| Preface | p. ix |
| Acknowledgments | p. xiii |
| Introduction: Defining Judaism | p. 1 |
| Religion as a cultural system: Ethos, ethics, ethnos | p. 1 |
| Judaism: The social entity, its way of life and worldview | p. 2 |
| What question does Judaism ask and what answer does it set forth? | p. 3 |
| Judaism and the Jews | p. 5 |
| The Israelite people, the Israeli state | p. 7 |
| Judaism Through Story | p. 9 |
| Defining Judaism through stories | p. 11 |
| Scripture and the narrative repertoire of Judaism | p. 13 |
| Which books of Scripture tell the story? The Torah and the former prophets | p. 13 |
| The latter prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve Minor Prophets | p. 18 |
| The writings | p. 18 |
| From the history of ancient Israel to a narrative of the human condition | p. 19 |
| Adam, Eve and Eden, Israel and the Land | p. 20 |
| Adam and Israel: The parallel stories | p. 21 |
| Who and what is Israel? | p. 25 |
| Supplying the sustaining script | p. 25 |
| Israel and the nations | p. 29 |
| Five great occasions of basic Judaism | p. 35 |
| The community of Judaism and Passover | p. 38 |
| How Passover defines Judaism | p. 38 |
| The lesson of Passover | p. 39 |
| Who and what is Israel? | p. 41 |
| The story of Passover perpetually present | p. 44 |
| The Israelite before God and the Days of Awe | p. 47 |
| A different kind of narrative | p. 47 |
| The narrative of the Days of Awe: The New Year, the Day of Remembrance | p. 48 |
| Rosh Hashanah, the New Year: The birthday of the world | p. 52 |
| Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement | p. 54 |
| New beginnings on the Day of Atonement | p. 56 |
| Sukkot / the Festival of Tabernacles | p. 58 |
| The individual Israelite and Israel in history: the Huppah; the Covenant of Abraham; eating lunch | p. 61 |
| How the marriage rite (Huppah) defines the bride and groom within the narratives of Judaism | p. 62 |
| How the rite of the Covenant of Abraham (circumcision) defines the newborn son within the narratives of Judaism | p. 66 |
| How the Grace after Meals situates the Israelite within the narratives of Judaism | p. 70 |
| Judaism in Behavior and Belief | p. 75 |
| The purpose of the Law, the Ten Commandments, the Sabbath | p. 77 |
| The 613 Commandments and their single purpose | p. 79 |
| "'What is hateful to you, to your fellow don't do.' That's the entirety of the Torah; everything else is elaboration. So go, study!" | p. 80 |
| "Study is greater, for study brings about action" | p. 81 |
| The Ten Commandments | p. 83 |
| The Sabbath | p. 89 |
| God is One, merciful and just | p. 92 |
| Ethical monotheism | p. 93 |
| God represented as one | p. 94 |
| The creed of Judaism: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One" | p. 95 |
| How does the Torah prove the justice of God? | p. 98 |
| "Measure for Measure" illustrated by the ordeal of the wife accused of adultery | p. 100 |
| The problem of evil | p. 101 |
| How Judaic monotheism solves the problem of evil | p. 101 |
| How does the Torah prove the mercy of God? | p. 103 |
| All Israel has a portion of the world to come | p. 104 |
| How do we know that the Resurrection of the Dead is basic to Judaism? | p. 107 |
| The Secular History of Judaism | p. 109 |
| The formation of normative Judaism | p. 111 |
| From story to history | p. 112 |
| The Pentateuch in historical context | p. 113 |
| Second Temple Judaisms, 450 B.C.E. to 70 C.E. | p. 114 |
| The social world of Second Temple Judaism | p. 115 |
| Qumran's Judaic system | p. 116 |
| The scribes and the Pharisees before 70 C.E. | p. 117 |
| The first phase of Rabbinic Judaism, 70-200 C.E.: The Judaism of the Mishnah | p. 119 |
| The second phase of Rabbinic Judaism, 200-600 C.E.: The Judaism of the Talmuds | p. 126 |
| The articulation of normative Judaism | p. 129 |
| The success of Rabbinic Judaism in Western civilization | p. 130 |
| Subsets of Rabbinic Judaism: New philosophical thinking | p. 134 |
| Maimonides | p. 137 |
| Judah Halevi | p. 137 |
| Subsets of Rabbinic Judaism: Media of mystical piety, Hasidism | p. 141 |
| Rabbinic Judaism defines its heretics: Karaism and Sabbateanism | p. 145 |
| Karaism and the doctrine that at Sinai God revealed the Torah to be transmitted through two media, written and oral | p. 146 |
| Reform, Orthodox, and Conservative Judaisms, Zionism | p. 148 |
| Competition in defining Judaism in modern times | p. 149 |
| Why did the Rabbinic system meet competition? | p. 149 |
| Reform Judaism | p. 151 |
| Integrationist Orthodox Judaism | p. 154 |
| Conservative Judaism | p. 157 |
| Zionism | p. 162 |
| The Holocaust | p. 169 |
| How Judaism speaks today | p. 171 |
| The Judaism of Holocaust and Redemption | p. 171 |
| The worldview, way of life, and theory of Israel of the Judaism of Holocaust and Redemption | p. 173 |
| The problem of evil | p. 175 |
| How Judaism speaks today | p. 176 |
| An Orthodox voice | p. 177 |
| A Reform voice | p. 182 |
| Glossary and Abbreviations | p. 186 |
| Bibliography | p. 191 |
| Index | p. 194 |
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