Books Published by Faculty

Focusing on the concept of time and the life cycle, this collection of articles examines Jewish life in the Talmudic period through the lens of Jewish law and custom of the time. The essays come together to present the cultural perspective of the sages and scholars who produced the stepping-stones of Jewish life and custom. By using a structural approach, Rubin is able to identify processes of long-term change in a society that remains largely traditional and stable. Symbolic analysis supplies an additional dimension to these studies, enabling the reader to experience the cultural subtexts

This book explores the interrelations between male friendship in everyday life and the place of fraternal friendship in Israeli national sentiments. The author analyzes selected stories of friendship across the life course and in unique war experiences, following in-depth interviewing with Israeli veterans. Conducting participant observations in sites of commemoration he then examines the symbolism of friendship in rituals for the fallen soldiers, the commemoration of Yzhak Rabin, and the infatuation with recovering bodies of missing soldiers. This important study finds that although some settings, most noticeably in the military, encourage the production of male intimacy and desire, it is often displaced through humor and aggression. However, homosocial desire is outright acknowledged and celebrated once associated with heroic death. Declaring the friendship for the dead epitomizes the political blood pact between men, taking precedence over the traditional blood ties of kinship and matrimony. This book underscores nationalism as a homosocial-based emotion of commemorative desire.