The essay Lettre à d'Alembert sur les spectacles , first published in 1758, was written by Jean-Jacques Rousseau as a response to the essay Geneva by Jean d'Alembert which appeared in the Encyclopédie. d'Alembert proposed to establish a theatre in Geneva. Rousseau opposed the idea, arguing that the move would harm the city’s delicate social fabric.

Dr. Mozes presents a reflection of his own personal 25-year journey through the fields of clinical practice, clinical epidemiology, and history and philosophy of medicine. His journey passes through 20 stations. Most of the chapters deal with problems that are at the focus of contemporary public debate, such as cholesterol and heart disease, screening for early detection of breast cancer, hormone replacement therapy to treat menopause symptoms, hypertension, diabetes, asthma, vaccination, obesity and bariatric surgery, depression and dementia. At the same time Mozes tries to open a skylight on the personal experiences, motives and desires that drove him to delve into the various topics, and select his particular point of view. "Benjamin Mozes easily refutes many prejudices, touching upon the connections between fears, motivations, beliefs and anxieties, while being attentive to the state of the contemporary man - lending a wise and compassionate ear to patients." (from a review by Ariel Hirschfeld).

In recent years, more and more students have been taking Health Economics courses in the framework of different academic programs. These students are mostly health professionals who had not been exposed to the world of economics before. This textbook aims to introduce the material intuitively, in an informal and non-technical way, and above all – in Hebrew. The book is the fruit of extensive experience, its author having taught the course at the Hebrew University, Ben Gurion University, Tel Aviv University and Yale University.

A groundbreaking work, this book brings together philosophy of science and language, conceptual dynamics and the Babylonian Talmud. The work asks: what philosophy of natural language lies at the basis of the Halakhic dynamic in the Amoraic discourse of the Talmud? Calling upon two post-Wittgenstein philosophies, the book undertakes a search for a philosophical account of the discursive culture that appears in the Talmud. It unearths the normative infrastructure that lies at its core. Thus, this study articulates what can be termed the Talmudic philosophy of language. On the other hand, it reveals the limits and weaknesses of central philosophical frameworks in coping with a profound traditional discourse like the Talmud, in which the past has a deep and integral role in the present, while at the same time, the present has its own natural and creative dynamic.

Free choice has been one of the main philosophical issues throughout the ages. The Essence of Choice in Medieval Jewish Philosophy offers a comprehensive analysis of the views of medieval Jewish philosophers on this topic. It presents various perspectives on the problem of free choice in philosophy in general and in Jewish philosophy in particular: Does free choice really exist, or is it an illusion? What is the attitude of the medieval philosophers toward what the Bible and the Sages have to say about free choice? Does Judaism have a substantive position on philosophical questions? What power can free a person from causal determinism? The book discusses at length the opinions of twenty-one philosophers, from Al- Muqammis in the ninth century to Rabbi Joseph Albo in the fifteenth. This engagement with many philosophers demonstrates the richness of Jewish philosophy and the multiplicity of opinions in it, as well as how historical changes, such as the transition from Arabic to Hebrew, affect philosophical thought. On the basis of his historical analysis, the author argues that there is no fundamental Jewish position on the question of free choice and that one can find support in the religious texts for every philosophical view.

The present volume 23 of Korot has as main topics, first, embryology in Jewish and ancient Middle Eastern sources, and second, medicine in the Holocaust. The section on embryology consists of six articles, four of which were presented in a symposium entitled “On Fetuses, Infants and everything in-between through the Ages,” which was held at the Van Leer Institute on March 30, 2015. The meeting was sponsored by the Israel Society for the History of Medicine and by Korot, and organized by Dr. Israela Nili. Three of the papers concentrate on ancient Mesopotamia: Dr. Couto-Ferreira describes embryological data in Akkadian and Sumerian texts, Prof. Klein expounds embryological issues in the omen literature, and Prof. Fleishman discusses some of the legal aspects of parenthood. Prof. Cohen analyzes the influence of Septuagint translation in the debate concerning abortion. Two additional papers deal with later Hellenistic sources: Prof. Kottek and Dr. Paavilainen discuss the contribution of Philo the Alexandrian and Prof. van der Horst examines Hellenistic Christian sources, respectively. The section on the Holocaust includes three studies. Dr. van den Ende’s paper describes the ethical dilemmas faced by the Jewish doctors in Holland during the Nazi occupation. It was first presented in the workshop of the 15th Nahariya Conference on Medicine and the Holocaust (May 6, 2015), convened by Prof. Shaul Shasha. Dr. Schwoch deals with the same issue from the point of view of the Jewish Krankenbehandler in Germany. Dr. Offer’s bibliographical review, the first part of which has been published in Korot, volume 22, describes the development of academic research in Jewish medicine in the Holocaust from the third decade after the Holocaust until the first decade of the 21st century. The rest of the articles presented in this volume concentrate on the life and work of several Jewish physicians, the only exception being Prof. Nissan’s paper on hybrid animals in Jewish sources. Prof. McDonald analyzes the story of the Jewish personal physician of Charles the Bald, accused by later authors of having poisoned the king. Prof. Gath discusses a similar topic: Jan III Sobieski and his Jewish physician, who was later blamed for having caused his death. Dr. Nevins casts new light on the mystery of Vesalius’ Jewish friend and adviser in Hebrew medical terms. Prof. Shḥori-Rubin’s work on Dr. Fanny Lvova continues her series of articles on Jewish pioneer women doctors. Dr. Paavilainen describes Isaac Israeli’s way of diagnosing the complex symptoms of consumption. Prof. Freudenthal summarizes the different pressures affecting medieval Jewish physicians and explains on the basis of a contemporary source why science did not thrive among the Jewish scholars of Provence. The volume is, as usual, bilingual (12 articles in English, 4 in Hebrew), with contributions from Spain, Holland, Germany, Britain, USA, France, and of course Israel.

Strasbourg, Paris, Jerusalem - The Renewal of French Jewish Thought Le renouveau dont il est question dans ce 23e numéro de Perspectives porte sur la pensée juive française au lendemain de la Seconde Guerre mondiale et au cours des années qui suivirent. Trois villes : Strasbourg, Paris, Jérusalem furent les foyers actifs de ce renouveau et s’illustrèrent avec des penseurs comme Jacob Gordin, Levinas, André Neher ou Manitou-Léon Askénazi. Hommage leur est rendu dans la première partie de ce volume tandis que la seconde présente quelques-uns de leurs héritiers.

The Pensées is simply the compelling "Thoughts" of mathematician, physicist, and religious thinker Blaise Pascal. Originally intending to publish a book defending Christianity, Pascal died before he could complete it. The thoughts and ideas for his book were collected and compiled, posthumously, and then published as the Pensées. Pascal's thoughts are as powerful as they are comprehensive. He discusses with great wonder and beauty the human condition, the incarnation, God, the meaning of life, revelation, and the paradoxes of Christianity. He passionately argues for the Christian faith, using both argumentation and his famous "Wager." His ideas and arguments are sometimes developed and intricate, at other times, abrupt and mysterious.

The Martin Buber Society of Fellows explores how individuals, groups, and societies in a variety of cultural contexts, political settings, and time periods respond to the perpetration of injustices. Approaching the concepts of revenge, retribution, and reconciliation from interdisciplinary and cross-cultural perspectives, it opens a fruitful discussion among scholars of history, literature, psychology, biology, political science, communications, sociology, religious studies, law, and philosophy. The book investigates how social groups reach and maintain an equilibrium between an emotional thirst for an immediate and unmediated response to injustices and societies’ need to adjudicate measures and sanctions that seem proportional to the breech of justice. This volume is the third in the Martin Buber Society of Fellows Notebook Series.

The content of the articles in this book reflect the diversity of the areas researched by Professor Zev Harvey. The three key subjects covered in this collection are: the first focuses on the teachings of Maimonides, the second- the philosophy of Rabbi Hasdai Crescas and other philosophers in the Middle Ages, while the third includes essays on Jewish philosophers since the beginning of the modern era to the present.

Jewish thought and rhetoric may have dominated the Jewish people's way of life for years, but what happens when a Jewish state is established, whose laws and authorities are not necessarily based on that same Jewish tradition? Jewish-Israeli Political Thought is a collection of studies exploring the tension between Israeli and Jewish political philosophy, the relationship between the Jewish people's collective and personal past and present, individual identity and its place in the traditional Jewish collectiveness, and the intermediary role of the ancient Hebrew language in the dialogue between the past and the present. The chapters in this book were written by young scholars of different religious, and sometimes cultural and lingual backgrounds; however, they all live in modern-day Israel, and they all question the relation between traditional-Jewish and modern-Israeli political thought. The diversity of the writers enables a broad and unique perspective on the status of Jewish tradition in contemporary political thought in Israel. The book provides a window into various spatial and temporal horizons in the course of a Jewish tradition that is constantly being re-examined and re-discovered.

Moshe Caspi is the founder of the first Experimental School in Jerusalem and of the Chofen Institute for Open Experimental Education at the David Yellin Academic College of Education, Jerusalem. He was among the first to draw up the guiding principles for experimental education in Israel. Caspi teaches a different way of learning. He envisions a process where the student - the Self-Remaker - opens up to personal change, and moves along this path with curiosity, love of learning, creativity and humor. In order to do so, Caspi explains how to combine the refreshing and innovative vision of the child with adult qualities such as discipline and control. In this way, the Self-Remaker can achieve a greater degree of independence, and a whole new level in applying and implementing his ideas in all areas of human activity. The work of Self-Remaking can be carried out within a group framework or on an individual basis. This book offers practical suggestions which can be applied within learning frameworks, for individuals or groups, in order to enrich the learning encounter, and to change the way the student (and the facilitator) perceives the world. The reader is invited to investigate professional and personal wishes and preferences, and to develop a unique "User's Manual," a handbook which will accompany him throughout his life's journey. The material is explained with Professor Caspi's characteristic blend of insight and humor. The book presents elements of Caspi's teaching which have been published in the past in his many books in Hebrew, together with newer ideas developed by the author more recently. Self-Remaking reflects Caspi's entire life's work in this field. The wisdom of children is demonstrated through examples presented in the final section of the book, translated from Moshe Caspi's work: Children’s Wisdom - Cosmic Starlight: - from the gray world of adults to the magical journey of the child, published in Hebrew by Mofet in 2013.