... Naḥmanides takes a different line from other Jewish apologists, who tried to argue that the sceptre had never fully departed from Judah and that any surviving form of Jewish self-rule, however limited, could count as a continuation of the sceptre or the ruler. Naḥmanides takes the more subtle and more easily...

... with the relationship between religion and philosophy. Delmedigo's countryman, Rabbi David ben Judah Messer Leon (c.1470–1526), is best known as the author of a responsum, Kevod Ḥakhamim. The last figure to deal with the principles of Judaism before the Haskalah was Rabbi Moses ben Joseph Trani (1500...

... Et kol hatela'ah and the famed Judah Loew ben Bezalel, who was commonly referred to as the Maharal. It also explains that the Maharal was a prolific and influential author who was best known for his unique approach to the aggadah, ethics, Jewish philosophy, and mysticism. The chapter...

...This chapter takes a look at Elijah Judah Schochet's The Hasidic Movement and the Gaon of Vilna. Schochet sets out to answer two related questions in this book: What problems did its opponents perceive in the hasidic movement and why did the Vilna Gaon, Elijah ben Solomon Zalman...

...This chapter evaluates Judah Loew's influence upon the Jewish mystical tradition which succeeded him. Rabbi Loew's writings made a significant impact upon the two major trends in the history of Jewish mysticism which flourished after his death: Sabbateanism and Hasidism. One may discover Loew's...

...This chapter discusses Judah Loew's views on perfection. In developing his notion of the centrality of man, Loew drew from the anthropocentric views of his predecessors in the history of Jewish thought; his ideas seem rooted in Jewish mystical speculation. Man's perfection is essential...

...This chapter examines Judah Loew's understanding of devekut (“cleaving to God”). It traces the development of major aspects of the idea of devekut in sources which most probably influenced him. These sources include Maimonides' reflections on the nature...

...This chapter evaluates Judah Loew's understanding of the nature of the Messianic Era. For Judah Loew, the advent of the Messiah does not represent the abrogation or superseding of the commandments of the Torah of Moses. The commandments, Loew insists, will be in force in the Messianic Age...

...Judah Loew, better known as the Maharal of Prague, was a pivotal personality in late medieval European Judaism. Best known from the popular legend that credited him with the creation of a golem—an artificial human with superhuman powers—his true importance lay in his comprehensive exposition...

... formulated in the twelfth century by Judah Hadassi, who was the first Karaite to present a series of binding beliefs. Hadassi's enumeration of ten principles had an impact on subsequent Karaite lists of principles, though his list was modified by Elijah Bashyatchi in the fifteenth century. Bashyatchi's...

...This chapter explores the difference between Jews and non-Jews. One of the first Jewish thinkers to emphasize that the distinction resides in a property shared by Jews and lacking in non-Jews is Judah Halevi; he called this property the amr al-ilahi. Halevi was also the first...

...This chapter analyses R. Judah the Pious's selection of ghost tales that pertain to the individual's status in the afterlife. It contrasts elements of his tales with rabbinic notions of the afterlife and compares them with those found in tales that circulated in the Germano-Christian environment...

...This chapter evaluates R. Judah the Pious's position on posthumous punishment as compared with rabbinic tradition and tosafist commentary. It assess his views on the matter in light of the changes that occurred within the Christian doctrine of penance and the rise of Purgatory in the high medieval...

...This chapter focuses on R. Judah the Pious's position regarding prayer and alms for the dead and evaluates it against the geonic stance he inherited, contemporary Jewish sentiment and practice, and various streams of Christian positions. In keeping with medieval thinking, R. Judah tightens...

...This chapter focuses on the Jewish barristers of Victorian and Edwardian England. The Jewish giants of the Victorian Bar, men such as George Jessel, Judah Benjamin, and Arthur Cohen, devoted themselves to the practice of commercial and international law. They were followed by younger barristers...

...This chapter deals with one of the central themes of the work Sefat emet, the collection of homilies by Rabbi Judah Arie Loeb Alter, the second teacher of the Gur dynasty, which is considered by Gur hasidism to be the canonical text of the school to this day. A wide variety...

...This chapter takes a look at Rabbi Judah Leo Landau’s poem, ‘Ahavat yehonatan’. Landau was a Hebrew poet and one of the fathers of modern Hebrew drama. ‘Ahavat yehonatan’ is based on a folk tale about the life of King Jan Sobieski. It relates the story of how Jan Sobieski was abandoned as a young...

... Ya’akov in 1918 and the appointment of Rabbi Judah Leib Orlean as its director in 1935, which marked a conservative turn in the development of the institution. It identifies the most influential factors and figures that shaped the development of the Beit Ya’akov network prior to the Holocaust. Beit...

...This chapter is based on the responsa of Rabbi Judah ben Asher, a member of one of the leading rabbinic families in early fourteenth-century Castile. His responsa often diverges dramatically and explicitly from the principles of classical Jewish legal texts in addressing what the writer saw...

...This chapter discusses the poetry of Judah ha-Levi. The peak of Spanish Hebrew poetry was reached in the works of Judah ben Samuel ha-Levi. He excelled in all the media of his art, and he is generally considered to be the greatest of all post-Biblical Hebrew poets. He was born in Tudela not later...