During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, great new trends of Jewish thought emerged whose widely varied representatives--Kabbalists, philosophers, and astrologers--each claimed that their particular understanding revealed the actual secret of the Torah. They presented their own readings in a coded fashion that has come to be regarded by many as the very essence of esotericism. Concealment and Revelation takes us on a fascinating journey to the depths of the esoteric imagination. Carefully tracing the rise of esotericism and its function in medieval Jewish thought, Moshe Halbertal's richly detailed historical and cultural analysis gradually builds conceptual-philosophical force to culminate in a masterful phenomenological taxonomy of esotericism and its paradoxes. Among the questions addressed: What are the internal justifications that esoteric traditions provide for their own existence, especially in the Jewish world, in which the spread of knowledge was of great importance? How do esoteric teachings coexist with the revealed tradition, and what is the relationship between the various esoteric teachings that compete with that revealed tradition? Halbertal concludes that, through the medium of the concealed, Jewish thinkers integrated into the heart of the Jewish tradition diverse cultural influences such as Aristotelianism, Neoplatonism, and Hermeticisims. And the creation of an added concealed layer, unregulated and open-ended, became the source of the most daring and radical interpretations of the tradition.

This book--the first of its kind--analyzes how and why cases of child sexual abuse have been systematically concealed in Orthodox Jewish communities. The book examines many such cover-ups in detail, showing how denial, backlash against victims, and the manipulation of the secular justice system have placed Orthodox Jewish community leaders in the position of defending or even enabling child abusers. The book also examines the generally disappointing treatment of this issue in popular media, while dissecting the institutions that contribute to the cover-ups, including two--rabbinic courts and local Orthodox "patrols"--that are more or less unique to Orthodox Jewish communities. Finally, the book explores the cultural factors that have contributed to this tragedy, and concludes with hopes and proposals for future reform.

Examines how Maimonides integrates scriptural and rabbinic literature into his magnum opus, The Guide of the Perplexed.

This radical new reading suggests that Wittgenstein is best understood as a covert Jewish thinker in times of lethal anti-Semitism. The argument first establishes that there was one Wittgenstein, not an «early» and a «later». By looking afresh at the role of the Bible, God, Augustine, Otto Weininger, and science, among other things, in Wittgenstein's thought, Ranjit Chatterjee shows how well Wittgenstein matches with Jewish tradition because he had internalized talmudic and rabbinic modes of thought. An abundance of evidence is brought forward of Wittgenstein's Jewish self-identification from his writings and from remarks noted in conversations by his closest friends. Written in an engaging style, this powerful and unexpected understanding of Wittgenstein includes a chapter on his relation to postmodernism (Levinas and Derrida), a personal epilogue, an appendix on his descent, and a full bibliography.

Cultural Writing. REVEALMENT AND CONCEALMENT is ... a series of profound and highly influential essays on Hebrew and Jewish culture ... collected in a new and handsomely produced English edition -- Jonathan Wilson, The Times Literary Supplement. This important collection gathers together five essays by Haim Nahman Bialik (1873-1934), by all accounts the greatest modern Hebrew poet, and a writer who has long defied translation. A key figure in the renaissance of Hebrew Culture at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. Translated by Zali Gurevitch who teaches at the Hebrew University and is the author of six books of poetry.

This book--the first of its kind--analyzes how and why cases of child sexual abuse have been systematically concealed in Orthodox Jewish communities. The book examines many such cover-ups in detail, showing how denial, backlash against victims, and the manipulation of the secular justice system have placed Orthodox Jewish community leaders in the position of defending or even enabling child abusers. The book also examines the generally disappointing treatment of this issue in popular media, while dissecting the institutions that contribute to the cover-ups, including two--rabbinic courts and local Orthodox "patrols"--that are more or less unique to Orthodox Jewish communities. Finally, the book explores the cultural factors that have contributed to this tragedy, and concludes with hopes and proposals for future reform.