Showing titles in Judaism

Cultural critic Susie Linfield investigates how eight prominent 20th-century intellectuals struggled with the philosophy of Zionism, and then with Israel and its conflicts with the Arab world. Constructed as a series of interrelated portraits that combine the personal and the political, the book includes philosophers, historians, journalists, and activists such as Hannah Arendt, Arthur Koestler, I. F. Stone, and Noam Chomsky.

The most important words ever written are the Ten Commandments. These words changed the world when they were first presented at Mt. Sinai to Israelites, and they are changing it now. They are the foundation stones of Western civilization. Given their staggering importance, you would think that all societies, and certainly our educational and religious institutions, would be intent on studying them closely. Sadly, this is not the case.

Since they were first discovered in the caves at Qumran, in 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls have aroused more fascination - and more controversy - than perhaps any other archaeological find. They appear to have been hidden in the Judean desert by the Essenes, a Jewish sect that existed around the time of Jesus, and they continue to inspire veneration and conspiracy theories to this day. John Collins tells the story of the bitter conflicts that have swirled around the scrolls since their startling discovery, and sheds light on their true significance for Jewish and Christian history.

This audiobook answers such key questions as "Why are we here?", "Why is there pain?'", and "How can we make life more enjoyable"? The audiobook describes the emergence of Kabbalah and its prominent figures, the essence of the wisdom, and previously hidden revolutionary Kabbalistic concepts. Lastly, the audiobook explains how we can make life better and more enjoyable. This audiobook will help seekers of spiritual truth take a first step to understanding the roots of human behavior and the laws of nature.

This incisive history upends the complacency that confines anti-Judaism to the ideological extremes in the Western tradition. With deep learning and elegance, David Nirenberg shows how foundational anti-Judaism is to the history of the West. Questions of how we are Jewish and, more critically, how and why we are not have been churning within the Western imagination throughout its history. Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans; Christians and Muslims of every period; even the secularists of modernity have used Judaism in constructing their visions of the world.

Kabbalah is a tradition that is closely related to Judaism, but which has links also with Ancient Egyptian religion and currents all across the Near and Middle East. Outwardly it was studied and taught principally by Rabbis, but in fact on a more secret level its development was also taken forward by Moslem scholars, Renaissance princes, alchemists of all kind, and magicians. It found its expression in the tarot deck and in the esoteric teachings of Aleister Crowley and Dion Fortune.

Between 1947 and 1956, approximately 15 copies of the "Book of Jubilees" were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. This is second only to a number of Psalms, Deuteronomy, Isaiah, Exodus, and Genesis, and far greater than any other extra-biblical text found there, including "The Book of Enoch."

Also called the "The Little Genesis," "Book of Divisions," and the "Apocalypse of Moses," the "Book of Jubilees" is an apocryphal work (not accepted as Scripture)

There are three main ways one can look at the Book of Psalms. For many, it is a book of one hundred 50 beautifully written poems. For some, it is the legacy of the most powerful king to ever rule. And for others, it is their connection to God. In this translation of the Book of Psalms, understanding the words won’t be your job, choosing which way to look at it will.

Offering rare insights into this iconic and enduring book, Larrimore reveals how Job has come to be viewed as the Bible's answer to the problem of evil and the perennial question of why a God who supposedly loves justice permits bad things to happen to good people.

Jonny Gould is the go-to interviewer for presidents and politicians, artists and ambassadors, military commanders, rabbis and rock stars - and even Mossad agents. This is Jonny’s podcast of record and diplomacy for Israel and the Jewish diaspora. Conversations for everyone with his guest’s most essential thoughts and perspectives. Apple Podcast Number 1’s all over the world, all the time. Tell your friends! Subscribe now. Find more of Jonny at http://linktr.ee/Gould and http://x.com/jonnygould

The Book of Jubilees, sometimes called 'Little Genesis', is an ancient Jewish book that retells many of the stories in Genesis and Exodus with some additional details. It has been known in the West only since the 1840s, when European travellers acquired manuscripts from monasteries in Ethiopia. Then, in 1949, a complete Hebrew manuscript was found amongst the Dead Sea Scrolls. It is considered canonical by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and one of the pseudepigrapha by Protestant, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches.

Vladimir Jabotinsky (1880–1940) was a man of huge paradoxes and contradictions and has been the most misunderstood of all Zionist politicians—a first-rate novelist, a celebrated Russian journalist, and the founder of the branch of Zionism now headed by Benjamin Netanyahu. This biography, the first in English in nearly two decades, undertakes to answer central questions about Jabotinsky as a writer, a political thinker, and a leader. Hillel Halkin sets aside the stereotypes to which Jabotinsky has been reduced by his would-be followers and detractors alike.

Jews have a centuries-old tradition of telling jokes, from the ghettos of Europe to Hollywood and the Catskills. Jewish jokes are entertainment, the oral history of a culture, insightful social criticism, and survival tactic rolled into one. In 2008, Hollywood director and producer Sam Hoffman launched a website called Old Jews Telling Jokes. It’s just what it says: Jewish men and women over 60 sharing their favorite stories, tales, riddles, and punchlines.

Thomas Merton, toward the end of his life, warned of a "pervasive form of contemporary violence" that is unique to our times: overwork and overactivity. In his work as a minister and caregiver, Wayne Muller observed the effects of this violence on our communities, our families, and our people. He responds to this escalating "war on our spirits" in this audio guide, and immerses listeners in the sacred tradition of the shabbat - the day of rest - a tradition that is all but forgotten in an age where consumption, speed, and productivity have become the most valued human commodities. He offers practices and exercises that reflect the sabbath as recognized in Christianity, Judaism, and Buddhism. Through his way of nourishment and repose, Muller teaches, we welcome insights and blessings and arise only with stillness and time.

Grasping God's Word has proven itself in classrooms across the country as an invaluable help to listeners who want to learn how to read, interpret, and apply the Bible for themselves. The third edition, revised based on feedback from professors, continues to serve anyone in their quest to gain a firm grasp on the rock of God's word. Old Testament scholar J. Daniel Hays and New Testament expert J. Scott Duvall provide practical hands-on exercises to guide listeners through the interpretive process.

When we conjure up the idea of the devil and the demonic hordes in our mind, we are often thinking in the context of how Christianity has portrayed them. The devil and his supposed horns, the Exorcist’s battle with the demon possessed, the inverted cross, the Osculum infame (The Infamous kiss) or the Black Mass in which a young woman is sacrificed to Satan. All these are mostly influenced by Christian ideas in some way or another. The Prominence of Christianity in the study of demonology cannot be denied.

The image of the Golden Calf haunts the commentaries that thread through Leviticus. This catastrophic episode, in which the Israelites (freed from Egyptian slavery and forty days after their momentous encounter with God at Mount Sinai) worship a pagan idol while Moses is receiving the Torah from God on the mountaintop, gives the mostly legalistic text a unique depth and resonance. According to midrashic tradition, the post-traumatic effects of the sin of the Golden Calf linger through the generations, the sin to be “paid off” in small increments through time.

Critics outside the church often accuse the Old Testament God of genocide, racism, ethnic cleansing, and violence. But a rising tide of critics within the church claim that Moses and other "primitive," violence-prone prophets were mistaken about God's commands and character. Both sets of critics dismiss this allegedly harsh, flawed, "textual" Old Testament God in favor of the kind, compassionate, "actual" God revealed by Jesus. Are they right to do so?

Denying History takes a bold and in-depth look at those who say the Holocaust never happened and explores the motivations behind such claims. While most commentators have dismissed the Holocaust deniers as antisemitic neo-Nazi thugs who do not deserve a response, historians Michael Shermer and Alex Grobman have immersed themselves in the minds and culture of these Holocaust "revisionists." In the process, they show how we can be certain that the Holocaust happened.

The purpose of studying the Old Testament is to understand God and his redemptive work more fully. However, this goal is complicated by the fact that it was transmitted through a very different language and culture from our own. A Survey of the Old Testament addresses background information, purpose, message, structure, and major themes of the Old Testament to help readers understand its message and relevance.