Seductiveness of Jewish Myth

S. Daniel Breslauer is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Kansas. He has written many books including most recently Mordecai Kaplan's Thought in a Post-Modern Age.

• PrefaceIntroductionS. Daniel BreslauerPart One: What is Jewish Myth?The Mythology of JudaismHoward SchwartzPoetry, Allegory, and Myth in Saul TchernichowskyS. Daniel BreslauerCan the Teaching of Jewish History be Anything but theTeaching of Myth?Joel GereboffPart Two: Modern Uses of Myth in JudaismThe Invention of a Secular Ritual: Western Jewry and Nationalized Tourism in Palestine, 1922-1933Michael BerkowitzA Rustling in the Woods: The Turn to Myth in Weimar Jewish ThoughtSteven M. WasserstromJudeophobia, Myth, and CritiqueDavid Norman SmithPart Three: Case Histories on Myth in JudaismThe Poetics of Myth in GenesisRonald S. HendelStrange Bedfellows: Politics and Narrative in PhiloDeborah SillsThe Myth of Jesus in Rabbinic LiteratureRichard A. FreundMelchizedek: King, Priest, and GodJames R. DavilaThe Face of Jacob in the Moon: Mystical Transformations of an Aggadic MythElliot R. WolfsonSabbatai Zevi, Metatron, and Mehmed: Myth and History in Seventeenth-Century JudaismDavid J. HalperinContributorsIndex

"This collection of learned and innovative essays focuses on a central problem in the interpretation of Judaism: What is the place of myth in Judaism? By focusing on the problem of myth, the collection invokes the reader to ponder the evolution of Jewish self-understanding, the expression of Jewish consciousness through narrative, the link between beliefs, narratives, and social conduct, and the secularization of Judaism in the modern period. Precisely because the authors do not share the same view of myth (i.e., its nature, function, and meaning) their essays compel the reader to reexamine the mythic dimension of Judaism from a variety of perspectives in order to articulate his/her views." — Hava Tirosh-Rothschild, Indiana University