Esther Unmasked

Esther Unmasked PDF

Author: Mitchell First

Publisher:

Published: 2019-03-17

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 9780997820560

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Mitchell First is a very talented Jewish scholar. He is able to challenge traditional assumptions and reach new, often groundbreaking, conclusions. His articles are meticulously researched, relying both on rabbinic sources and historians of antiquity. A main article explains how both Achashverosh and Esther can be identified in ancient sources.The entire volume consists of eleven articles that address mysterious aspects of the yearly cycle of Jewish holidays and liturgy: what is the meaning of the cryptic phrase in the Sukkot liturgy Ani ve-Ho? what motivated Antiochus to persecute the Jews? what is the origin of Taanit Esther? how many questions were there in the original Mah Nishtannah? why does peprecede ayin in the acrostics of the book of Eikhah?, and more.

Ancient Persia and the Book of Esther

Ancient Persia and the Book of Esther PDF

Author: Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2023-03-09

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 1786726297

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Esther is the most visual book of the Hebrew Bible and largely crafted in the Fourth Century BCE by an author who was clearly au fait with the rarefied world of the Achaemenid court. It therefore provides an unusual melange of information which can enlighten scholars of Ancient Iranian Studies whilst offering Biblical scholars access into the Persian world from which the text emerged. In this book, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones unlocks the text of Esther by reading it against the rich iconographic world of ancient Persia and of the Near East. Ancient Persia and the Book of Esther is a cultural and iconographic exploration of an important, but often undervalued, biblical book, and Llewellyn-Jones presents the book of Esther as a rich source for the study of life and thought in the Persian Empire. The author reveals answers to important questions, such as the role of the King's courtiers in influencing policy, the way concubines at court were recruited, the structure of the harem in shifting the power of royal women, the function of feasting and drinking in the articulation of courtly power, and the meaning of gift-giving and patronage at the Achaemenid court.

Power of the Weak

Power of the Weak PDF

Author: Jennifer Carpenter

Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 9780252065040

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Covering the eleventh through sixteenth centuries, these essays suggest that influence and power may have paradoxically been available to women despite, and sometimes precisely because of, their subordinate position in society. Striking for its range of scholarship, this collection explores the power and independence, relationships and influence of medieval queens, holy women, mothers, widows, Jewish conversas, and others. Latin and Anglo-Norman hagiography, confessors' manuals, coronation rituals, responsa literature, and legal theory are represented. "An intriguing exploration of a basic paradox of medieval society, and an excellent blend of theory and gender studies with detailed work relevant for social and political history." -- Joel Rosenthal, author of Patriarchy and Families of Privilege in Fifteenth-Century England JENNIFER CARPENTER is a lecturer in history at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.

Exodus

Exodus PDF

Author: Leon Uris

Publisher: Estate of Leon Uris

Published: 2024-05-02

Total Pages: 843

ISBN-13: 1475606095

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This #1 New York Times international bestseller tells the epic history of Israel's birth through the eyes of two generations of Jews as they fight to reclaim their homeland. Leon Uris tactfully meshes together the story of two 19th century Jewish brothers who seek refuge in Palestine with the 20th century story of how Israel gained its independence after World War II. Rich in historical accuracy and compelling characters, this literary classic sheds light on the long history of the Jewish diaspora, their struggles for liberation, and the costs of war. One of Uris’s best works, Exodus is just as relevant today as it was when it was first published in 1958. The 1960 film adaptation starring Paul Newman was nominated for three Academy Awards. “Exodus is an international publishing phenomenon--the towering novel of the twentieth century's most dramatic geopolitical event. Leon Uris magnificently portrays the birth of a new nation in the midst of enemies--the beginning of an earthshaking struggle for power. Here is the tale that swept the world with its fury: the story of an American nurse, an Israeli freedom fighter caught up in a glorious, heartbreaking, triumphant era. Here is Exodus --one of the great best-selling novels of all time.”—From the Publisher "Passionate summary of the inhuman treatment of the Jewish people in Europe, of the exodus in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to Palestine, and of the triumphant founding of the new Israel."—The New York Times

Satan Unmasked

Satan Unmasked PDF

Author: Esther Austern

Publisher: CreateSpace

Published: 2015-04-12

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 9781507620601

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

After surviving the holocaust, Esther leaves post WWII Europe to begin her new life in the USA

Paper Trail

Paper Trail PDF

Author: Richard Howard

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 454

ISBN-13: 0374258856

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Here, for the first time, is a wide-ranging selection of Howard's finest essays, including some never before published in book form, on a splendid array of subjects--from American poets and French artists to modern sculpture and the photography of the human body.

Reading Revolutionary Iran

Reading Revolutionary Iran PDF

Author: Ze'ev Maghen

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2023-03-06

Total Pages: 1047

ISBN-13: 3111026221

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The burden of this book is twofold. The first half is charged with identifying and critiquing the many prejudices and misconceptions that inform popular – and even scholarly – perceptions of Islam and Iran, those rooted in neo-conservative hostility no less than those arising out of pro-regime apologetics or (what we will argue are) misleading "post-modern" methodologies. This is a key component of our overall investigation, both because the illusions occluding our view of the Islamic Republic are (we assert) piled so high and deep, and because setting the record straight on many a contentious issue is the most appropriate context for elucidating the positive positions of the revolutionary clerics. These last represent, perhaps more than anything else, the premier critics of Western civilization in our day, and their ideologies may therefore be best comprehended when placed in dialogue with, and in polemic against, the worldviews of that civilization (which in their own turn are often most profoundly understood when offset by their present-day Islamist nemeses). As noted above, it is not all contention: unexpected meeting points and congruities emerge, as well, when the activist Shi'ite clerics are placed in the same virtual room with their occidental counterweights. The second half of the book deploys a large number of rarely tapped primary sources, both ancient and contemporary, in order to tease out the attitudes of the class of Muslim scholars recently and currently at the helm of the Iranian state in a variety of significant fields, including the role of religion in society, the relationship between democracy and theocracy, the modern Western Weltanschauung, the Sunni-Shi'i schism, and much more. Though the author parses, and provides background and context for, the myriad citations from these influential Muslim thinkers, the ultimate objective is to allow them to speak for themselves.

Sin•a•gogue

Sin•a•gogue PDF

Author: David Bashevkin

Publisher: Academic Studies PRess

Published: 2019-08-21

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 1644690896

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

"A manual for living with defeat" —Tablet It is no more possible to think about religion without sin than it is to think about a garden without dirt. By its very nature, the ideals of religion entail sin and failure. Judaism has its own language and framework for sin that expresses themselves both legally and philosophically. Both legal questions—circumstances where sin is permissible or mandated, the role of intention and action—as well as philosophical questions—why sin occurs and how does Judaism react to religious crisis—are considered within this volume. This book will present the concepts of sin and failure in Jewish thought, weaving together biblical and rabbinic studies to reveal a holistic portrait of the notion of sin and failure within Jewish thought. The suffix "agogue" means to lead or grow. Here as well, Sin•a•gogue: Sin and Failure in Jewish Thought will provide its readers frameworks and strategies to develop even in the face of failure.

Anthropomorphic Imagery in the Mesoamerican Highlands

Anthropomorphic Imagery in the Mesoamerican Highlands PDF

Author: Brigitte Faugère

Publisher: University Press of Colorado

Published: 2020-02-15

Total Pages: 419

ISBN-13: 1607329956

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

In Anthropomorphic Imagery in the Mesoamerican Highlands, Latin American, North American, and European researchers explore the meanings and functions of two- and three-dimensional human representations in the Precolumbian communities of the Mexican highlands. Reading these anthropomorphic representations from an ontological perspective, the contributors demonstrate the rich potential of anthropomorphic imagery to elucidate personhood, conceptions of the body, and the relationship of human beings to other entities, nature, and the cosmos. Using case studies covering a broad span of highlands prehistory—Classic Teotihuacan divine iconography, ceramic figures in Late Formative West Mexico, Epiclassic Puebla-Tlaxcala costumed figurines, earth sculptures in Prehispanic Oaxaca, Early Postclassic Tula symbolic burials, Late Postclassic representations of Aztec Kings, and more—contributors examine both Mesoamerican representations of the body in changing social, political, and economic conditions and the multivalent emic meanings of these representations. They explore the technology of artifact production, the body’s place in social structures and rituals, the language of the body as expressed in postures and gestures, hybrid and transformative combinations of human and animal bodies, bodily representations of social categories, body modification, and the significance of portable and fixed representations. Anthropomorphic Imagery in the Mesoamerican Highlands provides a wide range of insights into Mesoamerican concepts of personhood and identity, the constitution of the human body, and human relationships with gods and ancestors. It will be of great value to students and scholars of the archaeology and art history of Mexico. Contributors: Claire Billard, Danièle Dehouve, Cynthia Kristan-Graham, Melissa Logan, Sylvie Peperstraete, Patricia Plunket, Mari Carmen Serra Puche, Juliette Testard, Andrew Turner, Gabriela Uruñuela, Marcus Winter