Product Description: Exile in Amsterdam is based on a rich, extensive, and previously untapped source for one of the most important and fascinating Jewish communities in early modern Europe: the sermons of Saul Levi Morteira (ca. 1596-1660). Morteira, the leading rabbi of Amsterdam and a master of Jewish homiletical art, was known to have published only one book of fifty sermons in 1645, until a collection of 550 manuscript sermons in his own handwriting turned up in the Rabbinical Seminary of Budapest...read more

Product Description: The eighteen studies in this book continue the exploration of the Jewish sermon Saperstein began in his groundbreaking Jewish Preaching 1200-1800. His new research further illustrates the importance of this genre, largely ignored by modern scholarship, as an indispensible resource for understanding Jewish history, spirituality, and thought from the High Middle Ages to the beginning of the Emancipation in Europe...read more

Wartime sermons reveal how Jews perceive themselves in relation to the majority society and how Jewish and national values are reconciled when the fate of a nation is at stake. They also illustrate how rabbis guide their communities through the challenges of their times. The sermons reproduced here were delivered by American and British rabbis fromËœacross the Jewish spectrum - Orthodox to Liberal, Ashkenazi and Sephardi - from the Napoleonic Wars to the attacks of 9/11. Each sermon is prefaced by a comprehensive introduction explaining the context in which it was delivered.ËœDetailed notes explain allusions unfamiliar to a present-day readership and draw comparisons where appropriate to similar passages in contemporary newspapers and other sermons. A general introduction surveys more broadly the distinctive elements of modern Jewish preaching - the new preaching occasions bound up with the history of the countries in which Jews were living; new modes for the dissemination of the sermons (printed pamphlets and the Jewish and general press), and the emergence of women's voices from the pulpit. It also surveys the distinctive themes of modern Jewish sermons, including responses to Jewish suffering, social justice, eulogies for national leaders, Zionism, and war. What Jewish religious leaders said to their congregations when their countries went to war (or in some cases, were considering going to war) raises questions of central significance for both modern Jewish history and religious thinking in the civic context.What evidence do these sermons present concerning the degree of patriotism felt by Jews? Where and when do we find examples of dissent from the policies taken by their governments, or explicit criticism? What theological problems are raised by the preachers in the context of unprecedented and unimagined destruction, and how do they respond to these problems? How is the enemy presented in these texts; how is the problem of Jews fighting and killing other Jews addressed? Are the preachers functioning to articulate traditions that challenge the consensus of the moment, or as instruments of social control serving the needs of governments looking for unquestioning support by their citizenry? In all these areas, this book makes an important contribution to American- and Anglo-Jewish history of this period while also making available a collection of mostly unknown Jewish texts produced at dramatic moments of the past two centuries. *** "Probably the world's greatest expert on Jewish homilectics from the medieval period onwards . . . wide-ranging preface . . . Following a magisterial introduction come the sermons, each one introduced, explained, and discussed as well as sensitively and helpfully annotated. The selections are acute and the sermons themselves potent and highly readable." www.Middleburgh.co.uk

Product Description: Harold I. Saperstein served as rabbi of Temple Emanu-El of Lynbrook, N.Y., from 1933 until his retirement in 1980. The specific contours of his career reflect a sustained effort to use the pulpit of this suburban temple to communicate a Jewish perspective based on personal encounters with great issues of the day-including the rise of Nazism and the Holocaust, the civil rights era, the McCarthy era, and other turning points in American history...read more

The messianic idea that a redeemer sent by God will come to end the suffering of a persecuted people and inaugurate a new age of justice and peace has been one of the most powerful and influential concepts given by the Jewish people to western civilization. This book represents a sample of the most penetrating and provocative scholarly interpretations of Jewish messianic movement from various perspectives- historical, sociological, psychological, and religious.

Product Description: An anthology of medieval and early modern Jewish sermons, this book should give insights into the central intellectual issues, spiritual movements, and communal centres during the period 1200-1800. The sermons have been translated, annotated and their historical background described...read more

Product Description: No markings. Bindings are tight, covers and spines are fully intact. All edges are clean. Includes notes and index. Very clean, crisp, and tight copy. Not Ex-Library. All books offered from DSB are stocked at our store in Fayetteville, AR...read more

Product Description: Fine copy in the original gilt-blocked cloth. Slightest suggestion only of dust-dulling to the panel edges. Remains particularly well-preserved overall; tight, bright, clean and strong. ; 289 pages; Physical desc. : ix, 289 p. ; 24 cm...read more