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Myths and Fictions — the third in a series of books on comparative philosophy and religion — is a collection of original essays, none previously published, on the theory and the actuality of myths and fictions in the different cultures of the world. Through all the essays there runs the question of the relation of literal truth to truth conceived in other ways or dimensions. Taken as a whole, the book makes a serious attempt to get beyond the confines of any single culture and enter into the mythical imagination of the ancient Hindus, Chinese, Hebrews and Christians, and by this act of imagination to escape (in Italo Calvino's words) "the limited perspective of the individual ego, not only to enter into selves like our own but to give speech to that which has no language..."
In this book, Shlomo Biderman examines the views, outlooks, and attitudes of two distinct cultures: the West and classical India. He turns to a rich and varied collection of primary sources: the Rg Veda, the Upanishads, and texts by the Buddhist philosophers Någårjuna and Vasubandhu, among others. In studying the West, Biderman considers the Bible and its commentaries, the writings of such philosophers as Plato, Descartes, Berkeley, Kant, and Derrida, and the literature of Kafka, Melville, and Orwell. Additional sources are Mozart's Don Giovanni and seminal films like Ingmar Bergman's Persona. Biderman uses concrete examples from religion and literature to illustrate the formal aspects of ...
Interpretation in Religion is the work of a group of contemporary American, European, and Israeli scholars and philosophers, who analyze the crucial course of interpretation in religion -- religion in general, and, in particular, Hinduism, ancient Egyptian religion, Judaism, christianity, and Islam.
The Person in the Parasha, Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb's compilation of essays based on his highly popular column of the same name, offers the unique point of view of a world-renowned Torah scholar, community rabbi, and clinical psychotherapist. Each essay begins with an interesting anecdote which the author then connects to a central theme in the parasha, and wraps up with a profound message of inspiration and wisdom for life and spiritual growth. The Person in the Parasha offers a creative and original look at each of the weekly Torah readings, addressing a wide spectrum of human emotions and topics - optimism, grief, integrity, bullying, conformity, envy, aging, parenting, and much more. In this work, Rabbi Weinreb brings the biblical personalities to life, focusing on what motivates them and how we can best emulate their positive traits in our own lives. Rabbi Weinreb offers guidance for daily life its challenges, struggles, and joys alike.
מהו העוורון הנלווה לכל ראייה, הן של הגלוי והן של הסמוי והמופלא? האם מדובר כאן אך ורק במגבלה של הכוח המכיר? ואולי לפנינו דווקא תנאי הכרחי לכל ראייה אפשרית ? הן היומיומית והשכיחה, והן הנשגבת והנדירה? המאמרים שקובצו בכרך זה מציעים תשובות שונות לשאלות אלה. אך דומה שהם חולקים מכנה משותף, והוא ההנחה שראייה, כמבטאת הן ידיעה והן עשייה, דורשת לא רק מבט חד וממוקד במושאיה, אלא, במקביל, התבוננות מעורפלת, פוזלת ומתווכת.
Scripture and Knowledge clarifies the epistemological uses of scripture and examines some of the ways in which these uses have been understood in religious traditions. The author contends that philosophers have neglected scripture as a means of understanding religion. He shows the inadequacy of prevalent emphases on either the content or the social function of scripture as the sole measure of its role. As the author demonstrates, scripture has a unique epistemological aspect, that of a framework that gives believers a total picture of the world and its significance. A discussion of the knowledge claims made by scripture and of the authority by which these claims are justified is accompanied by extended examples from Jewish and Hindu sources.
A moving biography of Oswald Rufeisen, a Jew who passed as a Christian in occupied Poland, worked as a translator for the German police, and risked his life to save hundreds from the Nazis. Denounced, he escaped and found shelter in a convent, where he became a Catholic and later a priest and monk.
Begun in 1690, this diary of a forty-four-year-old German Jewish widow, mother of fourteen children, tells how she guided the financial and personal destinies of her children, how she engaged in trade, ran her own factory, and promoted the welfare of her large family. Her memoir, a rare account of an ordinary woman, enlightens not just her children, for whom she wrote it, but all posterity about her life and community. Gluckel speaks to us with determination and humor from the seventeenth century. She tells of war, plague, pirates, soldiers, the hysteria of the false messiah Sabbtai Zevi, murder, bankruptcy, wedding feasts, births, deaths, in fact, of all the human events that befell her during her lifetime. She writes in a matter of fact way of the frightening and precarious situation under which the Jews of northern Germany lived. Accepting this situation as given, she boldly and fearlessly promotes her business, her family and her faith. This memoir is a document in the history of women and of life in the seventeenth century.