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UNDERSTANDING JEWS TODAY JULIO TREBOLLE BARRERA 172 págs. ISBN: 84-8005-084-5 Precio (con IVA): 9,00 € REF. 110057

What does it mean to be a Jew? What is Judaism? How similar is modern Judaism to the Judaism of the Bible? What does the expression “Modern Judaism” actually mean? What are the characteristics of the various movements within Judaism today: Hasidism, the haskalah or Jewish enlightenment, reformed, orthodox and conservative Judaism, the reconstructionist movement, Zionism, the Judaism of the Holocaust, etc...? In this book, the author provides a broad outline of the historical development of Judaism from its origins up to the present, while attempting to understand the basic tensions that shape its structure in its various movements today. Julio Trebolle Barrera, who has a doctorate in Semitic Philology, is currently a professor in the Department of Hebrew and Aramaic Studies in the Complutense University of Madrid . His published books include The Jewish Bible and the Christian Bible (Leiden 1998); The People of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Leiden 1995); Paganos, judíos y cristianos en los textos de Qumrán (Madrid 1999): Libro de los salmos. Himnos y Lamentaciones (Madrid 2001); Libro de los Salmos. Religión, poder y saber (Madrid 2001).

Contents

Introduction

1 Jewish identity.

1.1 How many people profess to be Jews?

1.2 Who is a Jew? Jewish identity: between ethnic and religious.

1.3 What is Judaism? One form of Judaism or several?

2 The history of Judaism up the present day.

2.1 Ancient Israel , from its origins to the Babylonian Exile and the Restoration (13th-15th centuries BCE).

2.2 Judaism of the " Second Temple " in the Persian and Hellenistic periods (from Ezra to the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE).

2.3 The classical Judaism of the Mishnah and the Talmud (2nd - 6th centuries CE).

2.4 Mediaeval Judaism and the worlds of Islam and Christianity.

3 Modern Judaism.

3.1 Jewish pietism: Hasidism.

3.2 The haskalah or Jewish Enlightenment.

3.3. Reformed Judaism.

3.4 Orthodox Judaism.

3.5 Conservative Judaism.

3.6 The Reconstructionist movement.

3.7 Secular and religious Zionism.

3.8 The Judaism of the Holocaust and Redemption.

3.9 The State of Israel : Religion and State, religious significance of the State.

3.10 Modern Jewish thought.

4 Structural Tensions within Judaism.

4.1 The fundamental paradigm: Exile-Redemption.

4.2 The real and the utopian, law and prophecy, in tension: the "Messianic Halakhah" or the "law of the Messiah".

4.3 The diaspora and the State of Israel: between political dependence and independence.

4.4 Universalism and particularism; ethnicity and nationalism.

4.5 Public and private Judaism; the Judaism of the community and of the individual.