Regional identities and cultures of medieval jews

Though the existence of Jewish regional cultures is widely known, the origins of the most prominent groups, Ashkenaz and Sepharad, are poorly understood, and the rich variety of other regional Jewish identities is often overlooked. Yet all these subcultures emerged in the Middle Ages. Scholars ...

Maimonides' confrontation with mysticism

Many books on Maimonides have been written and still more will appear. Few present Maimonides, as Menachem Kellner does against the actual religious background that informed his many innovative and influential choices. He not only analyses the thought of the great religious thinker but contextualizes ...

The Sabbath in classical Kabbalah

This study is concerned both with the richly imagined world of kabbalistic myth concerning the sabbath as it developed from the late twelfth century to the early sixteenth century and with its activation in religious life via ritual. First published in 1989, it has now ...

The mystical origins of Hasidism

This very accessible introduction to hasidism as a movement opens a new window on its mystical underpinnings. It discusses the origins and dissemination of hasidism and the literature that facilitated this; the theological basis of hasidism and the mystical significance of the tsadik; the major ...

Perspectives on Maimonides

philosophical and historical studies

'For many years to come it is likely to remain a major reference volume for students of Maimonides.' Sarah Stroumsa, Jewish Quarterly Review 'These studies, however disparate, provide us with convincing evidence of the continuing importance of Maimonides' philosophy.' Marvin Fox, Times Literary Supplement 'Surely ...

The Jews of Vienna and the First World War

'Rechter analyses the effects of the wartime crisis on Jewish thinking with considerable skill, drawing on an impressive range of sources ...He gives a particularly effective account of the disorientation and dislocation of Viennese Jews at the fall of the Empire and their efforts to ...

The golden age of Aragonese Jewry

community and society in the crown of Aragon, 1213-1327

'A much needed distillation of the fruits of scholarship on the Jews in the Crown of Aragon ...conveys a sense of the variety and creativity of the Jewish experience in the Middle Ages, and of Jewish history as viewed from the inside ...an essential book ...

The book in the jewish world, 1700-1900

Zeev Gries#s analysis of what books were being published and where shows the importance of the printed book in disseminating religious and secular ideas, creating a new class of Jewish intellectuals, and making knowledge of the world available to women. This unique perspective on ...

Jewish mysticism

the infinite expression of freedom

This study is an exposition of the Jewish mystical phenomenon. It is based on a close reading of the hundreds of volumes written by Jewish mystics and incorporates mystical testimonies drawn from the different countries and cultural environments in which Jews have lived. Rachel Elior ...

Maimonides' confrontation with mysticism

This book takes issue with the widespread assumption that Maimonides famous Thirteen Principles are the last word in Orthodox Jewish theology. The author shows that numerous traditional theologians in the last 900 years have in fact taken issue with Maimonides principles, both in their details ...

Must a jew believe anything?

Table of Contents: 1 Two types of faith 2 Rabbinic thought 3 Why Judaism acquired a systematic theology 4 Maimonides : dogma without dogmatism 5 Maimonides : impact, implications, challenges 6 Heresy-hunting 7 How to live with other Jews App. 1 Maimonides on reward and punishment App ...

The jews of Vienna in the age of Franz Joseph

This highly acclaimed study depicts and evaluates in an original and imaginative fashion the 'Golden Age' of Viennese Jewry during the long reign of Emperor Franz Joseph II. Based on exhaustive and meticulous research, Professor Wistrich's reconstruction of the place of the Jews in ...

The mystical origins of hasidism

CONTENTS: The origins of Hasidism. The Hasidic library. Mystical societies and the spread of Hasidism : internalizing and reviving the Kabbalistic myth. The Hasidic concept of language : the window in the word. Israel Ba'al Shem Tov's uniqueness : myth, bibliography, facts, and image. The Hasidic ...

The expulsion of the jews from Spain

The three temples

on the emergence of jewish mysticism

Dogma in medieval jewish thought

from maimonides to abravanel

Haskalah and history

emergence of a modern Jewish historical consciousness

Detailed intellectual history of the juwish enlightement, acclaimed in hardback as a work of great conceptual clarity and penetrating analysis.

Reluctant cosmopolitans

the portuguese jews of Seventeenth-century Amsterdam

Reveals the dynamics of a remarkable community and increases our understanding of the transition from medieval to modern Jewish history. Winner of a National Jewish Book Award.