Judaism articles from June 1993

Judaism archives from June 1993

A tribute to E.E. Urbach. (Ephraim Elimelech Urbach) (Obituary)
June 22, 1993... Ephraim Elimelech Urbach was, in the last forty years, the central figure in Jewish studies in Israel, and served as the model and the standard-setter for Jewish studies all over the world. This period was one in which the academic study of...

Perspectives on truthfulness in the Jewish tradition.
June 22, 1993... Introduction The value of truth permeates the fabric of Judaism both legally and philosophically. Legally, at least three times the Torah mentions the imperative to tell the truth and refrain from lying: 1) "You shall not bear false...

The duty to philosophize: Socrates and Maimonides.
June 22, 1993... PHILOSOPHY MAY BEGIN IN WONDER, BUT it is sustained by the desire and need to understand; and these latter are the archai, the true grounds for philosophy. Furthermore, this desire to understand is, itself, motivated by a certain conception of...

The role of the storyteller - Sholem Aleichem and Elie Wiesel.
June 22, 1993... PAUL FUSSELL, IN THE GREAT WAR AND Modern Memory, explores the manner in which literature functions to help communities maintain their cohesiveness in times of crisis. A crisis, for Fussell, is a time in which old myths break down in the light...

Re'haz: an answer in search of a question.
June 22, 1993... Introduction Re'haz, the second step of the Passover Haggadah, the washing of the hands without a blessing, has always held a special fascination for me. It goes back to the time when I was in grade school and received two alternate...

The biblical 'Omen and evidence for the nurturance of children by Hebrew males.
June 22, 1993... Introduction In the past few years, a feminist perspective has been brought to bear on Biblical texts. Some feminine analysts have accepted the view that a patriarchal focus is best used to interpret Biblical materials and, therefore,...

Islam and the halakhah.
June 22, 1993... There is much that can be written about Jewish attitudes towards Islam, but this topic has not yet been of great concern to Jewish scholars, perhaps because, unlike what we have with regard to Christianity, there is not much in the way of...

Vagaries of a Jewish leap year.
June 22, 1993... The year 5752 Anno Mundi (1991-1992) was a leap-year in the Jewish calendar, adding a whole month to the usual twelve. This occurs with a certain regularity in a cycle of 19 years. The 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th, and 19th years are...

A tale of two families: Franz Rosenzweig, Gershom Scholem and the generational conflict around Judaism. (establishing Jewish identity under Nazi rule)
June 22, 1993... In Order to Reconstruct the Past, Historians sometimes have to be voyeurs, looking into the'r subjects' most private lives. Their binoculars are diaries, memoirs and personal letters, through which they gain occasional glances into the living...

The Midrash and I. (personal narrative)
June 22, 1993... Among the many (too many!) regrets that trouble me nowadays is remorse over not having followed my instincts and studied the Midrash harder than I have. After all, the Bible is always in my mind, and the Midrash begins as commentaries on...

Jesus and the Jews. (personal narrative)
June 22, 1993... I begin with citations from two very different modern Jews - one, the most widely praised proponent of an existential, rooted Biblical faith for the present century, the other, a renegade, self-hating suicide whose early promise was quickly...

Nachman Krochmal: Guiding the Perplexed of the Modern Age.
June 22, 1993... The great Rabbi Nachman Krochmal (1785-1840) has not been well served in the English language. A fugitive essay by Solomon Schechter, a forty-year-old dissertation by Steven Schwarzschild that was never published, a few journal articles, and a...

Russian-Jewish Literature and Identity: Jabotinsky, Babel, Grossman, Galich, Roziner, Markish.
June 22, 1993... This is an excellent book on a fascinating topic - the complex, tortuous, and, at times, pathological struggle for cultural identity among Russian Jews in the twentieth century. Basing herself on the life and work of six important Russian...

Conflicting Visions: Spiritual Possibilities of Modern Israel.
June 22, 1993... It's hard not to be a fan of David Hartman, from where I sit. He is, after all, an Orthodox philosopher respectful of secular Israelis and of non-Jews, a religious Zionist deeply sympathetic to the aspirations of Palestinians and intent on...