Originally published in Journal of Jewish Studies 41:2. David Ellenson, Orthodoxy, Halakhah, and the Boundaries of Modern Jewish Identity. University Press of America, Lanham, New York, London, 1989. x, 192 pp. $31.00. It is widely acknowledged that the halakhic process—the manner in which decisions in Jewish law are arrived at by the posekim—is often influenced by extra-legal…...

Originally published in Journal of Jewish Studies 41:2. Robert Gordis, The Dynamics of Judaism: A Study in Jewish Law. Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis, 1990. x, 244 pp. Jacob Katz, The ‘Shabbes Goy’: A Study in Halakhic Flexibility. Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia/New York, 1989. viii, 253 pp. $22.95. J. David Bleich, Contemporary Halakhic Problems, vol. Ill…...

Originally published in Journal of Jewish Studies 41:2. Freema Gottlieb, The Lamp of God: A Jewish Book of Light. Jason Aronson, Northvale, New Jersey, 1989. xxi, 498 pp. $35.00. Aryeh Wineman, Beyond Appearances: Stories from the Kabbalistic Ethical Writings. Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia, New York, Jerusalem, 1988. xi, 174pp. Freema Gottlieb draws chiefly, but not exclusively, on…...

Originally published in Journal of Jewish Studies 41:2. Bezalel Safran (ed.), Hasidism: Continuity or Innovation? (Harvard Judaic Texts and Studies, V). Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA / London, 1988. xviii, 144 pp. £4.75. This is an important but somewhat oddly balanced little book. Emanuel Etkas’s ‘Hasidism as a Movement’ occupies with the notes 26 pages; ‘The Origins…...

Originally published in Journal of Jewish Studies 41:2. Erich Spier, Der Sabbat (Das Judentum, 1). Institut Kirche und Judentum, Berlin, 1989. 220 pp. Elliot K. Ginsburg, The Sabbath in the Classical Kabbalah (SUNY Series in Judaica: Hermeneutics, Mysticism, and Religion). State University of New York Press, Albany, 1989. xx, 341 pp. $44.50 (hb)/$14.95 (pb). Elliot K. Ginsburg,…...

Originally published in Journal of Jewish Studies 41:2. Alan J. Avery-Peck (ed.), The Literature of Early Rabbinic Judaism: Issues in Talmudic Redaction and Interpretation (New Perspectives on Ancient Judaism, vol. 4). University Press of America, Lanham, New York, London, 1989. xv, 151 pp. $18.50. It is not possible within the limits of a review to deal at…...

Originally published in Journal of Jewish Studies 40:2. Dan Cohn-Sherbok, The Jewish Heritage. Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1988. vii, 204 pp. £25.00 (hb)/£7.95 (pb). William Zuidema (trans. John Bowden), God’s Partner: An Encounter with Judaism. SCM Press, London, 3987. xvi, 239 pp. £8.50. Marc H. Ellis, Toward a Jewish Theology of Liberation. SCM Press, London, 1988. xii, 147…...

Originally published in Journal of Jewish Studies 40:2. Abraham J. Heschel (ed. Samuel H. Dresner), The Circle of the Baal Shem Tov: Studies in Hasidism. University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1985. xiv, 213 pp. £23.75. Heschel examines in rich detail all that is known or claimed to be known about four charismatic figures belonging in…...

Originally published in Journal of Jewish Studies 40:2. Joel Roth, The Halakhic Process: A Systematic Analysis. Jewish Theological Seminary, New York, 1986. 398 pp. $35.00. Simon Greenberg (ed.). The Ordination of Women as Rabbis: Studies and Responsa. Jewish Theological Seminary, New York, 1988. vii, 228 pp. $19.95. B. S. Jackson (ed.), Jewish Law Association Studies, I: The…...

Originally published in Journal of Jewish Studies 40:2. Henry Adler Sosland, A Guide for Preachers on Composing and Delivering Sermons: The Or ha-Darshanim of Jacob Zahalon. A Seventeenth Century Italian Preacher’s Manual. Jewish Theological Seminary of America, New York, 1987. xiv, 194 pp. (English); 54 pp. (Hebrew). $20.00. This book consists of a critical edition, based on…...

Originally published in Journal of Jewish Studies 40:2. Moshe Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives. Yale University Press, New Haven and  London, 1988. xx, 419 pp. £30.00/$49.50. Moshe Idel, Studes in Ecstatic Kabbalah. State University of New York Press, Albany, 1988. xi, 178 pp. $39.95 (hb)/$ 12.95 (pb). Moshe Idel, Language, Torah, and Hermeneutics in Abraham Abulafia (translated from…...

Originally published in Journal of Jewish Studies 40:2. Judith Hauptman, Development of the Talmudic Sugya: Relationship between Tannaitic and Amoraic Sources. University Press of America, Lanham, New York, and London, 1988. 243 pp. $27.50. A puzzling feature of the Babylonian Talmud (with no parallel in the Palestinian Talmud) is the recording of a saying (memra) of an…...

Originally published in Journal of Jewish Studies 39:2. Howard Eilberg-Schwartz, The Human Will in Judaism: The Mishnah’s Philosophy of Intention (Brown Judaic Studies 103). Scholars Press, Atlanta, 1986. xiv, 250 pp. $31.95. Examining the instances in the Mishnah in which human intention has significance in the formulation of the law, the author of this book comes to the conclusion…...

Originally published in Journal of Jewish Studies 39:2. Joseph Dan (ed.), texts translated by Ronald C. Kiener, Preface by Moshe Idel, The Early Kabbalah (The Classics of Western Spirituality). Paulist Press, New York, Mahwah, Toronto, 1986. xiii, 205 pp. $10.95 (pb). Moshe Idel, translated from the Hebrew by Jonathan Chipman, Introduction by Shlomo Pines, The Mystical Experience…...

Originally published in Journal of Jewish Studies 39:2. Samuel S. Cohon, Essays in Jewish Theology. Introduction by Jakob J. Petuchowski. Hebrew Union College Press, Cincinnati / KTAV, Hoboken, 1987. xiv, 366 pp. $29.95. Harold M. Schulweis, Evil and the Morality of God. Foreword by Chaim Potok. Hebrew Union College Press, Cincinnati, 1984. vii, 168 pp. $15.00. Samuel…...

Originally published in Journal of Jewish Studies 39:2. Manfred H. Vogel, A Quest for a Theology of Judaism (Studies in Judaism, University Press of America, Lanham, New York and London, 1987). xxxv, 292 pp. $28.50 (hb)/$15.75 (pb). Professor Vogel has put together his essays on Judaism during the past twenty years to provide a multi-faceted but single…...

Originally published in Journal of Jewish Studies 36:2. Eugene B. Borowitz, Choices in Modern Jewish Thought. Behrman House, New York, 1983, xi, 305 pp. $9.95. Professor Borowitz examines in this book the various responses made by Jewish thinkers to the problem of modernity, i.e., the challenges to Jewish life and faith presented by Western thought and culture…....

Originally published in Journal of Jewish Studies 36:2. Edward Zipperstein, Business Ethics in Jewish Law. Ktav, New York, 1983. xvi, 180 pp. $15.0O/$8.95 (paper). This is primarily a study of how the Halakhah regulates commercial life, with chapters on the nature of ownership; unfair pricing of goods; usury; weights and measures; attitudes towards wealth; obligations of employer…...

Originally published in Journal of Jewish Studies 35:2. Allan Lazaroff, The Theology of Abraham Bibago: A Defense of the Divine Will, Knowledge and Providence in Fifteenth Century Spanish-Jewish Philosophy, University of Alabama Press, Alabama, 1981, xiii, 139 pp. £9.00. Kalman P. Bland, The Epistle on the Possibility of Conjunction with the Active Intellect by Ibn Rushd with…...

Originally published in Journal of Jewish Studies 35:2. Nils G. Holm (ed.), Religious Ecstasy, Almquist and Wiksell, Uppsala, 1982, 306pp. This book is based on Papers read at the Symposium on Religious Ecstasy held at Abo, Finland, on the 26th-28th of August 1981. The subject is treated from various angles: the relationship between mystical experience and the…...