Responses to Suffering in Classical Rabbinic Literature

Name: Responses to Suffering in Classical Rabbinic Literature
Price: 212.27 USD
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 9780195089004

ISBN-10: 0195089006

ISBN-13: 9780195089004

Edition: 1995

Authors: David Kraemer

List price: $225.00

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The existence of suffering poses an obvious problem for the monotheistic religions. Why does an all-powerful, benevolent God allow humans to suffer? And given that God does, what is the appropriate human response? In modern times Jewish theologians in particular, faced with the enormity of the Holocaust, have struggled to come to grips with these issues. In Responses to Suffering, David Kraemer offers the first comprehensive history of teachings related to suffering inclassical rabbinic literature. Beginning with the Mishnah (c. 200 CE), Kraemer examines traditions on suffering, divine justice, national catastrophe, and the like, in all major rabbinic works of late antiquity. Bringing to…

Book details

List price: $225.00
Copyright year: 1995
Publisher: Oxford University Press, Incorporated
Publication date: 9/29/1994
Binding: Hardcover
Pages: 288
Size: 6.50" wide x 9.49" long x 1.10" tall
Weight: 1.430
Language: English



Abbreviations



Introduction


Definitions


Previous Scholarship and Methodological Considerations



The Canonical Foundation


The Classical Biblical Position: Retributive Suffering


Suffering and Love


Suffering and Future Justice


The Tradition of Complaint


Suffering in Vain



Other Jews, Other Responses


Justice After Death


Come the Apocalypse


Dualisms


The Hellenistic Jewish View



Early Rabbinic Responses: Mishnah and Avot


Mishnah


Avot



Early Rabbinic Responses: The Tosefta


The Destruction of the Temple and Historical Reality



Early Rabbinic Responses: The Halakhic Midrashim


Related Traditions


National Suffering and the Destruction of the Temple


Summary



Later Palestinian Documents: The Yerushalmi


Reward and Punishment


The Hint of Alternatives


Divine Mercy


Proper Responses to Suffering



Later Palestinian Documents: The Aggadic Midrashim


Traditional Explanations


Suffering and Divine Mercy


The Voice of Ambivalence


Lamentations Rabbah


Summary



The Bavli: Canonical Echoes, Intimations of Dissent


The Nature of the Bavli


The Bavli on Suffering


Intimations of Dissent


The Bavli Contrasted with the Palestinian Tradition


Appendix


The Bavli on Divine Justice


The Bavli on the Destruction



The Bavli Rebels


Shabbat 55a-b


Berakhot 5a-b


Hagiga 4b-5a


Understanding the Bavli



Summary and Conclusions


Nonrabbinic Jews


Non-Rabbis


The History of Religious Ideas and Rabbinic Judaism


The Growth and Flexibility of a Religious Canon


Notes


Bibliography


General Index


Index of Primary Sources