The eighteen studies in this book continue the exploration of the Jewish sermon Saperstein began in his groundbreaking Jewish Preaching 1200-1800. His new research further illustrates the importance of this genre, largely ignored by modern scholarship, as an indispensible resource for understanding Jewish history, spirituality, and thought from the High Middle Ages to the beginning of the Emancipation in Europe. Saperstein's thematic studies explore the most important occasions for traditional rabbinic preaching: the Days of Awe and the Passover season. Two studies focus on the homiletical exegesis of classical Jewish texts, and two deal with the historical interaction of Christians and Jews. Saperstein discusses the diffusion of philosophical ideas through homiletics and identifies central conceptual issues presented in the Italian Jewish pulpit. Other essays include a critical analysis of the work of Saul Levi Morteira of Amsterdam, an examination of sermons in eighteenth-century Prague for indications of a traditional community in crisis, and homiletical evidence for a developing sense of patriotic identification with the state, even before Emancipation changed the legal status of the Jews. Saperstein also presents newly discovered sermonic texts in order to explore a full panoply of issues relating to historical context and genre. All are published for the first time with his annotated translation accompanying the Hebrew original. Included are a Guide for Preachers, sermons on repentance and on the Binding of Isaac, and three eulogies, the last a fascinating memorialization of the antisemitic empress Maria Theresa.

This seventh volume of The Cambridge History of Judaism provides an authoritative and detailed overview of early modern Jewish history, from 1500 to 1815. The essays, written by an international team of scholars, situate the Jewish experience in relation to the multiple political, intellectual and cultural currents of the period. They also explore and problematize the 'modernization' of world Jewry over this period from a global perspective, covering Jews in the Islamic world and in the Americas, as well as in Europe, with many chapters straddling the conventional lines of division between Sephardic, Ashkenazic, and Mizrahi history. The most up-to-date, comprehensive, and authoritative work in this field currently available, this volume will serve as an essential reference tool and ideal point of entry for advanced students and scholars of early modern Jewish history.

In-depth exegesis from a renowned Hebrew scholar This Eerdmans Critical Commentary volume is Shalom Paul's comprehensive, all-inclusive study of the oracles of an anonymous prophet known only as Second Isaiah who prophesied in the second half of the sixth century B.C.E. Paul examines Isaiah 40–66 through a close reading of the biblical text, offering thorough exegesis of the historical, linguistic, literary, and theological aspects of the prophet's writings. He also looks carefully at intertextual influences of earlier biblical and extrabiblical books, draws on the contributions of medieval Jewish commentators, and supports the contention that Second Isaiah should include chapters 55–66, thus eliminating the need to demarcate a Third Isaiah.

"Tanna Debe Eliyyahu" is a midrashic work thought to have been composed between the third and the tenth centuries. Unlike all the other midrashim, it does not consist of a compilation of individual homilies but is a unified work shaped with a character of its own. This Midrash is distinguished by its didactic and moral aims. The author deals with the divine precepts and the reasons for them, and the importance and knowledge of Torah, prayer, and repentence. He is especially concerned with the ethical and religious values that are enshrined in the lives of the patriarchs. In the eye of many students and scholars, it is unique, a masterpiece of Jewish thought.

A multifaceted analysis of how Jewish leaders in medieval and early modern times responded to the challenges they faced. Based largely on the study of sermons and responsa—genres that show Jewish leaders addressing real situations in the lives of their people—it reveals how rabbis have handled intellectual, social, and political diversity and conflict in various vibrant Jewish communities.

Discover from Old Testament Hebrew prophecies, hidden in the annual Jewish celebrations, the ways that God sought to prepare the Jewish people for the coming of their Messiah. He has come as the Passover Lamb of God, and will return soon as the Redeemer of the Nation. The spring feasts of Passover, First Fruits, Unleavened Bread and Pentecost teach us many important truths about the salvation of God, and about the life of victory and celebration he intends for his people to live in this world. The fall feasts, that await the culmination of their prophetic fulfillment, prefigure the return of our Redeemer in glory and power to establish his Kingdom on the earth. The Jewish calendar confirms hidden details of the fulfillment of all these feasts, past and future. A detailed gospel harmony, blended with historical fact, with dates and times for many of the events of surrounding the Last Supper, reveals evidence of how the divine plan brought about the crucifixion, and what took place in the days that followed.