⤷ You are here:
tag: combating anti-Jewish oppression Sorted Chronologically (old to new). Sort most recent first? Selections from 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, and Pesiqta Rabbati which inform the story of Ḥanukkah: the desecration and re-dedication of the Temple (especially as it relates to Sukkot and the Brumalia), divine intervention in the Maccabean battles, and the Rekindling of the Sacred Fire. Categories: Tags: 2nd century B.C.E., 37th century A.M., Angels, Classical Antiquity, combating anti-Jewish oppression, dedications and consecrations, kindling, Maccabean Revolt, המקבים Maccabees, military, נר תמיד ner tamid, המזבח the Mizbe'aḥ Contributor(s): This Aramaic poem, written in the early Byzantine era by an unknown author, can be found in its entirety within the Targum Sheni for Esther 7:9. It features an argument between an assortment of trees over which one is required to bear the great dishonor of having to be the one to hold Haman. It’s also chock-full of anti-Christian polemic and references to Toledot Yeshu. One of many variants of this notorious work, the Sefer Toldot Yeshu is an irreverent retelling? a bitter deconstruction? a mocking parody? of the Christian narrative of the birth, life, and death of Jesus of Nazareth. Taking its general structure from the gospels, it coöpts and alters it to make the main character look like a petty, vindictive sorcerer, his disciples into either sectarian liars or loyal rabbinic plants, and his followers into easily duped fools. Toldot Yeshu was a very popular work in medieval times, and you can tell — this sort of a text was certainly written by someone whose primary relationship with Christians was fear. It’s the bitter invective of an oppressed people without power for themselves, the dirty laundry that two thousand years of murder leaves behind. It’s also, just, like unspeakably, hilariously crude. Have a garlicky Nittel, everyone! An ahava piyyut for Shabbat Vayera, recited in the old Nusaḥ Polin (Eastern Ashkenazi) rite, written (according to Davidson) by R. Shmuel bar Avraham haLevi. Shmuel bar Avraham haLevi (1165-1216, according to Graetz) was a poet and scholar of the ibn Ḥasdai family of Barcelona, and the father of the noted Maimonidean translator Avraham bar Shmuel ibn Ḥasdai. This piyyuṭ takes God’s fateful instruction to Abraham — “Take, please, your son, your only one, whom you love,” and, in a shocking bit of poetic ḥutzpah, reframes it a request that God takes back Israel! This is a supplemental stanza for Maoz Tsur with regard to the present exile, written by Rabbi Mosheh Isserlis (the ReM”A, 1530-1572), as compiled in the Kitzur Shnei Luḥot haBrit, a controversial yet influential work by Yehiel Michel Segal Epstein Ashkenazi published in 1683. Categories: Tags: Acrostic signature, combating anti-Jewish oppression, Jewish-Christian relations, מעוז צור Maoz Tsur, particularism and universalism, פיוטים piyyuṭim, polemic Contributor(s): This is a supplemental stanza for Maoz Tsur with regard to the present exile, written by a Rabbi Jeremiah, identified only as the av beit din of the town of Würzburg as compiled in the Kitzur Shnei Luḥot haBrit, a controversial yet influential work by Yehiel Michel Segal Epstein Ashkenazi published in 1683. If you know more about this Rabbi Jeremiah, please leave a comment or contact us. These are two supplemental stanzas for Maoz Tsur with regard to the present exile, written by Shmuel ben David Moshe Halevi of Mezhyrich (ca. 1625-1681, author of the Naḥalat Shiv’ah), as compiled in the Kitzur Shnei Luḥot haBrit, a controversial yet influential work by Yeḥiel Michel Segal Epstein Ashkenazi published in 1683. Categories: Tags: 17th century C.E., 55th century A.M., Acrostic signature, combating anti-Jewish oppression, Jewish-Christian relations, מעוז צור Maoz Tsur, particularism and universalism, פיוטים piyyuṭim, polemic Contributor(s): These are two supplemental stanzas for Maoz Tsur with regard to the present exile, written by Yeḥiel Michel Segal Epstein Ashkenazi (ca. 1625-1681, author of the Qitsur SheLaH), as compiled in the Kitzur Shnei Luḥot haBrit, a controversial yet influential work by Ashkenazi published in 1683. Categories: Tags: 17th century C.E., 55th century A.M., combating anti-Jewish oppression, Jewish-Christian relations, מעוז צור Maoz Tsur, particularism and universalism, פיוטים piyyuṭim, polemic Contributor(s): “Our Enemies” is the thirty-first prayer found in ברכה ותהלה Blessing and Praise: A Book of Meditations and Prayers for Individual and Home Devotion (CCAR 1923), pp. 105-107. Unfortunately, we do not yet know of a resource providing clear attribution of authorship for any of the prayers in this volume. However, the pacifist language and argument in this prayer strongly identifies it as having been written by Rabbi Abraham Cronbach. Titled “Our Contemners,” this prayer from Rabbi Abraham Cronbach is the second in his collection of prayer, Prayers of the Jewish Advance (1924), on pages 8 through 11. Categories: Tags: 20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., combating anti-Jewish oppression, English vernacular prayer, Jewish pacifism, paraliturgical shover oyvim, שובר אויבים shover oyvim, תחינות teḥinot Contributor(s): It’s always a real struggle for the Left to successfully tackle oppression within its own ranks. But when we do it, our movements gain, every time, from the deeper understandings that emerge. To start the process this time, we need some basic information about what anti-Jewish oppression is and how to counter it. But it has to come from a perspective of justice for all people, not from opportunistic attempts to slander or censor social justice efforts that are gaining strength. | ||
Sign up for a summary of new resources shared by contributors each week
![]() ![]() |