Статті в журналах з теми "ʻEzrat Torah (New York)"

Abstract In 1897, Solomon Schechter brought a hoard of Hebrew manuscripts, now known collectively as the Cairo Genizah, to England from Cairo. Along with these manuscripts were several wooden Hebrew inscription fragments from Cairo’s Ben Ezra Synagogue. When Schechter left Cambridge to assume the presidency of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, these fragments were brought to New York where they were transformed into a Torah Ark. This Torah ark was used at the Seminary for three decades and subsequently exhibited at the Jewish Museum, New York and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was featured on numerous postcards and in major works on Jewish art. In 1997, it was deconstructed by the Jewish Museum to extract the medieval inscriptions. This article explores the history, meaning and reception of the Schechter Torah Ark as a window into the complexities of Schechter’s legacy and the history of Jewish scholarship in the twentieth century.

This paper discusses the design and symbolism of a hitherto unpublished work by the artist Arthur Szyk (1894–1951), an ark for the Torah which he designed for the Forest Hills Jewish Center of Queens, New York, and which was dedicated in 1949. The Torah Ark is the central focus of all synagogue worship. Szyk’s ark is unique in its multiplicity of symbols and texts, which was at odds with the modernist idiom of post-World War II synagogue architecture. This research, which also brings previously unpublished material, analyzes the possible sources for the work and its distinctive message, which is exceptional in the world of modern contemporary Jewish art.

On July 27, 1656, the Jewish community of Amsterdam expelled Baruch de Espinoza. As Josef Kaplan's work has shown, the community used ḥerem as a standard disciplinary instrument, usually on a temporary basis. In Spinoza's case, however, the Amsterdammers issued a fierce and permanent denunciation on grounds of “abominable heresies” and “monstrous deeds.” Speaking for the community, the rabbis “excommunicate, expel, curse and damn” him with formidable intensity. In addition to forbidding contact with Spinoza himself, the ḥerem concludes with a prohibition against reading “any treatise composed or written by him.” What were these heresies and deeds, and why was the ḥerem so harsh? Only twenty-three years of age, Spinoza had not yet, so far as we know, begun to write the philosophical works—the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (1670) and the Ethica (1677), the former published anonymously, the latter only posthumously—that would to make him notorious well beyond the domain of the Portuguese Jews. Looking at the later texts, it is not difficult to imagine the cause of the outrage: Spinoza denies creation and divine providence, individual or personal immortality (together with the doctrine of eternal reward and punishment), and the truth of the Torah. But what exactly was Spinoza doing in the mid-1650s, and why were his ideas and actions so offensive to the community?

EVERY LIFE IS ON FIRE: How Thermodynamics Explains the Origins of Living Things by Jeremy England. New York: Basic Books, 2020. 272 pages. Hardcover; $28.00. ISBN: 9781541699014. *Physicist Jeremy England's unique book on the latest developments in origin-of-life research is scientifically fascinating and refreshingly devoid of the typical faith/science antipathy that plagues much work in this field. What England offers is essentially a down-to-earth primer on statistical thermodynamics which enables the nonphysicist reader to understand current developments in non-equilibrium thermodynamics, such as "dissipative adaptation," that have much to say about what life is and what needs to occur for life to start naturally (i.e., spontaneously from natural precursors). *England discusses at length the precariousness of life and the improbability of a living organism being thrown together at random, but contra the Intelligent Design (ID) movement, he takes this as evidence not of its impossibility but, rather, that non-equilibrium thermodynamics must be involved in any scientific explanation. England directly addresses ID only once in a footnote: "... of course, whenever we do not yet understand something, we always have the option of throwing up our hands and declaring that intelligent contrivance is the only way things could be this way, but we also have the option of trying harder to understand, often with a successful result ..." (p. 245). *Far from offering a mechanism for how life began, however, England instead examines the necessary prerequisites for what we instinctively call "life," including energy consumption, replication, and anticipating changes in the environment, and stresses that these distinctive aspects of life cannot all come from one mechanism. Through variegated collections of matter responding to flows of energy impinging on them, non-equilibrium states can be created and sustained in a manner that looks for all the world like intelligent design but can be explained by new ideas in non-equilibrium thermodynamics. The ability for an organism to live in a high-energy, non-equilibrium state without being consumed by the "fire" of energy surrounding it is not necessarily related to an organism's ability to reproduce, and neither stability nor self-replication necessarily guarantees an ability to predict environmental variables and respond to them in a self-preserving fashion. England argues that having multiple mechanisms operating and evolving in parallel for the somewhat independent qualities that constitute life makes the natural emergence of living things less improbable than hitherto imagined. *While non-equilibrium thermodynamics can help us better understand how living things may have arisen naturally from inanimate matter, the book also argues that we still need to look beyond science for why a living pile of molecules has more meaning that a pile of ashes. England, who states his personal commitment to the Jewish faith, looks to the Hebrew Bible for grounding and inspiration when wrestling with the questions of "What is life?" and "How did life begin?" He finds in the signs God gives to Moses on Mt. Horeb (Exodus 3), including his staff turning into a snake, a rich treasure-trove of wisdom regarding life, its meaning, and its intimate connection with the natural world. Thus, while the book is mostly an explication of recent insights from physics regarding what it means to be alive, it is woven together in a fascinating way with biblical wisdom gleaned from the Torah. The rich allusions and connotations England impressively draws from the Mt. Horeb signs provide another example of the deep wisdom that scripture offers in its timeless narratives. *What especially sets this book apart from other faith-based origin-of-life discussions is the fact that England himself is a leading researcher in the current science of non-equilibrium thermodynamics. He was a physics prodigy who has now established a career bridging academia and industry, and much of the book is based on his own groundbreaking work. In this regard, he carries a distinctly authoritative voice that is perhaps best compared to Francis Collins or John Polkinghorne--leading scientists whose scientific work directly overlaps the theological waters they wade into. There is some risk that the nonphysicist may feel bogged down by the detailed scientific lessons and explanations, but England does an impressive job of explaining things in everyday terms, including balls rolling down hills, springs, and snowflakes. He is also careful to include helpful summaries along the way. The accessibility of the scientific ideas and the originality of the theological reflections make Jeremy England's Every Life Is on Fire a must-read for anyone interested in origin-of-life issues. *Reviewed by Peter Walhout, Chemistry Department, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL 60187.

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