Presents stories of heroic individuals from the Talmud and Midrash.

Presents stories of heroic individuals from the Talmud and Midrash.

This volume examines the spiritual shortfalls of our current healing environment and explores how midrash can help you see beyond the physical aspects of healing to tune in to your spiritual source.

The ancient rabbis believed that the Torah was divinely revealed and therefore contained eternal truths and multitudinous hidden meanings. Not a single word was considered haphazard or inconsequential. This understanding of how Scripture mystically relates to all of life is the fertile ground from which the Midrash emerged. Here Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso explores how Midrash originated and how it is still practiced today, and offers new translations and interpretations of twenty essential, classic midrashic texts. You will never read the Bible the same way again!

This book introduces Midrash both in general and through many examples of the kinds of Midrash that flourished among ancient Judaism. Neusner, as a preeminent authority on the subject, lays special emphasis upon the exegesis of Scripture produced by the Judaism of the dual Torah, oral and written.

Confront murder, mayhem--and your own mysteries of being. From a corporate giant's kidnapping of a rabbi, to the disappearance of the clarinetist in a klezmer band, to four rabbis' use of their text interpretation skills to help a detective solve a murder that one of them has committed, this unique collection of mysteries will enlighten you at the same time it intrigues and entertains. While featuring enough death and deception to keep the detective protagonists on their toes, each story presents the uncertainties that are a part of contemporary Jewish identity--inviting us all to confront our own mysteries of being. Throughout the stories' tangled puzzles and suspenseful adventures, the characters solve not only the "whodunit"-type mysteries, but also struggle to solve the mystery of their spiritual lives. Mystery Midrash will be a lasting delight for mystery buffs of all faith traditions. Contributors include: Joel Siegel * Lawrence W. Raphael * Toni Brill * Howard Engel * Richard Fliegel * Michael A. Kahn * Stuart M. Kaminsky * Faye Kellerman * Ronald Levitsky * Ellen Rawlings * Rabbi Bob Sloan * Janice Steinberg * James Yaffe * Batya Swift Yasgur

Womanist Midrash is an in-depth and creative exploration of the well- and lesser-known women of the Hebrew Scriptures. Using her own translations, Gafney offers a midrashic interpretation of the biblical text that is rooted in the African American preaching tradition to tell the stories of a variety of female characters, many of whom are often overlooked and nameless. Gafney employs a solid understanding of womanist and feminist approaches to biblical interpretation and the sociohistorical culture of the ancient Near East. This unique and imaginative work is grounded in serious scholarship and will expand conversations about feminist and womanist biblical interpretation.

David Stern shows how the parable or mashal--the most distinctive type of narrative in midrash--was composed, how its symbolism works, and how it serves to convey the ideological convictions of the rabbis. He describes its relation to similar tales in other literatures, including the parables of Jesus in the New Testament and kabbalistic parables. Through its innovative approach to midrash, this study reaches beyond its particular subject, and will appeal to all readers interested in narrative and religion.