"Sefer Yeṣirah" and Its Contexts

Download

Author :
Publisher : University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN 13 : 0812294793
Total Pages : 207 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (122 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis "Sefer Yeṣirah" and Its Contexts by : Tzahi Weiss

Download or read book "Sefer Yeṣirah" and Its Contexts written by Tzahi Weiss and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2018-04-13 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sefer Yeṣirah, or "Book of Formation," is one of the most influential Jewish compositions of late antiquity. First attested to in the tenth century C.E. and attributed by some to the patriarch Abraham himself, Sefer Yeṣirah claims that the world was created by the powers of the decimal number system and the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. This short, enigmatic treatise was considered canonical by Jewish philosophers and Kabbalists and has fascinated Western thinkers and writers as diverse as Leibnitz and Borges. Nonetheless, Sefer Yesirah is nearly impossible to contextualize, mainly owing to its unique style and the fact that it does not refer to, nor is it referenced by, any other source in late antiquity. After a century and a half of modern scholarship, the most fundamental questions regarding its origins remain contested: Who wrote Sefer Yeṣirah? Where and when was it written? What was its "original" version? What is the meaning of this treatise? In "Sefer Yeṣirah" and Its Contexts, Tzahi Weiss explores anew the history of this enigmatic work. Through careful scrutiny of the text's evolution, he traces its origins to the seventh century C.E., to Jews who lived far from rabbinic circles and were familiar with the teachings of Syriac Christianity. In addition, he examines the reception of Sefer Yeṣirah by anonymous commentators and laypeople who, as early as the twelfth century C.E., regarded Sefer Yeṣirah as a mystical, mythical, or magical treatise, thus significantly differing from the common rabbinic view in that period of the text as a philosophical and scientific work. Examined against the backdrop of this newly sketched historical context, Sefer Yeṣirah provides a unique and surprising aperture to little-known Jewish intellectual traditions of late antiquity and the early Middle Ages which, despite their distance from the rabbinic canon, played a vital role in the development of medieval Jewish learning and culture.

"Sefer Yeṣirah" and Its Contexts

Download

Author :
Publisher : University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN 13 : 0812249909
Total Pages : 208 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (122 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis "Sefer Yeṣirah" and Its Contexts by : Tzahi Weiss

Download or read book "Sefer Yeṣirah" and Its Contexts written by Tzahi Weiss and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2018-05-29 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In "Sefer Yeṣirah" and Its Contexts, Tzahi Weiss explores anew the contested history of Sefer Yeṣirah, in the process extending our knowledge of Jewish intellectual traditions excluded from rabbinic canon.

The Cambridge Companion to Jewish Theology

Download The Cambridge Companion to Jewish Theology PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108415431
Total Pages : 513 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (84 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Cambridge Companion to Jewish Theology by : Steven Kepnes

Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to Jewish Theology written by Steven Kepnes and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-12-17 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive review of the entire tradition of Jewish Theology from the Bible to the present from leading world scholars.

Essays on Women in Western Esotericism

Download Essays on Women in Western Esotericism PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3030768899
Total Pages : 401 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (37 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Essays on Women in Western Esotericism by : Amy Hale

Download or read book Essays on Women in Western Esotericism written by Amy Hale and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-01-21 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the first collection to feature histories of women in Western Esotericism while also highlighting women’s scholarship. In addition to providing a critical examination of important and under researched figures in the history of Western Esotericism, these fifteen essays also contribute to current debates in the study of esotericism about the very nature of the field itself. The chapters are divided into four thematic sections that address current topics in the study of esotericism: race and othering, femininity, power and leadership and embodiment. This collection not only adds important voices to the story of Western Esotericism, it hopes to change the way the story is told.

Fragile Finitude

Download Fragile Finitude PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022676415X
Total Pages : 199 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (267 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Fragile Finitude by : Michael Fishbane

Download or read book Fragile Finitude written by Michael Fishbane and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2021-04-20 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In Fragile Finitude, the long-awaited follow-up to Sacred Attunement(2008), Fishbane clears new ground for theological experience and its expressions through a novel reinterpretation of the Book of Job. His reinterpretation is based on the traditional four types of Jewish Scriptural exegesis: the contextual plain sense; the rabbinic legal and theological sense; the figural philosophical and spiritual sense; and the symbolic mystical sense. The first focuses on worldly experience; the second on communal forms of life and thought in the rabbinic tradition; the third on personal development; and the fourth on transcendent and cosmic orientations. Through these four modes, Fishbane manages to transform Jewish theology from within, at once reinvigorating a long tradition and moving beyond it. What he offers is nothing short of a way to reorient our lives in relation to the Divine and our fellow humans"--

Israel's 70th Anniversary: Insights and Perspectives

Download Israel's 70th Anniversary: Insights and Perspectives PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : V&R Unipress
ISBN 13 : 3847012061
Total Pages : 203 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (47 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Israel's 70th Anniversary: Insights and Perspectives by : Regina Polak

Download or read book Israel's 70th Anniversary: Insights and Perspectives written by Regina Polak and published by V&R Unipress. This book was released on 2020-09-07 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The aim of the volume is to offer interdisciplinary insights unknown to many into the interior of the religious, cultural and political laboratory that is Israel. Europe can learn a lot from Israel: The handling of religious diversity within the country; the meaning of the Hebrew language; the integration of more than a million Jewish immigrants; the development of a dynamic economy; a flourishing education and science system; a rich culture in the field of literature and above all film; and last but not least the lively, constant and conflictual struggle for democracy. Additionally, the question of Israel-related anti-Semitism is debated from the perspective of Jewish studies, social sciences and Catholic theology.

Images of Torah: From the Second-Temple Period to the Middle Ages

Download Images of Torah: From the Second-Temple Period to the Middle Ages PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004543228
Total Pages : 462 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (45 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Images of Torah: From the Second-Temple Period to the Middle Ages by : Jeong Mun. Heo

Download or read book Images of Torah: From the Second-Temple Period to the Middle Ages written by Jeong Mun. Heo and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2023-06-26 with total page 462 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the way that the Torah was appreciated and interpreted as a text and symbol in Christian and Jewish sources from the Second Temple period through the Middle Ages. It tracks the development and complex interactions of three images of Torah— “God-like,” “Angelic,” and “Messianic”— which are found in late-antique Jewish and Christian materials as well as in medieval kabbalistic and Jewish philosophic sources. It provides a unique template for tracing the development of theological ideas related to the images of Torah and offers a sophisticated and innovative analysis of the relationship between mystical experience, theology, and phenomenology.

Neuromorphic Engineering

Download Neuromorphic Engineering PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : CRC Press
ISBN 13 : 1000421325
Total Pages : 242 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (4 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Neuromorphic Engineering by : Elishai Ezra Tsur

Download or read book Neuromorphic Engineering written by Elishai Ezra Tsur and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2021-08-27 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The brain is not a glorified digital computer. It does not store information in registers, and it does not mathematically transform mental representations to establish perception or behavior. The brain cannot be downloaded to a computer to provide immortality, nor can it destroy the world by having its emerged consciousness traveling in cyberspace. However, studying the brain's core computation architecture can inspire scientists, computer architects, and algorithm designers to think fundamentally differently about their craft. Neuromorphic engineers have the ultimate goal of realizing machines with some aspects of cognitive intelligence. They aspire to design computing architectures that could surpass existing digital von Neumann-based computing architectures' performance. In that sense, brain research bears the promise of a new computing paradigm. As part of a complete cognitive hardware and software ecosystem, neuromorphic engineering opens new frontiers for neuro-robotics, artificial intelligence, and supercomputing applications. This book will present neuromorphic engineering from three perspectives: the scientist, the computer architect, and the algorithm designer. We will zoom in and out of the different disciplines, allowing readers with diverse backgrounds to understand and appreciate the field. Overall, the book will cover the basics of neuronal modeling, neuromorphic circuits, neural architectures, event-based communication, and the neural engineering framework. Readers will have the opportunity to understand the different views over the inherently multidisciplinary field of neuromorphic engineering.

Kabbalah and Sex Magic

Download Kabbalah and Sex Magic PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Penn State Press
ISBN 13 : 0271091061
Total Pages : 221 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (71 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Kabbalah and Sex Magic by : Marla Segol

Download or read book Kabbalah and Sex Magic written by Marla Segol and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2021-06-16 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this provocative book, Marla Segol explores the development of the kabbalistic cosmology underlying Western sex magic. Drawing extensively on Jewish myth and ritual, Segol tells the powerful story of the relationship between the divine and the human body in late antique Jewish esotericism, in medieval kabbalah, and in New Age ritual practice. Kabbalah and Sex Magic traces the evolution of a Hebrew microcosm that models the powerful interaction of human and divine bodies at the heart of both kabbalah and some forms of Western sex magic. Focusing on Jewish esoteric and medical sources from the fifth to the twelfth century from Byzantium, Persia, Iberia, and southern France, Segol argues that in its fully developed medieval form, kabbalah operated by ritualizing a mythos of divine creation by means of sexual reproduction. She situates in cultural and historical context the emergence of Jewish cosmological models for conceptualizing both human and divine bodies and the interactions between them, arguing that all these sources position the body and its senses as the locus of culture and the means of reproducing it. Segol explores the rituals acting on these models, attending especially to their inherent erotic power, and ties these to contemporary Western sex magic, showing that such rituals have a continuing life. Asking questions about its cosmology, myths, and rituals, Segol poses even larger questions about the history of kabbalah, the changing conceptions of the human relation to the divine, and even the nature of religious innovation itself. This groundbreaking book will appeal to students and scholars of Jewish studies, religion, sexuality, and magic.

Theatre and Judaism

Download Theatre and Judaism PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1350316261
Total Pages : 82 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (53 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Theatre and Judaism by : Yair Lipshitz

Download or read book Theatre and Judaism written by Yair Lipshitz and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-03-16 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new title in the Theatre & series explores the intersections between theatre and Judaism, offering a uniquely nuanced approach as a counterpart to the more common discourse surrounding Jewish theatre. Arguing that theatre allows for a subtle engagement with religious heritage that does not easily fall into a religious/secular dichotomy, it examines the ways in which Jewish tradition lends itself to theatrical performance. With rigorous scholarship and a fresh perspective, Theatre and Judaism promotes a transnational and comparative approach, considering Judaism as a religious-cultural tradition rather than focusing on a particular national context. Exciting and thought-provoking, this is the perfect companion for undergraduate and postgraduate students of theatre or religious studies.

Kabbalah in Print

Download Kabbalah in Print PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : State University of New York Press
ISBN 13 : 1438479735
Total Pages : 280 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (384 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Kabbalah in Print by : Andrea Gondos

Download or read book Kabbalah in Print written by Andrea Gondos and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2020-11-01 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Demonstrates the impact of print culture on the spread of Jewish mysticism, focusing on Kabbalistic study guides by R. Yissakhar Baer of seventeenth-century Prague. How did Jewish mysticism go from arcane knowledge to popular spirituality? Kabbalah in Print examines the cultural impact of printing on the popularization, circulation, and transmission of Kabbalah in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The Zohar, in particular, generated a large secondary literature of study guides and reference works that aimed to ease the linguistic and conceptual challenges of the text. The arrival of printed classics of Kabbalah was soon followed by the appearance of new literary genres—anthologies, digests, lexicons, and other learning aids—that mediated mystical primary sources to a community of readers not versed in this lore. A detailed investigation of the four works by R. Yissakhar Baer (ca.1580–ca.1629) of Prague sheds light on the literary strategies, pedagogic concerns, and religious motivations of secondary elites, a new cadre of authors empowered by the opportunities that printing opened up. Andrea Gondos highlights shifting intellectual and cultural boundaries in the early modern period, when the transmission of Kabbalah became a meeting point connecting various strata of Jewish society as well as Jewish and Christian intellectuals. Andrea Gondos is Emmy Noether Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Jewish Studies at Free University Berlin, Germany. She is the coeditor (with Daniel Maoz) of From Antiquity to the Postmodern World: Contemporary Jewish Studies in Canada.

Through a Speculum That Shines

Download Through a Speculum That Shines PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 069121509X
Total Pages : 463 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (912 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Through a Speculum That Shines by : Elliot R. Wolfson

Download or read book Through a Speculum That Shines written by Elliot R. Wolfson and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-06-30 with total page 463 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive treatment of visionary experience in some of the main texts of Jewish mysticism, this book reveals the overwhelmingly visual nature of religious experience in Jewish spirituality from antiquity through the late Middle Ages. Using phenomenological and critical historical tools, Wolfson examines Jewish mystical texts from late antiquity, pre-kabbalistic sources from the tenth to the twelfth centuries, and twelfth- and thirteenth-century kabbalistic literature. His work demonstrates that the sense of sight assumes an epistemic priority in these writings, reflecting and building upon those scriptural passages that affirm the visual nature of revelatory experience. Moreover, the author reveals an androcentric eroticism in the scopic mentality of Jewish mystics, which placed the externalized and representable form, the phallus, at the center of the visual encounter. In the visionary experience, as Wolfson describes it, imagination serves a primary function, transmuting sensory data and rational concepts into symbols of those things beyond sense and reason. In this view, the experience of a vision is inseparable from the process of interpretation. Fundamentally challenging the conventional distinction between experience and exegesis, revelation and interpretation, Wolfson argues that for the mystics themselves, the study of texts occasioned a visual experience of the divine located in the imagination of the mystical interpreter. Thus he shows how Jewish mystics preserved the invisible transcendence of God without doing away with the visual dimension of belief.

The Jews of Provence and Languedoc

Download The Jews of Provence and Languedoc PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Liverpool University Press
ISBN 13 : 1837641412
Total Pages : 544 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (376 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Jews of Provence and Languedoc by : Ram Ben-Shalom

Download or read book The Jews of Provence and Languedoc written by Ram Ben-Shalom and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 2024-05-08 with total page 544 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This exhaustive history of Provençal Jewry examines the key aspects of Jewish life in Provence over some 1,500 years of cultural florescence with far-reaching consequences. A seminal examination of the crucial role of the Jews of Provence in shaping medieval Jewish culture in the Mediterranean basin.

New Paths in Jewish and Religious Studies

Download New Paths in Jewish and Religious Studies PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Purdue University Press
ISBN 13 : 1612499244
Total Pages : 569 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (124 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis New Paths in Jewish and Religious Studies by : Glenn Dynner

Download or read book New Paths in Jewish and Religious Studies written by Glenn Dynner and published by Purdue University Press. This book was released on 2024-06-15 with total page 569 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The work of Elliot R. Wolfson has profoundly influenced the fields of Jewish studies as well as philosophy and religion more broadly. His radically new approaches have created pioneering ways of analyzing texts and thinking about religion through the lens of gender, sexuality, and feminist theory. The contributors to New Paths in Jewish and Religious Studies: Essays in Honor of Professor Elliot R. Wolfson, many of whom are internationally renowned scholars, hearken from diverse fields. Each has learned from and collaborated with Wolfson as student or colleague, and each has expanded the new scholarly directions initiated by Wolfson’s groundbreaking work. Wolfson’s scholarship gives us innovative ways to think about Judaism and a fresh understanding of religion. Not only a scholar, Wolfson is one of the most important Jewish thinkers of our day. Chapters are grouped according to the categories of religion, Jewish thought and philosophy, and a focused section on Kabbalah, Wolfson’s primary specialization. The volume concludes with a bibliography of Wolfson’s published work and a selection of his poetry.

Along the Path

Download Along the Path PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : SUNY Press
ISBN 13 : 9780791424070
Total Pages : 312 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (24 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Along the Path by : Elliot R. Wolfson

Download or read book Along the Path written by Elliot R. Wolfson and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1995-01-01 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the fundamental issues in Jewish mysticism and provides a taxonomy of the deep structures of thought that emerge from the texts.

Crafting Humans

Download Crafting Humans PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : V&R unipress GmbH
ISBN 13 : 3847100599
Total Pages : 200 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (471 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Crafting Humans by : Marius Turda

Download or read book Crafting Humans written by Marius Turda and published by V&R unipress GmbH. This book was released on 2013 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is based partly on papers presented at the Berendel Foundation's second annual conference held at Queen's College, Oxford between 8 and 10 September 2011.

Rabbi Joseph Gikatilla's Hermeneutics

Download Rabbi Joseph Gikatilla's Hermeneutics PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Mohr Siebeck
ISBN 13 : 9783161502033
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (2 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Rabbi Joseph Gikatilla's Hermeneutics by : Elke Morlok

Download or read book Rabbi Joseph Gikatilla's Hermeneutics written by Elke Morlok and published by Mohr Siebeck. This book was released on 2011 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A revision of the author's thesis (doctoral)--Hebrew UniversityJerusalem, 2008.