This article outlines a history of rulings and beliefs about addiction in Judaism, covering alcohol and substance use and addiction, in the context of a brief account of the development of the status of addiction. It examines the prevalence of alcohol and substance use and abuse among Jews, including a discussion of some of the difficulties in estimating prevalence and of factors involved in ch...

Abstract Several recent studies on Justin’s Dialogue with Trypho the Jew have argued that should not be read as a witness to state of theological debate between Jews and Christ-followers in second century. Such arguments conclude Justin does engage actual Jewish perspectives, but rather reconstructs hypothetical Judaism from second-hand, polemical sources, or merely uses Trypho’s “Judaism” stan...

The principle of keruv1 is central to the ideals and aspirations of Judaism. We frequently cite as one of our most important goals the need to bring those who are only tangentially involved in things Jewish closer to the center of Jewish life and to make Judaism more central to their lives. While the term keruv is most frequently invoked with regard to Jews, the same attitude might be of import...