Judaism And Crisis

The political, social, cultural, and religious crises Jews encountered in their long history influenced the development of Jewish culture, thought, and religion. The authors describe how Jews coped with these threatening events, especially how they consequently had to rethink and shape their Jewish identity anew.

In their long history, Jews encountered political, social, cultural, and religious crises which threatened not only their very existence but Jewish identity as well. Examples for such crises include the Babylonian Exile, the so-called Hellenistic Religious reforms, the first and second Jewish war, the inquisition, and the Shoah, but also the encounter of modernity or socio-economic developments. Political, cultural, and religious crises did not coin Jewish culture, thought, and religion but forced Jews from the very beginnings of Judaism until today to rethink and shape their Jewish identity anew. This volume asks how Jews coped with events that threatened Jewish existence, culture, and religion and how they responded to them. Each crisis was different in nature and evoked hence different developments in Jewish culture, thought, and religion.

Discusses various issues in contemporary Jewish theology. Ch. 2 (p. 25-53), "The Valley of the Shadow", is dedicated to the theological interpretation of the Holocaust. The Holocaust poses several problems to Jewish thought: Is God present in the post-Auschwitz world? Did the Holocaust renew the Covenant or did it survive intact? May the Holocaust be interpreted in terms of punishment, or is its meaning different, maybe inexplicable, in the extant categories of human ethics? May the Holocaust be regarded as a necessary transitional point on the way to the Jewish state? What lessons may be extracted from the Holocaust? Presents various solutions of modern-day Jewish theologians. Argues that the only lesson of the Holocaust is the reality of a common Jewish fate.

Includes articles on Walter Benjamin, S.Y. Agnon, Martin Buber, and on Israel and the diaspora.

Explores the impact on Jews and Judaism of the crisis of modernity, analyzing modern Jewish dilemmas and providing a prescription for their resolution.

Explores how Jewish American writers have grappled with the enormity of the Holocaust.

This book presents a study of religious thought in two Jewish apocalypses, 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch, written as a response to the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple by the Romans in 70 CE. The true nature of the crisis is the perceived loss of covenantal relationship between God and Israel, and the Jewish identity that is under threat. Discussions of various aspects of thought, including those conventionally termed theodicy, particularism and universalism, anthropology and soteriology, are subordinated under and contextualized within the larger issue of how the ancient authors propose to mend the traditional Deuteronomic covenantal theology now under crisis. Both 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch advocate a two-pronged solution of Torah and eschatology at the centre of their scheme to restore that covenant relationship in the absence of the Temple. Both maintain the Mosaic tradition as the bulwark for Israel's future survival and revival. Whereas 4 Ezra aims to implant its eschatology into the Sinaitic tradition and make it part of the Mosaic Law, 2 Baruch extends the Deuteronomic scheme of reward and retribution into an eschatological context, making the rewards of the end-time a solution to the cycle of sins and punishments of this age. Considerable emphases are also placed on the significance of the portrayals of the pseudonymous protagonists, Ezra and Baruch, the use of symbolism in the two texts as scriptural exegesis, as well as their relationship with each other and links with the Hebrew Bible and other Jewish and Christian writings.

In their long history, Jews encountered political, social, cultural, and religious crises which threatened not only their very existence but Jewish identity as well. Examples for such crises include the Babylonian Exile, the so-called Hellenistic Religious reforms, the first and second Jewish war, the inquisition, and the Shoah, but also the encounter of modernity or socio-economic developments. Political, cultural, and religious crises did not coin Jewish culture, thought, and religion but forced Jews from the very beginnings of Judaism until today to rethink and shape their Jewish identity anew. This volume asks how Jews coped with events that threatened Jewish existence, culture, and religion and how they responded to them. Each crisis was different in nature and evoked hence different developments in Jewish culture, thought, and religion.