The term ‘rabbi’ predominantly denotes Jewish men qualified to interpret the Torah and apply halacha, or those entrusted with the religious leadership of a Jewish community. However, the role of the rabbi has been understood differently across the Jewish world. While in Israel they control legally powerful rabbinical courts and major religious political parties, in the Jewish communities of the Diaspora this role is often limited by legal regulations of individual countries. However, the significance of past and present rabbis and their religious and political influence endures across the world. Rabbis of Our Time provides a comprehensive overview of the most influential rabbinical authorities of Judaism in the 20th and 21st Century. Through focussing on the most theologically influential rabbis of the contemporary era and examining their political impact, it opens a broader discussion of the relationship between Judaism and politics. It looks at the various centres of current Judaism and Jewish thinking, especially the State of Israel and the USA, as well as locating rabbis in various time periods. Through interviews and extracts from religious texts and books authored by rabbis, readers will discover more about a range of rabbis, from those before the formation of Israel to the most famous Chief Rabbis of Israel, as well as those who did not reach the highest state religious functions, but influenced the relation between Judaism and Israel by other means. The rabbis selected represent all major contemporary streams of Judaism, from ultra-Orthodox/Haredi to Reform and Liberal currents, and together create a broader picture of the scope of contemporary Jewish thinking in a theological and political context. An extensive and detailed source of information on the varieties of Jewish thinking influencing contemporary Judaism and the modern State of Israel, this book is of interest to students and scholars of Jewish Studies, as well as Religion and Politics.

This book compares New Testament and Rabbinical texts in order to recover the oral tradition accompanying the written Biblical text. Although New Testament Greek is a hellenistic idiom, it reflects a Semitic rather than a hellenistic culture. Therefore, Culbertson looks to Jewish sources in order to understand the Greek text, rather than to the philosophical, methodological, and literary sources of hellenistic culture. The author uses specific examples to illustrate various literary theories and to prove the value of a Listener Response Analysis of Gospel texts. A dozen parables are discussed in detail.

This is the only complete English translation of the classic Jewish text known as Ein Yaakov. Ein Yaakov is a collection of all the agaddah (the non-legal) material of the Talmud, compiled by Rabbi Yaakov ibn Chaviv, the fifteenth century talmudist. Scattered among the more than 2,700 pages of the Talmud, aggadah focuses on the ethical and inspirational aspects of the Torah way of life. Through a wealth of homilies, anecdotes, allegories, pithy sayings, and interpretations of biblical verses, it has been said that the aggadah brings you closer to God and his Torah.

Jewish mysticism is quite popular by way of books, lectures, and classes to teach this esoteric subject. The student suddenly confronts a world with a unique language and great masters who use obscure language so that the concepts are confusing amidst the different schools of Kabalistic thought and traditions. Prior to 1700, all such teaching was done from master to student, with intentional obscurities so that the student today faces many challenges in comprehending this discipline. This review, quoting from original sources, is designed to provide a basic and foundational structure from which the student can appreciate both the 'why' of Kabbalism and the 'how' they got there. The premise is that God created our physical universe for a reason, and the revelations on Mount Sinai was deliberate. The Kabbalist understood the hidden from the apparent so that open texts was suddenly imbued with meaning never apparent from the text itself. The book review the major contributors to Kabbalah while reviewing the mystic concepts they contributed. Different schools of thought emerged over time so that different modalities of Kabbalah are present today. These reviews are based on Theoretical Kabbalah, so that intention (Kavanah) during prayer and even during mundane acts throughout the day are imbued with Kabbalistic intention. The book does not review Practical Kabbalah, where incantations, amulets, and similar acts are done to enhance positive energy. I do include the vignette of Rabbi Abraham Abulafia, a major proponent of this form of Kabbalah. In 1760, following the leadership and death of the Baal Shem Tov, the teaching of Kabbalah was opened to the lay public, setting aside the hidden curtain existing previously. Why the sudden change after thousands of years when this discipline was clandestine and not revealed openly? The answer lies with a mystic experience the Baal Shem Tov had with the Messiah who charged him with such open teaching before he would arrive. That charge is the central pivot upon which these teachings turn. The book's sections are divided into separate reviews to enable the student to review them more easily. The first section is on concepts; the second on personalities and the challenges they faced in their lives. It is common for great leaders not to dwell on their challenges in life, so it is especially important for posterity to be aware that their lives were often beset by great difficulties. Two vignettes review persons who were killed because of their beliefs. One was Rabbi Shlomo Molcho, a man who challenged both the reigning pope and secular emperor to accept their proper roles in life. In doing so, he was arrested and burned to death for his beliefs. When offered clemency if he reverted to the Christian faith, he refused, dying a martyr’s death. The other person who died in this horrific manner was a child of twelve years. Ines Esteban, whose family became conversos in Spain’s remote Extremadura. Hailed as a prophetess by the region’s conversos, she was arrested by the Inquisition, tortured and was burned at the stake in August 1500. The story of her leadership in the face of relentless religious persecution and her resolute refusal to become a Christian penitent is remarkable given her youth, her leadership and her individual role – she had no other to support her in this terrible time. She stood alone, without mentor or fellow mystic, though her father and stepmother fully supported her. I find it fitting and proper to dedicate this book to this remarkable young woman. Other Kabbalists through the ages also experienced great personal trials in life. Their collective leadership provides much detail to ponder their roles and teachings. It is hoped the student will have much opportunity to reflect on when studying this subject.

While individual essays reveal literary discoveries of self and forgings of identity by women rising to the opportunities and challenges of drastically altered Jewish social realities, a significant number also show the sad decline of women writers upon whom silence was reimposed. Several chapters consider how Jewish women were depicted by male writers from the Middle Ages through the mid-nineteenth century.