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Excerpt from The Immanence of God: In Rabbinical Literature The following pages treat of an aspect of ancient Jewish theology which has, as yet, received an all too scant attention. Indeed, the number of modern books dealing with Jewish theology, whether as a whole or under any of its many constituent aspects, is absurdly small. A few distinguished names leap to the mind at once. But admirable and thorough as is the work of these scholars, the output is by no means commensurate with the scope, importance, and complexity of the subject. As a result of this barrenness of production, the theology of Rabbinic Judaism - and hence Judaism itself - has never yet had the good fortune to be weighed in the scales of absolute fairness. The average Jew, unable to read the originals for himself, is, through a shortage of text-books, quite incompetent to pronounce an opinion of any worth upon the religion which has meant so much for his fathers and for the world. The average Christian does pronounce opinions, but as these opinions are drawn, neither from the originals nor from the few Jewish scholars who have written on these topics, they are invariably one-sided and incomplete. I believe that the silence of Jews about their own theology has been construed by many non-Jews into a proof that they really have no theology worth writing about. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

A collection of lectures on the features of the movement of mysticism that began in antiquity and continues in Hasidism today.

The historiographers of religious studies have written the history of this discipline primarily as a rationalization of ideological, most prominently theological and phenomenological ideas: first through the establishment of comparative, philological and sociological methods and secondly through the demand for intentional neutrality. This interpretation caused important roots in occult-esoteric traditions to be repressed. This process of “purification” (Latour) is not to be equated with the origin of the academic studies. De facto, the elimination of idealistic theories took time and only happened later. One example concerning the early entanglement is Tibetology, where many researchers and respected chair holders were influenced by theosophical ideas or were even members of the Theosophical Society. Similarly, the emergence of comparatistics cannot be understood without taking into account perennialist ideas of esoteric provenance, which hold that all religions have a common origin. In this perspective, it is not only the history of religious studies which must be revisited, but also the partial shaping of religious studies by these traditions, insofar as it saw itself as a counter-model to occult ideas.

This fascinating narrative illustrates and clarifies rabbinic views relating to more than 250 topics. The Talmud has been a source of study and debate for well over a millennia. What the Rabbis Said: 250 Topics from the Talmud brings that discussion out of the yeshiva to describe and clarify the views of the talmudic rabbis for modern readers. Much more than a compilation of isolated rabbinic quotations, the book intersperses talmudic statements within the narrative to provide a thoroughly engaging examination of the rabbinic point of view. Exploring the development of traditional Jewish thought during its formative period, the book summarizes the major rabbinic comments from the vast expanse of the Talmud and midrashic literature, demonstrating, among other things, that the rabbis often took divergent positions on a given issue rather than agreeing on a single "party line." As it delves into such broad topics as God, the Torah, mitzvot, law and punishment, synagogue and prayer, and life-cycle events, What the Rabbis Said will help readers understand and appreciate the views of those who developed the rabbinic Judaism that persists to the present day.

Jack Shechter explores the idea of monotheism as it has evolved over the centuries: the belief in the existence of the One God who fashioned the world and remains involved in it and with humanity and its values.