“This is a fine collection of chapters on an important topic. Hindu-Jewish (and Indian-Israeli) connections are timely and significant. I recommend this work and congratulate professors Ithamar Theodor and Yudit Kornberg Greenberg on this pioneering effort.”
NATHAN KATZ , Florida International University
“Chapter by chapter, this edited collection reconstructs categories and unsettles assumptions that have long dominated how we imagine religion. The scholars included here lay out thoughtful, focused comparative studies of Hindu and Jewish ritual, ethics, and theology. Along the way, they decenter European and North American approaches to religion, engaging scholars from around the world. This is the globalization of the study of religion: rich data, diverse scholarly voices, and expansive frameworks that lead to new insights concerning the human religious experience.”
KATHRYN McCLYMOND, Georgia State University
“Scholars who still think of comparisons between Hinduism and Jewish as unlikely will find this volume a convincing argument for the possibility of comparisons. This book offers an important contribution to the growing field of Hindu-Jewish studies with many diverse and insightful chapters, several of them opening up new avenues of research. The overviews of the field and full bibliographies make this volume a resource guide and suitable for classrooms.”
ALAN BRILL , Seton Hall University
In recent decades, there has been a rising interest among scholars of Hinduism and Judaism in engaging the comparative study of these ancient traditions. Academic interests have also been inspired by the rise of interreligious dialogue by the respective religious leaders. Dharma and Halacha: Comparative Studies in Hindu-Jewish Philosophy and Religion represents a significant contribution to this emerging field, offering an examination of a wide range of topics and a rich diversity of perspectives and methodologies within each tradition while underscoring significant affinities in textual practices, ritual purity, sacrifice, ethics, and theology.
Contributors
Purushottama Bilimoria, Philippe Bornet, Thomas A. Forsthoefel, Shoshana Razel Gordon-Guedalia, Yudit Kornberg Greenberg, Aaron S. Gross, Barbara A. Holdrege, Paul C. Martin, Rachel Fell McDermott, Tracy Pintchman, Daniel F. Polish, Daniel Sperber, Ithamar Theodor
ITHAMAR THEODOR is associate professor of Hindu studies at Zefat Academic College and director of the Hindu-Jewish Studies Program at the University of Haifa.
YUDIT KORNBERG GREENBERG is the George D. and Harriet W. Cornell Endowed Chair of Religion and founding director of the Jewish Studies Program at Rollins College.