Beth Kissileff – författare

Deuteronomy 32:47 says the Pentateuch should not be ''an empty matter.'' This new anthology from Beth Kissileff fills Genesis with meaning, gathering intellectuals and thinkers who use their professional knowledge to illuminate the Biblical text. These writers use insights from psychology, law, political science, literature, and other scholarly fields, to create an original constellation of modern Biblical readings, and receptions of Genesis: A scientist of appetite on Eve''s eating behavior; law professors on contracts in Genesis, and on collective punishment; an anthropologist on the nature of human strife in the Cain and Abel story; political scientists on the nature of Biblical games, Abraham''s resistance, and collective action. The highly distinguished contributors include Alan Dershowitz and Ruth Westheimer, the novelists Rebecca Newberger Goldstein and Dara Horn, critics Ilan Stavans and Sander Gilman, historian Russell Jacoby, poets Alicia Suskin Ostriker and Jacqueline Osherow, and food writer Joan Nathan.

Deuteronomy 32:47 says the Pentateuch should not be 'an empty matter.' This new anthology from Beth Kissileff fills Genesis with meaning, gathering intellectuals and thinkers who use their professional knowledge to illuminate the Biblical text. These writers use insights from psychology, law, political science, literature, and other scholarly fields, to create an original constellation of modern Biblical readings, and receptions of Genesis: A scientist of appetite on Eve's eating behavior; law professors on contracts in Genesis, and on collective punishment; an anthropologist on the nature of human strife in the Cain and Abel story; political scientists on the nature of Biblical games, Abraham's resistance, and collective action. The highly distinguished contributors include Alan Dershowitz and Ruth Westheimer, the novelists Rebecca Newberger Goldstein and Dara Horn, critics Ilan Stavans and Sander Gilman, historian Russell Jacoby, poets Alicia Suskin Ostriker and Jacqueline Osherow, and food writer Joan Nathan.

Deuteronomy 32:47 says the Pentateuch should not be 'an empty matter.' This new anthology from Beth Kissileff fills Genesis with meaning, gathering intellectuals and thinkers who use their professional knowledge to illuminate the Biblical text. These writers use insights from psychology, law, political science, literature, and other scholarly fields, to create an original constellation of modern Biblical readings, and receptions of Genesis: A scientist of appetite on Eve's eating behavior; law professors on contracts in Genesis, and on collective punishment; an anthropologist on the nature of human strife in the Cain and Abel story; political scientists on the nature of Biblical games, Abraham's resistance, and collective action. The highly distinguished contributors include Alan Dershowitz and Ruth Westheimer, the novelists Rebecca Newberger Goldstein and Dara Horn, critics Ilan Stavans and Sander Gilman, historian Russell Jacoby, poets Alicia Suskin Ostriker and Jacqueline Osherow, and food writer Joan Nathan.

In Reading Exodus Beth Kissileff draws together academics, experts and practitioners from different and varied fields to examine the text of Exodus through a series of new lenses. A singer/songwriter comments on the Song at the Sea in Exodus 15, an architect on the process of building a tabernacle, a video game specialist and designer on rules. Readers will enjoy Oliver Sacks on the Sabbath, political scientist Michael Walzer on how Exodus contributed to revolutionary thought and David Brion Davis on how American slaves viewed the Exodus. The chapters cover the diversity of Exodus, offering specialist views from outside biblical studies on topics such as midwives, iconography, the immigrant experience. Here, alongside work from biblical scholars is writing by anthropologists, computer scientists, poets, lawyers, novelists and artists. Each writer offers a different prism through which to see a core aspect of this ancient text, displaying the wide variety of possibilities that the biblical text can yield in diverse hands. As with Kissileff’s previous collection Reading Genesis (“an anthology that breathes the sense of Genesis being a text that matters and speaks to the human condition at a fundamental level” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament) the purpose of this volume is to draw meaning out of the text, to encourage participants to focus on questioning, on learning, and on intellectual engagement with the biblical story.

In Reading Exodus Beth Kissileff draws together academics, experts and practitioners from different and varied fields to examine the text of Exodus through a series of new lenses. A singer/songwriter comments on the Song at the Sea in Exodus 15, an architect on the process of building a tabernacle, a video game specialist and designer on rules. Readers will enjoy Oliver Sacks on the Sabbath, political scientist Michael Walzer on how Exodus contributed to revolutionary thought and David Brion Davis on how American slaves viewed the Exodus. The chapters cover the diversity of Exodus, offering specialist views from outside biblical studies on topics such as midwives, iconography, the immigrant experience. Here, alongside work from biblical scholars is writing by anthropologists, computer scientists, poets, lawyers, novelists and artists. Each writer offers a different prism through which to see a core aspect of this ancient text, displaying the wide variety of possibilities that the biblical text can yield in diverse hands. As with Kissileff’s previous collection Reading Genesis (“an anthology that breathes the sense of Genesis being a text that matters and speaks to the human condition at a fundamental level” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament) the purpose of this volume is to draw meaning out of the text, to encourage participants to focus on questioning, on learning, and on intellectual engagement with the biblical story.

On October 27, 2018, three congregations were holding their morning Shabbat services at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood when a lone gunman entered the building and opened fire. He killed eleven people and injured six more in the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in American history. The story made international headlines for weeks following the shooting, but Pittsburgh and the local Jewish community could not simply move on when the news cycle did.The essays in this anthology, written by local journalists, academics, spiritual leaders, and other community members, reveal a city’s attempts to come to terms with an unfathomable horror. Here, members from each of the three impacted congregations are able to reflect on their experiences in a raw, profound way. Local journalists who covered the story as it unfolded explore the personal and public aspects of reporting the news. Activists consider their work at a calm distance from the chaotic intensity of their daily efforts. Academics mesh their professional expertise with their personal experiences of this shattering event in their hometown. A local rabbi shares his process for crafting messages of comfort even as he attempts to reckon with his own feelings.Bringing these local voices together into a chorus raises them over the din of international chroniclers who offer important contributions but cannot feel the intensity of this tragedy in the same way as Pittsburghers. The essays in this anthology tell a collective story of city shaken to its very core, but determined that love will ultimately win.A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this book will go to Jewish Family and Community Service of Pittsburgh (https://www.jfcspgh.org/), which serves individuals and families of all faiths throughout the Greater Pittsburgh community.

Student Wendy Goldberg spends a year in Jerusalem questioning the lives of American Jews who “return” both to Israel itself and to traditional religious practices. Are they sincere? Are they happier? The unexpected answers and her experiences (a bus bombing, a funeral, an unexpected suicide, a love affair, a law suit),lead her to reconsider her own true identity.