University of Calgary

For Signs and for Seasons

Abstract

For Signs and for Seasons: Bringing his scholarly research into Jewish history and legend to a wide audience in pithy and clever essays, Eliezer Segal offers his 2011 collection of newspaper columns focusing on the holy days and seasons of the Jewish calendar. All its rich history and modern cultural implications — how is Coca-cola kosher if its ingredients are secret? how did Spanish Jewish poetry survive the Inquisition? — are explored in entertaining and insightful vignettes. For Signs and for Seasons is a natural sequel to its companion volumes, Holidays, History and Halakhah, At This Time, and Sanctified Seasons. Like those earlier books, this volume brings together a diverse collection of essays related to the cycle of Jewish holy days. Each chapter illustrates in a different way the interplay between the received teachings of the Torah and the vital impact of interpretations by diverse types of personalities, ideologies, historical events and communal dynamics. The essays are written from a sympathetic but non-dogmatic perspective by an expert in the academic study of the Jewish religion. They were originally published as newspaper columns, are designed to entertain as much as to educate, and are accessible to a diverse readership. Segal is a professor of religious studies at the University of Calgary.

Publisher

Quid Pro Books
New Orleans
http://quidprolaw.com/
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