... texts and liturgical poetry or piyyut, that are not included in the rabbinic canon. While there is still debate about whether these forms of expression should be included in the category of “rabbinic” Judaism, it is clear that these literatures were not produced by the central shapers...

...This chapter discusses the claim of ancient rabbis that God created the first pair of tongs at twilight on the sixth day of creation. This statement is one among many in a rich tradition of myths of creation and precreation in rabbinic Judaism. The chapter examines the relationship of this myth...

...This chapter focuses on divination traditions in ancient Judaism, as well as how some of the ancient rabbis dealt with those traditions and what these implied about the word and divine will. These divinatory procedures rely on what the modern world calls chance; but different cultures...

..., as well as the role that animals and inanimate objects play in enacting or resisting the divine will. Divination in Judaism implies the idea that God has embedded meaning and agency in animals, objects, and the natural elements. Agency Birds Divination Hecataeus Josephus Avot Mishnah Tractate...

...This concluding chapter states how in ancient Judaism, methods of interpretation and discourse on the nature of signs were not confined to scripture and its interpretation, but extended to the world of celestial, terrestrial, and ritual things and occurrences. The primary circles of rabbinic...

...For centuries, Jews have been known as the “people of the book.” It is commonly thought that Judaism in the first several centuries CE found meaning exclusively in textual sources. But there is another approach to meaning to be found in ancient Judaism, one that sees it in the natural world...

... of their liberal European beliefs and Reform Judaism to defend antebellum Blacks, along with their antislavery activities throughout the free states, Kansas, and Maryland. It also explores how different strains of Western and Jewish thought converged in the mid-nineteenth century to produce the particular...

...This chapter examines the intellectual climate that gave rise to a creative scientific environment in the Dead Sea Scrolls community called Yahad. It first considers the antecedents of the Yahad's scientific outlook within larger movements of Judaism of the Hellenistic period, including the Enochic...

...This chapter examines the place of “science” in the historiography of Judaism in order to uncover some of the ways in which knowledge about the stars, cosmos, and human body was represented, taught, and transmitted in premodern Jewish literary cultures—particularly in relation to pedagogies...

... in establishing the institutional and intellectual infrastructure of American Judaism. Jews on the Frontiervividly recounts these stories of a neglected era in American Jewish history, taking the reader far from the well-trodden ground of New York City. In the process, it offers a new...

... women who had thin connections to Judaism, their histories show the various ways that their Jewishness coexisted with their intermarriages. Moreover, whether or not women chose to assume new religious identities and “melt” into the mainstream, they could not escape the Jewish label. It is also argued...

..., to voice out issues of social injustice experienced by the LGBT people. Bible Christian Chumash Esther Book of Hebrew Bible Jews Judaism Moses Moses Five Books of Old Testament Pentateuch The Prophets Psalms Purim Ruth Book of Shavu’ot Tanakh Torah Writings Aron kodesh holy ark...

...This chapter examines the lives of Jewish women in Central Europe during the first decades of the 20th century. In the transition from traditional Jewish society to modernity, Orthodox observances were gradually abandoned, Reform Judaism evolved, and some conversions to Christianity occurred...

...Because our sources about ancient Judaism were composed by rabbis, they reflect a limited perspective and certainly not that of women (nor how Jews actually lived). The rabbis’ attitudes towards domesticity and their description of ritual and menstrual requirements understand men as householders...

...This chapter offers a definition of the term midrash, and explains how the rabbis viewed the language of scripture. One must acquire some appreciation for midrashic approaches to scripture, not only to understand the Bible's role in the Judaism of the classical rabbis who produced...

... in northern Spain and France. The rationalism associated with al-Andalus, the mysticism of Provence, and the Tosafist tradition of northern France all implied different sets of traditions and concomitant understandings of Judaism and Jewish texts. At the crossroads of these cultures is the commanding figure...

... that it changed the enshrined and understood relationship between France and the Jews. One of these major developments is the implementation of anti-Semitic policies, which distinguished the particular French model of Jewish emancipation sometimes called Franco-Judaism. Assimilation and the French Republic...

..., Neher sought to generate a vigorously activist response to the Holocaust and to questions of historical continuity for French-language Jews. As part of this mission, Neher promoted the revival of a traditional Judaism through such initiatives as the foundation in 1946 of the Jewish École des cadres...

... reflect this bias. However, the data also shows that Jewish traditions and identity are easier to pass on to children because they are institutionalized in Judaism. This points to the significance that religion and religious institutions in the US are accorded in organizing identity and community, over...

...This chapter examines the meaning and purpose of miracles in Judaism. Miracle stories in Jewish tradition express confidence in God as the original creator of the world, revealer of moral law, and champion of justice in human history. Biblical stories of Exodus and Sinai are interpreted as miracles...