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Abraham
The First Jew
Series: Jewish Lives
Brief Description
The story of Abraham, the first Jew, portrayed as two lives lived by one person, paralleling the contradictions in Judaism throughout its history. In this new biography of Abraham, Judaism's foundational figure, Anthony Julius offers an account of the origins of a fundamental struggle within Judaism...
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Abraham
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"The story of Abraham, the first Jew, portrayed as two lives lived by one person, paralleling the contradictions in Judaism throughout its history."--Provided by publisher.
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Description
The story of Abraham, the first Jew, portrayed as two lives lived by one person, paralleling the contradictions in Judaism throughout its history.
In this new biography of Abraham, Judaism's foundational figure, Anthony Julius offers an account of the origins of a fundamental struggle within Judaism between scepticism and faith, critique and affirmation, thinking for oneself and thinking under the direction of another. Julius describes Abraham's life as two separate lives and as a version of the collective life of the Jewish people.
Abraham's first life is an early adulthood of questioning the polytheism of his home city of Ur Kasdim until its ruler, Nimrod, condemns him to death and he is rescued, he believes, by a miracle. In his second life, Abraham's focus is no longer on critique but rather on conversion and on his leadership over his growing household, until God's command that he sacrifice his son Isaac. This test, the Akedah (or "Binding"), ends with another miracle, as he believes, but as Julius argues, it is also a catastrophe for Abraham.
The Akedah represents for him an unsurpassed horizonβand in Jewish life thereafter. This book focuses on Abraham as leader of the first Jewish project, Judaism, and the unresolvable, insurmountable crisis that the Akedah representsβboth in his leadership and in Judaism itself.
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Abraham
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Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780300266801
Publisher: Yale University Press
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 25 March 2025
Country: United States
Imprint: Yale University Press
Illustration: 1 b-w illus.
Audience: Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Width: 146.0mm
Height: 210.0mm
Weight: 250g
Pages: 392
About the Author
Anthony Julius is deputy chairman of the international law firm Mishcon de Reya and a professor in the Faculty of Laws, University College London. He is the author of T. S. Eliot, Anti-Semitism and Literary Form, among other books. He lives in London, UK.
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