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This volume is a compendium of all known commentaries on Hebrew liturgical poetry (piyyut) preserved in manuscript form. It includes references to commentaries from many different Jewish communities, most prominent among them Ashkenaz, Tsarfat, Sepharad, Carpentras and Yemen, composed and copied in Medieval and Early Modern times. Over 18,000 individual commentaries on more than 2,000 poems are listed with primary sources and references to editions where extant. As an aid to research, it describ...

The Menorah - the ancient seven-armed candelabrum was the most important and dominant symbol in Jewish art, both in the Land of Israel and the Diaspora. The prominent position of the menorah in Jewish art emphasizes its significance. The book will present the menorah history, origin, its unique form, and significance during the Second Temple period and in the Late Antiquity.

This work examines the various types of Jewish ceremonial embroidery, tracing the origins of embroidered work and the customs that have grown up around it. Symbolism, and the symbolic use of colour are discussed, as well as the differing folk traditions that produced the contrasting styles of embroidery for the home and the Synagogue. Practical and thorough advice is given on the factors - architectural, stylistic and religious - that should be taken into consideration before ceremonial work is...

The role and function of law in religious communities in the Roman period - especially in Judaism - has been a key issue among scholars in recent years. This thought-provoking work is the first full-scale attempt to write a historical assessment of the scholarly debate concerning this question, focussing on two closely related religious communities, Judaism and Christianity. By juxtaposing the two religions, a clearer understanding of the developments with respect to torah and nomos in Judaism...

The Jew in Czech and Slovak Imagination,1938-89 is the first critical inquiry into the nature of anti-Jewish prejudices in both main parts of former Czechoslovakia. The authors identify anti-Jewish prejudices over almost fifty years of the twentieth century, focusing primarily on the post-Munich period and the Second World War (1938-45), the post-war reconstruction (1945-48), as well as the Communist rule with both its thaws and returns to hardline rule (1948-89). It is a provocative examination...

An unexpected fusion of two major western religious traditions, Judaism and Christianity, has been developing in many parts of the world. Contemporary Christian movements are not only adopting Jewish symbols and aesthetics but also promoting Jewish practices, rituals, and lifestyles. Becoming Jewish, Believing in Jesus is the first in-depth ethnography to investigate this growing worldwide religious tendency in the global South. Focusing on an austere "Judaizing Evangelical" variant in Brazil, C...

This stunning book, with its 160 illustrations, most of them in full color, is a history of the Temple or Temples in Jerusalem from Solomon's time to the present. The book reads like an archaeological excavation, digging deeper and deeper at one site. Starting with a discussion of the Palestinian denial of a Jewish Temple, the book proceeds to explore the Islamic Dome of the Rock, the little-known Roman Temple of Jupiter, Herod's massive Temple Mount, the Temple built by the exiles returning fro...

Much of Jewish life, observance, and customs are structured around the Jewish holy days, which consecrate not only something of the past but, also, something that is eternally recurring. The Jewish Holy Days in Chasidic Philosophy by Noson Gurary demonstrates the understanding of the unique and eternal ideas that each Jewish holiday possesses. Chasidic thought has its own particular perspective on Judaism, and on the holidays in particular. This scholarly volume explores the Jewish holy days th...