New Perspectives in Post-Rabbinic Judaism

In this penetrating scholarly study, Zvi Ish-Shalom analyzes a set of complex kabbalistic practices taught by the sixteenth century master Isaac Luria, that were designed to capitalize on sleep and death states in order to effectively free oneself from the cycle of rebirth.

Through a comparative reading of postwar North American and wartime Orthodox Jewish texts about the Holocaust, Krawcowicz offers a novel interpretation of Jewish responses to the Holocaust that focuses on the role of metahistorical paradigms employed to employ historical events.

Nature and Norm is a book about the encounter between Jewish and Christian thought and the fact-value divide that invites the unsettling recognition of the dramatic acosmism that shadows and undermines a considerable number of modern and contemporary Jewish and Christian thought systems.

Piety and Rebellion examines the span of the Hasidic textual tradition from its earliest phases to the 20th century. The essays collected in this volume focus on the tension between Hasidic fidelity to tradition and its rebellious attempt to push the devotional life beyond the borders of conventional religious practice.

A sophisticated but accessible fusion of theory and critical popular culture of Leonard Cohen’s mystical songbook in relation to post-secular thinking and Kabbalah, Hasidism and Rinzai Buddhism. This volume presents a unique inter-disciplinary approach to Jewish philosophy and literary studies that will touch diverse audiences and readership.

Mystical Vertigo immerses readers in the experience of the contemporary kabbalistic Hebrew poet, serving as a gateway into the poet’s quest for mystical union known as devekut. This journey oscillates across subtle degrees of devekut—causing an entranced experience for the Hebrew poet, who is reaching but not reaching, hovering but not hovering, touching but not touching in a state of mystical vertigo. What makes this journey so remarkable is how deeply nestled it is within the hybrid cultural networks of Israel, crossing over boundaries of haredi, secular, national-religious, and agnostic beliefs among others. This volume makes a unique contribution to understanding and experiencing the mystical renaissance in Israel, through its multi-disciplinary focus on Hebrew poetry and its philosophical hermeneutics.

Neil Gillman has been a part of the JTS community for over 50 years as a student, administrator and member of the faculty. His most enduring contribution as a scholar and a teacher has been a renewed focus on the importance of theological reflection in rabbinic education and Jewish education, both in the Conservative movement and Jewish life generally. This volume seeks to honor Professor Gillman’s contributions to Jewish scholarship and education by collecting essays by his colleagues and students that discuss the issues most central to his work, namely Jewish theology, Conservative Judaism and Jewish education.

Justice in the City argues, based on the rabbinic textual tradition, especially the Babylonian Talmud, and utilizing French Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas’ framework of interpersonal ethics, that a just city should be a community of obligation. That is, in a community thus conceived, the privilege of citizenship is the assumption of the obligations of the city towards Others who are not always in view—workers, the poor, the homeless. These Others form a constitutive part of the city. The second part of the book is a close analysis of homelessness, labor, and restorative justice from within the theory that was developed. This title will be useful for scholars and students in Jewish studies, especially rabbinic literature and Jewish thought, but also for those interested in contemporary urban issues.