Encyclopaedia of Judaism
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Subject: Jewish Studies
General Editors: Jacob Neusner, Alan J. Avery-Peck and William Scott Green
The Encyclopaedia of Judaism Online offers more than 200 entries comprising more than 1,000,000 words and is a unique reference tool. The Encyclopaedia of Judaism Online offers an authoritative, comprehensive, and systematic presentation of the current state of scholarship on fundamental issues of Judaism, both past and present. While heavy emphasis is placed on the classical literature of Judaism and its history, the Encyclopaedia of Judaism Online also includes principal entries on circumcision, genetic engineering, homosexuality, intermarriage in American Judaism, and other acutely contemporary issues. Comprehensive and up-to-date, it reflects the highest standards in scholarship. Covering a tradition of nearly four thousand years, some of the most distinguished scholars in the field describe the way of life, history, art, theology, philosophy, and the practices and beliefs of the Jewish people.
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The Encyclopaedia of Judaism Online offers more than 200 entries comprising more than 1,000,000 words and is a unique reference tool. The Encyclopaedia of Judaism Online offers an authoritative, comprehensive, and systematic presentation of the current state of scholarship on fundamental issues of Judaism, both past and present. While heavy emphasis is placed on the classical literature of Judaism and its history, the Encyclopaedia of Judaism Online also includes principal entries on circumcision, genetic engineering, homosexuality, intermarriage in American Judaism, and other acutely contemporary issues. Comprehensive and up-to-date, it reflects the highest standards in scholarship. Covering a tradition of nearly four thousand years, some of the most distinguished scholars in the field describe the way of life, history, art, theology, philosophy, and the practices and beliefs of the Jewish people.
Subscriptions: see brill.com
Codification of Jewish Law—Medieval
(9,209 words)
The sources of Jewish law are scattered widely. Ancient Jewish texts were not organized so as to discuss all the laws pertinent to a subject in single entries; rather, the laws are enumerated by the needs of larger discussions of legal principles. Thus the Talmud could discuss six legal topics in regards to one principle on one page and another ten in regards to another principle on another page. The subject matter of one topic might be continued hundreds of pages later in another discussion. Co…
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Encyclopaedia of Judaism
Codification of Jewish Law—Modern
(5,738 words)
In the nineteenth century, even as Jews were granted citizenship in European countries, political antisemitism increased, and, through programs of religious repression and secularization, many governments embarked on programs to sever Jews from their traditions and to assimilate them into general society. The Rabbinic leadership in Eastern Europe sensed that the mind-set that had sworn loyalty to the
Mishneh Torah, the
Tur, and the
Shulhan Arukh was on the verge of disappearing. Poverty and hardship cut deeply into Jewish societies that,…
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Encyclopaedia of Judaism
Consensus in Rabbinic Theology (Aggadah) and the “Another Matter”-Composite
(6,847 words)
Rabbinic Judaism accommodates diverse theological opinion in composites that follow a particular form. They are comprised by successive readings of a verse of Scripture in common, joined by the formula “davar aher,” meaning, “another matter.” But these turn out to state the same matter in other terms. These varied opinions are represented as alternate proposals but in fact yield a common denominator that holds the whole together. The consensus then is expressed as complementary opinions register. What is at stake is the accommodation of equally valid, coherent, mutually…
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Encyclopaedia of Judaism
Conservative Judaism
(11,718 words)
With roots in the German Judaic response to the development of Reform, then Orthodox Judaism , on the one side, and the immigrant response to the conditions of American life in the twentieth century, on the other, Conservative Judaism seeks a centrist position on the issues of tradition and change. The Historical School, a group of a nineteenth century German scholars, and Conservative Judaism, a twentieth century Judaism in America, took the middle position, each in its own…
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Encyclopaedia of Judaism
Conversion in Judaism
(10,121 words)
The possibility and desirability of non-Jews' converting to Judaism has always been a complex issue. This is because, encompassing an ethnic as well as religious component, the very nature of Jewish identity has been hard to conceptualize. From the first century c.e. forward, on the one hand, all children of Jewish mothers have been deemed Jews, whether or not they undergo any ritual of entry into the community, accept any theological doctrine, or perform any of the religious and cultural practices Jews view as commanded by God. In thi…
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Encyclopaedia of Judaism
Conversos
(9,373 words)
The term “conversos”—“converts” in Spanish—refers generally to those Sephardic Jews who accepted baptism, whether voluntarily or under duress, mostly from the great persecutions of 1391, and into the fifteenth century. There were, however, numerous other conversions, whether volitional or otherwise, individual or
en masse, from at least the seventh century c.e., under the Visigothic monarchies, through the expulsion from Spain in 1492, and from Portugal in 1497, and even into succeeding centuries in Iberia and the Iberian world. A parallel expr…
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Encyclopaedia of Judaism
Conversos in Medieval Spain
(9,906 words)
The phenomenon of mass Jewish conversion under threat of death or expulsion originated with the policy of persecution of the Jews in the Iberian peninsula, which began as far back as the end of the Roman times, continuing under the Catholic Visigoth kings, the fanatical Muslim rule, and, then, once more, under the rule of Catholicism. In the
Carta-enciclica , Bishop Severus relates of the conversion of the Jews of Mahon in Minorca, which probably occurred in 417 or 418: first came persecution; this was followed by the burning of the synagogue; and finally the Jews were baptized
en masse. We c…
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Encyclopaedia of Judaism
Cosmology, Judaic Theories of
(6,733 words)
“Theories of the cosmos” present general pictures of what the universe (meaning, everything that exists) looks like. Such theories form a critical part of every primary text of Jewish theology, from the Hebrew Scriptures through the historical development of Jewish philosophy and mysticism well into the twentieth century. This is because Jewish communal and individual religious life have always been conceived in terms of obligations or duties incumbent upon Jews in consequence of the people of I…
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Encyclopaedia of Judaism
Covenant
(11,174 words)
The term covenant signifies a formal agreement between two parties, in which “one or both make promises under oath to perform or refrain from certain actions stipulated in advance.” 1 In the religion Judaism, the term covenant refers in particular to the agreement God made with the people of Israel at Sinai. This agreement calls for the Jews to follow God's law, embodied in Torah. In return God promises to make of the Israelites a great nation dwelling in peace in the Promised Land. Described at Exod. 19–20 and elaborated i…
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Encyclopaedia of Judaism
Creeds
(11,537 words)
Formal statements of fundamental belief, or articles of faith, do not exist in Judaism in the same way in which they exist in Christianity and Islam. While, especially beginning in the medieval period, Jewish philosophers made many attempts to reduce the content of Judaism to a short statement of dogma, such creeds lacked the backing of a supreme ecclesiastical body, which does not exist in Judaism. Thus, while certain of these statements have been incorporated into the Jewish liturgy and functi…
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Encyclopaedia of Judaism