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As a Jewish man, I am expected by tradition to thank God each morning for not having made me a woman. I argue that in order to sincerely offer such thanks, I must believe that I could have been born female. While Saul Kripke seems to deny that possibility, a Kripkean who accepted Talmudic notions of embryology would not be so troubled. The danger of possession by a female spirit and the misfortune of coming into existence add further twists to the plot.

Three students, namely Walid, a Druze man, Fatimah, a Muslim woman and Sigal, a secular Jewish woman are eating lunch in the cafeteria at the Western Galilee Academic College.

This paper discusses Judaism’s prohibition against uttering the Tetragrammaton and suggests that Christians should consider the sensitivities of Jewish listeners before using the Tetragrammaton in speech.

In the course of presenting his celebrated 'vale of soul-making' theodicy, John Hick claims that in a world where all human suffering is either justly deserved divine punishment or imposed by God for the spiritual growth of the sufferer, people would lack opportunity to be involved in genuine acts of deep compassion. I argue that the relief of divinely imposed suffering can be a morally valuable and spiritually beneficial activity, and mention ideas from the Jewish tradition which suggest that it is right for people to ameliorate suffering even when that suffering constitutes a just punishment from God. In the course of presenting his celebrated 'vale of soul-making' theodicy, John Hick invites his readers to consider what consequences would have followed had God chosen to govern the world in a way which would make His justice completely intelligible to human beings. I will refer to the possible world which God governs in this way as 'Justland'. Hick's explanation of why God would not find such a world to be worthy of creation is partially based on certain assumptions about people's reactions to just, divinely imposed suffering. Careful scrutiny of these assumptions shows them to be faulty. In order to be fair to Hick, I shall begin my discussion by quoting his description of Justland at length: ... try to imagine a world which, although not entirely free from pain and suffering, nevertheless contained no unjust and undeserved or excessive and apparently dysteleological misery. Although there would be sufficient hardships and dangers and problems to give spice to life, there would be no utterly destructive and apparently vindictive evil. On the contrary, men's sufferings would always be seen either to be justly deserved punishments or else to serve a constructive purpose of moral training. In such a world human misery would not evoke deep personal sympathy or call forth organized relief and sacrificial help and service. For it is presupposed in these compassionate reactions both that the suffering is not deserved and that it is bad for the sufferer. We do not acknowledge a moral call to sacrificial measures to save a criminal from receiving his just punishment or a patient from receiving the painful treatment that is to cure him. But men and women often act in true compassion and massive generosity and self-giving in the face of unmerited suffering, especially when it comes in such dramatic forms as an earthquake or a

L'anthropologue Mary Douglas a fait justice de l'erreur qui consistait a dire que les societes primitives etaient universellement religieuses. L'essai de P. Winch sur les notions de magique et sur les pratiques de la population africaine des Azande est un produit de ce mythe de la piete primitive. Winch critique l'interpretation du mysticisme Zande proposee par Evans-Pritchard. Une analyse plus approfondie du travail d'Evans-Pritchard montre qu'il considere la culture des Azande comme une culture essentiellement seculaire

Peter Winch et Wittgenstein se sont opposes a l'idee que la religion traditionnelle et la magie puissent etre consideres comme des moyens pour atteindre des fins pratiques, instrumentales. Leur argument est que les autres cultures devraient etre incroyablement irrationnelles pour croire en l'efficace pratique de la magie. L'A. montre toutefois que la doctrine philosophique de Winch laisse place a la possibilite d'un pluralisme instrumental, a l'idee que des societes differentes peuvent posseder des criteres differents de rationalite instrumentale. Ainsi, en termes de critere natif, l'utilisation instrumentale de la magie et de la religion peut etre rationnelle

Many years after Wittgenstein penned his condemnation of Frazer's an? thropology of religion, a distinguished follower of his formulated a critique of the work of a man who was at that time perhaps the most prominent anthropologist writing in the English language. I am referring to Peter Winch's (1964) much-discussed essay, "Understanding a Primitive Society" (hereaf? ter UPS), in which he criticizes one of the central premises of Sir E. E. Evans-Pritchard's (hereafter referred to as E-P) (1937) ethnographic classic, Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande. The juxtaposing of these two instances of a philosopher criticizing an anthropologist is far from capricious. In a footnote, Winch (UPS: 320) states that Wittgenstein's comments on Frazer inspired his own interpretation of Africa's Azande society. Furthermore, Wittgenstein and Winch make similar complaints about the respective targets of their criticisms; both Frazer and E P are accused of interpreting the mystical practices of other cultures as if their role were similar to that of science and technology in Western society. While Wittgenstein rejects Frazer's key thesis that the practitioners of primi? tive magic and ritual seek the kind of prediction and control of natural phe? nomena associated with modern science, Winch criticizes E-P for characterizing Zande mystical notions as false, a move which Winch (1964) claims unfairly assumes the universal applicability of epistemological crite

L'A. etudie la critique philosophique que fait Wittgenstein du rituel du bouc qui figure au 16 du «Levitique». Il s'agit de denoncer l'erreur qui consiste a croire au symbolisme des Anciens Israelites qui font porter le poids du peche a une seule personne. Aussi le sacrifice du bouc et l'epreuve du desert sont-elles autant de mesinterpretations pre-chretiennes et tribales de la charite, et forment une image extra-culturelle du Grand Pardon divin

The word σαβαχθανι appearing in Jesus’ cry of despair in Matt 27:46 and Mark 15:34 may be read as the Hebrew סבכתני, “you have tangled me up.” On this reading, Jesus may be expressing his connection with the ram which Abraham sacrificed instead of his son Isaac, since that ram was described as being caught by the horns in a סבך (Gen 22:13).

Moses had to “cry out” to God during the plague of frogs in order to hear himself over their loud croaking.

Berel Dov Lerner argues for inconsistency.‘Consistency is a virtue for trains: what we want from a philosopher is insights, whether he comes by them consistently or not.’Stephen Vizinczey.

Berel Dov Lerner now argues, inconsistently, for consistency.