Bücher von Martin Sicker

The Trials of Abraham is based on the premise that the primary concern of the Torah is with establishing a conceptual framework within which a unique nation might emerge and flourish for the exclusive purpose of facilitating the emergence of a model civilization for eventual emulation by all the peoples of the earth. The Trials of Abraham is devoted to a consideration of how the biblical author sought to explain through narrative rather than analysis why Abraham was chosen to be the founding patriarch of that new nation.The saga of Abraham is presented in the book of Genesis in a group of stories reflecting a series of progressively severe tests or trials to which Abraham was subjected in order to demonstrate to all but especially to posterity his worthiness to be the founder of a unique nation committed to God's service. The trials illustrate the discrete steps by which he underwent transformation from a natural philosopher to a religious sage, from being a consummate rationalist to becoming a man of faith capable of suppressing even the most pressing demands of reason.Understanding the biblical narrative requires that we strive to comprehend what the text as we have it is telling us, explicitly as well as implicitly. As is the case with many biblical texts, it is not always clear what is being conveyed or why certain bits of information are provided and others omitted. The challenge for the sympathetic reader is to attempt fill in the seemingly obvious gaps in the narrative and to make sense of that which is or is not said. It is the purpose of The Trials of Abraham to assist the reader in doing just that.

The Passover Seder, the most popular and widely celebrated occasion on the annual Jewish calendar, and its Haggadah, which is a unique combination of liturgy, biblical exegesis, and rabbinic lore, have both delighted and confounded celebrants for nearly two thousand years. Over time, the traditional Haggadah has become increasingly obscure as the distance between the authors and readers, in both chronological and cultural terms, widens over time. This is because the Haggadah is essentially a rabbinic work, much of which is written in a style similar to that found in the classic works of Rabbinic Judaism such as the Talmud and Midrash, works that demand much more from those who would understand them than casual perusal.Although some good translations of the Haggadah have appeared over the years, even the best is necessarily an interpretation as well, and may tend to obscure some of the nuances in the original language of composition that permit alternative explanations of the author's intent. The problem of maintaining fidelity to the original has become exacerbated as efforts to make the text more relevant to the modern reader have in some instances introduced assertions that, while essentially meaningful, bear little direct relation to the language and likely intent of the original work. This book strives to unravel the mysteries of the traditional text of the Haggadah and provide the reader insight into the highly sophisticated thought of its authors.

Judaism has always had adherents that, driven by both awe and love of God, strove to penetrate the mystery of divine wisdom and grasp what the philosopher deemed to be beyond the reach of man's rational faculty, as well as to explore other mysteries that seem to leap out from the pages of Scripture. These metarational leaps of intellect and imagination generally fit into the categories of the exoteric and the esoteric, referring to teachings traditionally considered suitable for public instruction and those deemed inappropriate for such purpose. The exoteric includes those attempts at intellectually and spiritually bridging the gap between God and man, that one finds strewn throughout the pages of the classical literature of Judaism. The esoteric includes those speculations and practices that have been more or less systematized and formulated and presented as mystical doctrines, that have been characterized since the Middle Ages as Kabbalah.The opening chapters of Aspects of Jewish Metarational Thought consider the question of the relationship between finite man and the unknowable God, and how the divine-human communication essential to that relationship takes place. Other chapters consider the purpose behind human existence and the critical aspects of the biblical account of the creation, issues relating to the idea of a visionary ascent to the celestial realm, the influence of metarational considerations on normative Jewish religious practice, and the special attributes believed to inhere in the Hebrew language and the role that these have played in metarational biblical interpretation from antiquity to the present.

Even if one has never read any Judaic literature, he or she will have some notion of what it is after reading this book. This book is written for the vast majority of adults who either attend synagogue or have a general interest in Judaism, whether Jewish or not.