-The pervasive anti-Zionism/antisemitism on university campuses
-The rise of antisemitism in Europe
-Why the United States and Israel are linked in the minds of antisemites

Clear, persuasive, and thought-provoking, Why the Jews? is must reading for anyone who seeks to understand the unique role of the Jews in human history.

A comprehensive study of the history and evolution of the dybbuk, from kabbalistic tradition to popular folklore.

The Dybbuk is the first comprehensive study of the historical and kabbalistic sources of the dybbuk phenomenon, from the first recorded case of dybbuk possession in Safed in 1571 onward. Dybbuk possession differs from possession by demons or Satan. Its origin is in the Kabbalistic concept of gilgul (transmigration) for sins that are so grievous that Gehenna is not sufficient punishment, and the soul must therefore wander until expiation is found. The dybbuk can temporarily find refuge in animals or people and can only be exorcised by a Baal Shem, a great kabbalist or expert in Jewish magic. In addition to describing the history and evolution of this concept, The Dybbuk includes English translations of all dybbuk stories discussed in the book, many translated for the first time.

A self-consciously radical statement that is both astute and joyous.--Kirkus Reviews

Today there are two seemingly mutually exclusive notions of what the Jews are: either a religion or a nation/ethnicity. The widespread conception is that the Jews were formerly either a religious community in exile or a nation based on Jewish ethnicity. The latter position is commonly known as Zionism, and all articulations of a political theory of Zionism are taken to be variations of that view.

In this provocative book, based on his decades of study of the history of the Jews, Daniel Boyarin lays out the problematic aspects of this binary opposition and offers the outlines of a different--and very old--answer to the question of the identity of a diaspora nation. He aims to drive a wedge between the nation and the state, only very recently conjoined, and recover a robust sense of nationalism that does not involve sovereignty.

Now in paperback with a new postscript, this updated edition of Paula Fredriksen's critically acclaimed Augustine and the Jews traces the social and intellectual forces that led to the development of Christian anti-Judaism and shows how and why Augustine challenged this tradition.

Drawing us into the life, times, and thought of Augustine of Hippo (396-430), Fredriksen focuses on the period of astounding creativity that led to his new understanding of Paul and to his great classic, The Confessions. She shows how Augustine's struggle to read the Bible led him to a new theological vision, one that countered the anti-Judaism not only of his Manichaean opponents but also of his own church. The Christian Empire, Augustine held, was right to ban paganism and to coerce heretics. But the source of ancient Jewish scripture and current Jewish practice, he argued, was the very same as that of the New Testament and of the church--namely, God himself. Accordingly, he urged, Jews were to be left alone. Conceived as a vividly original way to defend Christian ideas about Jesus and about the Old Testament, Augustine's theological innovation survived the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, and it ultimately served to protect Jewish lives against the brutality of medieval crusades.

Augustine and the Jews sheds new light on the origins of Christian anti-Semitism and, through Augustine, opens a path toward better understanding between two of the world's great religions.

This is the third edition of Shaye J. D. Cohen's important and seminal work on the history and development of Judaism between 164 BCE to 300 CE. Cohen's synthesis of religion, literature, and history offers deep insight into the nature of Judaism at this key period, including the relationship between Jews and Gentiles, the function of Jewish religion in the larger community, and the development of normative Judaism and other Jewish sects. Cohen offers students more than just history, but an understanding of the social and cultural context of Judaism as it developed into the formative period of rabbinic Judaism. This new edition includes a brand-new chapter on the parting of ways between Jews and Christians in the second century CE. From the Maccabees to the Mishnah remains the clearest introduction to the era that shaped Judaism and provided the context for early Christianity.

Despite its persistence and viciousness, anti-Semitism remains undertheorized in comparison with other forms of racism and discrimination. How should anti-Semitism be defined? What are its underlying causes? Why do anti-Semites target Jews? In what ways has Judeophobia changed over time? What are the continuities and disconnects between medieval anti-Judaism and the Holocaust? How does criticism of the state of Israel relate to anti-Semitism? And how can social theory illuminate the upsurge in attacks on Jews today?

Considering these questions and many more, this book is at once a philosophical reflection on key problems in the analysis of anti-Semitism and a history of its leading theories and theorists. Jonathan Judaken explores the methodological and conceptual issues that have vexed the study of Judeophobia and calls for a reconsideration of the definitions, categories, and narratives that underpin overarching explanations. He traces how a range of thinkers have wrestled with these challenges, examining the theories of Jean-Paul Sartre, the Frankfurt School, Hannah Arendt, and Jean-François Lyotard, alongside the works of sociologists Talcott Parsons and Zygmunt Bauman and historians Léon Poliakov and George Mosse. Judaken argues against claims about the uniqueness of Judeophobia, demonstrating how it is entangled with other racisms: Islamophobia, Negrophobia, and xenophobia. Critical Theories of Anti-Semitism not only urges readers to question how they think about Judeophobia but also draws them into conversation with a range of leading thinkers whose insights are sorely needed in this perilous moment.

What does it mean to be a Jew?

What is Judaism's message to the world?

Winner of the 2021 Gierowski-Shmeruk Prize
Shortlisted for the Folklore Society's Katharine Briggs Award 2021
Jews have been active participants in shaping the healing practices of the communities of eastern Europe. Their approach largely combined the ideas of traditional Ashkenazi culture with the heritage of medieval and early modern medicine. Holy rabbis and faith healers, as well as Jewish barbers, innkeepers, and pedlars, all dispensed cures, purveyed folk remedies for different ailments, and gave hope to the sick and their families based on kabbalah, numerology, prayer, and magical Hebrew formulas. Nevertheless, as new sources of knowledge penetrated the traditional world, modern medical ideas gained widespread support. Jews became court physicians to the nobility, and when the universities were opened up to them many also qualified as doctors. At every stage, medicine proved an important field for cross-cultural contacts.

Jewish historians and scholars of folk medicine alike will discover here fascinating sources never previously explored--manuscripts, printed publications, and memoirs in Yiddish and Hebrew but also in Polish, English, German, Russian, and Ukrainian. Marek Tuszewicki's careful study of these documents has teased out therapeutic advice, recipes, magical incantations, kabbalistic methods, and practical techniques, together with the ethical considerations that such approaches entailed. His research fills a gap in the study of folk medicine in eastern Europe, shedding light on little-known aspects of Ashkenazi culture, and on how the need to treat sickness brought Jews and their neighbours together.

What does it mean to be a Jew?

What is Judaism's message to the world?

Winner of the 2017 Nautilus Award in the Religion/Spirituality of Western Thought Category

A bestselling author and rabbi's profoundly affecting exploration of the meaning and purpose of the soul

Einstein and the Rabbi is an inspiring and deeply affecting book for people of all faiths, Rabbi Naomi Levy sets off on a three-year exploration of the mystery behind a moving and mystical letter that Albert Einstein wrote to a grieving father about the unity that underlies all existence. In the letter Einstein perfectly captures what Rabbi Levy has come to believe about the human condition: that we are intimately connected and that we are blind to this truth. Wondering what had elicited such spiritual wisdom from a man of science, Levy leads us on a breathtaking journey full of wisdom, empathy, and humor, all the while helping us to reclaim our souls and glimpse the oneness that has been eluding us, live up to our gifts, and understand why we are here.