The term “aHa” (Standing) in Ancient Egyptian religious texts

Classical Rabbinic Literature and the Making of Jewish Ethics

The modern scholarly verdict about theConfessionshas been nothing short of sensational. This work documents the story of 20th-century criticism and praise for Augustine's classic, an ancient text that has grown in stature like few other Western classics. Disciplines such as psychology, literature, and religion, plus many others, all claim it as their own. The first chapter of this study puts modernConfessionsscholarship into historical context. The other chapters are devoted to autobiographical studies, literary influences, philosophical interpretations, psychology, spirituality, and theological themes. Of interest to scholars and students in many disciplines. At the end of the 19th century a new critical spirit of inquiry and scholarship helped to change how we think about religious texts. The new criticism uncovered problems with Augustine'sConfessions; he may have dramatized events concerning his conversion to Christianity, for example. Yet, this work has proved to be relevant in the 20th century like few other ancient texts. That such variegated attention has been devoted to it is testimony to Augustine's enduring legacy. His stature in Western civilization is of the first order, comparable to Homer and Virgil, Plato and Aristotle, Moses and Paul.

Reviewed by: Judaism and Disability: Portrayals in Ancient Texts from the Tanach through the Bavli Mayer I. Gruber Judaism and Disability: Portrayals in Ancient Texts from the Tanach through the Bavli, by Judith K. Abrams. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 1998. 236pp. $49.95. In this book Judith K. Abrams presents scholar and layperson alike with a masterful study of the treatment of the physically and cognitively challenged in the authoritative sacred texts of Israel from the Iron Age through the Babylonian Talmud circa 500 C.E. (her date, which follows the traditional date given by Sherira, head of the academy of Pumbeditha [c. 970–1000 C.E.]). She exhibits total mastery of the relevant passages in Hebrew Scripture, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Mishnah, Tosefta, the Talmuds and Rabbinic midrash. She makes creative use of the work of the important pathfinders in 1) twentieth century Jewish biblical studies (Haran, Kaufman, Knohl, Milgrom, Weinfeld); 2) the contemporary scientific study of rabbinic literature (Halivni, Jaffee, Kraemer, Neusner); and 3) the post-modern study of the body in Judaism (Boyarin, Eillberg-Schwartz). Abrams is equally at home in the history of medicine and in anthropology and sociology. The depth and breadth of Rabbi Dr. Abrams’ knowledge is a tribute not only to the author of Judaism and Disability but also to her mentors at Hebrew Union College, where she earned her rabbinic ordination and at Baltimore Hebrew University where she earned her Ph.D. A generation ago Rabbi Douglas Goldhamer, spiritual leader of the Jewish congregation for the deaf in Greater Chicago (Bene Sholom), reported to the Chicago Board of Rabbis the grave difficulty that deaf Jews had in receiving a fair hearing [End Page 115] within the Jewish community. Wrongly assuming that every deaf person should be defined as cheresh (deaf and dumb; consequently in a subcategory of shoteh [imbecile]), rabbis and congregations refused to provide prayer groups of deaf Jews with Torah scrolls and other necessary appurtenances of public worship. Finding that the Jewish community turned a deaf ear to their pleadings, hearing-impaired Jews often fled to the welcoming arms of Christian churches. In a feature article concerning the treatment of the handicapped in the State of Israel in the Hebrew daily newspaper Ma’ariv (February 10, 2000) Tali Barzilai Sonenfeld writes: “Israel is insensitive to the physically handicapped; it does not see the blind, nor does it hear the deaf.” Consequently, she explains, elevators in public buildings lack buttons with captions in Braille for the blind; many government buildings provide no wheelchair access, and few ATMs are situated low enough to be operated from a wheelchair. Moreover, she reports, the head of one supermarket chain asked Ms. Sonenfeld please not to report that the chain would, if asked, help handicapped customers carry their purchases to their vehicles: “We do not want the handicapped taking advantage of us.” Rabbi Dr. Judith Z. Abrams shows that the basic sacred texts of Judaism—Hebrew Scripture, Mishnah, Tosefta, the two Talmuds, and the vast midrashic literature produced in Byzantine-age Palestine—constitute a treasure-trove of insights as to how the physically and cognitively unchallenged can learn to treat as peers the blind, the lame, the deaf, as well as the cognitively challenged. The author explains that the priestly heritage of Judaism exemplified by Lev. 1–16 created an ideal of physical perfection, which may rightly be compared with the qualifications required for admission to that elite military corps, the United States Marines. Building upon Israel Knohl’s thesis concerning the ideological differences between the priestly heritage exemplified by Lev. 1–16 and the Holiness Code contained in Lev. 17–26, Abrams demonstrates that Lev. 19 brought the ideal of physical perfection required of Temple priests into the popular realm by requiring Israelites to respect and treasure all human bodies. The logical consequence is Lev. 19:14, which prohibits cursing the deaf and putting a stumbling block before the blind. The next logical step is contained in ancient Rabbinic exegesis (see pp. 42–45). The rabbis saw in these prohibitions not only special consideration toward those persons whose physical disabilities often lead to their marginalization but also 1) a general prohibition against dealing...

How to Cite a Sacred Text

This handbook provides a comprehensive introduction into the interrelated circumstances in history and in the history of literature and religion which led to the canonization of eminent literary and religious texts in Antiquity. At the same time, it discusses the key factors and reasons for these canonization processes and the resulting historical consequences. Due to the selection of different collections of texts from Greek, Latin, Jewish and Early Christian text culture, the book offers a comparative and multi-perspective insight into the construction, authorization and interpretation of texts and authors that became part of the canonized corpus of texts. Important hermeneutic questions about the history of the reception and interpretation of these collections of texts are discussed on the basis of modern text research and research on culture, literature and the media– up to the current discourse on canon hermeneutics.

Reviewed by: Rosenzweig’s Bible: Reinventing Scripture for Jewish Modernity William Plevan (bio) Rosenzweig’s Bible: Reinventing Scripture for Jewish Modernity, by Mara Benjamin. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009. One of the central challenges to religious belief in the modern era has been the application of critical literary and historical techniques of reading to ancient religious texts, particularly the Bible. The challenge goes beyond the theological issue of whether or not the Bible is divinely revealed. Reading the Bible and other ancient religious texts with the benefit of modern literary and historical techniques tends to make them look like any other piece of literature or any other historical document. Is it possible to embrace modern liberal sensibilities in the domain of religious thought and still view the Bible as a privileged source of religious wisdom and law? Put another way, is it still possible to view the Bible as a “scripture?” This is the question that animates Mara Benjamin’s new study of German-Jewish thinker Franz Rosenzweig. In Rosenzweig’s Bible, Benjamin explores two significant features of Rosenzweig’s work that have gone unnoticed or underappreciated. First, Benjamin reads Rosenzweig as a thinker primarily interested in the significance of biblical language for modern Jews and Germans. Second, Benjamin understands Rosenzweig’s most famous and complicated work, The Star of Redemption (published [End Page 81] in 1921), as only the beginning of his engagement with this issue. Benjamin not only offers a novel interpretation of Star, but also tracks the development of Rosenzweig’s attempt to articulate a conception of Scripture within the boundaries of distinctly modern ways of thinking about religious and literary texts. Most studies of Rosenzweig take The Star of Redemption, a notoriously difficult book to understand, to be the definitive statement of his philosophy, of which his later writings are only an elaboration. Benjamin proposes looking at Star as a crossroads in Rosenzweig’s thought, where the strictly philosophical concerns of his earlier work meet his new embrace of the significance of revelation and biblical language. In Star, Rosenzweig attempts to articulate the philosophical implications of giving primacy to the word of revelation found in the biblical witness. In his later writings, however, Rosenzweig left aside explicitly philosophical issues and focused on the significance of biblical language. Rosenzweig’s “new thinking,” which he also called “speech thinking,” is not, Benjamin argues, about speech in general, but about the meaning and significance of biblical speech, a kind of “scriptural thinking.” The animating idea of Rosenzweig’s project was that a direct encounter with the biblical text as revelation, as Scripture, could provide a truth and meaning that Hegelian philosophy could not. Benjamin plays close attention to Rosenzweig’s use of biblical sources in Star and explains what this tells us about his thought. She argues that his use of biblical texts in Star does not resemble the classical Jewish genres of commentary or midrash, but rather constitutes a “rewritten Bible,” Geza Vermes’ term for ancient sources (like the Book of Jubilees) that retell biblical narratives and law. For example, Rosenzweig’s summary of revelation as God’s commandment to “love Me” is based not on a straightforward biblical quotation but rather on an amalgamation—a mash-up, if you will—of two biblical verses (Deuteronomy 6:5 and Exodus 20:2). Likewise, Rosenzweig placed the Song of Songs at the heart of his account of revelation not because he viewed it as a poetic metaphor for revelation at Sinai (as did the classical rabbis), but because he viewed the Song as a source of revelation itself. Indeed, Rosenzweig did not view revelation as a historical event at all, but rather as a universal event available to all humanity. The uniqueness of the Jewish people lays for him not in its historical presence at Sinai but rather in its continued attesting to the possibility of a revelatory encounter with God that can become available to the whole world. After Star, Rosenzweig engaged in a series of translation and educational projects that served to develop his scriptural thinking as a cultural politics for German Judaism. Translating Jewish texts into German not only made them accessible to German speakers...

Water is considered the origin of everything, as in the concept of the Ancient Egyptian the universe came from the Eternal Ocean “Nun” which was in itself a god in the Ancient Egyptian Ideology. Water helps in performing many vital operations for human beings, as it helps in swallowing, digestion, distributing nutritious elements, and in the process of excretion.Water helps in the balance of the human body, and it is the main component in the body of blood, Lymphatic fluid, Seminal fluid, Cerebrospinal fluid, as well as being part of the Body Effluxes such as: milk, tears, urine, sweat, …,etc. Body Effluxes carried significant symbolism and great reference in Ancient Egyptian religious texts, as it represented a means of protection against evils and dangers, and against the punishment of the gods. The Effluxes were also caused rejuvenation of the heart and not exhausting it. Effluxes were released from the body to remove illnesses and diseases and helped in the holiness and embodiment in the form of the gods, as well as mobilizing the gods for the sake of the deceased :“Isis”, “Shu”, “Horus”, “Hw, dwA-wr the eight gods of HHw.Effluxes that came out of the spirits fell to fill the lakes and rivers.Effluxes were related to myths, such as creation myths and mythological locations, such as: “Rostau” and the Island of Fire.Effluxes also played an important role as it was connected to the gods and punishment of the hereafter, as well as the hope of the deceased not to have detestable Effluxes that may ruin his body and lead to his annihilation or destruction. In addition, the body expelled bad Efflux to get rid of rotten odors and be blessed with perfumes and good odors after that. يعد الماء هو أصل کل شئ حيث خرج الکون من مفهوم المصرى القديم من المحيط الأزلى نون ، والذى کان فى حد ذاته معبودا لدى العقيدة المصرية القديمة .يساعد الماء على أجراء الکثير من العمليات الهامة للنشاط الحيوى للأنسان فهو يساعد على البلع والهضم وتوزيع العناصر الغذائية على الجسم وعلى عملية الأخراج .يساعد الماء على توازن جسم الأنسان ، وکون الماء المکون الرئيسي فى الجسد من دم ، سائل لمفاوى ، سائل منوى ، نخاعي کذلک دخل فى افرازات الجسد مثل اللبن ، الدموع ، البول ، العرق ..... الخ .حملت أفرازات الجسد رمزية هامة ودلاله عظيمة فى النصوص الدينية المصرية القديمة حيث شکلت وسيلة للحماية من الشرور والأخطار ، ومن عقوبة المعبودات کذلک تسببت الأفرازات فى أنعاش القلب وعدم أنهاکه .وکانت الأفرازات تطلق من الجسد لأزاله العلل والأمراض وتساعد على القدسيه والتجسد بهيئة المعبودات ، وتساعد فى حشد المعبودات من أجل المتوفى . ايزيس ، شو ، حور ، حو ، دواور ( dwA – wr ) معبودات الـ HHw الثمانيه .کما تساقطت الأفرازات التى تخرج من الأرواح لتملأ البحيرات والأنهار .ارتبطت الأفرازات بالأساطير مثل اساطير الخلق والمواقع الأسطورية مثل روستاو وجزيرة النار .لعبت الأفرازات أيضا دورا کبيرا حيث ارتبطت بالمعبودات وبعقبات العالم الآخر ، وتمنى المتوفى ألا يکون له افرازات کريهه تفسد جسده وتسبب فى فنائه أو تدميره .هذا وقد کان الجسد يطرد الأفرازات السيئة للتخلص من الروائح المنتنة ولينعم بالعطور والروائح الحسنة بعدها .

While a convincing case can be made about the sacredness of the New Testament through its proclamation of Jesus Christ and its guidance on the nature of Christian life, this does not mean that over time, or at any particular time, all Christians understand the message of the Scriptures in the same way. This brings us to the question of “interpretation” of the New Testament. How do we accurately understand the message of a particular New Testament book? How would we describe the meaning of the New Testament for Christian life today? How do we understand, from a doctrinal point of view, the identity of Jesus portrayed in the ensemble of the New Testament writings? What do we understand to be the defining characteristics and structures of the Christian community derived from the diverse books of the New Testament? Additionally, who has the authority to determine what is an authentic or valid answer to such questions? And what are the proper methods of extracting contemporary meaning from these ancient texts? This chapter traces in broad strokes the diverse ways the Christian community has approached the meaning of the New Testament over the centuries, with particular attention to the impact of modern methods of interpreting the biblical text.

The community of the trans-gendered or the gender diverse or the gender nonbinary has been the cause of many debates in recent times over their claim of equal rights of existence in India. While several first world countries have taken or are in the course of taking adequate steps to ensure their inclusion among the general masses, India despite its long history of accommodation and tolerance has fallen behind. This is largely in lieu of the prevalent discourse classifying any form of sexuality and gender that does not conform to the heteronormative gender binary as unnatural and a product of westernisation. This paper endeavours to elucidate and scrutinize the Queer and specifically Trans elements embedded within Indian Mythologies, as manifested in the Veda, Purana, Dharma-Shastra, Kama-shastra, Natyashastra, and numerous other sacred texts. By doing so, it attempts to subvert the prevailing narrative that enforces their exclusion. In addition to that, it provides a comprehensive survey of gender fluidity as depicted in Indian mythologies and ancient texts, thereby illuminating the obscured heritage of progressive advancements in gender studies within the Indian context. Moreover, it underscores the contrived essence and artificial construct of the gender binary, while emphasizing the futility of steadfastly adhering to its purported "naturalness".

Background: The Bhagavad Gita is a sacred text in the Hindu tradition that contains teachings about duty (dharma), devotion (bhakti), wisdom (jnana), and discipline (yoga). This research aims to understand the factors that influence the interest of Pemangku (Hindu priests) in Susut District, Bangli Regency, Bali, in studying the Bhagavad Gita. Methods: Using qualitative research methods, data were obtained through a combination of open and closed questionnaires comprising 34 questions. Finding: The research results show that the majority of Pemangku have undergraduate education (30%) and junior high school education (30%), with 50% of them having never read the Bhagavad Gita. The primary motivations for those who study the Bhagavad Gita are self-development, spiritual improvement, and facing life challenges. Despite high interest, the Pemangku face obstacles such as limited access to learning resources (50%) and difficulty understanding the contents of the text without guidance. The discussion reveals the importance of a structured learning approach involving mentors or teachers and strengthening social support in the learning process. Additionally, adaptive and accessible learning methods need to be developed to bridge the gap between ancient texts and modern life contexts. Conclusion This research concludes that the interest of Pemangku in the Bhagavad Gita is influenced by educational background, personal motivation, learning methods, and access to learning resources. Recommendations are provided to improve the accessibility and quality of learning this sacred text in the future.

Son zamanlarda edebiyat sahasındaki kadim metinlerin farklı yaklaşım ve tekniklerle yeniden okunup değerlendirildiğini görmekteyiz. Edebiyatçılar, edebi metinlerin batı referanslı yöntemlerle günümüz algı ve yorumlamalarına açık bir formda işlenmesi gerektiğini sıklıkla dile getirmektedir. Kurguya bağlı metinlerin estetik boyutlarına dair yapılan incelemeler, yeni bir ufuk açısından kıymetlidir. Özellikle anlatı dünyasına ait gelişen yeni literatür, bu tür çalışmalara zemin hazırlamaktadır. Anlatmaya bağlı edebi metinlerden mesnevi, estetik kurallara bağlı kalınarak oluşturulduğu için günümüzde romans veya roman olarak kabul edilip bu türlere göre yeniden okunmaktadır. Anlatı düzlemleri, alt ve üst kurmaca kimliğiyle mesnevi, bu bahsettiğimiz yeni bakış açıları bakımından yorumlanabilmektedir. Mesnevi, estetik anlatı boyutu itibariyle imaj ve imge açısından zengin bir malzeme taşımaktadır. Anlatıdaki dil olgusu, olay örgüsünden çok, karakter çizimi üzerinde yoğunlaşır. Buna göre geçmişe ait bilinen metin ve olaylardan hareketle yeni bir anlatı düzlemi oluşturmak, anlatıcı için daha öncelikli bir konudur. Yûsuf ve Zelîhâ mesnevisinin birbiriyle ilgili kurgusal birimleri, metin bütünlüğü içinde ana olaya bağlı tali olayların oluşturduğu bir yapıya işaret eder. Kutsal metinden hareketle oluşturulan bu anlatı kompozisyonunda sanatçının kullandığı dil ve ifade kalıpları, tam anlamıyla “edebî” olmayı zorunlu kılar.Bu bağlamda çalışmamız, Şeyyad Hamza’nın Yûsuf ve Zelîhâ mesnevisinde anlatıcının estetik tavrını ortaya koymak; dil olgusu ve anlatım açısından geleneksel olanla modern olanı karşılaştırmak, mitik ve mistik yapıyı irdelemektir.

Homosexuals have been cast out as sinners and anomalies worldwide, while even being criminalised in some countries, like India, which uphold religious sentiments to advocate its criminalisation. Heterosexuality has been accepted as Nature’s default, the “normal”, banishing any other sexual orientation. It is little known how a variety of sexual orientations were accepted and celebrated in various cultures, prior to the colonisation of those countries. The physiognomy and dress of “natives” often confounded Europeans’ notions of gender propriety and sexuality, whether it was due to the long grown hair of Ceylon men, or the dangerously oversexed Black African men or the perceived sexual voracity of Arabs - casual perceptions that often reflected Europeans’ insecurities turned into obsessions about “native” sexual misconduct, provoking new sorts of sexual regulation and repression. A closer look at the history of homosexuality in India brings its colonial legacy in the limelight. A read of the Indian scriptures and ancient texts provides evidence that unlike popular belief, homosexuality and cross dressing has been widely represented and accepted in the Pre-colonial India. The criminalisation of same sex relations is both culturally and legally, a British construct. My crucial question then, is what allows politicians and courts to carelessly wield “culture and tradition” to prove decriminalisation of homosexuality as a sin? How is decriminalisation not westernisation or not simply a result of the fascination with western concepts? The aim of my research is to take a closer look at the history of the LGBTQIA++ community in India, especially referring to the Indian scriptures and sacred texts to bring out an argument that the criminalisation of homosexuality in India has been entirely a British construct. It is to look at the instruments that allow politicians and courts to advocate Section 377 by citing Indian tradition and culture to prove homosexuality as unnatural, abhorrent and a sin. The objective of this paper is to argue against the commonly believed idea that “Gay rights” is a ‘western’ concept and decriminalisation of homosexuality is a brutal ‘westernisation’ of India’s ‘culture’ and ‘tradition’ thus coorrupting it. This paper is aimed to prove the existence, celebration and acceptance of homosexuality in pre-colonial Indian culture through numerous readings of sacred texts, scriptures as well as taking a look at Temple sculptures and art.

While there have been a number of studies about the Bible in the media they have tended to look only at the use of Bible stories in the entertainment area and in the tabloid press. These studies do not consider how the news media covers the Bible. This study, however, presents the findings of a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the representation of the Bible in the press news. The primary aim of the research was to understand how the press news constructs the Bible with its discourse. To develop this awareness, the study employed the method of discourse analysis. This included both quantitative and interpretative analysis of the language of the news texts. The corpus came from news reports of the Bible in association with the controversy surrounding the Dead Sea Scrolls. From the point of view of this study, I collected the reports on the Dead Sea Scrolls as they occurred, thus reducing any possible bias from the selection process; the reports were simply a means to an end — a thread to follow, as it were. The study period was from 1947, when Bedouins found the Dead Sea Scrolls, to 2003 just after the publication of nearly all the ancient texts. The media selected from which to draw the reports were: The Australian (Aust.), The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH), The New York Times (NYT), and The Times (London). I chose these papers because they are among the principal agenda-setters for the rest of their respective nation's media, and as such, they reflect the views of the opinion leaders in their communities at large. Results from the analysis revealed that while there were negative representations of the Bible, there were also press news reports that provided positive accounts. At first, news reports were more or less a matter of a factual accounting of the events. Later, the reports contained assertions on the need to rewrite the Bible — iii something that was clearly abhorrent to conventional Christians. Moreover, there was a press discourse portraying the Bible as a document that was culturally irrelevant and with an uncertain status. Opposed to this however, there was discourse representing the Bible as a resource book (a document to which one could turn with one’s problems). In addition, there was also evidence of a journalistic frame in operation that was organizing the world around the Bible, subtly managing audience interpretation. This framed the Bible as a sacred document safeguarded as much by religion as by tradition. This sacredness is rooted deep in Western culture. Such a frame, of course, was largely unspoken or unacknowledged. It provided a sense that the Bible enjoys a degree of cultural and social authority as a guide to life based on an interpretation of past events in faith. On the other hand, the nature of some reporting would suggest that the Bible is a 'cultural icon', a somewhat elitist object, now distant from the popular culture of which it was once a part. The impact of these findings lies in the apparent need for biblical scholarship to focus on the Bible’s heritage in Western culture. Scholars may find this heritage in the fine arts and in the media, among other phenomena. Should they decide to take up this challenge then they would study the Bible as a cultural artefact, and not primarily as a religious text that is the property of the religious communities. This may mean completing cultural/biblical studies outside organized religion. Naturally, such a shift would represent a loss to the traditional philological/classical base of biblical scholarship. I expect that the findings of this study will contribute to both the growing body of research on media discourse; and a better understanding of the Bible in the Western way of life.

Within literature and religious texts, disability often functions as both metaphor and mirror—allowing readers to examine critically how cultures view bodies, the limits of normalcy, and the spectacle of difference. The Babylonian Talmud, a wide- ranging and complex literary and legal text redacted in the sixth century CE, represents the flourishing of rabbinic Jewish culture. The Talmud is a primary and central source for the development of Jewish law—and it remains essential in contemporary Jewish thought. My essay examines textual representations of disability in rabbinic legal texts and legends to argue that the classical rabbis used disabled figures to underscore the instability of the body and to grapple with the experience of physicality, frailty, and embodiment. By setting contemporary disability theorists in conversation with these ancient texts, I show that the Babylonian Talmud expresses intense interest in what disability studies has termed “the stare”—the intrusive gaze of a viewer, which often objectifies and disables the person being stared at. In its interpretation of the Leviticus (21: 16–23) restrictions on priestly bodily blemishes, the Talmud locates the problem of disability primarily in the eye of the beholder.

The article examines the reasons for the emergence of interest in ancient Indian religious and philosophical texts in the Russian cultural sphere, as well as the ways in which Indian texts entered Russian literature. The aim of this article is to show how the first Russian translations of the most influential ancient Indian works, such as Bhagavadgita or Shakuntala, caused the appearance of a large number of works in Russian literature that in one way or another refer to ancient Indian texts. The article also shows how Russian writers referred to ancient Indian texts in their works, using examples of particular writings.