Shalem Press – serie

A theologian, philosopher, communal rabbi, and teacher, Eliezer Berkovits was one of the 20th century?s most significant and outstanding Jewish thinkers. His writings lay out a systematic approach to the modern world that retains full respect for Jewish tradition and law. His perspective on texts, tradition, and Jewish philosophy serves as a meaningful and accessible guide for a revival of Jewish thought in our time; his ideas offer a roadmap for uniting the Jewish people, in Israel and around the world.

God, Man and History represents the first volume in a series of reissues of the works of Eliezer Berkovits, published by Shalem Press under the aegis of the Eliezer Berkovits Institute of Jewish Thought at the Shalem Center. Of all of Berkovits' work, God, Man and History may be regarded as the keystone. It examines the underpinnings of Judaism as a whole, from theology to law to the meaning of Jewish nationhood. In writing God, Man and History, Berkovits undertook not merely a meditation on, nor an exploration of, a specific facet of the Jewish religion.

In this book Wildavsky takes Moses, and the reader, through a sequence of political experiences: Through the biblical text, we experience unrestricted monarchy (in Egypt), anarchy (in the wilderness prior to the giving of the law), and an egalitarian republic-in which Moses is little more than the first among equals. At each step, there are evident reasons that Moses, as political leader, cannot continue under the burden of the precedeeding regime, so that we are led to the conclusion that he has no choice but to adopt the, hierarchical arrangement of the rule of Moses as balanced by the assembly of elders-or a limited monarchy.

Summary in form and popular in presentation, this book provides a masterly exposition of the Documentary Hypothesis and subjects its exegetical methods and conclusions to a critical probe. Cassuto challenges the widely held theory that the Pentateuch is an amalgam of fragments excised from various source documents of different authorship, date, style and outlook.

The first translation from the original Latin of this monumental study of ancient Jewish society.

The first translation from the original Latin of this monumental study of ancient Jewish society.

A selection of articles addressing those fundamental questions that define the agenda for the Jewish state in the 21st century. Among the authors one can find key figures in the Israeli public dialogue, such as Ruth Gavison, Yoram Hazony, Michael Oren, Amnom Rubinstein, and Natan Sharansky.