Daniel Sperber

While perusing various writings on Hindu myths, practices, and folkloristic rituals, Rabbi Daniel Sperber was frequently reminded of apparent parallels in Jewish sources and began keeping random notes on the similarities. Indo-Judaic Parallels is an orderly collection of these notes, which the author hopes will encourage analysis in greater depth and detail. Indeed, this material is presented as the first step in a possible developmental process to produce cumulative conclusions on such intercultural influences.

This volume contains three essays of interrelated themes: vegetarianism, ecology, and business ethics. Each theme is examined from a halachic, ethical, philosophical, and socio-economic viewpoint, and is closely analyzed within the broad spectrum of Judaic sources. All of this leads to a number of practical conclusions, which seek to illuminate the challenging situations in each field.

Recognizing that certain of the more archaic aspects of Jewish liturgy contain passages and statements that apply more to past eras than to the present day—and can in some cases be offensive to segments of modern society—this book attempts to delineate the parameters of halachically permissible changes in the liturgy. This consideration argues that these changes should have precedents in traditional sources and that they should be made only when they correct anachronisms and defuse potential conflict, thus enhancing the experience of prayer for an ever-widening spectrum of Orthodox Jewry.

Sperber uses rabbinic texts, classical sources , and archaeological evidence to describe what a typical Palestinian city looked like, and how it operated, during the Roman period 100-400 AD. His portrait provides a background for understanding everyday life in the urban environment of the New Testament.