Torah From Jerusalem

The translation of Aggadic (non-legal) selections from the Jerusalem Talmud with analytical commentary.

Hebrew-English Torah: The Five books of Moses is a Study Edition of the traditional Masoretic text, placed next to the classic "word-for-word" Jewish translation; it features the most authoritative Hebrew text -- based on the Leningrad Codex and complete with cantillation marks, vocalization and verse numbers. The large format and the use of good paper are part of the design to allow a diligent Torah student to write on margins for more efficient learning. This printed edition comes with a free downloadable PDF edition of the title provided by Varda Books upon presenting to it the proof of purchase.

Ten Torah study-tours of Jerusalem's Old City that make the words of Scripture come alive. Replete with hundreds of photographs, illustrations and detailed maps, and precise instructions to ensure that you don't miss a single detail.

The first major biography in English in over thirty years of the seminal modern Jewish thinker Martin Buber An authority on the twentieth-century philosopher Martin Buber (1878–1965), Paul Mendes-Flohr offers the first major biography in English in thirty years of this seminal modern Jewish thinker. The book is organized around several key moments, such as his sudden abandonment by his mother when he was a child of three, a foundational trauma that, Mendes-Flohr shows, left an enduring mark on Buber’s inner life, attuning him to the fragility of human relations and the need to nurture them with what he would call a “dialogical attentiveness.” Buber’s philosophical and theological writings, most famously I and Thou, made significant contributions to religious and Jewish thought, philosophical anthropology, biblical studies, political theory, and Zionism. In this accessible new biography, Mendes-Flohr situates Buber’s life and legacy in the intellectual and cultural life of German Jewry as well as in the broader European intellectual life of the first half of the twentieth century.

A captivating journey through the hidden libraries of Jerusalem, where some of the world’s most enduring ideas were put into words In this enthralling book, Merav Mack and Benjamin Balint explore Jerusalem’s libraries to tell the story of this city as a place where some of the world’s most enduring ideas were put into words. The writers of Jerusalem, although renowned the world over, are not usually thought of as a distinct school; their stories as Jerusalemites have never before been woven into a single narrative. Nor have the stories of the custodians, past and present, who safeguard Jerusalem’s literary legacies. By showing how Jerusalem has been imagined by its writers and shelved by its librarians, Mack and Balint tell the untold history of how the peoples of the book have populated the city with texts. In their hands, Jerusalem itself—perched between East and West, antiquity and modernity, violence and piety—comes alive as a kind of labyrinthine library.

Whether you are studying the Bible for the first time or you're simply curious about its history and contents, you will find everything you need in this "accessible, well-written handbook to Jewish belief as set forth in the Torah" (The Jerusalem Post). George Robinson, author of the acclaimed Essential Judaism, begins by recounting the various theories of the origins of the Torah and goes on to explain its importance as the core element in Jewish belief and practice. He discusses the basics of Jewish theology and Jewish history as they are derived from the Torah, and he outlines how the Dead Sea Scrolls and other archaeological discoveries have enhanced our understanding of the Bible. He introduces us to the vast literature of biblical commentary, chronicles the evolution of the Torah’s place in the synagogue service, offers an illuminating discussion of women and the Bible, and provides a study guide as a companion for individual or group Bible study. In the book’s centerpiece, Robinson summarizes all fifty-four portions that make up the Torah and gives us a brilliant distillation of two thousand years of biblical commentaries—from the rabbis of the Mishnah and the Talmud to medieval commentators such as Rashi, Maimonides, and ibn Ezra to contemporary scholars such as Nahum Sarna, Nechama Leibowitz, Robert Alter, and Everett Fox. This extraordinary volume—which includes a listing of the Torah reading cycles, a Bible time line, glossaries of terms and biblical commentators, and a bibliography—will stand as the essential sourcebook on the Torah for years to come.

The destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 587 BCE is arguably the most tremendous disaster in the Hebrew Bible. How this decisive date relates to the development of the Pentateuch, however, is highly controversial. Is the trauma of Jerusalem reflected in the five books of Moses? This question is addressed from multiple perspectives in this volume. Israel Finkelstein and Lester L. Grabbe discuss the archaeological and historical data. Experts in Pentateuchal criticism from diverse international backgrounds present a rich panorama of relevant themes, including biblical historiography, contacts with Mesopotamian culture before and during the Babylonian exile, and the issue of cultic discontinuity caused by the destruction and restoration of Jerusalem's temple. Contributors: Angelika Berlejung, Peter Dubovsky, Israel Finkelstein, Georg Fischer, Lester L. Grabbe, Ronald Hendel, Bernard M. Levinson, Nathan MacDonald, Dominik Markl, Christophe Nihan, Eckart Otto, Konrad Schmid, Jean Louis Ska, Jean-Pierre Sonnet, Jeffrey Stackert, Nili Wazana