Myth Judaism

Judaism is one of the oldest religions in the world, and it has preserved its distinctive identity despite the extraordinarily diverse forms and beliefs it has embodied over the course of more than three millennia. A History of Judaism provides the first truly comprehensive look in one volume at how this great religion came to be, how it has evolved from one age to the next, and how its various strains, sects, and traditions have related to each other.

Scholars, journalists, and politicians uphold Muslim-ruled medieval Spain - "al-Andalus" - as a multicultural paradise, a place where Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived in harmony. There is only one problem with this widely accepted account: It is a myth. In this groundbreaking book, Northwestern University scholar Darío Fernández-Morera tells the full story of Islamic Spain. As professors, politicians, and pundits continue to celebrate Islamic Spain for its "multiculturalism" and "diversity", Fernández-Morera sets the record straight.

Was Jesus of Nazareth a real historical person or a fictional character in a religious legend? What do the Dead Sea Scrolls reveal about the origins of Christianity? Has there been a conspiracy to suppress information in the Scrolls that contradicts traditional church teaching? John Allegro addresses these and many other intriguing questions in this fascinating account of what may be the most significant archaeological discovery of the twentieth century.

Two thousand years ago, 967 Jewish men, women, and children reportedly took their own lives rather than surrender to the Roman army. This dramatic event, which took place on top of Masada, a barren and windswept mountain overlooking the Dead Sea, spawned a powerful story of Jewish resistance that came to symbolize the embattled modern State of Israel. Jodi Magness, an archaeologist who has excavated at Masada, explains what happened there, how we know it, and how recent developments might change understandings of the story.

Jewish folklore is full of vivid stories that both entertain and teach. We have selected for you a collection of tales and stories from the Talmud and Midrash, and rewritten them to suit the needs of children of Jewish culture and any other. Along with a large helping of gentle humor, these tales entertain while being infused with the perennial Jewish struggle for survival and dignity.

A noted biblical scholar explores how the claim of divine choice has been used from ancient times to the present to justify territorial expansion and prejudice.

It’s hard to have a wild fling when you’re juggling three jobs and living in your childhood bedroom. Jenna Stein feels stuck. Nine months post-college, she’s drowning in work, crashing at her parents’ house, and her love life? Nonexistent. That is, until she meets Asher at the temple’s annual Singles Purim Party. One too many hamantaschen and a little liquid courage later, she’s making out with the most intriguing man she’s met in ages. Asher Gold is bored. A quick work trip to the suburbs wasn’t supposed to be exciting, and neither was the Purim party his cousin dragged him...

He has the money, the power, and the charm, but winning her back might be the one deal he can’t close. Jenna Stein’s fling with Asher Gold was exactly what she needed: a hot, no-strings distraction that reminded her who she is and what she wants. Now, she’s focused on building a life that feels true to he and that life doesn’t include a jet-setting billionaire who doesn’t share her values. Asher knows he blew it. He let his ego (and everyone else’s expectations) get in the way, and it cost him the one woman who made him want something real. He’s spent the months since their ...

Examining Judaism as a religion, philosophy, and lifestyle, this authoritative introduction asks what it means to be a Jew today. From the nature of God to worship and everyday life, Dan and Lavinia Cohn-Sherbok address the topics essential to an informed understanding of the beliefs, values, and enduring traditions of this highly influential religion.

This tantalizing book is based on the pioneering work of Claude Levi-Strauss, who postulated that myths are links between nature and culture. Shoham enlarges this concept and claims that myth in the form of a mythogene, the structural longings and experiences of the individual as projected onto mythology, links history and transcendence, the individual and society, and consciousness and energy-matter. The mythogenes are related to Shoham's personality theory, which, in essence, postulates that personality types can be taxonomized along a continuum with one pole having the Tantalic type, ...

Three Jewish couples are on a journey to find love over a year of holidays. Jenna can't find time for a fun fling while working three jobs and living in her childhood bedroom. Asher has realized that he's become a slave to other people’s expectations of who you should be. Falling in love with Noah, the one man she dislikes, was never in Nora's life plan, now she has to earn his forgiveness before it’s too late. Noah wants to love Nora. He needs to learn that even when she's cruel, Nora's not wrong. If he can learn to be true to himself and push back when she's mistaken. Rachel didn't ...