Böcker av Martin Sicker

Its existence is a reality of everyday life, yet the notion of the state is not well understood. Sicker does not consider this as just another academic question: The citizen's moral obligation to obey the state is intimately related to the legitimacy of the state's authority and the latter depends largely on its sources.

The Making of a Pariah State takes the reader behind the flamboyance and apparent irrationality of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi to expose his attempt to impose national cohesion on the Arab, Muslim, and Third World elements under his leadership.

In his provocative analysis of Soviet goals in Southwest Asia, particularly Iran, Sicker argues that Soviet imperialism in this area exhibits a remarkable consistency from tsarist times to the present.

The Trials of Abraham is based on the premise that the primary concern of the Torah is with establishing a conceptual framework within which a unique nation might emerge and flourish for the exclusive purpose of facilitating the emergence of a model civilization for eventual emulation by all the peoples of the earth. The Trials of Abraham is devoted to a consideration of how the biblical author sought to explain through narrative rather than analysis why Abraham was chosen to be the founding patriarch of that new nation.The saga of Abraham is presented in the book of Genesis in a group of stories reflecting a series of progressively severe tests or trials to which Abraham was subjected in order to demonstrate to all but especially to posterity his worthiness to be the founder of a unique nation committed to God's service. The trials illustrate the discrete steps by which he underwent transformation from a natural philosopher to a religious sage, from being a consummate rationalist to becoming a man of faith capable of suppressing even the most pressing demands of reason.Understanding the biblical narrative requires that we strive to comprehend what the text as we have it is telling us, explicitly as well as implicitly. As is the case with many biblical texts, it is not always clear what is being conveyed or why certain bits of information are provided and others omitted. The challenge for the sympathetic reader is to attempt fill in the seemingly obvious gaps in the narrative and to make sense of that which is or is not said. It is the purpose of The Trials of Abraham to assist the reader in doing just that.

The Passover Seder, the most popular and widely celebrated occasion on the annual Jewish calendar, and its Haggadah, which is a unique combination of liturgy, biblical exegesis, and rabbinic lore, have both delighted and confounded celebrants for nearly two thousand years. Over time, the traditional Haggadah has become increasingly obscure as the distance between the authors and readers, in both chronological and cultural terms, widens over time. This is because the Haggadah is essentially a rabbinic work, much of which is written in a style similar to that found in the classic works of Rabbinic Judaism such as the Talmud and Midrash, works that demand much more from those who would understand them than casual perusal.Although some good translations of the Haggadah have appeared over the years, even the best is necessarily an interpretation as well, and may tend to obscure some of the nuances in the original language of composition that permit alternative explanations of the author's intent. The problem of maintaining fidelity to the original has become exacerbated as efforts to make the text more relevant to the modern reader have in some instances introduced assertions that, while essentially meaningful, bear little direct relation to the language and likely intent of the original work. This book strives to unravel the mysteries of the traditional text of the Haggadah and provide the reader insight into the highly sophisticated thought of its authors.

Judaism has always had adherents that, driven by both awe and love of God, strove to penetrate the mystery of divine wisdom and grasp what the philosopher deemed to be beyond the reach of man's rational faculty, as well as to explore other mysteries that seem to leap out from the pages of Scripture. These metarational leaps of intellect and imagination generally fit into the categories of the exoteric and the esoteric, referring to teachings traditionally considered suitable for public instruction and those deemed inappropriate for such purpose. The exoteric includes those attempts at intellectually and spiritually bridging the gap between God and man, that one finds strewn throughout the pages of the classical literature of Judaism. The esoteric includes those speculations and practices that have been more or less systematized and formulated and presented as mystical doctrines, that have been characterized since the Middle Ages as Kabbalah.The opening chapters of Aspects of Jewish Metarational Thought consider the question of the relationship between finite man and the unknowable God, and how the divine-human communication essential to that relationship takes place. Other chapters consider the purpose behind human existence and the critical aspects of the biblical account of the creation, issues relating to the idea of a visionary ascent to the celestial realm, the influence of metarational considerations on normative Jewish religious practice, and the special attributes believed to inhere in the Hebrew language and the role that these have played in metarational biblical interpretation from antiquity to the present.

When Congress enacted Social Secuirty in 1935, with the age of retirement set at age 65, average life expectancy was 62 years. Since the enactment of Medicare, life expectancy has risen to age 76 today and may be expected to increase further in the decades to come.

Even if one has never read any Judaic literature, he or she will have some notion of what it is after reading this book. This book is written for the vast majority of adults who either attend synagogue or have a general interest in Judaism, whether Jewish or not.

A fresh look at ancient Middle Eastern and Roman history that will be invaluable for students and scholars of ancient history, post-biblical Jewish history and of Christian origins.

This volume examines the geopolitical forces and other factors that brought about the political decline of the Islamic world. It traces the long era of Muslim ascendency that reached its pinnacle with the siege of Vienna in 1529 and the subsequent decline of Ottoman power.

This work argues that much of the historical writing on modern Israel is apologetic and editorially filtered in conformity with a traditional Zionist historiography. This work aims to present an unromanticized recapitulation of the events and personalities that led to the birth of modern Israel.

The USSR's different spheres of influence each present their own special problems. Part II addresses current problems in Soviet geostrategic politics and includes discussions on their evolution and the necessity of their solution in order to preserve the viability of the USSR's spheres of influence.

In providing a rare systematic study of rabbinic political thinking -- as well as a basis for study of how its underlying theory might apply to contemporary political areanas -- The Judaic State proves to be valuable material to scholars of political philosophy, religion and society, and Jewish studies.

The author presnets a personal attempt to answer the question: "Where was God at Auschwitz?" and to discuss the central issues of Jewish thought. The text discusses early thinkers and argues that modern radical theologians have little to add to our understanding of God and the Judaic perspective.

Sicker asserts that the Mosaic canon, the Pentateuch, is first and foremost a library of essentially political teachings and documents, and that the first eleven chapters of the book of Genesis set forth in essence a general Mosaic political philosophy.

The geopolitical history of the Middle East in the twentieth century, which falls into three relatively distinct phases, is best understood when approached simultaneously from the global and the regional perspectives.

Sicker shows that the political history of the pre-Islamic Middle East provides ample evidence that the geopolitical and religious factors conditioning political decision-making tended to promote military solutions to political problems, making conflict resolution through war the norm, with the peaceful settlement of disputes quite rare.

Sicker examines the early stages of the process by which Palestine, an obscure and relatively miniscule backwater of the Ottoman Empire, became a critical factor in the history and convoluted politics of the modern Middle East.

Sicker examines the role of the United States within the Western Hemisphere and the geopolitical and geostrategic factors that have helped shape its policies in the region.