Message from the Editors

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. Introduction 1
4. Message from the Editors 7
5. Section I: Memory and History
6. 1 A Home for Jewish Learning in “The City on the Hill”: The History of Hebrew College 9
7. 2 Four Men Entered an Orchard 48
8. 3 Girsa de-Yanquta, or Hebrew in the Afternoon: A Memoir of the Prozdor in Worcester 55
9. 4 Israel Studies and the Hebrew (Teachers) College: A Memoir 65
10. 5 What They Celebrated, He Mourned: Arnold Wieder’s The Early Jewish Community of Boston’s North End (1962) 71
11. 6 Searching for Treasure: A Journey Back to Hebrew College 82
12. 7 Across Five Pesaḥs 90
13. Section II: Studies in Jewish Thought, History, and Literature
14. 8 The Fate of the First Clothing 101
15. 9 Seeking Sarah 118
16. 10 Jacob and Esau: Twinship and Identity Confusion 135
17. 11 The Book of Judith: A Literary Appreciation 147
18. 12 A Woman Walks Into a Bar: Betrothal Stories in Bavli Qiddushin 157
19. 13 What Problem? Medieval and Contemporary Responses to the “Oven of Akhnai” Story 170
20. 14 Legal Authority, Memory, and Moral Worthiness: Tosefta Pisḥa 4.13–14 and Later Rabbinic Traditions 184
21. 15 Mystical Ethics: Rabbi Moshe Cordovero and Tomer Devorah as Commentary on the Idra Rabbah 203
22. 16 R. Levi Yiẓḥaq of Zelichow and His Quest for Leadership in the Early Hasidic Movement 219
23. 17 “Seek Me and Live”: Reflections on the Spiritual Journey 239
24. 18 Rabbi Elimelekh Shapiro of Grodzisk: Sketching a Nineteenth-Century Hasidic Leader 260
25. 19 The Lives of Berish Baʻal Teshuvah 282
26. 20 Contemporary Israeli Explorations of Spiritual and Psychological Insights in the Tales of Rabbi Naḥman of Bratslav 297
27. 21 A Mystical Reunion in Manitoba: Howard Thurman and Zalman Schachter-Shalomi 313
28. 22 “Kakha Zeh Ḥinukhi”— “That Makes It Educational”: Parabolic Style in Kafka, Keret, and Castel-Bloom 332
29. Section III: Studies in Jewish Education
30. 23 Reading the Sefat Emet for Religious Consciousness: Modulations on Or ha-Ganuz 347
31. 24 Growing Up Jewish: Me’ah and American Jewish Adulthood 369
32. 25 Striving for Shlemut: Navigating Explicit and Implicit Religiosity in Jewish Education 383
33. Contributors 395
34. Index 403