How to Fight Anti-Semitism by Bari Weiss

Reviewed by Paul L. Saal It is not often that I am afforded the opportunity to write a book review with the potential of being longer than the actual book I am reviewing. Though I write this somewhat tongue-in-cheek, How to Fight Anti-Semitism by Bari Weiss can be characterized by its brevity. Bound in a…

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Sabbatian Heresy: Writings on Mysticism, Messianism, and the Origins of Jewish Modernity, ed. Pawel Maciejko

Reviewed by Solomon Intrater In the 17th through 18th centuries and beyond, a significant, though often ignored, messianic movement occurred, in association with the supposed messiah Shabbtai Zvi. Proper historical academic research into Sabbatianism was not initiated until the middle of the 20th century, at the hand of the famous German-Israeli scholar of Jewish mysticism,…

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Reading Romans After Supersessionism: The Continuation of Jewish Covenantal Identity by J. Brian Tucker

Reviewed by Henri Louis Goulet The clarion call of Markus Bockmuehl in 2006 to scholars of the New Covenant Scriptures was to once and for all overcome the de facto de-Judaizing of Yeshua’s person, aims, and teaching— and thus the universalizing abstractionism associated with most conventional and confessional interpretation of those Scriptures.1 The “New Testament…

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The Bible, the Talmud, and the New Testament: Elijah Zvi Soloveitchik’s Commentary to the Gospels Edited, with an introduction and commentary, by Shaul Magid

Reviewed by Russ Resnik Jesus is Jewish—it’s a truism not just in Messianic Jewish circles, but also in the wider worlds of biblical and historical scholarship. Use of the name “Yeshua” rather than “Jesus” reflects this truth. The open question, though, is just how is Yeshua Jewish? What kind of Jew was he? The ongoing…

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Moses: A Human Life by Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg

Reviewed by Rabbi Ben Ehrenfeld Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg’s volume Moses: A Human Life,1 is both a continuation of her corpus of work as a biblical commentator and a part of the Jewish Lives biography series published by Yale University. In context of Zornberg’s wider collection of work, Moses: A Human Life is unique not so…

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Jerusalem Crucified, Jerusalem Risen: The Resurrected Messiah, the Jewish People, and the Land of Promise by Mark S. Kinzer

Reviewed by Akiva Cohen Mark Kinzer has established himself as one of the most theologically articulate voices from within the community of Messianic Jewish scholars. His pioneering, provocative (in the best sense of the word), and sophisticated theological proposals have engaged a broad spectrum of issues, such as, Messianic Jewish identity, Oral Torah, eschatology,1 ecclesiology,…

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Prophetic Peace: Judaism, Religion, and Politics, by Alick Isaacs

Reviewed by Paul L. Saal What do Ludwig Wittgenstein, Jacques Derrida, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Martin Buber, and Joseph Soloveitchik have in common? They are all Jewish or of Jewish ancestry. They were each academics and philosophers of sorts. Buber, Heschel, and Soloveitchik were all religious, the latter two were rabbis, the first two mystics. Wittgenstein…

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Jewish Law as Rebellion by Nathan Lopes Cardozo

Having heard Rabbi Lopes Cardozo lecture a few times over the past twenty years, and being familiar with his local reputation as an innovative, engaging Torah teacher, I was not disappointed by his most recent book. Jewish Law as Rebellion: A Plea for Religious Authenticity and Halachic Courage1 is a collection of his short essays,…

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