Raphael Patai

These fables, part of the cultural heritage of a small corner of the Arab world, are translated into an English that remains faithful to the original Arabic text, presenting to foreign readers a sense of the original style and a picture of traditional Arab life and customs, attitudes, social and cultural norms, psychology, and values. Providing insight into Arab culture, Patai offers extensive notes and commentary on particular Arabic phrases and images, as well as the ways of speaking and thinking found among the Arab population, especially the Bedouins, in Palestine and Israel. Patai also places the stories in the context of global folktales, and traces the transformations in the art of storytelling. This collection as a whole presents a colorful slice of traditional Arab life, values, customs, attitudes, and sociocultural patterns.

Here the late Raphael Patai (1910-1996) recreates the fascinating world of Jewish seafaring from Noah's voyage through the Diaspora of late antiquity. Patai weaves together Biblical stories, Talmudic lore, and Midrash literature to bring alive the world of these ancient mariners. An abundance of evidence demonstrates the importance of the sea in the lives of Jews throughout early recorded history. Jews built ships, sailed them, fought wars in them, battled storms in them, and lost their lives to the sea. The sea, according to Patai's interpretation, can be seen as an image of the manifestation of God's power, and he reflects on its role in legends and tales of early times. The practical importance of the sea also led to the development of practical institutions, and Patai shows how Jewish seafaring had its own culture and how it influenced the cultures of Mediterranean life as well. Of course, Jewish sailors were subject to the same rabbinical laws as Jews who never set sail, and Patai describes how they went to extreme lengths to remain in adherence, even getting special emendations of laws to allow them to tie knots and adjust rigging on the Sabbath.

In this monumental work, Raphael Patai, acclaimed author of Hebrew Myths (with Robert Graves) and The Hebrew Goddess, opens up an entirely new field in cultural history by tracing Jewish alchemy from antiquity to the nineteenth century. Until now there has been little attention given to the significant role that Jews played in the field of alchemy. Here, drawing on an enormous range of previously unexplored sources, Patai reveals that Jews were major players in what was for centuries one of humanity's most compelling intellectual obsessions. Among the myriad subjects treated in the book is the close relationship between alchemy and medicine as practiced by Jewish adepts. Other Jewish alchemists combined alchemy with magic or with kabbalistic practices. Still others became, through their alchemical efforts, the forerunners of modern chemistry. The culmination of many years of research, The Jewish Alchemists shows that alchemy was much more than the attempt at transmuting base metals into gold: it was a powerful worldview that assumed an essential unity underlying all of nature - and the power of humans to intervene, with God's help, in nature's course.

This book tells the story of the thirty-year friendship between Robert Graves and Raphael Patai, and in particular, the story of the literary collaboration that culminated in their joint authorship of the Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis. The friendship between Graves and Patai began in 1947 when Graves, having read Patai's book Man and Temple, wrote him a "fan letter" full of remarkable scholarly comments and reflections. It was the beginning of an exchange of letters between the two authors that led to their participation in each other's books and studies, joint public appearances in lectures and interviews, mutual visits, and a lasting friendship. In addition to the nearly two hundred letters they exchanged that are published here for the first time, the book contains the full recorded texts of a long conversation between them about the Hebrew myths, a joint lecture in New York City, and a radio interview.^ It also includes the lecture Graves gave to the London Hillel Foundation on "Hebrew and European Myths Contrasted," and Patai's long essay on "Myth and Hebrew Myth," originally planned as an introduction to the Hebrew Myths but not published until now. The book discusses other writings produced by Graves and Patai and the reaction of the scholarly and literary world to their joint work and their major separate publications. Patai also allows a glimpse into the private lives of the two authors, including their struggles and successes, their frustrations and achievements. Robert Graves and the Hebrew Myths gives rare insight into the lengthy process of gestation that preceded the writing of the Hebrew Myths; the exchanges that led to the reconciliation of the two authors' different views and approaches; the meticulous care they invested in its planning, construction, and execution; and the production of the terse and dramatic presentation that characterizes the book.^ This volume is a unique account of a difficult but successful collaboration between two writers of very different characters, orientations, and talents.

"This autobiography covers the first twenty-two years of the life of Raphael Patai, famous anthropologist and biblical scholar. Patai shares meticulously researched genealogical narratives and historical and sociological observations, mixed freely - and with engaging frankness - with portions of an intensely personal and intimate nature. He paints a critical yet affectionate picture of Hungarian Jewry in the years preceding 1933 - a world that is no more."--BOOK JACKET.

"This volume critically examines the State of Israel forty years after its establishment. Topics include the integration of Middle Eastern Jews in Israeli society, the Arab minority in Israel, the dilemma of Haredi Jewry, Israeli democracy in transition, and the changing legitimations of the State of Israel. Other essays in the volume include debates on the significance of mixed marriages in North America, and the distinctive character of American Zionism. This series is published yearly by the Institute of Contemporary Jewry at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. It is edited by Jonathan Frankel, Peter Y. Medding, and Ezra Mendelsohn, all distinguished professors of contemporary Jewish history at the University. The volumes include symposia, articles, book reviews, and lists of recent dissertations by major scholars of Jewish history from around the world."

The classic study of Arab culture and society. Originally published in 1973, the revised edition of 1983 has been recognized as one of the seminal works in the field of Middle Eastern studies. This analysis unlocks the mysteries of Arab society to help us better understand a complex, proud and ancient culture. The Arab Mind discusses the upbringing of a typical Arab boy or girl, the intense concern with honor and courage, the Arabs' tendency toward extremes of behavior, and their ambivalent attitudes toward the West. Chapters are devoted to the influence of Islam, sexual mores, Arab language and Arab art, Bedouin values, Arab nationalism, and the pervasive influence of Westernization.