"Criticism of Modern Secular Culture" discusses the ethical, social, national-political humanistic and religious foundations of modern and post-modern secular culture, especially amongst the Jewish People and in the State of Israel. The topics discussed are from a philosophical-historical perspective that relates directly to the present. The book defines the basic values of Western Humanism from a Jewish point of view, and analyses the problems of their implementation. It evaluates the achievements and the tragic failures of secular modernism which became factually anti-humanistic.

With the crisis of humanism in the first half of the 20th century and the threat of destruction getting worse for the Jewish people and Judaism in the background, a surprising phenomenon in modern spiritual movements was revealed: the rise of mission minded spiritual leadership that adopted the prophetic cipher of Moses and the classic prophets of the period that preceded the destruction of the first temple - bringing God's Word to their people and to all mankind to prove, to warn, to alert And instruct through redemption by devotion to fulfilling the vision of Justice, freedom and peace in Israel and the Nations. A number of prominent personalities in Jewish thought and poetry in Hebrew, Yiddish and German are discussed. These thinkers and writers needed the prophetic cipher not as a metaphor but as a recognition of a painful truth that compells action. They gave an in-depth theoretical and experiential account on the essence of this truth, its origin and binding validity . The book documents and analyzes the prophetic consciousness of ten prominent personalities who founded some of the primary religious denominations amongst the Israeli people until today.

The articles in this volume: Labor as a value in the Talmudic and Midrashic literature - M. Ayali The magical and Neoplatonic interpretations of the Kabbalah in the Renaissance - M. Idel "Mishnat Ha-Met" and "Seder rehizah gedolah" attributed to Hillel the elder - M. Benayahu The exile of Israel and the exile of the Shechina in "Or Yakar" of Rabbi Moses Cordovero - B. Sack The Minsk debate - R. Elior The place of Judaism in Jonathan Gottfried Herder's philosophy of history - Z. Levy Judaism, nationalism and humanism in the work of Yehezkel Kaufmann - E. Luz There are summeries in English for all the articles at the end of the volume.

The articles in this volume: The prophecy of King Solomon and Ruah HaKodesh Qohelet Rabbah - M. Hirshman The ethical-religious doctrine of Saadiah Gaon - E. Schweid Is Paris Ms. 767 actually a letter of Asher Ben David - M. Rong-Wiznitzer The theory of Dvekut in the writings of the Sages of Safed in the sixsteenth century - M. Pachter Cordovero and Luria: between realism and nominalism - R. Schatz-Uffenheimer The ultra-orthodox community and the Dead sea sect - Y. Liebes There are summeries in English for all the articles at the end of the volume.

The articles in this volume: Sayings of Jesus and the Midrash - M. Kister History according to the Animal Apocalypse - D. Dimant Shem Tov ibn Tov's commentary of Averroes "Epistle on the possibility of conjunction" - S. Regev The concept of the Torah in the work of Messer David ben Judah Leon - H. T. Rothschild A document from Izmir concerning the history of Sabbateanism - Y. Barnai "Darkei Zedek" attributed to Zechariah Mendel of Yaroslav: its sources and editing - Z. Gries Rav Hayim of Volozhin and Rav Shneur Zalman of Liadi - two interpretations of the Doctrine of Zimzum - T. Ross The hidden relationship: on the church fathers and Judaism - G. G. Stroumsa There are summaries in English for all the articles at the end of the volume.