The Last Trial: On the Legends and Lore of the Command to Abraham to Offer Isaac as a Sacrifice
“We find that the story of Abraham and Isaac rises almost spontaneously in the mind of one generation after another.... Constantly past and present react to and upon each other, and life is given an order, a coherence, by the themes which govern the Holy Scriptures and the reinterpretations of those themes.”
—from the Introduction by Judah Goldin
Shalom Spiegel’s classic examines the total body of texts, legends, and traditions referring to the Binding of Isaac and weaves them together into a definitive study of the Akedah as one of the central events in all of human history.
Spiegel here provides the model for showing how legend and history interact, how the past may be made comprehensible by present events, and how the present may be understood as a renewal of revelation.
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Book details
- Author
- Raya Dreben
- Imprint
- Jewish Lights, an imprint of Turner Publishing Company
- Published
- Formats
- Paperback, Hardcover
- Subjects
- Religion › Judaism
- Topics
- Abraham and Isaac · Binding of Isaac · Jewish folklore · Jewish studies · religious history · biblical interpretation · legend and history · Jewish sacred texts
- ISBN-13
- 9781879045293 (Paperback)9781683363989 (Hardcover)
About the author
SHALOM SPIEGEL held the William Prager Professorship of Medieval Hebrew Literature at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America from 1944 until his retirement in 1973. His books include The Last Trial and Hebrew Reborn.
Spiegel was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1983 and received an honorary doctorate from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1973. In 1996, the Seminary established the Shalom Spiegel Institute for Medieval Hebrew Literature in his honor.
Spiegel was born in Bukovina, Romania, received his doctorate from the University of Vienna, and taught in Palestine before settling in New York City. He served as professor and librarian at the Jewish Institute of Religion and published studies on Hosea, Amos, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Job.