Abarbanel on the Torah

Abarbanel on the Torah
Author: Isaac Abravanel
Publisher: World Zionist Organization
Total Pages: 448
Release: 2007
Genre: Religion
ISBN:

This volume contains a series of texts selelcted from Abarbanel's widely cunsulted Bible commentary.

Isaac Abarbanel's Stance Toward Tradition

Isaac Abarbanel's Stance Toward Tradition
Author: Eric Lawee
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 335
Release: 2012-02-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0791489884

Winner of the 2002 Nauchman Sokol-Mollie Halberstadt Prize in Biblical/Rabbinic Scholarship presented by the Canadian Jewish Book Awards Finalist, 2002 Scholarship Morris J. and Betty Kaplun Award presented by the National Jewish Book Council Financier and courtier to the kings of Portugal, Spain, and Italy and Spanish Jewry's foremost representative at court at the time of its 1492 expulsion, Isaac Abarbanel was also Judaism's leading scholar at the turn of the sixteenth century. His work has had a profound influence on both his contemporaries and later thinkers, Jewish and Christian. Isaac Abarbanel's Stance Toward Tradition is the first full-length study of Abarbanel in half a century. The book considers a wide range of Abarbanel's writings, focusing for the first time on the dominant exegetical side of his intellectual achievements as reflected in biblical commentaries and messianic writings. Author Eric Lawee approaches Abarbanel's work from the perspective of his negotiations with texts and teachings bequeathed to him from the Jewish past. The work provides insight into the important spiritual and intellectual developments in late medieval and early modern Judaism while offering a portrait of a complex scholar whose stance before tradition combined conservatism with creativity and reverence with daring.

Abarbanel Shoftim

Abarbanel Shoftim
Author: Hal Miller
Publisher:
Total Pages: 286
Release: 2020-01-26
Genre:
ISBN:

For the first time in 500 years, the commentary of Don Yitzchak Abarbanel on the Torah and Prophets has been translated from its original Hebrew into another language. This is not a supercommentary, the opinion of some modern writer as to what Abarbanel said, this is Abarbanel, in his own words, merely rendered into readable English. His references to other writings are now clearly cited. His famous question and answer style is preserved, each question cross-referenced with its answer.

From Tradition to Commentary

From Tradition to Commentary
Author: Steven D. Fraade
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 365
Release: 2012-02-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1438403143

This book examines Torah and its interpretation both as a recurring theme in the early rabbinic commentary and as the very practice of the commentary. It studies the phenomenon of ancient rabbinic scriptural commentary in relation to the perspectives of literary and historical criticisms and their complex intersection. The author discusses extensively the nature of ancient commentary, comparing and contrasting it with the antecedents in the pesharim of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the allegorical commentaries of Philo of Alexandria. He develops a model for a dynamic understanding of the literary structure and sociohistorical function of early rabbinic commentary, and then applies this model to the Sifre — to the oldest extant running commentary to Deuteronomy and one of the oldest rabbinic collections of exegesis. Fraade examines the commentary's representation of revelation and its reception at Mt. Sinai, with particular attention to its fractured refiguration and interrelation of Scripture, tradition, and history. He discusses the commentary's discursive empowering of the class of sages in their collective self-understanding as Israel's authorized teachers, leaders, legislators, and judges. The author also probes the tension between Torah and nature as witnesses to Israel's covenant with God.

Don Isaac Abravanel

Don Isaac Abravanel
Author: Cedric Cohen-Skalli
Publisher: Brandeis University Press
Total Pages: 367
Release: 2020-11-22
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1684580234

"An intellectual biography of Don Isaac ben Judah Abravanel, a 15th century Portuguese rabbi, scholar, Bible commentator, philosopher, and statesman"--

Lost in Translation, Found in Transliteration

Lost in Translation, Found in Transliteration
Author: Alex Kerner
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2018-06-12
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004367055

In Lost in Translation, Found in Transliteration, Alex Kerner examines London’s Spanish & Portuguese Jews’ congregation in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as a community that delineated its identity not only along ethnic and religious lines, but also along the various languages spoken by its members. By zealously keeping Hebrew and Spanish for prayer and Portuguese for community administration, generations of wardens attempted to keep control over their community, alongside a tough censorial policy on book printing. Clinging to the Iberian languages worked as a bulwark against assimilation, adding language to religion as an additional identity component. As Spanish and Portuguese speaking generations were replaced with younger ones, English permeated daily and community life intensifying assimilationist trends. “His focus on books as an indicator of the importance of language in the London community is well presented, and Kerner’s clear description of the varying uses of Spanish, Portuguese, and Hebrew (and later, English) by the Sephardim in London gives a good survey of the changes in the community over the 150 years covered by the book.... Highly recommended.” - Michelle Chesner, Columbia University, in: Association of Jewish Libraries News and Reviews 1.1 (2019) "Alex Kerner’s admirable study is a valuable contribution to our knowledge of the interrelationships between language and censorship and their maintenance of community identity." - Barry Taylor, The British Library, London, in: Bulletin of Spanish Studies 96 (2019) "This volume is a significant contribution to the well-researched history of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews of London, providing a clear and nuanced in-depth analysis of the reasons for and history of its censorship policy." - Wendy Filer, King's College London, UK, in: Journal of Jewish Studies 70.2 (2019)

The Great Principle of the Torah

The Great Principle of the Torah
Author: Jack Bieler
Publisher:
Total Pages: 268
Release: 2019-03-18
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781947857216

What are the "meta-values" of Judaism? Jewish tradition is rich with analysis of every topic imaginable, from major philosophical issues like belief in God and questions of good and evil, to detailed analyses about the finer points of Jewish practice. However it sometimes goes unnoticed that many Rabbis of the Talmud and Midrash have sought to explore how those sets of practices and beliefs cohere into a whole as a unit. The Great Principle of the Torah comes to analyze several of those claims and how the traditional and modern commentators interpreted those positions. This volume explores how those values interconnect, as well as their points of divergence. It is the ideal book for someone who is looking for a big picture perspective on what Judaism represents, as well as seeking to understand the rich diversity of opinion within the authentic Jewish tradition.

The Torah

The Torah
Author: Seymour Rossel
Publisher: Torah Aura Productions
Total Pages: 372
Release: 2007
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 9781891662942

An interactive study of the Five Books of Moses. The book can be read from cover to cover or used to study each portion of the Torah as read weekly in the synagogue. Simple enough for teenagers, it is sophisticated enough for adults and rich in resources for preparing lectures, sermons, and talks.