Showing results for "The Cousins" in Judaism

This book explores some of the prevailing attitudes and ideas held by Maimonides, or the Rambam, i.e., Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, and Benedictus (Baruch) Spinoza on the subject of knowing God. A hypothetical dialogue between these two philosophers and I is presented.

A great many Jewish holidays and practices, in their earliest understanding, reflect the great innovation of Biblical religion. The Bible emphasized historical events in contrast to nature. Other ancient Near Eastern religions stressed the latter. As Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel noted, in the Jewish tradition, faith is memory. The observances of Jewish holidays and various Jewish practices articulate theological ideas reflective of collective Jewish memory.

The word "Mishnah" is derived from the Hebrew word meaning “repetition” or “to study and review”. The term Mishnah may be used to indicate a single paragraph or verse of the Mishnah. Several passages in the Talmud illustrate derivatives of the word and its connection to study.

The year was 1391. Spring was about to turn into summer. By the end of the summer, 80 Jewish communities in Castile and Aragon were torn by violence. A third of the Jewish community had been murdered. Perhaps another third of the Jewish community had converted. Only a third of the Jewish population remained intact. While their conversions had initially been met with a grand celebration by their Christian neighbors, those Jews who had yielded to baptism to rescue their lives and those of their families eventually proved a thorn in the side of the church. Could they be trusted?

We live in a radically different world than we did just a year and a half ago. The world has experienced unprecedented fear due to COVID-19. Consequently, most countries have undergone lockdowns, social distancing, and mandated masks because of the worldwide pandemic. The concept of community and its importance has radically changed in the minds of many people. This especially applies to religious communities, and the consequences of this are disturbing. This work discusses the importance of religious community from a Jewish perspective, but also emphasizes other religious traditions.

In the context of Crypto-Jewish individuals and communities, both in the Iberian Peninsula and in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies of the New World, as well as in India, the knowledge of and distinction between halakhah and minhag persisted. But as contact with established Jewish communities (in particular, in Spain before the expulsion), with rabbis, and with Jewish texts lessened, the overall knowledge of Jewish practice and beliefs diminished. This short work explores the practices and beliefs that characterized the dual identity of crypto-Jews.