This book represents a first attempt to examine in a systematic manner televised humor in Israel. It focuses on the Israeli “comic canon” – a bunch of sketches, characters and programs that were produced between the early 1970’s and late 1990’s. In the course of the years, these texts have accuiraed a unique status and became part of the cultural DNA of many Israelies. The analysis investigates the interrelationship between humor and six prominent social cleavages in Israeli society: national, ethnic, class, political, religious and gender. A close reading of the texts shows that “a joke is never just a joke” – the social, political and economic dramatic transformations that Israel has undergone in the last three decades are capsulated in televised humor. Moreover, humor has served as a sensitive seismograph, capturing processes in early formative stages and sometimes even functioned as an actor in socio-political transformations. The book uncovers the polysemic, or multi-meaning, qualities of popular televised humor, which make it unifying and dividing, conservative and subversive. These qualities enable the “comic canon” to contain the set of paradoxes underlying the Israeli society without resolving them. This polysemity also allows the comic texts to serve as a “cultural core” – shared by different, opposing groups, each of which interprets the texts according to its own needs and perspective.

This book examines the place of the Temple and its rituals in early Rabbinic (Tannaitic) discourse, through a specific case study: the reconstruction of the ritual of the suspected adulteress (Num 5:11-32) in Mishna Sotah. Numbers chapter five describes a ritual performed to test suspicions raised by a husband regarding his wife’s sexual fidelity. The jealous husband is required to bring his wife to the priest in the Temple, where she is subjected to an ordeal of a character unparalleled in Biblical law. The Mishnaic ritual differs significantly from the Biblical one, both in detail and overall character. The private priestly ritual becomes, in the Mishna, a grand public event (in which the Mishna invites “whoever wants to stare at her” to come and stare) directed by the Rabbis themselves. A new demand for objective evidence, to comply with standard Talmudic rules of evidence, is introduced. A number of procedures have been added at the beginning and during the course of the ritual. Even the conclusion of the ritual, the actual result of the test, has been radically altered. Why were these measures added to the Sotah ritual? Where were they taken from? How do they function in the context of Mishna Sotah as a whole? How do they relate to the Biblical ritual, on the one hand, and to the reality of the temple on the other? And, finally, what led the Rabbis to reinvent a ritual already described at length in the Bible? Through specific textual engagement with these questions the book suggests a new look at the Tannaitic discourse and the place of the temple in it.

What is Philosophy of Halakhah? Can the Halakhah be understood philosophically? Is the Halakhah influenced by factors external to it? This book, New Streams in Philosophy of Halakhah points to new directions of research by outstanding scholars in this field. This book has four sections: delineating the field of inquiry; study of the role and function of philosophy in Halakhic discourse; formalism and realism in Halakhic interpretation; sociological, anthropological and gender orientated readings of the Halakhah. In these sections fundamental issues will be clarified including defining the discourse of philosophy of Halakhah, the diverse elements within Halakhah, and the contribution of the Halakhic philosopher to an understanding and clarification of the Halakhah and its significance. Also treated in this book is the issue, whether the Halakhah is characterized only by factors inherent in it or whether also by valuative and philosophical worlds outside of it. What is the weight of external considerations in the shaping of the Halakhah and its decision makers? Can the tools of Sociology and Anthropology enrich our understanding of the Halakhic process? In examining these questions the authors deal with the Philosophy of the Halakhah through critical but also normative lenses. This book lays before the readers the cutting edge of research in Philosophy of Halakhah, and it gives the reader a fascinating point of entry into philosophical-Halakhic discourse.

Studies in Language and Language Education – Essays in Honor of Elite Olshtain is a collection of state-of-the-art articles on current issues in language education, examined from individual and societal perspectives. The chapters address these issues by exploring empirical evidence from written and spoken forms of language, following a variety of communicative, educational, developmental and cultural research agendas. Together, the works in this volume create a continuum ranging from infancy to adulthood, in mono- or multilingual contexts and among native and immigrant populations. This book is a tribute to Elite Olshtain's wide array of academic endeavors, and will be of great interest to researchers, pre- and post-qualifying practitioners and students at the graduate and post-graduate levels, in the domains of language acquisition, multilingualism, discourse analysis, language and education, learning and teaching, language planning and language policy.

The Jewish National and University Library came into being in the years of the British mandate. Its mission was to collect preserve and centralize the spiritual treasures of the Jewish people. Eventually, it would contribute to the fulfillment of the Zionist objective of nation building. The Tel Aviv municipality brought the literary remains of national poets and writers like Bialik and Ahad Ha-Am into its library system. Their collections were developed into public municipal libraries. The Histadrut established a central library and supplied the settlement movement with library services. In that way it contributed to the realization of political, social and ideological aspirations of establishing a socialist society. Simultaneously, with these efforts to collect centralize and preserve the Jewish spiritual heritage in Palestine, the evil Nazi regime became active in destroying Jewish culture by book burning, cleansing German libraries of Jewish books and scattering Jewish libraries and collections in ghettos and concentration camps. Nevertheless and paradoxically, the Nazis have secured and preserved some of the more valuable Jewish library collections for future research in order to be able, post factum to legitimize the destruction of the Jewish people and its spiritual heritage. The two sections of the book document and describe conflicting processes: building and destruction, collecting and dispersion, securing and destroying, plunder and restitution of private and public Jewish book collections and libraries. In the first part, "Libraries and book collections during the British mandate in Palestine" the creation and shaping of a national library and public libraries are described. In the second part "Burning scrolls and flying letters" the negative processes of confiscation and plundering of Jewish libraries throughout Europe are delineated. The salvaging activities of libraries and books by Hebrew University emissaries after the Holocaust and the transfer of the remnants to Jerusalem are discussed. In the last section of the book, the reader may find some historical documents that lend support to the two sections of the book and have never been published so far.

How did cooperative social groups evolve? This is one of the major questions that concern evolutionary biologists ever since Darwin. One of the first explanations was selection at the level of the group: groups with cooperating individuals increase their reproduction and survival as a whole. Alternative explanations exist, such as selection at the level of the individual: a former beneficiary later rewords a cooperating organism or the seemingly altruist increases its social status thus increases its chances of finding a mate. Another explanation involves selection at the level of the gene: although an individual helping its relatives reduces its direct fitness, measured by its expected number of viable offspring, it enhances the frequency of genes identical to its own in the population. Each one of these models claims centrality or even exclusivity - theoretical primacy - in answering the question of the evolution of altruism. The book is an original and interdisciplinary contribution to the study of the evolution of cooperation. It facilitates a renewed discussion, from a fresh point of view, of classical problems in the fields of evolutionary biology and philosophy of biology; and raises fascinating questions about the history and sociology of science and the complex ties between science and values. From the Introduction by Prof. Yemima Ben Menahem and Prof. Eva Jablonka: Shavit's book discusses the different explanations to the evolution of altruism and how evolutionary researchers commonly decide between them. The author elucidates the nature of the problems and predicaments in this field, tries to identify their sources, and by using these insights offer new ways of thought that will avoid such pit falls in the future. The disposition to undermine observations and experiments of the local population while seeking the cause for universal altruism, and use of a narrow concept of 'group', biases researchers toward a semantic dispute, which completely denies group selection or spots this process everywhere. According to the author the roots of this practice lie, at least partly, in the socio-political echoes of the concept of 'group selection' since World War II. The author explicates an implicit and multifaceted dialog between science and values and argues for a plurality of selection processes in the evolution of altruism. This book is intended for anyone interested in the nature behind the well-known about the human nature. .

The book takes us on a journey to explore various elements of the Israeli School System. We acquaint ourselves simultaneously with a growing educational structure, and with Israeli society and culture. The Israeli School System was created during the first stages of Israeli history, and was in turn an important factor in the creation of Israeli society. Throughout its existence, either intentionally or not, the Israeli School System has had a profound influence on the formation of Israeli culture, to the effect that national culture and the National School System reflect each other, underscoring their mutual difficulties and struggles. Thus, familiarizing oneself with the Israeli School System entails a familiarization with Israeli society in its entirety, its various concerns, history, and future expectations. This book presents the various traits of the Israeli School System, its challenges and achievement. The approach taken in this work is that knowledge and familiarization are necessary tools for understanding, empathy, criticism and improvement. The author's aim is to provide an overview of the Israeli System of Education, underscoring its various currents and agenda, the different populations that it serves, the range of age groups that it enrolls, the variety of different institutions that it oversees, and the diverse challenges that it faces. This book does not provide a thorough study of each of the above topics, but rather a general historical overview to the entire Israeli School System, inviting the readers to continue this journey on their own path, to investigate and to conduct further research.

The book Selected Issues in Business Ethics and Social Responsibility deals with a subject that is at the forefront of our economic and social agenda and presents the ethical credo of the author. It is unique in the sense that it comprises theoretical chapters, case studies that are based on the large business experience and the academic research of the author, and the analysis of masterpieces on business ethics. The parts of the book focus on the ethical facets of leadership, integrity, whistleblowers, corporate governance, stock market, banking, government and business, corruption and bribes, wrongdoing of stakeholders, trust, transparency, decency, sustainability, social responsibility, activism, environment, globalization, international aspects and business ethics in Israel. The combination of theoretical and empirical components and the analysis of works on business ethics, addressing the reason and the emotions as well, was proven as a successful mix that has assimilated the concepts of ethics by businessmen and students. The author maintains in his book that it is possible to succeed in business while keeping rigorous ethical standards in the complex business environment of today.

What drives certain Bedouin women to fight for their right to higher education? Are they a rising power in their communities? What price are they forced to pay? These questions and others are discussed in Excluded and Loved , which delves into the world of the Bedouin women who have chosen to attain higher education in Israel. The book touches upon their private and community lives, telling the story of their pain and strength. It depicts a broad picture of the relationships between men and women in the southern-Israeli Bedouin communities, unraveling the changes that occurred over the last decade. The stories of the interviewed women are interwoven in the personal story of the researcher, one of the first women in her tribe to seek higher education.

The book The Truth of Scientific Medicine tries to cope with one of the central problems of modern medicine: the quick pace in which the truths in the base of medicine practice are changed. Unstable truths are the reason for doubts and fears among many who practice medicine. Furthermore, they are one of the main reasons for the credibility crisis between doctor and patient.

The Temple Mount is the most sacred site in Judaism and the third most sacred site of Islam in, after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. The sacred nature of the site has made it one of the main foci of tension and friction in the context of the Israeli-Arab conflict. Jewish fundamentalism and the Temple Mount is original and pioneering research on a number of radical and messianic movements in Israel that wish to, and at times, are making preparations to rebuild the Temple. The manuscript examines the theological roots and historical circumstances that have given rise to the movement of Temple Builders. It places the different movements within larger political, social and religious developments, offering the readers a context to understand the place of such groups within the larger Israeli, and global realities of our time. The research is described in the context of the fundamentalist phenomenon – a wave whose ramifications go far beyond the context of the Middle East. The research gives special attention to the connection between Jewish Temple Builders and Christian fundamentalist supporters and presents the theological exchanges that have taken place. The Book points to the Six Day War as a watershed event that has given rise to messianic interpretations of the Israeli victory and its significance for Jewish history. Israel’s’ overtaking of Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount, resurrected and enhanced messianic convictions of Zionist Orthodoxy. However, the crystallizing during the 1980s-2000s of contemporary Messianic groups and their Temple oriented Messianic beliefs has driven not the euphoria of victory, but form the fear of disappointment. Those aspiring to build the Temple are afraid of an imminent loss of the territorial gains of made in the Six Day War, due to the peace process, and the theological implications of such setback to their messianic hopes.