A History Of The Mishnaic Law Of Holy Things Volume 5 Keritot Meilah Tamid Middot Qinnim

The history of Jews from the period of the Second Temple to the rise of Islam. From 'A History of the Mishnaic Law of Appointed Times, Part 1' This volume introduces the sources of Judaism in late antiquity to scholars in adjacent fields, such as the study of the Old and New Testaments, Ancient History, the ancient Near East, and the history of religion. In two volumes, leading American, Israeli, and European specialists in the history, literature, theology, and archaeology of Judaism offer factual answers to the two questions that the study of any religion in ancient times must raise. The first is, what are the sources -- written and in material culture -- that inform us about that religion? The second is, how have we to understand those sources in reconstructing the history of various Judaic systems in antiquity. The chapters set forth in simple statements, intelligible to non-specialists, the facts which the sources provide. Because of the nature of the subject and acute interest in it, the specialists also raise some questions particular to the study of Judaism, dealing with its historical relationship with nascent Christianity in New Testament times. The work forms the starting point for the study of all the principal questions concerning Judaism in late antiquity and sets forth the most current, critical results of scholarship.

The academic study of Judaism requires a systematic inquiry into the history, literature, and religion—and eventually the theology—as revealed in the historical documents themselves. Under this premise, Three Questions of Formative Judaism encounters the canonical writings of Judaism in the context of their creation at a certain time and place. How something is said thus becomes as important as what is said. Bringing nearly fifty years of research to bear on these fundamental questions, Jacob Neusner challenges his readers to face the difficult, often unasked or neglected questions about the nature, background, and purposes of Rabbinic Judaism and rewards them with an enriched understanding and a stronger foundation for tackling the even more elusive questions concerning the theology of formative Judaism. This publication has also been published in paperback, please click here for details.

Volume 15 of The Jewish Law Annual adds to the growing list of articles on Jewish law that have been published in volumes 1-14 of this series, providing English-speaking readers with scholarly material meeting the highest academic standards. The volume contains six articles diverse in their scope and focus, encompassing legal, historical, textual, comparative and conceptual analysis, as well as a survey of recent literature and a chronicle of cases of interest. Among the topics covered are: lying in rabbinical court proceedings; unjust enrichment; can a witness serve as judge in the same case?; Caro's Shulham Arukh v. Maimonides' Mishne Torah in the Yemenite community, the New Jersey eruv wards.

The tractate Keritot of the Babylonian Talmud belongs to the Order of Qodashim in the Mishnah. It discusses the Temple and its rituals, especially sacrifices, but deals mostly with laws of incest, sexual transgressions, childbirth, and miscarriages. In this commentary, Federico Dal Bo provides a historical, philological and philosophical investigation on these gender issues. He discusses almost the entire tractate, referring to many other sources, Jewish (the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Sifra, and other rabbinic texts) as well as non-Jewish (Akkadian, Hittite, and Ugaritic). The author also provides accurate philological observations both on the Mishnah and the Gemara. Finally, he addresses gender issues by combining a reductionistic approach to Talmudic study (the so called "Brisker method") with philosophical deconstruction. Dal Bo shows that in nearly the entire tractate Keritot the rabbis discuss human sexuality in a tendentious and restrictive way, claiming that heterosexuality is the only proper sexual contact and progressively stigmatizing any other kind of sexual behavior.

Volume 15 of The Jewish Law Annual adds to the growing list of articles on Jewish law that have been published in volumes 1-14 of this series, providing English-speaking readers with scholarly material meeting the highest academic standards. The volume contains six articles diverse in their scope and focus, encompassing legal, historical, textual, comparative and conceptual analysis, as well as a survey of recent literature and a chronicle of cases of interest. Among the topics covered are: lying in rabbinical court proceedings; unjust enrichment; can a witness serve as judge in the same case?; Caro's Shulham Arukh volume Maimonides' Mishne Torah in the Yemenite community, the New Jersey eruv wards.

In Josh 8:30–35, Israel constructs an altar on Mt. Ebal in fulfillment of the command of Deut 27:1–8. This structure had very important social, political, and religious implications for Israel, for it was the first structure to be built after the people entered the land of Canaan. Once the altar was completed, sacrifices were to be offered on it, and a renewal of the covenant was to be carried out (patterned after the ritual of Deut 31:9–13). This covenant renewal was necessary to integrate the people into the covenant who had not been a part of the Sinai experience. The event was significant enough to establish nearby Shechem as the tribal league shrine, and it was the first political and religious ceremony that the Israelites undertook following their entry into the land. As a covenant ratification, it could be described as their ratification as a nation. The altar on Mt. Ebal and its concomitant ceremony were, therefore, according to the claims of the Hebrew Bible, of supreme importance in the life of ancient Israel. In 1980, during the survey of the territory of Manasseh, Israeli archaeologist Adam Zertal discovered a site on Mt. Ebal dating to the period of Iron I, during which the Israelites began to sedentarize in the central hill country of Canaan. The site was excavated over eight seasons, from 1982 to 1989, under the auspices of the University of Haifa and the Israel Exploration Society. In 1985, Zertal published an article in which he suggested that the structure on Ebal may have been the altar of Josh 8:30–35. In The Iron Age I Structure on Mt. Ebal, Ralph Hawkins reviews the excavation on Mt. Ebal and its results, including the scarabs, seals, and animal bones found there. He examines the architecture of the site in relation to Mesopotamian watchtowers, altars, and the descriptions of altars in mishnaic materials, Ezekiel, and Deuteronomic passages. This fascinating book examines the Mt. Ebal site using a comparative method for both the physical data and the textual data. The site and its artifacts are analyzed and then compared with alternative proposals and literary traditions. The site is placed in its broader regional context in order to determine how it might relate to the larger settlement picture of Iron Age I. The primary purpose is to examine the data with a view to determining the nature and function of the site and its possible relation to Josh 8:30–35. A compelling read for biblical and archaeological students and scholars, who will better be able to envision sites of past events.