Rabbi Akiva Sage of the Talmud Barry W. Holtz
- Price: £16.99
- Add to Basket
Share this page:
- Series:
- Jewish Lives
- Format:
- Hardback
- Publication date:
- 04 Apr 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780300204872
- Imprint:
- Yale University Press
- Dimensions:
- 248 pages: 210 x 146 x 22mm
- Illustrations:
- 2 b-w illus.
- Sales territories:
- World
Categories:
Born in the Land of Israel around the year 50 C.E., Rabbi Akiva was the greatest rabbi of his time and one of the most important influences on Judaism as we know it today. Traditional sources tell how he was raised in poverty and unschooled in religious tradition but began to learn the Torah as an adult. In the aftermath of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 C.E., he helped shape a new direction for Judaism through his brilliance and his character. Mystic, legalist, theologian, and interpreter, he disputed with his colleagues in dramatic fashion yet was admired and beloved by his peers. Executed by Roman authorities for his insistence on teaching Torah in public, he became the exemplar of Jewish martyrdom.
Drawing on the latest historical and literary scholarship, this book goes beyond older biographies, untangling a complex assortment of ancient sources to present a clear and nuanced portrait of Talmudic hero Rabbi Akiva.
About Jewish Lives:
Jewish Lives is a prizewinning series of interpretative biography designed to explore the many facets of Jewish identity. Individual volumes illuminate the imprint of Jewish figures upon literature, religion, philosophy, politics, cultural and economic life, and the arts and sciences. Subjects are paired with authors to elicit lively, deeply informed books that explore the range and depth of the Jewish experience from antiquity to the present.
In 2014, the Jewish Book Council named Jewish Lives the winner of its Jewish Book of the Year Award, the first series ever to receive this award.
More praise for Jewish Lives:
"Excellent." –New York Times
"Exemplary." –Wall Street Journal
"Distinguished." –New Yorker
"Superb." –The Guardian
"Lively and thought-provoking. . . . A moving portrait of a humble intellectual giant. . . . As with other volumes in the Jewish Lives series, this biography works for experts and neophytes alike."—Publishers Weekly
"Here is Rabbi Akiva as most readers have never seen him before: in the context of his time and through the lens of contemporary scholarship. More than a standard biography of a Talmudic sage, this is a story about how a new generation of scholars understands Judaism’s ancient rabbinic texts."—Jonathan D. Sarna, University Professor, Brandeis University
"Barry Holtz is ever the master educator and storyteller. He has poured 'new wine into old bottles,' and performed the difficult task of providing an original and insightful understanding of the incomparable Rabbi Akiva."—David Ellenson, Director, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, Brandeis University
"Original . . . takes the best of contemporary scholarship into account."—Jeffrey Rubenstein, author of Talmudic Stories: Narrative Art, Composition, and Culture
-
The Prophet's Heir
Hassan Abbas£20.00 -
Stan Lee
Liel Leibovitz£16.99 -
Moses
Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg£10.99 -
Houdini
Adam Begley£16.99 -
Theodor Herzl
Derek Penslar£16.99 -
Ben Hecht
Adina Hoffman£10.99 -
Rav Kook
Yehudah Mirsky£10.99 -
World of Trouble
Richard Godbeer£30.00 -
Irving Berlin
James Kaplan£16.99 -
Karl Marx
Shlomo Avineri£16.99 -
Alfred Stieglitz
Phyllis Rose£16.99 -
Einstein
Steven Gimbel£10.99 -
Martin Buber
Paul Mendes-Flohr£16.99 -
Groucho Marx
Lee Siegel£10.99 -
Warner Bros
David Thomson£10.99 -
Ben Hecht
Adina Hoffman£16.99 -
Jerome Robbins
Wendy Lesser£16.99 -
Menasseh ben Israel
Steven Nadler£16.99 -
An Autobiography or The Story of My Experiments with Truth
M. K. Gandhi£25.00 -
Steven Spielberg
Molly Haskell£10.99
-
Stan Lee
Liel Leibovitz£16.99 -
Houdini
Adam Begley£16.99 -
Moses
Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg£10.99 -
Theodor Herzl
Derek Penslar£16.99 -
Ben Hecht
Adina Hoffman£10.99 -
Irving Berlin
James Kaplan£16.99 -
Rav Kook
Yehudah Mirsky£10.99 -
Harvey Milk
Lillian Faderman£10.99 -
Karl Marx
Shlomo Avineri£16.99 -
Alfred Stieglitz
Phyllis Rose£16.99 -
Martin Buber
Paul Mendes-Flohr£16.99 -
Einstein
Steven Gimbel£10.99 -
Jabotinsky
Hillel Halkin£10.99 -
Groucho Marx
Lee Siegel£10.99 -
Warner Bros
David Thomson£10.99 -
Ben Hecht
Adina Hoffman£16.99 -
Jerome Robbins
Wendy Lesser£16.99 -
Menasseh ben Israel
Steven Nadler£16.99 -
Gershom Scholem
David Biale£16.99 -
Harvey Milk
Lillian Faderman£16.99