The Enduring Symbolism of Doves. This Bible History Daily article was originally published on October 1, 2013. It has been updated. —Ed. In addition to its symbolism for the Holy Spirit, the dove was a popular Christian symbol before the cross rose to prominence in the fourth century. The dove continued to be used for various church implements throughout the Byzantine and medieval period, including the form of oil lamps and this 13th-century altar piece for holding the Eucharistic bread. Credit: Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. Few symbols have a tradition as long and as rich as the dove.
A particular favorite in art and iconography, the dove often represents some aspect of the divine, and its use has been shared, adapted and reinterpreted across cultures and millennia to suit changing belief systems. In the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean world, the dove became an iconic symbol of the mother goddess. But that is not the only allusion to a dove in the Hebrew Bible. Related reading in the BAS Library: The Martyr of Reason > Jewish Review of Books. A Heretic in the Truth > Jewish Review of Books. My Jewish Learning - Texts: Reading The Prohibition Against Homosexuality In Context.
Parashat Ahare Mot The sexual relationships forbidden by the Torah are intended to prohibit non-Israelite religious practices and abuses of power, not committed, loving relationships of any gender. By Rabbi Neal J. Loevinger The following article is reprinted with permission from Kolel: The Adult Centre for Liberal Jewish Learning. Overview In the beginning of this portion, the Torah notes that the following laws were given "after the death of Aharon's two sons. " In Focus "You shall not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; it is abhorrent" (Leviticus 18:22). Pshat This whole section of the Torah is called the arayot, literally the "nakednesses" (if that's a word).
Drash This verse is one of the most problematic in the entire Torah; its meaning seems to be quite obvious, and yet it is extremely difficult for many Jews to take at face value. It makes no sense from an ethical perspective: A central purpose of ethics is to regulate and make fair differentials in power and privilege. Dr. The Complete Tanach with Rashi's Commentary - Tanakh Online - Torah - Bible. Lilith, Lady Flying in Darkness. The most notorious demon of Jewish tradition becomes a feminist hero. "Half of me is beautiful but you were never sure which half. " Ruth Feldman, "Lilith" Lilith is the most notorious demon in Jewish tradition. In some sources, she is conceived of as the original woman, created even before Eve, and she is often presented as a thief of newborn infants. Lilith means "the night," and she embodies the emotional and spiritual aspects of darkness: terror, sensuality, and unbridled freedom.
More recently, she has come to represent the freedom of feminist women who no longer want to be "good girls. " Biblical and Talmudic Tales of Lilith The story of Lilith originated in the ancient Near East,where a wilderness spirit known as the "dark maid" appears in the Sumerian myth "The descent of Inanna" (circa 3000 BCE). Lilith later made her way into Israelite tradition, possibly even into the Bible. In the Talmud, Lilith becomes not only a spirit of darkness,but also a figure of uncontrolled sexuality. The Talmud Blog. I was invited to participate in a workshop that takes place about three times a year in Paris and Strasbourg. Each time the organizers choose a biblical verse or pericope, and then invite five people to talk about the way these verses were read in different traditions – normally Patristics, rabbinic/ancient Judaism, medieval/ renaissance Christianity, and sometimes also Islam.
The next workshop will deal with Leviticus 17:10-12, or in other words: וְאִישׁ אִישׁ מִבֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל, וּמִן-הַגֵּר הַגָּר בְּתוֹכָם, אֲשֶׁר יֹאכַל, כָּל-דָּם–וְנָתַתִּי פָנַי, בַּנֶּפֶשׁ הָאֹכֶלֶת אֶת-הַדָּם, וְהִכְרַתִּי אֹתָהּ, מִקֶּרֶב עַמָּהּ. כִּי נֶפֶשׁ הַבָּשָׂר, בַּדָּם הִוא, וַאֲנִי נְתַתִּיו לָכֶם עַל-הַמִּזְבֵּחַ, לְכַפֵּר עַל-נַפְשֹׁתֵיכֶם: כִּי-הַדָּם הוּא, בַּנֶּפֶשׁ יְכַפֵּר.
עַל-כֵּן אָמַרְתִּי לִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, כָּל-נֶפֶשׁ מִכֶּם לֹא-תֹאכַל דָּם; וְהַגֵּר הַגָּר בְּתוֹכְכֶם, לֹא-יֹאכַל דָּם. Like this: Like Loading... Related Black Like a Raven: Menstruation and Aesthetics In "Readings" Interview with Menachem Kellner | The Book of Doctrines and Opinions: Last month, I posted an interview with Daniel Boyarin. To which, I received an email from Kellner shocked that I would interview a non-Zionist who supports enemies of Israel and whose rhetoric was putting his family in danger (see below).
To which I answered, that Boyarin is currently the doktorvater of several of my most academically successful students. But, how about an interview for your many readers? He agreed. Menachem Kellner, Professor of Jewish Thought at the University of Haifa, and Senior Fellow at Merkaz Shalem in Jerusalem, studied philosophy and Jewish philosophy at Washington University (St. Louis) in 1973. Kellner’s works include Maimonides’ Confrontation With Mysticism. Much of the debate around Kellner’s work focuses on his mistitled Must a Jew Believe Anything? 1. It seems that Kellner was motivated by points 1, 6, and 7— and that he thought that if he removed dogma then we have enough to substantiate 2, 4, 5, and 7. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.
Like this: Life After Death. What happens after we die? Judaism is famously ambiguous about this matter. We Also Recommend The immortality of the soul, the World to Come, and the resurrection of the dead all feature prominently in Jewish tradition, but the logistics of what these things are and how they relate to each other has always been ambiguous. Jewish conceptions of heaven and hell--Gan Eden and Gehinnom--are associated with the belief in immortality and/or the World to Come, and were also developed independent of these concepts.
Most Jewish ideas about the afterlife developed in post-biblical times. The Bible itself has very few references to life after death. The notion of resurrection appears in two late biblical sources, Daniel 12 and Isaiah 25-26. Daniel 12:2--"Many of those that sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to eternal life, others to reproaches, to everlasting abhorrence"--implies that resurrection will be followed by a day of judgment. Judged to be wicked will be punished. Reincarnation: The Transmigration of a Jewish Idea. Though some Jewish thinkers vigorously rejected the notion of reincarnation, kabbalists embraced it enthusiastically. The reincarnation of souls into other people or animals--known as gilgul hanefesh (lit. We Also Recommend the rolling of the soul) in Hebrew--is an outgrowth of the idea of the soul's immortality.
It has seized the imagination of many Jews and remains a popular literary subject. Numerous stories of demonic possession and exorcism by wonder rabbis are based on the idea of lonely souls, sinners in previous lives, entering into other bodies. Reincarnation is the idea that a soul now residing in a particular body may have resided in the body of another person in an earlier period of time. The Philosophers Were Scornful The usual Hebrew term for reincarnation is gilgul, "rolling," that is, the soul "rolls" through time from one body to a different body. Did you like this article? Please consider making a donation today.
Rabbi Dr. The Transmigrating Soul: A Yiddish Folktale. There are many Yiddish stories about transmigrating souls--a gilgul in Hebrew--that occupy bodies to the detriment of the occupied. Perhaps the most common such stories involve dybbuks, souls pursued by demons who--to escape--enter human bodies and need to be exorcized. The following is an abridgement of a tale collected from an anonymous source in Ignaline, Poland.
It is reprinted with permission from Yiddish Folktales, edited by Beatrice Silverman Weinreich, translated by Leonard Wolf, and published by Pantheon Books (New York) in cooperation with YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. My grandfather bought the forest in Paluzh and ordered the peasants to cut down some trees. The girl sat down to rest on the stump of a tree and at that moment she began to cough, because a gilgul had entered into her. At last she got home, and her family noticed that she coughed with the sound of a dog barking. One of my uncles told him one day, "You've got an awfully big mouth.
Did you like this article? Heaven and Hell in Jewish Tradition. Afterlife or No Afterlife? To Heaven or Not to Heaven: That is the Question! By Erin Boxt Discuss on Our Blog As a young Jewish child growing up in Columbia, South Carolina, I was often asked what Jews believed about the "afterlife. " Of course, not everyone was so polite in their questioning. But, that is a whole different story! I will admit that I was very confused growing up about a lot of things and the ideas of heaven and hell were clearly two of the most confusing topics for me. I am not sure if I remember exactly how he responded to me. In Genesis 25:8, we find the death of Abraham: "And Abraham breathed his last, dying at a good ripe age, old and contented; and he was gathered to his kin.
"1 Here, Abraham is "gathered to his people. " Let us take a look at a few of the rabbinic ideas of olam haba, the afterlife or world to come: "Rabbi Yaakov used to say, "This world is like a lobby before the Olam Ha-Ba. 1. Paradise. Markus Bockmuehl, Guy G. Stroumsa, eds. Paradise in Antiquity: Jewish and Christian Views. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. xi + 260 pp. $95.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-521-11786-9. Reviewed by Lorenzo DiTommaso (Concordia University)Published on H-Judaic (December, 2011)Commissioned by Jason Kalman Paradise Found This volume grew out of a conference held in 2008 at the Center for the Study of Christianity at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Its purpose is to examine “the luxuriant transformations of paradise in early Judaism and Christianity, from the Hellenistic times to the end of late antiquity” (p. 2).
An engaging essay by Guy G. The thirteen main papers of the volume are divided into two parts. The essays in part 2 are unified under the title “Contemporizing Paradise in Late Antiquity.” Collections of this kind stand or fall on the ability of their essays to cover their subject meaningfully and intelligently. Citation: Lorenzo DiTommaso. The World to Come. It's an individual Jew's ultimate reward, but the nature of the World to Come has always been disputed. Excerpted and reprinted with permission from The Jewish Religion: A Companion, published by Oxford University Press. The World to Come usually refers to one of three things: the way the world will be in the End of Days when the righteous are resurrected; a world of immortal souls that will follow the age of resurrection; or a heavenly world enjoyed by righteous souls immediately after death (i.e.
We Also Recommend prior to the End of Days). However, believing that the World to Come refers to one of these does not necessarily entail a negative belief in the others. There is considerable ambiguity regarding the meaning of the rabbinic doctrine of the World to Come (Heb. Olam Ha‑Ba) and its relation to the resurrection of the dead. In later Jewish thought the World to Come becomes a generic term for the Hereafter. Rabbinic Teachings Did you like this article? Rabbi Dr.
Christianity. Islam. Chosenness. How Does Reform Judaism Define Chosenness? By Rabbi Mara Young In Deuteronomy 26:16-19, Moses articulates what it means to be a part of the Jewish people: "This day, the Eternal your God is commanding you to fulfill these statues and these laws and you will observe them and do them with all your heart and with all your soul. The Eternal has affirmed this day that you will be, as promised, God's treasured people (am segulah ) who shall observe all the divine commandments, and that God will set you high above all the nations that God has made - in praise, in a distinguished name and in glory; and that you shall be, as promised, a holy people to the Eternal your God.
" This echoes what God said in Exodus 19:5: "Now if you will listen to My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My treasure (segulah) from among all peoples... " At first glance, these Torah passages seem to emphasize a higher status and a prestige among the nations, setting the Jewish people above and beyond others. 1. That Tiny Cruse of Oil: Truth amidst the Myth. This post was slightly edited from a posting by Rabbi Phil Cohen. This is wonderful piece on the Truth in Chanukah, or better, the ahistorical truth that still lives on in the non-historical story of the cruse of oil. For background, you might want to first read the New York Times' What Historically Happened Back During the Time of the Maccabees and my The True Story of Chanukah.
Rabbi Cohen's writing is another of those "I Wish I Wrote This" articles. Insightful and significant, the article addresses why we can still believe in legends that are not historical: Rabbi Phil Cohen writes: I first learned of the history of the story of that jar of oil on my first visit, pre-interview, to Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City. I sat in on an Education class. The Challenge of Legend There are undoubtedly analyses of this phenomenon which I have read and which I have missed. Legends arise. Chag Chanukah Samayach – Happy Chanukah. When It Comes to Birth Control, We Are All Jewish. Earlier this month, the perpetual-motion machine that is the Republican Party rested on the topic of birth control.
The occasion was a proposal by President Obama that would mandate all employers, including religious organizations, to offer their employees health-care policies that paid for contraceptives. Rick Santorum, a long-time opponent of birth control—he has previously referred to contraceptives as “a license to do things in a sexual realm that are counter to how things are supposed to be”—briefly made the issue his political ramrod du jour before massive outcry forced him to equivocate. But it was former Arkansas governor and one-time Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee who found the mots justes to describe the ultra-conservative sentiment on the subject.
We are not. If anything, when it comes to the issue of birth control, we’re all Jews, and we pretty much have been for a very long time. But what in the meantime? Are we permitted to simply contracept away?