olam he-zeh v'olam ha-ba (eBook)

This World and the World to Come in Jewish Belief and Practice

Leonard J. Greenspoon (Herausgeber)

eBook Download: EPUB

2017
275 Seiten
Purdue University Press (Verlag)
9781612495149 (ISBN)

Infos

Dining on Leviathan. Discoursing with Socrates. Debating the nature of existence in the afterlife. These are among the topics authors address in this wide-ranging account of how Jews have conceptualized the world to come and structured their lives in this world accordingly. Some authorities portrayed the afterlife as an endless round of feasting and drinking of chazerie that would put the fanciest Las Vegas buffets to shame. There were visionaries who mapped out otherworldly climes populated by monstrous creatures. Others, decidedly more staid, saw the world to come as a location where neither food nor wine would be consumed; instead, it would offer the opportunity to bring moral certitude to questionable practices that could not be eradicated in this world. More down to earth are comparisons between Rabbi Akiva and Socrates, and analyses of influential thinkers like Moses Mendelssohn and Emmanuel Levinas. And more practical are discussions of how concepts of the afterlife serve to determine mourning practices, or more broadly, how humans should fashion their lives in the here and now. The chronological range of these chapters also is impressive. The earliest documents discussed are from Apocryphal literature, including apocalypses, that were composed from 400 BCE to 200 CE. There are creative analyses of rabbinic material and documents from the medieval period through the twentieth century. Evolving ritual and liturgical practices bring readers up to the early twenty-first century. Each of the thirteen authors whose works are brought together in this volume shows historical, cultural, and religious sensitivity both to the unique features of these differing manifestations and to the elements that unite them. For the readers of this volume, which is equally rewarding for general audiences and for specialists, the result is a carefully nuanced, creatively balanced exploration of the breadth of Jewish thought and practice concerning some of the most profound and perplexing issues humans face.

Autor

Leonard J. Greenspoon holds the Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization at Creighton University, where he also is a professor of Classical and Near Eastern Studies and of theology. Prior to his tenure at Creighton, Greenspoon was a professor of religion at Clemson University. As well as editing the Studies in Jewish Civilization series, Greenspoon has coedited another four volumes and written four monographs. A prolific author, he has written over two hundred and fifty journal articles, book chapters, and major encyclopedia entries. He has made public and scholarly presentations throughout the United States and Canada as well as in Israel and many European countries. His major research interests center on Bible translations (especially Jewish versions) and religion in popular culture.

Inhalt

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Editor’s Introduction

Contributorsx
s“The End of the World and the World to Come”: What Apocalyptic Literature Says about the Time After the End-Time, by Dereck Daschke

Warriors, Wives, and Wisdom: This World and

the World to Come in the (So-Called) Apocrypha, by Nicolae Roddy

The Afterlife in the Septuagint, by Leonard Greenspoon

Rabbi Akiva, Other Martyrs, and Socrates: On Life, Death, and Life After Life, by Naftali Rothenberg

Heaven on Earth: The World to Come and Its (Dis)locations, by Christine Hayes

Olam Ha-ba in Rabbinic Literature: A Functional Reading, by Dov Weiss

Dining In(to) the World to Come, by Jordan D. Rosenblum

What’s for Dinner in Olam Ha-ba? Why Do We Care in Olam Ha-zeh?: Medieval Jewish Ideas about Meals in the World to Come in R. Bahya ben Asher’s Shulhan Shel Arba, by Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus

The Dybbuk: The Origins and History of a Concept, by Morris M. Faierstein

Tasting Heaven: Wine and the World to Come from the Talmud to Safed, by Vadim Putzu

Worlds to Come Between East and West: Immortality and the Rise of Modern Jewish Thought, by Elias Sacks

Emmanuel Levinas’s Messianism and the World to Come: A Gnostic-Philosophical Reading of Tractate Sanhedrin 96b–99b, by Federico Dal Bo

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 15.9.2017
• Reihe/Serie: Studies in Jewish Civilization
• Reihe/Serie: Studies in Jewish Civilization
• Verlagsort: West Lafayette
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Judentum
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Pädagogik
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Spezielle Soziologien
• ISBN-13: 9781612495149 / 9781612495149