olam he-zeh v'olam ha-ba

Description

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. Some authorities portrayed the afterlife as an endless round of feasting and drinking of chazerie that would put the fanciest Las Vegas buffets to shame. There were visionaries who mapped out otherworldly climes populated by monstrous creatures. Others, decidedly more staid, saw the world to come as a location where neither food nor wine would be consumed; instead, it would offer the opportunity to bring moral certitude to questionable practices that could not be eradicated in this world. More down to earth are comparisons between Rabbi Akiva and Socrates, and analyses of influential thinkers like Moses Mendelssohn and Emmanuel Levinas. And more practical are discussions of how concepts of the afterlife serve to determine mourning practices, or more broadly, how humans should fashion their lives in the here and now. 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.
Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Editor’s Introduction

Contributorsx
s“The End of the World and the World to Come”: What Apocalyptic Literature Says about the Time After the End-Time, by Dereck Daschke

Warriors, Wives, and Wisdom: This World and

the World to Come in the (So-Called) Apocrypha, by Nicolae Roddy

The Afterlife in the Septuagint, by Leonard Greenspoon

Rabbi Akiva, Other Martyrs, and Socrates: On Life, Death, and Life After Life, by Naftali Rothenberg

Heaven on Earth: The World to Come and Its (Dis)locations, by Christine Hayes

Olam Ha-ba in Rabbinic Literature: A Functional Reading, by Dov Weiss

Dining In(to) the World to Come, by Jordan D. Rosenblum

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, by Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus

The Dybbuk: The Origins and History of a Concept, by Morris M. Faierstein

Tasting Heaven: Wine and the World to Come from the Talmud to Safed, by Vadim Putzu

Worlds to Come Between East and West: Immortality and the Rise of Modern Jewish Thought, by Elias Sacks

Emmanuel Levinas’s Messianism and the World to Come: A Gnostic-Philosophical Reading of Tractate Sanhedrin 96b–99b, by Federico Dal Bo

Sujets

• Jewish Studies
• Social Science

Informations

• Publié par: Purdue University Press
• Date de parution: 15 septembre 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781612495149
• Langue: English

Extrait

olam ha-zeh v’olam ha-ba: This World and the World to Come in Jewish Belief and Practice
Studies in Jewish Civilization Volume 28
Proceedings of the Twenty-Eighth Annual Symposium of the Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization, the Harris Center for Judaic Studies, and the Schwalb Center for Israel and Jewish Studies
October 25–26, 2015
Other volumes in the Studies in Jewish Civilization Series Distributed by the Purdue University Press
2010 – Rites of Passage: How Today’s Jews Celebrate, Commemorate, and Commiserate
2011 – Jews and Humor
2012 – Jews in the Gym: Judaism, Sports, and Athletics
2013 – Fashioning Jews: Clothing, Culture, and Commerce
2014 – Who Is a Jew? Reflections on History, Religion, and Culture
2015 – Wealth and Poverty in Jewish Tradition
2016 – Mishpachah: The Jewish Family in Tradition and in Transition
olam ha-zeh v’olam ha-ba: This World and the World to Come in Jewish Belief and Practice
Studies in Jewish Civilization Volume 28
Editor: Leonard J. Greenspoon
The Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization
Purdue University Press West Lafayette, Indiana
Copyright © 2017 by Creighton University
Published by Purdue University Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Greenspoon, Leonard J. (Leonard Jay), editor.
Title: olam ha-zeh v’olam ha-ba : this world and the world to come in Jewish belief and practice / edited by Leonard Greenspoon.
Description: West Lafayette, Indiana : Purdue University Press, [2017] | Series: Studies in Jewish Civilization | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017031449 | ISBN 9781557537928 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781612495132 (epdf) | ISBN 9781612495149 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Future life—Judaism—History of doctrines. | Eschatology, Jewish—History of doctrines. | Immortality—Judaism—History of doctrines. | Resurrection (Jewish theology)—History of doctrines.
Classification: LCC BM635 .O43 2017 | DDC 296.3/3—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017031449
No part of Studies in Jewish Civilization (ISSN 1070-8510) volume 28 may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
In Memory of Moshe Gershovitz
With deep affection and warm memories, we dedicate this volume to our colleague Moshe Gershovitz, who directed the Schwalb Center at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. His death earlier this year saddened us all. May his life inspire us to be and to do the very best we can.
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 Dereck Daschke
Warriors, Wives, and Wisdom: This World and the World to Come in the (So-Called) Apocrypha Nicolae Roddy
The Afterlife in the Septuagint Leonard Greenspoon
Rabbi Akiva, Other Martyrs, and Socrates: On Life, Death, and Life After Life Naftali Rothenberg
Heaven on Earth: The World to Come and Its (Dis)locations Christine Hayes
Olam Ha-ba in Rabbinic Literature: A Functional Reading Dov Weiss
Dining In(to) the World to Come Jordan D. Rosenblum
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 Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus
The Dybbuk: The Origins and History of a Concept Morris M. Faierstein
Tasting Heaven: Wine and the World to Come from the Talmud to Safed Vadim Putzu
Worlds to Come Between East and West: Immortality and the Rise of Modern Jewish Thought Elias Sacks
Emmanuel Levinas’s Messianism and the World to Come: A Gnostic-Philosophical Reading of Tractate Sanhedrin 96b–99a Federico Dal Bo
Acknowledgments
The 28th Annual Symposium on Jewish Civilization took place on October 25 and October 26, 2015, in Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska. The title of the symposium, from which this volume also takes its name, is “ olam ha-zeh v’olam ha-ba : This World and the World to Come in Jewish Belief and Practice.”
Anyone who reads carefully and has a phenomenal memory (that sounds a lot like me!) will observe that the symposium has formally changed its name yet once again. Rather than take its name from the expanding list of academic sponsors, the symposium now proclaims in its title what it does—and has always done: provide an opportunity for the exchange and interchange of information about a different aspect of Jewish civilization each year.
Thankfully, our major sponsors remain: the Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization at Creighton University; the Kripke Center for the Study of Society and Religion, also at Creighton; the Harris Center for Judaic Studies at University of Nebraska-Lincoln; the Schwalb Center for Israel and Jewish Studies at the University of Nebraska at Omaha; and the Jewish Federation of Omaha.
As in past years, much of the success of this symposium is due to the unwavering support of colleagues: Dr. Ronald Simkins, of the Kripke Center; Drs. Jean Cahan and Sidnie White Crawford, of the Harris Center; and Drs. Moshe Gershovitz and Curtis Hutt, of the Schwalb Center. Colleen Hastings, administrative assistant for the Klutznick Chair and the Kripke Center, continues her invaluable contributions at all stages in the planning and implementation of the symposium and in preparing this volume for publication. I also offer warm thanks to Kasey De Goey, staff assistant for the Schwalb Center, who ensures, among many other things, that the Sunday morning symposium session at University of Nebraska at Omaha runs smoothly. Equally efficient and dependable is Mary Sue Grossman, who is affiliated with the Jewish Federation of Omaha.
With this volume, we are completing eight years in our ongoing relationship with the Purdue University Press. Its staff, under the previous director Charles Watkinson and his successor Peter Froehlich, continues to make us feel welcome in every possible way. We look forward to many more years of collaboration with the press.
Additional generous support is provided by:

Creighton University Lectures, Films and Concerts
The Creighton College of Arts and Sciences
The Ike and Roz Friedman Foundation
The Riekes Family
The Henry Monsky Lodge of B’nai B’rith
Gary and Karen Javitch
The Drs. Bernard H. and Bruce S. Bloom Memorial Endowment
And others.
Leonard J. Greenspoon Omaha, Nebraska March 2017 [e-mail]
Editor’s Introduction
When I was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s (chronological point of reference: I celebrated my bar mitzvah in January 1959), I was regular and punctual in my attendance at Junior Congregation on Saturday mornings and religious school on Sunday mornings and twice during the weekday. (Yes! They worked us hard in those days.) I attended Beth El, the Conservative synagogue in Richmond, Virginia.
I remember a lot of what I heard (well, that’s undoubtedly something of an exaggeration), mostly about Israel and the Holocaust. Later on, I found out that my experience in this regard was typical. What I do not remember hearing about was olam ha-ba , the world to come.
Fast forward to the mid-1990s. I was still attending Congregation Beth El, but now in Omaha, Nebraska. It was a Saturday morning, and our younger daughter was attending services along with her teenaged friends. At some point in the D’var Torah [sermon], the rabbi mentioned hell.
Immediately after the service (or was it mid-sermon?), my daughter and her friends rushed over to me: “Jews don’t believe in hell, do we?” By then, she surely knew that she was not likely to get a quick yes/no answer from me. (If that was true when she wanted to borrow the car, how much more so in this instance?)
In all fairness to everyone involved, there is almost never a simple answer to a question that begins with “[All] Jews” and continues with “believe [and/or practice].” And so it was on this occasion. Her question was followed by several of my own: “Which Jews?” “When? “What do you/they mean by hell?” And so on.
The theoretical goal of such queries on my part was to point to the chronological, historical, and theological nuances of defining or describing beliefs and practices of “Jews.” I suspect that the practical consequence of my strategy was to lead my daughter, along with her cohorts, to Google.
In some sense, then, we can view the present volume as an extended answer—or, more properly, partial answer—to my daughter’s question of almost twenty years ago. But the present volume is also an extended answer to a query (or set of queries) that goes back well beyond two decades, to at least two millennia: How do beliefs about the afterlife, or world to come, affect the way we lead our lives in this world?
Beliefs have consequences. As a general observation, I know this to be true. Beliefs about the world to come have this worldly consequences. If I didn’t know that before hearing and later editing the papers in this volume, I know this now, as will those who read the chapters in this collection.
As