olam he-zeh v'olam ha-ba : This World and the World to Come in Jewish Belief and Practice / / edited by Leonard Greenspoon.

• TeilnehmendeR: Greenspoon, Leonard J.
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Studies in Jewish civilization.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource

"Dining on Leviathan. Discoursing with Socrates. Debating the nature of existence in the afterlife. These are among the topics authors address in this wide-ranging account of how Jews have conceptualized the world to come and structured their lives in this world accordingly. The chronological range of these chapters also is impressive. The earliest documents discussed are from Apocryphal literature, including apocalypses, that were composed from 400 BCE to 200 CE. There are creative analyses of rabbinic material and documents from the medieval period through the twentieth century. Evolving ritual and liturgical practices bring readers up to the early twenty-first century. Each of the thirteen authors whose works are brought together in this volume shows historical, cultural, and religious sensitivity both to the unique features of these differing manifestations and to the elements that unite them. For the readers of this volume, which is equally rewarding for general audiences and for specialists, the result is a carefully nuanced, creatively balanced exploration of the breadth of Jewish thought and practice concerning some of the most profound and perplexing issues humans face"-- Provided by publisher.

Table of Contents

Cover -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Table of Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Editor's Introduction -- Contributors -- "The End of the World and the World to Come": What Apocalyptic Literature Says about the Time After the End-Time -- Warriors, Wives, and Wisdom: This World and the World to Come in the (So-Called) Apocrypha -- The Afterlife in the Septuagint -- Rabbi Akiva, Other Martyrs, and Socrates: On Life, Death, and Life After Life -- Heaven on Earth: The World to Come and Its (Dis)locations -- Olam Ha-ba in Rabbinic Literature: A Functional Reading -- Dining In(to) the World to Come -- What's for Dinner in Olam Ha-ba? Why Do We Care in Olam Ha-zeh?: Medieval Jewish Ideas about Meals in the World to Come in R. Bahya ben Asher's Shulhan Shel Arba -- The Dybbuk: The Origins and History of a Concept -- Tasting Heaven: Wine and the World to Come from the Talmud to Safed -- Worlds to Come Between East and West: Immortality and the Rise of Modern Jewish Thought -- Emmanuel Levinas's Messianism and the World to Come: A Gnostic-Philosophical Reading of Tractate Sanhedrin 96b-99a.