The Jewish Book of Numbers

by Ronald H. Isaacs
The Jewish Book of Numbers
Author: Ronald H. Isaacs
Publisher: Jason Aronson
Total Pages: 232
Release: 1996
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN:
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Why is the number 13 considered lucky in Jewish tradition? What role do mathematics play in the Bible? How can numbers be used to uncover the "hidden" meanings of the Torah? Discover the fascinating world of Jewish numerology in The Jewish Book of Numbers. Noted rabbi and best-selling author Ronald H. Isaacs presents a delightful, easy-to-read introduction to the ways in which numbers are utilized in the Bible and rabbinic writings. Included are references to biblical arithmetic and the methods of expressing numbers in the Bible, examples of sacred numbers, biblical and rabbinic units of weights and measures, numbered Jewish lists, a section on gematria - the method of textual interpretation based on the numerical value of words, and notable Jewish quotations that feature numbers. In some cases, numbers in sacred texts are meant to be taken at face value, but more often they are noteworthy for their symbolic nuances. Since each Hebrew letter has a numerical equivalent, Jewish numerology is often used as a commentary to explain Jewish texts. Often used in the study of kabbalah (Jewish mysticism), gematria offers untold insights into Jewish tradition, as well as novel and curious interpretations of both biblical and rabbinic texts. Throughout the generations, Jewish folklore has also made use of interpretive numerology and expressed the importance of numbers in all phases of life. From 1 to 100,000,000, numbers play a variety of roles in Jewish tradition. They are used to mark life-cycle events such as the bris and religious observances such as the counting of the omer between Passover and Shavuot. They play prominent roles in our most well-known stories - such as Noah and the flood that lasted for 40 days and nights - and in our most sacred liturgy, like the Shema ("Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One"). Filled with interesting facts and intriguing details, The Jewish Book of Numbers is an entertaining way to explore Jewish literature that will most likely inspire further study.

Oxford Bibliographies

by Ilan Stavans
Oxford Bibliographies
Author: Ilan Stavans
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release:
Genre: Hispanic Americans
ISBN: 9780199913701
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"An emerging field of study that explores the Hispanic minority in the United States, Latino Studies is enriched by an interdisciplinary perspective. Historians, sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists, demographers, linguists, as well as religion, ethnicity, and culture scholars, among others, bring a varied, multifaceted approach to the understanding of a people whose roots are all over the Americas and whose permanent home is north of the Rio Grande. Oxford Bibliographies in Latino Studies offers an authoritative, trustworthy, and up-to-date intellectual map to this ever-changing discipline."--Editorial page.

Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan

by William Foxwell Albright
Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan
Author: William Foxwell Albright
Publisher: Eisenbrauns
Total Pages: 316
Release: 1994
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780931464010
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Professor Albright speaks to a new generation of scholars through this reprint of his classic work contrasting Israelite and Canaanite religions. The five chapters were originally presented as seven lectures and discuss Poetry and Prose, the Patriarchal Background, Canaanite Religion in the Early Bronze Age, the Struggle between Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan, and the Religious Cultures of Israel and Phoenicia.

Bewilderments

by Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg
Bewilderments
Author: Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg
Publisher: Schocken
Total Pages: 431
Release: 2015-02-24
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0805243054
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The newest book in Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg’s award-winning series of commentaries on the hebrew bible. The book of Numbers is the narrative of a great failure. What should have been for the Israelites a brief journey from Mount Sinai to the Holy Land becomes a forty-year death march. Both before and after the devastating report of the Spies, the narrative centers on the people’s desire to return to Egypt, to undo the miraculous work of the Exodus. At its heart are speeches of complaint and lament, expressing a profound existential skepticism. But by contrast, in the narrative of the book of Numbers that is found in mystical and Hasidic sources, the generation of the wilderness emerges as one of extraordinary spiritual experience, receivers of the Torah to the fullest extent, fed on miracles and nurtured directly by God: a generation of ecstatic faith, human partners in an unprecedented conversation with the Deity. Drawing on kabbalistic sources, the Hasidic commentators on the book of Numbers depict a people who transcend prudent considerations in order to follow God into the wilderness, where their spiritual yearning comes to full expression. This view of the wilderness history invites us into a different kind of listening to the many cries of distrust, lament, and resentment that issue from the Israelites throughout the book of Numbers. Is there a way to integrate this narrative of dark murmurings, of obsessive fantasies of return to Egypt, with the celebration of a love-intoxicated wilderness discourse? The question touches not only on the language the Israelites speak but also on the very nature of human utterance. Who are these people? Who are we who listen to them? What effect does the cumulative trauma of slavery, the miracles of Exodus, the revelation at Sinai, have on a nation that is beginning to speak? In Bewilderments, one of the most admired biblical commentators at work today posits fascinating answers to these questions through the magnificent literary, scholarly, and psychological analysis of the text that is her trademark.

Book of Numbers

by Joshua Cohen
Book of Numbers
Author: Joshua Cohen
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 693
Release: 2015-06-09
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0812996925
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NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “A wheeling meditation on the wired life, on privacy, on what being human in the age of binary code might mean” (The New York Times), from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Netanyahus NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY VULTURE AND ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR AND THE WALL STREET JOURNAL “Shatteringly powerful . . . I cannot think of anything by anyone in [Cohen’s] generation that is so frighteningly relevant and composed with such continuous eloquence. There are moments in it that seem to transcend our impasse.”—Harold Bloom The enigmatic billionaire founder of Tetration, the world’s most powerful tech company, hires a failed novelist, Josh Cohen, to ghostwrite his memoirs. The mogul, known as Principal, brings Josh behind the digital veil, tracing the rise of Tetration, which started in the earliest days of the Internet by revolutionizing the search engine before venturing into smartphones, computers, and the surveillance of American citizens. Principal takes Josh on a mind-bending world tour from Palo Alto to Dubai and beyond, initiating him into the secret pretext of the autobiography project and the life-or-death stakes that surround its publication. Insider tech exposé, leaked memoir-in-progress, international thriller, family drama, sex comedy, and biblical allegory, Book of Numbers renders the full range of modern experience both online and off. Embodying the Internet in its language, it finds the humanity underlying the virtual. Featuring one of the most unforgettable characters in contemporary fiction, Book of Numbers is an epic of the digital age, a triumph of a new generation of writers, and one of those rare books that renew the idea of what a novel can do. Praise for Book of Numbers “The Great American Internet Novel is here. . . . Book of Numbers is a fascinating look at the dark heart of the Web. . . . A page-turner about life under the veil of digital surveillance . . . one of the best novels ever written about the Internet.”—Rolling Stone “A startlingly talented novelist.”—The Wall Street Journal “Remarkable . . . dazzling . . . Cohen’s literary gifts . . . suggest that something is possible, that something still might be done to safeguard whatever it is that makes us human.”—Francine Prose, The New York Review of Books

Sisterhood

by Balin/Herman
Sisterhood
Author: Balin/Herman
Publisher: Hebrew Union College Press
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2013-12-21
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0878201211
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The work of a coterie of dynamic women - not the brainchild of Reform Judaism's male leaders, as is often thought - Women of Reform Judaism has been a force in the shaping of American Jewish life since its founding as the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods in 1913. The synergy of Reform Judaism's universalist ideas and the women's emancipation movement in the early twentieth century made the synagogue auxiliary a natural platform for women to assume new leadership roles in their synagogues, in Reform Judaism, and in American society. These "sisterhoods" have stood for the solidarity among synagogue women as well as the commitment of these women to important social action issues. Called Women of Reform Judaism since 1993, this oldest federation of women's synagogue auxiliaries has grown from 52 temple sisterhoods to 500 and a membership of over 65,000 women, today a vibrant international women's organization. Women of Reform Judaism, in cooperation with The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives and Hebrew Union College Press, marks its centennial anniversary with this collection of new scholarly essays which looks back at its history in order to understand how the hopes and dreams of its founders have come to fruition. Armed with the rich archival resources of the American Jewish Archives, including Proceedings of the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods, 1913-1955, eighteen scholars contributed essays on the spectrum of Women of Reform Judaism's activities, including their funding of Hebrew Union College during the Great Depression, their support for Jewish education through production of a substantial women's Torah commentary designed to edify lay people as well as scholars and clergy, their promotion of Jewish foodways and art through publication of cookbooks and support of synagogue gift shops, their invention of the Uniongram as a formidable fundraising tool on a par with the Girl Scout cookie, and their efforts to safeguard Jewish continuity through support of youth activities (NFTY).

The Book of Numbers

by Timothy R. Ashley
The Book of Numbers
Author: Timothy R. Ashley
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 581
Release: 2022-12-06
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1467465380
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The book of Numbers tells a story with two main characters—God and Israel. The way the story is told sounds odd and often harsh to readers today. The main point of the book is nevertheless of immense importance for God’s people in any age: exact obedience to God is crucial. This comprehensive and erudite commentary presents a thorough explication of this significant Hebrew text. Timothy Ashley’s introduction discusses such questions as structure, authorship, and theological themes, and it features an extended bibliography of major works on the book of Numbers. Then, dividing the text of Numbers into five major sections, Ashley elucidates the theological themes of obedience and disobedience, which run throughout. His detailed verse-by-verse comments primarily explain the Hebrew text of Numbers as it stands rather than speculate on how the book came to be in its present form. This second edition includes revisions that reflect Ashley’s decades of experience with the book of Numbers, as well as updates to the footnotes and bibliography, which add many important works published in the last thirty years. With these new features, Ashley’s commentary solidifies its place as the church’s most faithful and definitive reference on the book of Numbers.

The Contemporary Torah

by David E. S. Stein
The Contemporary Torah
Author: David E. S. Stein
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 456
Release: 2006-08-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0827607962
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"In most cases references to God are in gender-neutral language. The Tetragammaton, the unpronounceable four-letter name for the Divine, appears in this translation in unvocalized Hebrew to convey that the Name is something totally "other" - beyond translation, gender, speech, and understanding. In some instances, however, male imagery depicting God is preserved because it reflects biblical society's view of gender roles."--BOOK JACKET.