Judaism

On Cooking and Eating by Ivy Helman

by Feminism and Religion

Originally published on the Feminism and Religion project

In patriarchal heterosexist societies women do most if not all of the cooking for their families.  Women are also... more In patriarchal heterosexist societies women do most if not all of the cooking for their families.  Women are also usually assigned the tasks of cleaning, raising children, tending the family garden, gathering water and anything else that is considered part and parcel of caring for the family.  These feminine tasks are often devalued compared to the activities men spend their time doing.  I wholeheartedly support the reevaluation of the significance of these tasks and the movement toward shared responsibility for family life among heterosexual couples, however that is not what I want to discuss today.

RE-SOULING ON SHABBAT BY IVY HELMAN

by Feminism and Religion

Originally published on the Feminism and Religion project

I attended a service at Congregation Shalom in Chelmsford, MA two Fridays ago.  During the service, Rabbi... more I attended a service at Congregation Shalom in Chelmsford, MA two Fridays ago.  During the service, Rabbi Shoshana Perry spent a few minutes addressing the last word of a Hebrew prayer found in the Reform siddur, Mishkan T’filah.  It was translated in the siddur as “God rested” but the Hebrew word used was vayinafash, which comes from the word nefesh, or soul.  The prayer emphasizes on the seventh day that God did not rest as much as God took time out to re-soul.  Rabbi Perry believes that our Shabbat should be spent doing things that help us also re-soul.

Initially, I spent quite a long time considering why God would need to re-soul and what exactly God would do to re-soul.  When I realized the futility of trying to sort that out, I moved a little closer to home: what do I do on Shabbat to re-soul?  I was quite overwhelmed trying to answer this question as well.

Ethnically or Religiously Chosen? - A Survey on Israelites Being a Chosen Nation

by Mehmet Katar

"published in 'Journal of Islamic Research', Rotterdam/Hollanda 2008, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 23 - 32."

Judaism has been considered to be a national religion, and the children of Israel, its followers, to be an ethnic... more Judaism has been considered to be a national religion, and the children of Israel, its followers, to be an ethnic group chosen by God. Nevertheless, as also stated by Muslims, this chosenness is nothing but the superiority according to which nobility in the sight of God is being righteous (taqwâ). Indeed, there is some evidence in the Holy Book of Jews pointing out that this superiority and chosenness should be understood as such. But in course of time, based upon the fact that Judaism withdrew into itself after the Exile of Babylon and thus turned into a national religion from the outset of the Christina era onward, this understanding of superiority initially came to be perceived as an ethnic superiority of the people of Israel.

“But is it glatt?” New food taboos and religious fundamentalism in contemporary Jewish and Muslim communities

by Simon Theobald

International Journal for the Study of New Religions, vol.3, No.2 (November, 2012). Forthcoming.

The encroachment of fundamentalist thinking in religious Jewish and Muslim communities has been widely noted by... more The encroachment of fundamentalist thinking in religious Jewish and Muslim communities has been widely noted by scholars across disciplines. To date, the influence of such thinking on the cultural construction of food taboos within these communities has been largely ignored. This article seeks to addresses the shortcomings in this emergent area of research. Using the work of anthropologist Mary Douglas in Purity and Danger, this article contends that, while adherence to kosher and halal food taboos may once have served to demarcate the borders of Jewish and Muslim communities and foster community cohesion, today newly created and largely ahistorical levels and degrees of food purity are being used to stratify believers intra-communally. This process, manifested in the development of “glatt kosher” and “hardcore halal” standards, creates hierarchies of piety that seek to isolate and de-legitimise the religiosity of those less stringent, more liberal believers in the community. In effect, where once kosher and halal may have united a community, these practices today instead serve to propagate religious conflict over the framing of community identity and spiritual authenticity.

Japanese-Jewish Relations: Meiji to the End of the Second World War

by J. Holder Bennett

Inchiodati alla vita biologica: Emmanuel Levinas e la filosofia dell'hitlerismo

by Rita Fulco

The Ancient Synagogue at Andriake

by Hüseyin Sami Öztürk

N. Çevik - Ö. Çömezoğlu - H. S. Öztürk - İ. Türkoğlu

Risk Society and the Charedim - Ulrich Beck and religion in Israel

by Sidney Shapiro

Many elements of World at Risk by Ulrich Beck have a parallel to the work I am doing in my MA thesis regarding the... more Many elements of World at Risk by Ulrich Beck have a parallel to the work I am doing in my MA thesis regarding the Charedi (ultra-Orthodox) community in Israel. For various reasons, ultra-Orthodox society is placed at risk in terms of society, physical safety, and politically. Beck notes that ""the class divide runs between those who have the power to define their self-produced risks and those who are exposed to, or at the mercy of, risks over which others decide ... thus risk is another word for power and domination," (Beck 142) this paradigm is particularly apt in a discussion of the ultra-Orthodox minority. The ways in which risk affects ultra-Orthodox society, and the way in which risk societies, as illustrated by Beck, come into play in the context of Israel, will be explored in this essay. Through an examination of Charedi society, social risk factors, and possible solutions to the challenges faced in Israel, as well as an overview of the complexities and risks facing this minority will be explored.

Between Philosophy and the Law: Ibn Rushd, Leo Strauss, and the Demands of the City.

by Jessica L. Radin

Prier et étudier à Byzance

by Nicholas de Lange

Káinról

by András László Gér

Cain – on the footsteps of the originally mythological figure, in the view of the history of the religion in: Csűrös A., Faragó D. és Szávay L. szerk.: Fiatal Kutatók és Doktoranduszok I. Nemzetközi Teológuskonferenciája – Konferenciakötet, 2010, 50-58. p. (Title in Hungarian: Káinról – az eredeti mitologikus alak nyomában, vallástörténeti megközelítésben)

Anatomy of a Cargo Cult: Virginity, Relic Envy, and Hallowed Boxes

by Ryan Byrne

Resurrecting the Brother of Jesus, eds. Ryan Byrne and Bernadette McNary-Zak (University of North Carolina Press, 2009) pp. 137-186

La vie comme songe?: une tentation de l'Occident

by antonio dominguez leiva

Please Don't Give Me a Valentine!

by Michelle Kassorla

I have learned, as I grow older, that what may bring comfort and solace to others may be painful to me. I have learned, as I grow older, that what may bring comfort and solace to others may be painful to me.

Tra Vienna e Gerusalemme. Itinerari psicoanalitici, Firenze, Libri Liberi, 2002, pp. 132.

by David Meghnagi

Un viaggio nella cultura europea attraverso l'opera di Freud dal carteggio con Arnold Zweig ai saggi di Freud sulla... more Un viaggio nella cultura europea attraverso l'opera di Freud dal carteggio con Arnold Zweig ai saggi di Freud sulla religione, sull'umorismo e sulla civiltà.

Freud and judaism

by David Meghnagi

From the dreams of a generation to the theory of dreams: Freud's Roman dreams

by David Meghnagi

In The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud's interpretation of oedipal desires does not occur at the expense of historical... more In The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud's interpretation of oedipal desires does not occur at the expense of historical and personal desires, which are always there as a backdrop. In the relentless examination of his own dreams that Freud makes in order to show the mechanisms inherent in all oneiric deformation, we are also led to another, specifically historical, aspect of the issue of Jewish emancipation, which he experiences at first hand. By analysing his own dreams, Freud not only shows us the mechanisms governing dream formation, but also develops a pointed critique of his contemporary society and its prejudices.

Keywords: desires, dreams, Jewish emancipation

It's All About Love (Synopsis)

by Mark Singer

Kalam and the Kalama Sutta

by Dion Peoples

Akhenaton and Abraham would be the same man (translation of an article by Jean-Marie Tasset)

by Michel Hervé Navoiseau-Bertaux

RELATED ARTICLES:

Abraham against circumcision, a formidable Biblical breakthrough
http://independent.academia.edu/MichelHerv%C3%A9NavoiseauBertaux/Papers/1131691/Abraham_against_circumcision_a_formidable_Biblical_breakthrough

"Thou shalt not circumcise", The Second Commandment against circumcision
http://independent.academia.edu/MichelHerv%C3%A9NavoiseauBertaux/Papers/1131701/_Thou_shalt_not_circumcise_The_Second_Commandment_against_circumcision

Moses's son forcibly circumcised against his father's will
http://independent.academia.edu/MichelHerv%C3%A9NavoiseauBertaux/Papers/1131727/Mosess_son_forcibly_circumcised_against_his_fathers_will

"The secrets of the Exodus," by Egyptologists Messod and Roger Sabbah, affirms that the Jews, who have never... more "The secrets of the Exodus," by Egyptologists Messod and Roger Sabbah, affirms that the Jews, who have never been enslaved in Egypt (there is no trace of a foreign population of slaves) originated from the banning of a small part of the Egyptian population.

An article by Jean-Marie Tasset, September 20 2000 in the front page of Le Figaro