Jonathan Wyn Schofer's Books

Confronting Vulnerability

The Body and the Divine in Rabbinic Ethics

By: Jonathan Wyn Schofer

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Confronting Vulnerability

The Body and the Divine in Rabbinic Ethics

By: Jonathan Wyn Schofer

While imparting their ethical lessons, rabbinic texts often employ vivid images of death, aging, hunger, defecation, persecution, and drought. In Confronting Vulnerability, Jonathan Wyn Schofer carefully examines these texts to find out why their creators thought that human vulnerability was such a crucial tool for instructing students in the development of exemplary behavior. These rabbinic texts uphold virtues such as wisdom and compassion, propound ideal ways of responding to others in need, and describe the details of etiquette. Schofer demonstrates that these pedagogical goals were achieved through reminders that one’s time on earth is limited and that God is the ultimate master of the world. Consciousness of death and of divine accounting guide students to live better lives in the present. Schofer’s analysis teaches us much about rabbinic pedagogy in late antiquity and also provides inspiration for students of contemporary ethics. Despite their cultural distance, these rabbinic texts challenge us to develop theories and practices that properly address our frailties rather than denying them.

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Page Count

229

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0226740102

ISBN 13

9780226740102

The Making of a Sage

A Study in Rabbinic Ethics

By: Jonathan Wyn Schofer

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The Making of a Sage

A Study in Rabbinic Ethics

By: Jonathan Wyn Schofer

Jonathan Schofer offers the first theoretically framed examination of rabbinic ethics in several decades. Centering on one large and influential anthology, The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan, Jonathan Schofer situates that text within a broader spectrum of rabbinic thought, while at the same time bringing rabbinic thought into dialogue with current scholarship on the self, ethics, theology, and the history of religions. Notable Selection, Jordan Schnitzer Book Award for Philosophy and Jewish Thought, Association for Jewish Studies

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Page Count

325

Publisher

Univ of Wisconsin Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0299204634

ISBN 13

9780299204631

Confronting Vulnerability

The Body and the Divine in Rabbinic Ethics

By: Jonathan Wyn Schofer

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Confronting Vulnerability

The Body and the Divine in Rabbinic Ethics

By: Jonathan Wyn Schofer

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N/A

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Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

229

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0226740102

ISBN 13

9780226740102

My Perfect One

Typology and Early Rabbinic Interpretation of Song of Songs

By: Jonathan Kaplan

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My Perfect One

Typology and Early Rabbinic Interpretation of Song of Songs

By: Jonathan Kaplan

Most studies of the history of interpretation of Song of Songs focus on its interpretation from late antiquity to modernity. In My Perfect One, Jonathan Kaplan examines earlier rabbinic interpretation of this work by investigating an underappreciated collection of works of rabbinic literature from the first few centuries of the Common Era, known as the tannaitic midrashim. In a departure from earlier scholarship that too quickly classified rabbinic interpretation of Song of Songs as allegorical, Kaplan advocates a more nuanced reading of the approach of the early sages, who read Song of Songs through a mode of typological interpretation concerned with the correspondence between Scripture and ideal events in Israel's history. Throughout the book Kaplan explores ways in which this portrayal helped shape a model vision of rabbinic piety as well as of an idealized vision of their beloved, God, in the wake of the destruction, dislocation, and loss the Jewish community experienced in the first two centuries of the Common Era. The archetypal and idealized language of Song of Songs provided, as Kaplan argues, a textual landscape in which to imagine an idyllic construction of Israel's relationship to her beloved, marked by mutual devotion and fidelity. Through this approach to Song of Songs, the Tannaim helped lay the foundations for later Jewish thought of a robust theology of intimacy in God's relationship with the Jewish people.

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Page Count

245

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0199359342

ISBN 13

9780199359349

Book's by Jonathan Wyn Schofer

Confronting Vulnerability

Confronting Vulnerability

The Making of a Sage

The Making of a Sage

Confronting Vulnerability

Confronting Vulnerability

My Perfect One

My Perfect One

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