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One of the central aspects of the ideal model of the Haredi body is a hierarchical and dichotomous relation between the body as an aspect of the earthly reality, and the spiritual world. This dichotomy has also shaped the 'division of labour' between the Haredi and non-Haredi Jewish communities in Israel. The article examines the yeshiva students' responses to this ideal and hegemonic model. My claim is that as a result of a series of social processes, the notion of the ideal body is facing growing resistance and is being challenged by the students themselves. The students' resistance to the ideal male body is contributing to the destabilization of the traditional relations between the earthly and the spiritual and as a result, to the undermining of the 'division of labour' among the various parts of Israeli Jewish society.

AbstractPolitical theorists argue that justice requires treating people's time as having equal worth. In this article, I contend that justice sometimes requires making exceptions to uniform time rules. The article focuses on New York State's regulations for nonpublic schools and how they affect Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jewish day schools, or yeshivas. Dissatisfied yeshiva graduates, the state education department, and several liberal political theorists assert that the state should pressure yeshivas to dedicate more time to secular studies. Reconstructing Horace Kallen's argument against the melting pot conception of citizenship and for cultural pluralism, I maintain that liberal states should be generous toward non-liberal ways of life on condition that they do not systematically abuse children or pose a danger to public safety. A liberal education landscape may sustain many kinds of schooling, including ones that outsiders think waste time.

"In Haredi Masculinities between the Yeshiva, the Army, Work and Politics: The Sage, the Warrior and the Entrepreneur, Hakak takes us on a fascinating journey into the world of young Haredi men who dare to leave Jewish Haredi religious seminaries (Yeshivas and Kollels) and explore new territories. Through extensive participant observations in a Haredi army basic training course, an occupational training program in Hi-Tech professions and the Haredi Headquarter of the Likud Party, Hakak explores the interactions between young Haredi men and the cultural and masculine models they meet in these new sites. Hakak's observations expose the varying ways in which Haredi masculinities are being re-shaped through such interactions, and how this is impacting the Haredi minority and Israeli society more broadly"--

The article makes an attempt to analyze the evolution of the social and legal status of the rabbi in the context of state policy formation towards the Jews. In the diachronic section we analyzed the legal framework which had been "aligned" with the government's policy on the national question, the issues of religious policy and particularly in the "Jewish question".The author identifies three periods which in varying degree show the government's attitude to the institution of the rabbinate, as well as the changes that have occurred in the social and legal status of rabbi. Detailed analysis of the legal framework allows allocating of two requirements vectors formed by the government. The first one is the idea of education, which forms the main demand of the tsarist government to the rabbi - educational qualification. The second one regulates the activity of a rabbi as a controlled person associated with the public authorities.The author also makes an analysis of the representatives of the orthodox camp activity, defines its role in trying to "reanimate" the social status of the rabbi. ; В статье показана эволюция общественно-правового статуса раввина в контексте формирования государственной политики в отношении евреев. В диахроническом разрезе проанализирована нормативно-правовая база, "верставшаяся" под государственный курс в национальном вопросе, в вопросе вероисповедной политики и, в частности, в "еврейском вопросе". Предложена периодизация законодательной базы, касающейся правового статуса раввина (в т.ч. духовного) в контексте способа его избрания/назначения, должностных функций и обязательств перед общиной и государством. На примерах показывается, что общинный авторитет раввина царское правительство рассматривало иногда как конструктивный для государственной политики в "еврейском вопросе", а в некоторые периоды - как деструктивный. ; Автор статті робить спробу проаналізувати зміни, які відбулися в суспільно-правовому статусі рабина Російській імперії початку XIX - першої половини XX cтоліття. Автор фокусує свою увагу на аналізі урядової політики в контексті формування нормативно-правової бази, спрямованої на регулювання діяльності рабина.

The controversial Jewish thinker whose tortured path led him into the heart of twentieth-century intellectual lifeScion of a distinguished line of Talmudic scholars, Jacob Taubes (1923–1987) was an intellectual impresario whose inner restlessness led him from prewar Vienna to Zurich, Israel, and Cold War Berlin. Regarded by some as a genius, by others as a charlatan, Taubes moved among yeshivas, monasteries, and leading academic institutions on three continents. He wandered between Judaism and Christianity, left and right, piety and transgression. Along the way, he interacted with many of the leading minds of the age, from Leo Strauss and Gershom Scholem to Herbert Marcuse, Susan Sontag, and Carl Schmitt. Professor of Apocalypse is the definitive biography of this enigmatic figure and a vibrant mosaic of twentieth-century intellectual life.Jerry Muller shows how Taubes's personal tensions mirrored broader conflicts between religious belief and scholarship, allegiance to Jewish origins and the urge to escape them, tradition and radicalism, and religion and politics. He traces Taubes's emergence as a prominent interpreter of the Apostle Paul, influencing generations of scholars, and how his journey led him from crisis theology to the Frankfurt School, and from a radical Hasidic sect in Jerusalem to the center of academic debates over Gnosticism, secularization, and the revolutionary potential of apocalypticism.Professor of Apocalypse offers an unforgettable account of an electrifying world of ideas, focused on a charismatic personality who thrived on controversy and conflict

From Halakhic innovation to blood libels, from the establishment of new mendicant orders to the institutionalization of Islamicate bureaucracy, and from the development of the inquisitorial process to the rise of yeshivas, universities, and madrasas, the long thirteenth century saw a profusion of political, cultural, and intellectual changes in Europe and the Mediterranean basin. These were informed by, and in turn informed, the religious communities from which they arose. In city streets and government buildings, Jews, Christians, and Muslims lived, worked, and disputed with one another, sharing and shaping their respective cultures in the process. The interaction born of these relationships between minority and majority cultures, from love and friendship to hostility and violence, can be described as a complex and irreducible "entanglement." The contributors to Entangled Histories: Knowledge, Authority, and Jewish Culture in the Thirteenth Century argue that this admixture of persecution and cooperation was at the foundation of Jewish experience in the Middle Ages. The thirteen essays are organized into three major sections, focusing in turn on the exchanges among intellectual communities, on the interactions between secular and religious authorities, and on the transmission of texts and ideas across geographical, linguistic, and cultural boundaries. Rather than trying to resolve the complexities of entanglement, contributors seek to outline their contours and explain how they endured. In the process, they examine relationships not only among Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communities but also between communities within Judaism—those living under Christian rule and those living under Muslim rule, and between the Jews of southern and northern Europe. The resulting volume develops a multifaceted account of Jewish life in Europe and the Mediterranean basin at a time when economic, cultural, and intellectual exchange coincided with heightened interfaith animosity. Contributors: Elisheva Baumgarten, Piero Capelli, Mordechai Z. Cohen, Judah Galinsky, Elisabeth Hollender, Kati Ihnat, Ephraim Kanarfogel, Katelyn Mesler, Ruth Mazo Karras, Sarah J. Pearce, Rami Reiner, Yossef Schwartz, Uri Shachar, Rebecca Winer, Luke Yarbrough. Elisheva Baumgarten is Professor Yitzhak Becker Chair of Jewish Studies and Professor of Jewish History and History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and author of Practicing Piety in Medieval Ashkenaz: Men, Women, and Everyday Religi ...