Author: Melila Hellner-Eshed File Type: pdf In the Zohar, the jewel in the crown of Jewish mystical literature, the verse A river flows from Eden to water the garden (Genesis 210) symbolizes the river of divine plenty that unceasingly flows from the depths of divinity into the garden of reality. Hellner-Esheds book investigates the flow of this river in the world of the Zoharic heroes, Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai and his disciples, as they embark upon their wondrous spiritual adventures. By focusing on the Zohars language of mystical experience and its unique features, the author is able to provide remarkable scholarly insight into the mystical dimensions of the Zohar, namely the human quest for an enhanced experience of the living presence of the divine and the Zohars great call to awaken human consciousness. **Review A River Flows From Eden is replete with insights and delights. It is without a doubt one of the most engaging books on Jewish mysticism in general, and the Zohar in particular. Melila Hellner-Eshed is an accomplished scholar of kabbalistic literature and an excellent guide into the intricacies of one of its most challenging works. A River Flows From Eden is truly rewarding for the novice and expert alike. (Mark Verman Shofar) Dr. Hellner-Esheds book is a truly groundbreaking study of the mystical dimension of the Zohar, the masterpiece of Kabbalah. The scholarship reflected in this book is superb. . . . I rate it as one of the most significant academic studies of the Zohar in the past decade. (Daniel Matt) A fascinating and richly textured work that combines linguistic and literary acumen with a historian of religions interest in the phenomenology of mysticism and a poets sensitivity to language. Simply put, this is one of the most exciting works of scholarship I have encountered in recent years. . . . This is the rare book that should matter equally to specialists in the field and to serious lay readers and students. (Elliot K. Ginsburg University of Michigan) [Hellner-Eshed] has written a book sure to become a basic contribution to the study of Kabbalah and the Zohar. Interested faculty should read it and assign it to their student ... Highly recommended. (S. T. Katz) About the Author Melila Hellner-Eshed is a Lecturer in the Department of Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and a Senior Fellow at the Shalom Hartmann Institute for Advanced Jewish Studies in Jerusalem.

Author: Angeliki E. Laiou File Type: pdf The longevity of the Byzantine state was due largely to the existence of variegated and articulated economic systems. This three-volume study examines the structures and dynamics of the economy and the factors that contributed to its development over time. The first volume addresses the environment, resources, communications, and production techniques. The second volume examines the urban economy presents case studies of a number of places, including Sardis, Pergamon, Thebes, Athens, and Corinth and discusses exchange, trade, and market forces. The third volume treats the themes of economic institutions and the state and general traits of the Byzantine economy. This global study of one of the most successful medieval economies will interest historians, economic historians, archaeologists, and art historians, as well as those interested in the Byzantine Empire and the medieval Mediterranean world. **From the Inside Flap The longevity of the Byzantine state was to a large extent due to the existence of variegated and articulated economic systems. This book examines the structures and dynamics of the economy, and the long-term and short-term factors that contributed to its development over time. Major questions, such as the identification of the determining factors in the structure and evolution of the Byzantine economy, are posed, and the role of the state and its mechanisms as well that of market forces is examined. The interplay of growth and stability was important in the Byzantine economy as in all others, and that, too, forms a subtext to much of the discussion. The Byzantine economy emerges as a complex, differentiated, and flexible one, which was able to meet the needs of the state and the socity for a long time. Significant long-term factors include the climate and the terrain as well as population movements. Questions of technology and its evolution are discussed in various chapters. Among the themes treated in this work are the structures and organization of production in the agrarian and urban economies, investment, credit mechanisms, prices, modes of exchange, domestic and international trade, the production and circulation of coinage, fiscality [fiscal policy], aspects of the law governing economic issues, economic ideology, and the place of the Byzantine economy in the Mediterranean world. Archaeological evidence is heavily relied upon, and there are case studies of a number of cities. This work is synthetic, based on the research of the last few decades, but it also incorporates new and original research. It is hoped that this global study of one of the most successful medieval economies will be a useful tool to historians, economic historians, archaeologists, and art historians. Those who are interested not only in the Byzantine Empire but also in the medieval Mediterranean world as a whole, as well as in pre-industrial economies, will find much useful material in these volumes. About the Author Angeliki E. Laiou was Dumbarton Oaks Professor of Byzantine History at Harvard University.

Author: Donald S. Moore File Type: pdf How do race and nature work as terrains of power? From eighteenth-century claims that climate determined character to twentieth-century medical debates about the racial dimensions of genetic disease, concepts of race and nature are integrally connected, woven into notions of body, landscape, and nation. Yet rarely are these complex entanglements explored in relation to the contemporary cultural politics of difference. This volume takes up that challenge. Distinguished contributors chart the traffic between race and nature across sites including rainforests, colonies, and courtrooms. Synthesizing a number of fieldsanthropology, cultural studies, and critical race, feminist, and postcolonial theorythis collection analyzes diverse historical, cultural, and spatial locations. Contributors draw on thinkers such as Fanon, Foucault, and Gramsci to investigate themes ranging from exclusionary notions of whiteness and wilderness in North America to linguistic purity in Germany. Some essayists focus on the racialized violence of imperial rule and evolutionary science and the biopolitics of race and class in the Guatemalan civil war. Others examine how race and nature are fused in biogenetic discoursein the emergence of racial diseases such as sickle cell anemia, in a case of mistaken in vitro fertilization in which a white couple gave birth to a black child, and even in the world of North American dog breeding. Several essays tackle the politics of representation surrounding environmental justice movements, transnational sex tourism, and indigenous struggles for land and resource rights in Indonesia and Brazil. Contributors. Bruce Braun, Giovanna Di Chiro, Paul Gilroy, Steven Gregory, Donna Haraway, Jake Kosek, Tania Murray Li, Uli Linke, Zine Magubane, Donald S. Moore, Diane Nelson, Anand Pandian, Alcida Rita Ramos, Keith Wailoo, Robyn Wiegman **Review A stunning and original collection. As far as the essays here excavate the many valences of race and nature and the racisms and naturalisms that operate and mobilize them, they are cautiously hopeful, and write eloquently against the reproduction and government of life through these exclusive terms.Lisa Lowe, author of Immigrant Acts On Asian American Cultural Politics This is a pathbreaking volume on the cultural politics of race, nature, and power. A range of innovative contributions address the most pressing questions regarding the mutually mediating traffic between the terms of nature, culture, and race. This book now sets the standard in thinking criticallythat is, politicallyabout the racial cultures of nature, difference, and distinction.David Theo Goldberg, author of The Racial State From the Back Cover A stunning and original collection. As far as the essays here excavate the many valences of race and nature and the racisms and naturalisms that operate and mobilize them, they are cautiously hopeful, and write eloquently against the reproduction and government of life through these exclusive terms.--Lisa Lowe, author of Immigrant Acts On Asian American Cultural Politics

Author: Fredricks, David N. File Type: pdf The Human Microbiota offers a comprehensive review of all human-associated microbial niches in a single volume, focusing on what modern tools in molecular microbiology are revealing about human microbiota, and how specific microbial communities can be associated with either beneficial effects or diseases. An excellent resource for microbiologists, physicians, infectious disease specialists, and others in the field, the book describes the latest research findings and evaluates the most innovative research approaches and technologies. Perspectives from pioneers in human microbial ecology are provided throughout.**