Debbie Cohen, a sixteen-year-old Californian, could not imagine the adventure she was about to live through. Based on an old man’s legend, she went to Africa with her anthropologist mother. But what was supposed to be a simple reconnaissance mission took an unexpected turn when a creature dragged Debbie to a mysterious garden. Debbie would there discover something that would transform her life and link her destiny to an extraordinary being. She found love where none had ever thought to look...

Vol. 4 covers the late Roman period to the rise of Islam. Focuses especially on the growth and development of rabbinic Judaism and of the major classical rabbinic sources such as the Mishnah, Jerusalem Talmud, Babylonian Talmud and various Midrashic collections.

In recent generations, there has been a renaissance of Tanakh study among Jewry in general, and in the study halls of the Religious-Zionist community in particular. This return to in-depth study of the plain text has brought with it new challenges. How should one respond to the complex questions raised by close textual reading, by new methodology, and by recent discoveries? This work portrays the unique approach that has arisen in the current generation of Bible scholars, who come to Tanakh study with deep, serious belief in the holiness and divine nature of the books, on the one hand, and on the other, the understanding that new discoveries in the scholarly world need neither be rejected out of hand nor adopted in their entirety.

Jewish customs and traditions about death, burial and mourning are numerous, diverse and intriguing. They are considered by many to have a respectable pedigree that goes back to the earliest rabbinic period. In order to examine the accurate historical origins of many of them, an international conference was held at Tel Aviv University in 2010 and experts dealt with many aspects of the topic. This volume includes most of the papers given then, as well as a few added later. What emerges are a wealth of fresh material and perspectives, as well as the realization that the high Middle Ages saw a set of exceptional innovations, some of which later became central to traditional Judaism while others were gradually abandoned. Were these innovations influenced by Christian practice? Which prayers and poems reflect these innovations? What do the sources tell us about changing attitudes to death and life-after death? Are tombstones an important guide to historical developments? Answers to these questions are to be found in this unusual, illuminating and readable collection of essays that have been well documented, carefully edited and well indexed.

From the days of Plato, the problem of the efficacy and adequacy of the written word as a vehicle of human communication has challenged mankind, yet the mystery of how best to achieve clarity and exactitude of written expression has never been solved. The most repercussive instance of this universal problem has been the exegesis of the law embodied in Hebrew scripture. Peshat and Derash is the first book to trace the Jewish interpretative enterprise from a historical perspective. Applying his vast knowledge of Rabbinic materials to the long history of Jewish exegesis of both Bible and Talmud, Halivni investigates the tension that has often existed between the plain sense of the divine text (peshat) and its creative, Rabbinic interpretations (derash). Halivni addresses the theological implications of the deviation of derash from peshat and explores the differences between the ideological extreme of the religious right, which denies that Judaism has a history, and the religious left, which claims that history is all that Judaism has. A comprehensive and critical narration of the history and repercussions of Rabbinic exegesis, this analysis will interest students of legal texts, hermeneutics, and scriptural traditions, as well as anyone involved in Jewish studies.

The editors have gathered 15 laser experts from the United States, Europe and Asia to present the most up to date information in cutaneous laser surgery and intense pulsed light technologies. This innovative book describes new laser techniques (laserlipolysis, fractional photothermolysis, among others) and provides expert guidance on using lasers successfully in over 80 clinical indications.