Academy for Jewish Religion California

A young patient with progressive kidney disease may be best served with successful long-term kidney transplantation when kidney failure develops. Should a living donor transplant be unavailable and the wait for a deceased donor transplant prolonged, a strategic dialysis plan must then be developed

Kengo Akiyama’s recent book traces how the Levitical commands to love others (Lev. 19:34 and especially Lev. 19:18) were understood in Second Temple and New Testament period works. Although evincing a highly technical and philological analysis best suited for scholars, the book offers a few important takeaways of interest to a broader readership. Specifically, Akiyama portrays a diverse appropriation of the Levitical love command(s) and uncovers a genealogy for ‘the gradual transformation of the adjectival כמוך (‘who is like you’)’ in the Hebrew Bible and in Second Temple period literature ‘to the adverbial ὡς σεαυτόν (‘as yourself’)’ in the New Testament (p. 214). Akiyama’s introductory chapter reviews the salient scholarship on Lev. 19:18 and delineates the book’s overarching project. The second chapter begins the real critical work of analysing Lev. 19:18 and 19:34 in their respective literary contexts. Special attention is paid to the key terms ‘love’ (אהב), ‘neighbour’ (רע), ‘stranger’ (גר), and ‘like/as yourself’ (כמוך). Akiyama’s most noteworthy conclusions from this chapter include: (1) The love command is an important commandment but not necessarily the most important commandment; (2) Leviticus compares but also differentiates the native and the foreigner with respect to the obligation to love others; and (3) כמוך most likely means one ‘who is like yourself’ (as an adjective) rather than ‘as yourself’ (as an adverb). The third and fourth chapters explore the reception of the Levitical love commands in the Septuagint, Book of Jubilees, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Within these texts Akiyama observes a growing valuation of Lev. 19:18 but cautions that the adverbial interpretation of כמוך (‘as yourself’) is never definitively adopted.


 
 
 It is the purpose of this paper to present a social-theoretical approach to sacred song. In particular, I will apply sociologist Émile Durkheim’s discussion of ceremonial ritual to the use of music in worship, focusing on how such music serves disciplinary, cohesive, revitalizing, and euphoric functions. It is my hope that such an analysis will yield a useful framework from which to address the oft-neglected topic of the social functions of sacred music.
 
 

Abstract. Rabbis are commonly perceived as bearers of Torah – the sacred traditions and ways of life of Judaism. As such, rabbis certainly have an important role to play in a community seeking guidance and inspiration from and a renewed connection to those traditions. Yet, historically, rabbis arose as a class in a period of crisis and were not merely conservative figures, but were also radical agents for change. The training of rabbis in the contemporary world calls for an assessment of our situation. Is our time a time of crisis? If it is, how should we prepare to meet that crisis? Do rabbis have a role to play in the future? While the texts and traditions of the past are available for study, interpretation, and application, is there a need to prepare rabbis to become effective agents for change? How can we embark upon such an uncharted path?

A lack of understanding of the legal definition of rape and lack of social work coordination with other disciplines can result in further harm to the victim