Books about Rabbinical from Amazon.com

Meet the Rabbis explains to the reader how rabbinic thought was relevant to Jesus and the New Testament world, and hence should be relevant to those people today who read the New Testament

In this sense, Rabbinic thought is relevant to every aspect of modern life. Rabbinic literature explores the meaning of living life to its fullest, in right relationship with God and humanity. However, many Christians are not aware of Rabbinic thought and literature. Indeed, most individuals in the Western world today, regardless of whether they are Christians, atheists, agnostics, secular community leaders, or some other religious and political persuasions, are more knowledgeable of Jesus’ ethical teachings in the Sermon the Mount than the Ethics of the Fathers in a Jewish prayer book. The author seeks to introduce the reader to the world of Torah learning. It is within this world that the authentic cultural background of Jesus’ teachings in ancient Judaism is revealed. Young uses parts of the New Testament, especially the Sermon on the Mount, as a springboard for probing rabbinic method. The book is an introduction to rabbinic thought and literature and has three main sections in its layout: Introduction to Rabbinic Thought, Introduction to Rabbinic Literature, and Meet the Rabbis, a biographical description of influential Rabbis from Talmudic sources..
Price: $10.45 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Special features make Etz Hayim meaningful for lay and clergy alike: - Essays on key themes by prominent Conservative movement rabbis and scholars - Separate p'shat and d'rash commentary themes, showing two approaches to interpreting the Torah: The p'shat commentary, adapted from the JPS Torah Commentary and edited by Chaim Potok, seeks to explain the basic meaning of the text. The d'rash commentary, edited by Harold Kushner, selects insights from over 2,000 years of Torah study, including passages from the Talmud and Midrash, the teachings of the Sages, comments by Rashi, homiletic and psychological insights by Hasidic teachers, and readings by contemporary rabbis and scholars, including women's voices. - The haftarot commentary, edited by Michael Fishbane and drawn from his JPS Bible Commentary: Haftarot, explains the supplemental readings from the Prophets (Nevi'im), which accompany each weekly Sabbath reading. - Highlights of traditional readings for Sephardic and Ashkenazic communities including the special section halakhah l'ma-aseh, which indicates where Jewish laws are based on biblical passages. Also, blessings for the Torah and haftarot, full-color maps, glossary, timeline of biblical events, and indexes..
Price: $57.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Scattered throughout the Talmud, the founding document of rabbinic Judaism in late antiquity, can be found quite a few references to Jesus--and they're not flattering In this lucid, richly detailed, and accessible book, Peter Schäfer examines how the rabbis of the Talmud read, understood, and used the New Testament Jesus narrative to assert, ultimately, Judaism's superiority over Christianity.

The Talmudic stories make fun of Jesus' birth from a virgin, fervently contest his claim to be the Messiah and Son of God, and maintain that he was rightfully executed as a blasphemer and idolater. They subvert the Christian idea of Jesus' resurrection and insist he got the punishment he deserved in hell--and that a similar fate awaits his followers.

Schäfer contends that these stories betray a remarkable familiarity with the Gospels--especially Matthew and John--and represent a deliberate and sophisticated anti-Christian polemic that parodies the New Testament narratives. He carefully distinguishes between Babylonian and Palestinian sources, arguing that the rabbis' proud and self-confident countermessage to that of the evangelists was possible only in the unique historical setting of Persian Babylonia, in a Jewish community that lived in relative freedom. The same could not be said of Roman and Byzantine Palestine, where the Christians aggressively consolidated their political power and the Jews therefore suffered.

A departure from past scholarship, which has played down the stories as unreliable distortions of the historical Jesus, Jesus in the Talmud posits a much more deliberate agenda behind these narratives.

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Price: $19.31 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This volume guides beginning students of rabbinic literature to the range of historical-interpretive and culture-critical issues that contemporary scholars use when studying the rabbinic texts of late antiquity The editors, themselves well-known interpreters of rabbinic literature, have gathered an international collection of scholars to support students' initial steps in confronting the enormous and complex rabbinic corpus. Unlike other introductions to rabbinic writings, the present volume includes approaches shaped by anthropology, gender studies, oral-traditional studies, classics, and folklore studies..
Price: $13.68 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The Mishnah, an ancient Jewish text composed around 200 c.e., is the foundation document of rabbinic law. In this groundbreaking work, Martin Samuel Cohen explores texts from the Mishnah as a foundation document of Jewish spirituality, Using the Mishnah's sketchy characters as personal spiritual guides, Rabbi Cohen makes these obscure texts particularly relevant to a modern seeker. This witty, scholarly and charming meditation demonstrates how the study of Mishnah can provide spiritual guidance..
Price: $11.65 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This is a travel-sized paperback edition of "Or Hadash: A Commentary on Siddur Shalom." This compact siddur with acclaimed commentary is ideal for travel and personal use..
Price: $22.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The Ingersoll Lecture..
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Gunter Stemberger's revision of H. L. Strack's classic introduction to rabbinic literature, which appeared in its first English edition in 1991, was widely acclaimed. Gunter Stemberger and Markus Bockmuehl have now produced this updated edition, which is a significant revision (completed in 1996) of the 1991 volume. Following Strack's original outline, Stemberger discusses first the historical framework, the basic principles of rabbinic literature and hermeneutics and the most important Rabbis. The main part of the book is devoted to the Talmudic and Midrashic literature in the light of contemporary rabbinic research. The appendix includes a new section on electronic resources for the study of the Talmud and Midrash. The result is a comprehensive work of reference that no student of rabbinics can afford to be without..
Price: $19.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]