Synopses & Reviews
Thanks to this generous donor for making the publication of this book possible:
Jack B. Dweck.
The history and dramatic rescue of the oldest Hebrew Bible in book form
In Crown of Aleppo, Hayim Tawil and Bernard Schneider tell the incredible story of the survival, against all odds, of the Aleppo Codex—one of the most authoritative and accurate traditional Masoretic texts of the Bible.
Completed circa 939 in Tiberias, the Crown was created by exacting Tiberian scribes who copied the entire Bible into book form, adding annotations, vowel and cantillation marks, and precise commentary. Praised by Torah scholars for centuries after its writing, the Crown passed through history until the 15th century when it was housed in the Great Synagogue of Aleppo, Syria. When the synagogue was burned in the 1947 pogrom, the codex was thought to be destroyed, lost forever.
That is where its great mystery begins. Miraculously, a significant portion of the Crown of Aleppo survived the fire and was smuggled from the synagogue ruins to an unknown location—presumably within the Aleppan Jewish community. Ten years later, the surviving pages of the codex were secretly brought to Israel and finally moved to their current location in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
This wonderfully rich book contains more than 50 rare photographs and maps, some in full color, including those of the Aleppo Codex, the Great Synagogue of Aleppo, and of the people who played a part in its rescue.
Review
“All in all, although the book is small, it contains a wealth of information that people kissing and otherwise extolling the Torah should know.”—Jewish Eye Bill's Faith Matters Weblog
Review
“I once heard Elie Wiesel say: ‘Go try to write Jewish fiction when Jewish reality is always more incredible than anything that you can imagine! I thought of that line when I read this book . . . for if a novelist had made up this story, it would have been dismissed as impossible to believe.”—Rabbi Jack Reimer for the South Florida Jewish Journal Rabbi Jack Reimer
Review
“The story of how the Dead Sea Scrolls were found . . . is well known. But the remarkable tale of the Crown of Aleppo, itself a simply priceless work, is much less known. This book from the Jewish Publication Society should start to fix that.”—Bills Faith Matters Weblog Heritage Florida Jewish News
Review
“Crown of Aleppo amounts to something of a short course in Jewish history in general and Bible scholarship in particular for the non-specialist reader. But it is also a kind of a thriller . . . that is solidly rooted in fact.”—Heritage Florida Jewish News South Florida Jewish Journal
Review
“This new book not only shares a gripping story of survival and preserv Bill's Faith Matters Weblog
Review
“For over three decades David Ellenson has shaped the life of world Jewry through the power of his scholarship, depth of vision, and kindness of soul. His uniqueness is that in his writings he searches not to hide or homogenize complexity but rather to study it, celebrate it, and enable it to challenge our preconceptions. This book is critical for all who want to know not only the foundations and struggles of modern Jewish life but, more important, the future direction it can take.”—Donniel Hartman, president of the Shalom Hartman Institute
Review
“From the gifted pen of Rabbi David Ellenson come lucid essays covering Zionism, religious pluralism, feminism, and equal rights that illuminate not only a lifetime of scholarship and activism but also the complex bonds that link Jews in the United States with their forebears in Europe and contemporaries in Israel. Each essay sparkles like a gem, with compelling grace and power.”—Deborah Dash Moore, Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, University of Michigan
Review
“Rabbi Green has been the foremost scholar of Hasidism in the world and one of the great leaders of spiritual renewal in Jewish life for more than four decades. In The Heart of the Matter he displays the brilliance and dazzling breadth of his scholarship and lays bare the depths of his heart and soul as they have animated him throughout his lifetime. Both his exceptional knowledge and his fiery passions as revealed in these essays provide great scholarly and personal insights for the reader. This is a book to savor!”—Rabbi David Ellenson, chancellor of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
Review
“Arthur Green combines a passion for deep and rigorous scholarship with an unflagging commitment to serving the Jewish people. This volume is a fitting tribute to a remarkable man and an extraordinary career.”—Rabbi Shai Held, co-founder, dean, and Chair in Jewish Thought at Mechon Hadar
Review
“Arthur Green never loses sight of the essence, the heart that beats within. . . . This work is a river of living waters connecting heart, mind, and spirit, flowing through past, present, and future.”—Melila Hellner-Eshed, professor of Jewish mysticism at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and senior fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute
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"This volume is an excellent addition to academic Judaica collections."—Barbara M. Bibel, Jewish Book Council
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"Scholars and students of Jewish religious thought, ethics, and modern Jewish history will welcome this erudite collection by one of today's great Jewish leaders."—Jewish Media Review
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"This is an excellent collection of articles that any reader interested in the work of David Ellenson and the focus of his scholarship will surely appreciate."—David Tesler, Association of Jewish Libraries
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"A welcome addition to public and college library Judaic Studies shelves."—Midwest Book Review
Synopsis
The dramatic story of the oldest Hebrew Bible in book form
The Crown of Aleppo, also known as the Aleppo Codex, is one of the most perfect examples of the traditional Masoretic text of the Bible. Completed circa 930 C.E. in Tiberias by prominent scribes who wrote the lettering and added vowel and cantillation marks, the codex then passed through history until it came to rest at the Great Synagogue of Aleppo, Syria. When the synagogue was burned in a pogrom, the codex was thought to be lost. That is where its great mystery begins. How it survived by being smuggled from the synagogue to the homes of Jewish dignitaries in Syria, and finally to its current location in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, is the story of this book.
Contains maps and photographs of the Aleppo Codex, the Great Synagogue of Aleppo, and key dignitaries associated with the rescue of the codex and its relocation to Israel. These images appear together for the first time in this volume.
Synopsis
Internationally recognized scholar David Ellenson shares twenty-three of his most representative essays, drawing on three decades of scholarship and demonstrating the consistency of the intellectual-religious interests that have animated him throughout his lifetime.
These essays center on a description and examination of the complex push and pull between Jewish tradition and Western culture. Ellenson addresses gender equality, womens rights, conversion, issues relating to who is a Jew, the future of the rabbinate, Jewish day schools, and other emerging trends in American Jewish life. As an outspoken advocate for a strong Israel that is faithful to the democratic and Jewish values that informed its founders, he also writes about religious tolerance and pluralism in the Jewish state.
The former president of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the primary seminary of the Reform movement, Ellenson is widely respected for his vision of advancing Jewish unity and of preparing leadership for a contemporary Judaism that balances tradition with the demands of a changing world.
Scholars and students of Jewish religious thought, ethics, and modern Jewish history will welcome this erudite collection by one of todays great Jewish leaders.
Synopsis
Judaism, like all the great religions, has a strand within it that sees inward devotion, the opening of the human heart to Gods presence, to be the purpose of its entire edifice of praxis, liturgy, and way of life. This voice is not always easy to hear in a tradition where so much attention is devoted to the
how rather than the
why of religious living. The devotional claim, certainly a key part of Judaisms biblical heritage, has reasserted itself in the teachings of individual mystics and in the emergence of religious movements over the long course of Jewish history. This volume represents Arthur Greens own quest for such a Judaism—as a rabbi, as a scholar, and as a contemporary seeker.
This collection of essays brings together Greens scholarly writings, centered on the history of early Hasidism, and his highly personal approach to a rebirth of Jewish spirituality in our own day. In choosing to present them in this way he asserts a claim that they are all of a piece. They represent one mans attempt to wade through history and text, language and symbol, and an array of voices both past and present while always focusing on the essential questions: “What does it mean to be a religious human being, and what does Judaism teach us about how to be one?” This, the author considers to be the heart of the matter.
About the Author
Arthur Green is Irving Brudnick Professor of Jewish Philosophy and Religion and rector of the Rabbinical School at Hebrew College. Recognized as one of the worlds preeminent authorities on Jewish thought and spirituality, he is also a prolific author. His most recent books are Radical Judaism; Speaking Torah: Spiritual Teachings from around the Maggids Table; and Judaisms Ten Best Ideas: A Brief Guide for Seekers.