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The Jewish View of Tolerance and Its Limits
Sat 21 July 2018 – 9 Av 5778 B”H Dr Maurice M. Mizrahi Congregation Adat Reyim Discussion for Tish’a b’Av The Jewish view of tolerance and its limits Tish'a B'Av Saddest day on Jewish calendar. History full of catastrophic events that befell Jews on Tish'a B'Av (accidentally or intentionally): -From Mishnah [Ta'anit 4:6]: -The spies Moses sent to scout the Promised Land brought back a largely negative report which demoralized the Israelites, -Both Temples destroyed (586 BCE and 70 CE), -The Bar Kochba revolt against Rome failed in 135 CE when he was killed and the city of Betar was destroyed, and -Jerusalem was razed a year later, and the Exile began. -Since then… -In 1095, the Pope began the Crusades. On the way to the Land of Israel, the Crusaders slaughtered 30-50% of the Jews of Europe. -In 1242, 24 cartloads of handwritten Talmuds burned in Paris -In 1290, Jews expelled from England -In 1306, Jews expelled from France -In 1492, Jews expelled from Spain, including my own ancestors -In 1626, the false messiah Shabtai Tzvi was born. His apostasy he dashed the hopes of millions of Jews (one-third of the total) and severely disrupted their lives. -In 1914, World War I began: -It led to World War II and the death of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust. -It facilitated the Communist Revolution, spelling 70 years of darkness for Soviet Jews. -In 1941, Nazis ordered the Final Solution: The Holocaust. Why persecute the Jews? These catastrophes happened to us because of intolerance. -
Readings on the Encounter Between Jewish Thought and Early Modern Science
HISTORY 449 UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA W 3:30pm-6:30 pm Fall, 2016 GOD AND NATURE: READINGS ON THE ENCOUNTER BETWEEN JEWISH THOUGHT AND EARLY MODERN SCIENCE INSTRUCTOR: David B. Ruderman OFFICE HRS: M 3:30-4:30 pm;W 1:00-2:00 OFFICE: 306b College Hall Email: [email protected] SOME GENERAL WORKS ON THE SUBJECT: Y. Tzvi Langerman, "Jewish Science", Dictionary of the Middle Ages, 11:89-94 Y. Tzvi Langerman, The Jews and the Sciences in the Middle Ages, 1999 A. Neher, "Copernicus in the Hebraic Literature from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century," Journal History of Ideas 38 (1977): 211-26 A. Neher, Jewish Thought and the Scientific Revolution of the Sixteenth Century: David Gans (1541-1613) and His Times, l986 H. Levine, "Paradise not Surrendered: Jewish Reactions to Copernicus and the Growth of Modern Science" in R.S. Cohen and M.W. Wartofsky, eds. Epistemology, Methodology, and the Social Sciences (Boston, l983), pp. 203-25 H. Levine, "Science," in Contemporary Jewish Religious Thought, eds. A. Cohen and P. Mendes-Flohr, l987, pp. 855-61 M. Panitz, "New Heavens and a New Earth: Seventeenth- to Nineteenth-Century Jewish Responses to the New Astronomy," Conservative Judaism, 40 (l987-88); 28-42 D. Ruderman, Kabbalah, Magic, and Science: The Cultural Universe of a Sixteenth- Century Jewish Physician, l988 D. Ruderman, Science, Medicine, and Jewish Culture in Early Modern Europe, Spiegel Lectures in European Jewish History, 7, l987 D. Ruderman, Jewish Thought and Scientific Discovery in Early Modern Europe, 1995, 2001 D. Ruderman, Jewish Enlightenment in an English Key: Anglo-Jewry’s Construction of Modern Jewish Thought, 2000 D. -
Torah Weekly
ב ס ״ ד Torah All the Mitzvos in Ki Teitzei concludes with the material world, it is confronted obligation to remember “what by challenges that may require Weekly Parshat Ki Teitzei Amalek did to you on the road, it to engage in battle. Seventy-four of the Torah’s on your way out of Egypt. For there are two aspects to August 15-21 2021 613 commandments (mitzvot) material existence. Our world 7 Elul – 13 Elul, 5781 are in the Parshah of Ki Teitzei. was created because G-d Torah Reading: These include the laws of the “desired a dwelling in the lower Ki Teitzei: Deuteronomy 21:10 - beautiful captive, the War and Peace: Will a worlds,” i.e., the physical 26:19 inheritance rights of the Haftarah: Dove Grow Claws? universe can serve as a dwelling Isaiah 54:1-54:10 firstborn, the wayward and for G-d, a place where His rebellious son, burial and Every day, we conclude essence is revealed. But as the dignity of the dead, returning a the Shemoneh Esreh prayers by term “lower worlds” implies, PARSHAT Ki Teitzei praising G-d “who blesses His lost object, sending away the G-d’s existence is not readily We have Jewish mother bird before taking her people Israel with peace.” And apparent in our environment. when describing the Calendars. If you young, the duty to erect a safety On the contrary, the material would like one, fence around the roof of one’s blessings G-d will bestow upon nature of the world appears to please send us a home, and the various forms of us if we follow His will, our preclude holiness. -
Pandemic Passover 2.0 Answer to This Question
Food for homeless – page 2 Challah for survivors – page 3 Mikvah Shoshana never closed – page 8 Moving Rabbis – page 10 March 17, 2021 / Nisan 4, 5781 Volume 56, Issue 7 See Marking one year Passover of pandemic life Events March 16, 2020, marks the day that our schools and buildings closed last year, and our lives were and drastically changed by the reality of COVID-19 reaching Oregon. As Resources the soundtrack of the musical “Rent” put it: ~ pages Congregation Beth Israel clergy meet via Zoom using “525,600 minutes, how 6-7 CBI Passover Zoom backgrounds, a collection of which do you measure a year?” can be downloaded at bethisrael-pdx.org/passover. Living according to the Jewish calendar provides us with one Pandemic Passover 2.0 answer to this question. BY DEBORAH MOON who live far away. We measure our year by Passover will be the first major Congregation Shaarie Torah Exec- completing the full cycle Jewish holiday that will be celebrated utive Director Jemi Kostiner Mansfield of holidays and Jewish for the second time under pandemic noticed the same advantage: “Families rituals. Time and our restrictions. and friends from out of town can come need for our community Since Pesach is traditionally home- together on a virtual platform, people and these rituals haven’t stopped in this year, even based, it is perhaps the easiest Jewish who normally wouldn’t be around the though so many of our usual ways of marking these holiday to adapt to our new landscape. seder table.” holy moments have been interrupted. -
Feminist Sexual Ethics Project
Feminist Sexual Ethics Project Same-Sex Marriage Gail Labovitz Senior Research Analyst, Feminist Sexual Ethics Project There are several rabbinic passages which take up, or very likely take up, the subject of same-sex marital unions – always negatively. In each case, homosexual marriage (particularly male homosexual marriage) is rhetorically stigmatized as the practice of non-Jewish (or pre-Israelite) societies, and is presented as an outstanding marker of the depravity of those societies; homosexual marriage is thus clearly associated with the Other. The first three of the four rabbinic texts presented here also associate homosexual marriage with bestiality. These texts also employ a rhetoric of fear: societal recognition of such homosexual relationships will bring upon that society extreme forms of Divine punishment – the destruction of the generation of the Flood, the utter defeat of the Egyptians at the Exodus, the wiping out of native Canaanite peoples in favor of the Israelites. The earliest source on this topic is in the tannaitic midrash to the book of Leviticus. Like a number of passages in Leviticus, including chapter 18 to which it is a commentary, the midrashic passage links sexual sin and idolatry to the Egyptians (whom the Israelites defeated in the Exodus) and the Canaanites (whom the Israelites will displace when they come into their land). The idea that among the sins of these peoples was the recognition of same-sex marriages is not found in the biblical text, but is read in by the rabbis: Sifra Acharei Mot, parashah 9:8 “According to the doings of the Land of Egypt…and the doings of the Land of Canaan…you shall not do” (Leviticus 18:3): Can it be (that it means) don’t build buildings, and don’t plant plantings? Thus it (the verse) teaches (further), “And you shall not walk in their statutes.” I say (that the prohibition of the verse applies) only to (their) statutes – the statutes which are theirs and their fathers and their fathers’ fathers. -
The Relationship Between Targum Song of Songs and Midrash Rabbah Song of Songs
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TARGUM SONG OF SONGS AND MIDRASH RABBAH SONG OF SONGS Volume I of II A thesis submitted to The University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2010 PENELOPE ROBIN JUNKERMANN SCHOOL OF ARTS, HISTORIES, AND CULTURES TABLE OF CONTENTS VOLUME ONE TITLE PAGE ............................................................................................................ 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................. 2 ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. 6 DECLARATION ........................................................................................................ 7 COPYRIGHT STATEMENT ....................................................................................... 8 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND DEDICATION ............................................................... 9 CHAPTER ONE : INTRODUCTION ........................................................................... 11 1.1 The Research Question: Targum Song and Song Rabbah ......................... 11 1.2 The Traditional View of the Relationship of Targum and Midrash ........... 11 1.2.1 Targum Depends on Midrash .............................................................. 11 1.2.2 Reasons for Postulating Dependency .................................................. 14 1.2.2.1 Ambivalence of Rabbinic Sources Towards Bible Translation .... 14 1.2.2.2 The Traditional -
A HARMONY of JUDEO-CHRISTIAN ESCHATOLOGY and MESSIANIC PROPHECY James W
African Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities Research ISSN: 2689-5129 Volume 4, Issue 3, 2021 (pp. 65-80) www.abjournals.org A HARMONY OF JUDEO-CHRISTIAN ESCHATOLOGY AND MESSIANIC PROPHECY James W. Ellis Cite this article: ABSTRACT: This essay presents a selective overview of the James W. Ellis (2021), A main themes of Judeo-Christian eschatological prophecy. Harmony of Judeo-Christian Particular attention is paid to the significance of successive Eschatology and Messianic biblical covenants, prophecies of the “day of the Lord,” Prophecy. African Journal of Social Sciences and differences between personal and collective resurrection, and Humanities Research 4(3), 65- expectations of the Messianic era. Although the prophets of the 80. DOI: 10.52589/AJSSHR- Hebrew Bible and Christian New Testament lived and wrote in 6SLAJJHX. diverse historical and social contexts, their foresights were remarkably consistent and collectively offered a coherent picture Manuscript History of the earth’s last days, the culmination of human history, and the Received: 24 May 2021 prospects of the afterlife. This coherence reflects the interrelated Accepted: 22 June 2021 character of Judaic and Christian theology and the unity of the Judeo-Christian faith. Published: 30 June 2021 KEYWORDS: Eschatology, Judeo-Christian, Messiah, Copyright © 2020 The Author(s). Prophecy. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits anyone to share, use, reproduce and redistribute in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. 65 Article DOI: 10.52589/AJSSHR-6SLAJJHX DOI URL: https://doi.org/10.52589/AJSSHR-6SLAJJHX African Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities Research ISSN: 2689-5129 Volume 4, Issue 3, 2021 (pp. -
Vayeishev 5758 Volume V Number 12
Balak 5781 Volume XXVIII Number 41 Toras Aish Thoughts From Across the Torah Spectrum and Midian, suffered a self-inflicted tragedy by allowing RABBI LORD JONATHAN SACKS Z"L themselves to be enticed by the women of the land. Covenant & Conversation God’s anger burns against them. Several chapters later Rabbi Sacks zt"l had prepared a full year of Covenant & (Num. 31:16) it emerges that it was Bilaam who Conversation for 5781, based on his book Lessons in devised this strategy: “They were the ones who Leadership. The Office of Rabbi Sacks will continue to followed Bilaam’s advice and were the means of turning distribute these weekly essays, so that people all around the the Israelites away from the Lord in what happened at world can keep on learning and finding inspiration in his Peor, so that a plague struck the Lord’s people”. Having Torah. failed to curse the Israelites, Bilaam eventually s leadership a set of skills, the ability to summon and succeeded in doing them great harm. command power? Or does it have an essentially I So the picture that emerges from the Jewish moral dimension also? Can a bad person be a good sources is of a man with great gifts, a genuine prophet, leader, or will their badness compromise their a man whom the Sages compared with Moses himself leadership? That is the question raised by the key – yet at the same time a figure of flawed character that figure in this week’s parsha, the pagan prophet Bilaam. eventually led to his downfall and to his reputation as First, by way of introduction, we have an evil-doer and one of those mentioned by the independent evidence that Bilaam actually existed. -
Shulchan Arukh Amy Milligan Old Dominion University, [email protected]
Old Dominion University ODU Digital Commons Women's Studies Faculty Publications Women’s Studies 2010 Shulchan Arukh Amy Milligan Old Dominion University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/womensstudies_fac_pubs Part of the History of Religions of Western Origin Commons, Liturgy and Worship Commons, Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons, and the Yiddish Language and Literature Commons Repository Citation Milligan, Amy, "Shulchan Arukh" (2010). Women's Studies Faculty Publications. 10. https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/womensstudies_fac_pubs/10 Original Publication Citation Milligan, A. (2010). Shulchan Arukh. In D. M. Fahey (Ed.), Milestone documents in world religions: Exploring traditions of faith through primary sources (Vol. 2, pp. 958-971). Dallas: Schlager Group:. This Book Chapter is brought to you for free and open access by the Women’s Studies at ODU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Women's Studies Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of ODU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Spanish Jews taking refuge in the Atlas Mountains in the fifteenth century (Spanish Jews taking refuge in the Atlas Mountains, illustration by Michelet c.1900 (colour litho), Bombled, Louis (1862-1927) / Private Collection / Archives Charmet / The Bridgeman Art Library International) 958 Milestone Documents of World Religions Shulchan Arukh 1570 ca. “A person should dress differently than he does on weekdays so he will remember that it is the Sabbath.” Overview Arukh continues to serve as a guide in the fast-paced con- temporary world. The Shulchan Arukh, literally translated as “The Set Table,” is a compilation of Jew- Context ish legal codes. -
Pas Akum, Pas Paltur, and Pas Yisroel (Part 1)
Compiled by Rabbi Moishe Dovid Lebovits Volume 5 • Issue 15 Reviewed by Rabbi Benzion Schiffenbauer Shlita All Piskei Harav Yisroel Belsky Shlita are reviewed by Harav Yisroel Belsky Shlita אין לו ,Pas Akum, Pas Paltur להקב"ה (and Pas Yisroel (Part 1 אין לו בעולמו The Issur אלא ד'להקב"ה Chazal wanted to protect the Jews from assimilating with the non-Jews1 and therefore אמותבעולמו אלא ד' של הלכה Rashi Mesechtas Avoda Zara 75a “v’hashlakos,” Rambam Hilchos Machalas Asuros 17:9, Tur Y.D. 112, Levush .1 אמות Chochmas Adom 65:1. Refer to Chelkes Binyomin 112:1, biurim on pages 3-4. The Aruch Hashulchan 113:2 ,1 ...בלבד says since bread has one reason and bishul akum has two reasons we are more lenient in regard to pas akum. Refer to של הלכה Darchei Teshuva Y.D. 112:1 who says Chazal were more stringent by pas akum etc so one should not learn to other (.ברכות ח) .issurei d’rabbanan ...בלבד (.ברכות ח) Pas Akum, Pas Paltur, and Pas Yisroel (Part 1) | 1 enacted a gezeira that the bread of a non-Jew is forbidden for a Jew to eat.2 This is known as pas akum.3 This issur applies even in a situation where assimilation is not a concern.4 This issur applies to men, women, and children.5 Non-Jew / Non-Frum Jew The consensus of the poskim is that the bread of a non-Jew who does not bow down to avodah zarah is also included in this issur.6According to some poskim the bread of a non-frum Jew is also included in the above issur and one is forbidden to eat it.7 Which Items are Included? Only bread made from the five grains (wheat, barley, spelt, oats and rye) is prohibited since these are chashuv8 and will bring one to come close to non-Jews.9 Rice bread and corn bread are excluded from the gezeira.10 In addition, any other grains which are not part of the five grains mentioned above are also excluded from the gezeira.11 If an item which is not included in the gezeira is mixed with an item which is included one should follow the rov (majority) of the ingredients.12 2. -
Tanya Sources.Pdf
The Way to the Tree of Life Jewish practice entails fulfilling many laws. Our diet is limited, our days to work are defined, and every aspect of life has governing directives. Is observance of all the laws easy? Is a perfectly righteous life close to our heart and near to our limbs? A righteous life seems to be an impossible goal! However, in the Torah, our great teacher Moshe, Moses, declared that perfect fulfillment of all religious law is very near and easy for each of us. Every word of the Torah rings true in every generation. Lesson one explores how the Tanya resolved these questions. It will shine a light on the infinite strength that is latent in each Jewish soul. When that unending holy desire emerges, observance becomes easy. Lesson One: The Infinite Strength of the Jewish Soul The title page of the Tanya states: A Collection of Teachings ספר PART ONE לקוטי אמרים חלק ראשון Titled הנקרא בשם The Book of the Beinonim ספר של בינונים Compiled from sacred books and Heavenly מלוקט מפי ספרים ומפי סופרים קדושי עליון נ״ע teachers, whose souls are in paradise; based מיוסד על פסוק כי קרוב אליך הדבר מאד בפיך ובלבבך לעשותו upon the verse, “For this matter is very near to לבאר היטב איך הוא קרוב מאד בדרך ארוכה וקצרה ”;you, it is in your mouth and heart to fulfill it בעזה״י and explaining clearly how, in both a long and short way, it is exceedingly near, with the aid of the Holy One, blessed be He. "1 of "393 The Way to the Tree of Life From the outset of his work therefore Rav Shneur Zalman made plain that the Tanya is a guide for those he called “beinonim.” Beinonim, derived from the Hebrew bein, which means “between,” are individuals who are in the middle, neither paragons of virtue, tzadikim, nor sinners, rishoim. -
The Anti-Samaritan Attitude As Reflected in Rabbinic Midrashim
religions Article The Anti‑Samaritan Attitude as Reflected in Rabbinic Midrashim Andreas Lehnardt Faculty of Protestant Theology, Johannes Gutenberg‑University Mainz, 55122 Mainz, Germany; lehnardt@uni‑mainz.de Abstract: Samaritans, as a group within the ranges of ancient ‘Judaisms’, are often mentioned in Talmud and Midrash. As comparable social–religious entities, they are regarded ambivalently by the rabbis. First, they were viewed as Jews, but from the end of the Tannaitic times, and especially after the Bar Kokhba revolt, they were perceived as non‑Jews, not reliable about different fields of Halakhic concern. Rabbinic writings reflect on this change in attitude and describe a long ongoing conflict and a growing anti‑Samaritan attitude. This article analyzes several dialogues betweenrab‑ bis and Samaritans transmitted in the Midrash on the book of Genesis, Bereshit Rabbah. In four larger sections, the famous Rabbi Me’ir is depicted as the counterpart of certain Samaritans. The analyses of these discussions try to show how rabbinic texts avoid any direct exegetical dispute over particular verses of the Torah, but point to other hermeneutical levels of discourse and the rejection of Samari‑ tan claims. These texts thus reflect a remarkable understanding of some Samaritan convictions, and they demonstrate how rabbis denounced Samaritanism and refuted their counterparts. The Rabbi Me’ir dialogues thus are an impressive literary witness to the final stages of the parting of ways of these diverging religious streams. Keywords: Samaritans; ancient Judaism; rabbinic literature; Talmud; Midrash Citation: Lehnardt, Andreas. 2021. The Anti‑Samaritan Attitude as 1 Reflected in Rabbinic Midrashim. The attitudes towards the Samaritans (or Kutim ) documented in rabbinical literature 2 Religions 12: 584.