As a dynamic tradition, Judaism has always relied on experts to interpret sacred texts for modern times. Responding to the questions posed to him from congregants, other rabbis, and Jews around the world, Rabbi Allen blends his special sensitivity with profound scholarship in addressing a wide range of religious issues. This book is a window into how an ancient tradition can still keep its relevance today.

As a dynamic tradition, Judaism has always relied on experts to interpret sacred texts for modern times. Responding to the questions posed to him from congregants, other rabbis, and Jews around the world, Rabbi Allen blends his special sensitivity with profound scholarship in addressing a wide range of religious issues. This book is a window into how an ancient tradition can still keep its relevance today.

Ruth Christa Mathieson’s unique reading of Matthew’s parable of the royal wedding feast (Matt 22:1–14), which concludes with the king’s demand that one of the guests be bound and cast out into the outer darkness, focuses on the means of the underdressed guest’s expulsion. Using sociorhetorical interpretation, Mathieson draws the parable into conversation with early Jewish narratives of the angel Raphael binding hands and feet (1 Enoch; Tobit) and the protocol for expelling individuals from the community in Matt 18. She asserts that readers are invited to consider if the person who is bound and cast out is a danger to the little ones of the community of faith unless removed and restrained.

Contemporary Jews. The book is at once a beginner's invitation to the profundity of Jewish spirituality and a rich rethinking of texts and positions for those who have already walked some distance along the Jewish path.

Confront the most pressing issues of twenty-first-century America in this fascinating book, which brings together classical Jewish sources, contemporary policy debate and real-life stories.

A comprehensive comparative study of Jewish law on contemporary reproductive issues from a gender perspective