Midrashic Texts Research Articles

Akedah as an Actual Sacrifice

Abstract Akedat Yitzhak (The Binding of Isaac) is one of the most powerful and yet horrifying narratives of the Hebrew Bible, describing a sacrifice which was ultimately not performed, as Isaac was not slaughtered. However, over the centuries Jewish exegesis developed a controversial tradition in which Isaac was in fact sacrificed. This paper traces this tradition from Midrashic texts through Hebrew Crusade narratives into works by modern Jewish artists. The latter offer depictions of the divergent interpretation of the Akedah in the context of the Shoah (Marc Chagall) and in the context of Arab-Israeli conflict in the Land of Israel (Abel Pann). Discussing the complex treatment of the actual sacrifice in modern Jewish culture, the paper demonstrates how these artists engaged with an actual sacrifice at different stages of their artistic career as a way of depicting trauma either on the national or personal level.

Pentateuchal Women Portrayed in Tannaitic Midrash: A Close Reading of Ancient Rabbinic Texts that Closely Read the Text

AbstractThe Tannaitic Midrashim offer a unique and ancient view of the reception of the bible by the earliest generations of rabbis. This study describes how the close readings and textual analyses in these midrashim resulted in a fuller picture of biblical ideas and characters; in this case, the women of the Pentateuch. The tannaitic midrashic texts that describe Zipporah, Miriam, the Daughters of Zelophehad and Serah bat Asher are isolated and analyzed in order to see how the ancient rabbis read the biblical stories of these women and then elaborated on them in their exegetical writings.

Decimal Diaspora: Ten Exiles and a Medieval Construction of Jewish History

The present article reviews religious constructions of Jewish diaspora History in their long-term evolution and discusses a midrashic text that hints at a historical turning-point in the 12th century. In the Antiquity, gendered metaphors were most commonly used to characterize the troubled relations between God, the Land, and the people of Israel. Early medieval conceptions speculated about the cyclical repetition of deportation events and other calamities. That meant that that number rather than gender became the dominant organizing principle of the historical narrative in the later period. Since the medieval “Midrash of the Ten Exiles” expresses this new numerology most straightforwardly, the redactional history and literary context of this short text is the focus of this study.

“If Both are Equally Good”: An Unusual Depiction of Marriage and Women in a Midrash from the Cairo Genizah

This article offers a critical analysis of one section of a previously lost midrashic text found in the Cairo Genizah, termed Midrash ḥad-shenati (MḤS) by Louis Ginzberg and Jacob Mann. We examine the section on the parashah of Toledot and demonstrate how various traditions have been brought together in it to form a composition with its own literary and thematic concerns relating to marriage, procreation and lineage. MḤS: Toledot is distinct in centering on an active female protagonist, portraying her in an exclusively positive light, and idealizing a mutual (and monogamous) marriage relationship between Isaac and Rebecca. Aside from uncovering forgotten perspectives that diverge from what is generally found in the rabbinic canon, the textual and thematic analyses offered here enable us to identify the literary placement of this unique midrashic collection in the history of midrashic activity and its larger geographical and cultural context.

The Midrashic Impulse

The Midrashic Impulse

"Now I Know": Five Centuries of Aqedah Exegesis by Albert van der Heide (review)

Reviewed by: "Now I Know": Five Centuries of Aqedah Exegesis by Albert van der Heide David Gottlieb Albert van der Heide. "Now I Know": Five Centuries of Aqedah Exegesis. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, 2017. 504 pp. doi:10.1017/S0364009419000667 The Akedah, the Binding of Isaac (Genesis 22:1–19/20), has been the subject of extensive exegesis and endless interpretation throughout Jewish history. Abraham's devotion to God, set against his love for his favored son, both affirms the [End Page 463] Covenant and shatters the patriarch's family. His descendants, in the words of the Israeli poet Haim Gouri, are "born with a knife in their hearts." Tikvah Frymer-Kensky described the Akedah as no less than the central text in the formation of Jewish spiritual consciousness, while Israeli authors, including David Grossman, A. B. Yehoshua, and Yitzhak Laor, among others, have argued for outright rejection of the narrative as a continuing influence on Israeli identity. Rabbinic interpreters plumbed the narrative and its gaps for hidden clues to Israel's destiny, and their exegetical ingenuity exerted a profound influence on their textual inheritors. The Akedah played a central role in medieval Jewish life and thought—on the medieval philosophical tradition, to be sure, but also on medieval Jewish theology, mysticism, and martyrdom, as witnessed in the mass murder/suicides willingly undergone by some medieval Jewish communities faced with death or forced conversion during the Crusades. In grappling with Abraham's nearsacrifice of Isaac (which some interpreters see as having been carried through to completion), one can ponder the text in isolation, contextualize it in the broader arc of covenantal commitment, or trace the history of its interpretation or exegesis. To say, then, that the Akedah occupies a central place in Jewish imagination, memory, and identity, would be to grievously understate the case. At least an overall familiarity with medieval Jewish biblical exegesis of the story is fundamental to understanding the depth and breadth of the Akedah's unceasing influence on Jewish life and thought. And indeed, excellent scholarship on individual interpreters and their exegetical approach to the story is broadly available, as are works on medieval biblical interpretation writ large. Until now, however, there have been few comprehensive surveys of medieval philosophical approaches as seen through the lens of a specific, foundational biblical narrative. This is in part because the amount of literature to access, assess, edit, translate, and contextualize is simply too vast. Tracing the influences on medieval thought over half a millennium or more, and following the many streams of that thought back to their source rabbinic exegesis, for any number of biblical narratives, would continuously reveal new sources and suggest new methods. This, along with advances in philology and linguistics, and the discovery of previously neglected editions or undiscovered archival materials, could make completion of the project impossible. Albert van der Heide, professor in the Department of Languages and Cultures of the Middle East at Leiden University (Netherlands), has nonetheless completed just such a project. Eschewing theological interpretation or text-critical source analysis, van der Heide focuses, as the book's title suggests, on the Akedah as analyzed and understood by medieval exegetes, from Saʿadiah Gaon (ninth to tenth centuries) to Isaac Abrabanel (fifteenth to sixteenth centuries), concluding with a coda from Moses Mendelssohn's Bi'ur (late eighteenth century). His task is daunting: van der Heide provides translations of some two dozen medieval texts, and he cross-references each of them with the rabbinic and later midrashic texts that provide each medieval author's source material. Van der Heide consults a range of sources, from rare to scholarly and critical editions of these source texts, prefacing each medieval exegete's text with an introduction providing biographical information on the author's cultural, philosophical, and historical context. The introduction to the entire volume provides valuable context on translations of the Akedah in the targumim and rabbinic literature, a review of [End Page 464] sources and exegetical topics, and a survey of the Akedah in medieval prayer, piyyut, and philosophical-theological interpretation. The book concludes with three appendices on aspects of the chronology of the Abrahamic narrative and the Ten Trials contained therein, as...

Making Sacrifices: Visions of Sacrifice in European and American Cultures. Opfer bringen: Opfervorstellungen in europäischen und amerikanischen Kulturen ed. by Nicholas Brooks, Gregor Thuswaldner

BOOK REVIEWS 205 ment is clearly laid out in her introduction, and she meaningfully engages in interdisciplinary debates about religion in modernity. Kelly presents a diverse account of modern Russian Orthodox culture—in both traditional and unorthodox manifestations—that complements and complicates existing scholarship on Western European poetry in the more familiar contexts of Catholicism and Protestantism. Jefferson Gatrall Montclair State University Making Sacrifices: Visions of Sacrifice in European and American Cultures. Opfer bringen: Opfervorstellungen in europäischen und amerikanischen Kulturen Edited by Nicholas Brooks and Gregor Thuswaldner new academic press, 2016. 216 pp. € 29.90 paperback. This book represents the first volume of Symphilologus, the book series of the Salzburg Institute of Religion, Culture, and the Arts, and comprises twelve articles that reflect on the meaning of sacrifice in modern European and American culture. The title “Symphilologus” is based on German classics scholar Friedrich Creuzer’s term Symphilologie—meaning to collaboratively transcend traditional academic boundaries—and is intended by the volume editors as a bringing together of different disciplines in which religion will play a special role. The subjects in this collection fulfill the volume ’s eclectic goal of interdisciplinarity interwoven with religious themes. By design, this volume in the series is neither an exhaustive approach to the topic of sacrifice nor a new thesis about the understanding of sacrifice in the West. The introduction by Nicholas Brooks does, however, provide a very useful overview of the history of sacrifice in Western culture, particularly as it relates to the rise of Christianity and its relationship to both the marginalization of ritual physical sacrifice (regarded as superfluous superstition by Enlightenment thinkers Picart, Bernard, Jancourt, and Voltaire) and the theological/philosophical redefinition of sacrifice as an inner state of obedience (Tertullian, Augustine, Kant, Fichte, and Hegel). Brooks concludes his introduction by explaining how modern thinkers have: (1) viewed sacrifice as insignificant with respect to modern theories of political and economic life (Hobbes, Rousseau); (2) denied the clarity needed for dutiful sacrifice (Marx, Nietzsche, Freud); and (3) challenged the very idea of sacrifice itself Religion & Literature 206 given its association with twentieth-century revolutionary politics. Written by scholars from a variety of disciplines and academic institutions (both American and European), the collection includes a fascinatingly rich array of individual studies from a variety of genres: medieval and modern German literature, French literature, music and literature in translation, Yiddish Midrashic poetry, philosophy, visual culture, film, political discourse, and twentieth-century British religious art. Three of the articles are written in German and nine are in English. The style and content will appeal both to the specialist and non-specialist academic reader alike. Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac is a key theme revisited across several of the articles. Armin Eidherr’s essay focuses on the modern Midrashic interpretation of the Akejdeß-Jizchok-Mythos (“Binding-of-IsaacMythos ”) by Yiddish authors Itzik Manger und Hirsch Oscherowitsch. Eidherr suggests that these Biblically grounded Midrashic texts be understood in terms of Lyotard’s definition of myth, thus allowing for a re-narration via legend that could be applied exegetically to other historical contexts. J. M. Baker examines the poetics of the singular from recent discussions (Agacinski , Levinas, Nancy, and Ricoeur) that have drawn on or been inflected by Kierkegaard’s pseudonymous treatment of Abraham’s sacrifice in his work Fear and Trembling. Timothy B. Malchow analyzes Turkish-German relations and sacrifice in Fatih Akin’s film Auf der anderen Seite (On the Other Side) and shows how the film applies Koranic and Biblical narratives of the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham to the lives of the film’s characters living in modernday Turkey and Germany (depicted in the film as a single cultural space). Malchow explains how Akin reconfigures these sacred sacrificial narratives, effectively destabilizing the ideological hostility between individual duty and universal ethics, and ultimately portraying sacrifice not as the destruction of the other out of duty, but as a “courageous, forgiving willingness to reimagine the boundaries of one’s own identity” in an encounter with the threatening other (159). The volume also considers the wide-ranging influence of Christ’s sacrifice both symbolically and liturgically. Lyrica Taylor’s “Jacob Epstein, Barbara Hepworth, and...

Texts, Manuscripts, Versions, Canon

Texts, Manuscripts, Versions, Canon Gregory Y. Glazov, Christopher T. Begg, Thomas Hieke, Richard A. Taylor, and Martin Kessler 717. [Deut 2:32-33] Ingunn Aadland, "A Forgotten Deuteronomy (4Q31) Fragment," RevQ 26 (2014) 425-29. The PAM (Palestine Archeological Museum) photo 41.585, taken in April 1955, shows five smaller fragments above 4Q185. Two do not belong to 4Q185, but preserve text from the Book of Deuteronomy, one of which has been identified as part of 4QDeuti (4Q36) and published in DJD XIV. The other fragment disappeared from the plate and scholarly attention. This other fragment should be assigned to 4QDeutd (4Q31) and adds three new words (mlḥmh yhṣh wytnhw, "to battle at Jahaz and he gave"; cf. Deut 2:32-33) to line 14. A variant of this line exists in fragment 24a, line 6, as noted in the edition of 4Q364, Reworked Pentateucha, but lacks the word yhṣh ("at Jahaz"). The rediscovered fragment adds to the comparative evidence for understanding the textual development of Deut 2:32-33.—G.Y.G. 718. [Genesis] Victor M. Armenteros, "Los sebirín de Génesis y sus correlaciones en targumes y midrases haggádicos (Gn R y Tanj B)," DavarLogos 14 (2, 2015) 5-19. A.'s study seeks to relate certain of the sebirín of the Book of Genesis with various targumic and midrashic texts, e.g., Genesis Rabbah and Tanhuma B, in order to identify the theological concepts underlying these materials. It also argues that the Masoretic notes are of relevance, not only for philological or text-critical study, but also for theology. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] [End Page 221] 719. [DSS; 1 Sam 2:3] Arjen Bakker, "The God of Knowledge: Qumran Reflections on Divine Prescience Based on 1 Sam 2:3," RevQ 26 (2014) 361-74. The phrase "God of Knowledge" (ʾl hdʿwt) in the DSS is not found in other corpora except in quotations of 1 Sam 2:3, a verse from the Song of Hanna. The question is how the Qumran usage of the phrase interpreted 1 Sam 2:3. Building on Michael Segal's argument that the LXX and Qumran readings of 1 Sam 2:3 are based on an emendation of a text reflected by the MT's ketiv that serves to explain the linkage of the phrase to the verb hkyn, B. shows that four passages (1QS III 15-16; 4Q417 1 i 7-9; 1QHa XX 12-14; 4Q402 4 12 par Mas1k 1 2-3) invest the phrase with the connotation of divine prescience. Noting that all four passages give centrality to the verb hyh, he also wonders whether Qumran linked the phrase the "God of Knowledge" to concepts of being, causation, and the Divine Name.—G.Y.G. 720. [Lutherbibel] Albrecht Beutel, "Ein Meisterstück der deutschen Prosa: Die Anfänge der Lutherbibel auf dem Hintergrund früherer Bibelübersetzungen," BK 72 (2017) 9-17. B. presents a historical overview of German translations of the Bible before Martin Luther. He counts 72 such translations with different purposes. Then he turns to Luther's translation of the NT in 1521–1522, its background and preparations. He explains Luther's goal as translator and the editorial framework of the so-called Septembertestament of 1522. The translation of the entire Bible, Biblia, das ist: die ganze Heilige Schrift Deutsch, was published in 1534 and first printed in Wittenberg. The printers of Hans Lufft, Wittenberg, produced over 100,000 copies within 50 years, this not counting the numerous Bible printings at other places. Luther's translation of the Bible became enormously influential on German religion and culture. Friedrich Nietzsche called it "a masterpiece of German prose," compared to which almost everything else written in German is merely "literature." See also ##723, 729, 736, 737, 744, 748.—T.H. 721. [Tobit] Marieke Dhont and Eibert Tigchelaar, "Notes on Readings of Three 4Q200 (4QTobite) Fragments," RevQ 26 (2014) 447-51. New images of the old PAM photographs and new photographs of the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library suggest...

The Concept of the Victim in Midrashic Literature

AbstractThe creative authors of the Midrashim treated the topic of ‘the persecuted’ or ‘the victim’ in a constellation of fascinating homilies on the lectionary portion for Passover. This short article will examine how the theme of persecution is elaborated in various midrashic texts, and point to similarities between rabbinic exegesis and Jewish Hellenistic and Christian Syriac discussions of the same theme.

Echoes of Universalist Testament Literature in Christian and Rabbinic Texts

The ancient text known as the Testament of Abraham is preserved in Coptic in the same codex as two other works, the Testament of Isaac and the Testament of Jacob. These testaments were probably written in the late first or early second centuries CE by Jewish writers, although the manuscript of the Coptic codex containing them is dated to 962. These books were considered part of the “testament” literary genre, which featured a biblical hero imparting his last words of religious wisdom to his family gathered at his bedside. Scholars agree that the stylistic and theological differences among these three testaments indicate that they were not written by the same author. Yet a close reading reveals that the Testament of Isaac is dependent on the Testament of Abraham, and that the Testament of Jacob is dependent on the two earlier texts. Moreover, the Testament of Abraham and the Testament of Isaac share similarities that distinguish them from the Testament of Jacob: unlike the Testament of Jacob, the Testament of Abraham and the Testament of Isaac reflect a universalist worldview that depicts a God concerned for all humankind, not only for his chosen people. This God reigns over all people, and themes specific to the Christian and Jewish faiths are virtually absent. Later Christian and Jewish literature concerning the theme of divine judgment exhibits elements that may reflect an awareness of a written or oral tradition that appears in the Testament of Abraham and the Testament of Isaac. The images of judgment and punishment, especially those in the Testament of Abraham, appear in the second-century Apocalypse of Peter and the fourth-century Vision of Paul, which is also known as the Apocalypse of Paul. Likewise, midrashic traditions regarding Abraham and Moses are reminiscent of traditions found in these testaments, particularly the Testament of Abraham. The possibility that early Christian apocalyptic texts were aware of these testaments is grounded in the fact that scholars give these texts a common place of origin, Egypt. The provenance of the midrashic texts is more difficult to identify, but because they share literary elements and theological concerns with the Testament of Abraham and the Testament of Isaac, I suggest that the authors of these midrashic traditions had access to written or oral traditions prominent in these testaments. This paper will examine early Christian apocalyptic and early Jewish midrashic texts that modify some of the traditions prominent in these testaments in order to accommodate their nonuniversalist rabbinic or early Christian worldviews.

The Sarajevo Haggadah: Iconography of Death in Jewish Art and Tradition

This paper seeks to demonstrate the influence of biblical texts and rabbinic literature (the Talmud and the Midrash) on Iconography of Death in Jewish art. The first part of the paper deals with the extensive biblical, Talmudic and Midrashic texts on death, life after death and the Angel of Death. Part two gives some examples from Jewish art, with particular reference to the miniatures in Haggadahs and the frescoes in the Dura-Europos Synagogue. These images helped to dispel the view of the prohibition against visual images based on Exodus 20:4: “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.”

Preaching in Judaism and Christianity: Encounters and Developments from Biblical Times to Modernity (review)

Reviewed by: Preaching in Judaism and Christianity: Encounters and Developments from Biblical Times to Modernity Gerard Rouwhorst, Faculty of Catholic Theology Preaching in Judaism and Christianity: Encounters and Developments from Biblical Times to Modernity, by Alexander Deeg, Walter Homolka, and Heinz-Günther Schöttler. Studia Judaica XLI. Berlin and New York, Walter de Gruyter, 2008. 247 pp. $110.00. In the last few decades, a remarkable change has taken place in the research on the relations between Jewish and Christian liturgical traditions. Up till recently, most scholars used a model that is now often called the "mother-daughter" paradigm. It was characterized by two major assumptions: a) that Christian liturgical traditions had their roots in Jewish ones and b) that, from a certain [End Page 165] moment onwards, Jews and Christian liturgies went their own ways, completely independently from each other. At this moment, this model is more and more called into question (incidentally, this does not only hold for liturgy, but for other aspects of Jewish and Christian religious life as well), and instead a twin model is increasingly advocated which is inspired by the story of Jacob of Esau. This new model implies a questioning of the first assumption, the whole idea of the "Jewish roots" of Christian liturgy. The second assumption, namely that of a radical, once and for all "parting of the ways" from a certain moment onwards, is no less problematic than the first. Actually, there is increasing historical evidence that, over the centuries, at least Jewish forms of worship did not develop in complete isolation from the dominant majority religion. This volume, which contains the papers presented at an international conference on "Preaching in Judaism and Christianity," organized by the Universities of Bamberg and Erlangen with the Abraham Geiger College at the University of Potsdam, is an important contribution to the debate about the relationship between Jewish and Christian liturgies. It is so for two reasons. First, compared with other liturgical elements, such as prayer, the reading of Scripture, hymns and so on, the issue of homiletics has received rather little attention up till now, and already for that reason this book fills a gap. Its value is still further enhanced by the wide perspective from which the issue of preaching is studied: it encompasses all of the historical periods up to the twentieth century, and includes not only historical studies, but also reconstructions supplemented by contributions dealing with hermeneutical issues. Three papers deal with the period of Antiquity. Günter Stemberger critically discusses the evidence available for the existence of the rabbinic sermon. Contrary to Leopold Zunz, the author of the classical work entitled Die Vorträge der Juden (1832), Stemberger declares himself to be sceptical about the possibility of deriving direct knowledge from rabbinic, especially midrashic, sources concerning rabbinic preaching practice. Stemberger does not claim that there was no regular preaching in the synagogues of the rabbinic period. Neither does he deny that midrashic texts have been a source of inspiration for homilies. Still, according to him, at this moment, hardly anything can be said with certainty about the practice of Jewish preaching in rabbinic times. While the role played by the homily in Rabbinic Judaism proves to be surrounded by a lot of uncertainty, its existence in Hellenistic Judaism is beyond any doubt. Folker Siegert presents it in his paper as a Hellenistic Jewish innovation which according to him originated in Greek-speaking Diaspora synagogues and was taken over by the Christians. Both papers comport remarkably well with the contribution of Annette von Stockhausen, which deals with the "Christian Perception of Jewish Preaching in Early Christianity." The [End Page 166] outcome of her investigation is, apparently somewhat to her own surprise, that convincing evidence for a Christian perception of Jewish preaching in the first centuries is lacking. This leads the author to raise the question whether the reason for this fact might not simply have been that "there was no such preaching in the synagogues in the late antique Roman Empire at all or that it at least was not as significant as it was for Jewish Christian worship as it was for the Christian" (p. 70). A good question...

The Egyptian Gods in Midrashic Texts

The engagement with Egypt and the Egyptian gods that transpired in the Hebrew Bible continued into the texts produced by rabbinic Judaism. Rabbinic texts of late antiquity and the early medieval period frequently presented images of Egypt and its religion. One of the critical objectives of these portrayals of Egypt was to set boundaries of Jewish identity by presenting rabbinic Judaism in opposition to Egyptian culture. The Egyptian cultural icons in rabbinic texts also demonstrate that the rabbis were aware of cultures other than their own.1 The presence of Egyptian elements in midrash had previously been noted to a very limited extent by scholars of the Wissenschaft des Judentums (the science of Judaism), and it has not escaped the attention of more recent scholarship.

The Use of Eschatological Lists within the Targumim of the Megilloth

AbstractSeveral of the Targumim of the Megilloth contain lists (songs, famines, kings, etc.) that culminate in the future Messianic age. For example, Tg. Song opens with the list of Ten Songs and Tg. Ruth opens with the list of Ten Famines. Such lists are well known from other midrashic texts and this article will consider how and why these lists are used in the Targumim of the Megilloth and will propose that these additions are not merely the result of an opportunity presented by the Hebrew text but are being used specifically to further the overarching exegetical agenda of the Targum in question.

Chana Safrai and Avital Campbell Hochstein, Women Out—Women In: The Place of Women in Midrash

Several years ago, I participated in a seminar at the Shalom Hartman Institute, led by the late Dr. Chana Safrai, on how women are treated in the midreshei halakhah—midrashic texts that expound the commandments by exploring their scriptural derivations. Safrai focused on a type of legal derivation that, roughly, takes the form, “We know that men are included in the law, but how do we know that women are also included?” The purpose was to investigate the dynamics of exclusion and inclusion of women in the application of Jewish law. Safrai was unwavering in her willingness to critique the texts she presented to us, and at the same time she was uncompromising in her loyalty to Orthodox Judaism. Subsequently, Safrai began a study partnership with Avital Campbell-Hochstein, who had also participated in the seminar and had become convinced of the importance of the subject for women’s place in Jewish law. I would often pass by Safrai’s open door at the Institute and see the two study partners not only examining intensely the texts before them, but also scrutinizing their own hearts for their reactions to those texts. Chana passed away before her time, and I miss her critical mind and the conversations we used to have about the direction of Orthodoxy and women’s issues. Now, in this Hebrew volume, we receive the fruits of the seminar and study partnership between her and Campbell-Hochstein. And a most important volume it is.

Bikkur Holim: The Origins of Jewish Pastoral Care

This paper surveys classical Jewish texts—from the Hebrew Bible through Medieval codes—regarding the concept and practice of Bikkur Holim, literally, “the sick visit.” How does this literature understand this ethical, religious act; who are the practitioners; what are their objectives? Although the Hebrew Bible does not contain a biblical precedent or legal mandate for Bikkur Holim, various categories of pastoral actions are traced in midrashic and talmudic texts. Their nuances are examined closely and a conceptualization of Jewish pastoral care is identified in a work by thirteenth century rabbi, jurist and physician, Nahmanides. Ezekiel 34 is proposed as the source for the rabbinic term, Bikkur Holim, as well as the conceptual understanding of Jewish pastoral care. Finally, the author posits various questions regarding the implication of his findings on the conduct of Jewish pastoral care, the value of spiritual assessment, and the nature of chaplaincy work in our various religious traditions.

The Theological Foundations of Rabbinic Midrash (review)

Theological Foundations of Rabbinic Midrash, by Jacob Neusner. Studies in Judaism. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2006. 342 pp. $44.00. In order to analyze the theological foundations of Rabbinic Midrash Jacob Neusner utilizes the concept of category-formations. These category-formations transform facts into the higher category of knowledge. Knowledge within this context is then mediated into theological propositions. rabbinic engagement with the written text of the Hebrew Bible (Scripture) is based upon a theological system that stimulated the creation of midrashic activity. This book sets forth the principal components of this theological system and the formation of the system itself. Neusner first classifies his categories and then proceeds to systematically investigate different midrashic genres. His approach is extremely sophisticated; going from document to document he finds the same or similar categories or, in some cases, states that there are none. book contains several major subparts. preface reviews the pertinent works by other scholars that engaged with rabbinic theology and Neusner s own contribution to this area of scholarship, in particular his series of theological commentaries on rabbinical literature and several of his groundbreaking monographs. introduction presents the reader with the methods applied to rabbinic texts which produced a theology within midrashic works. Part One of the book is entitled The common theology of rabbinic midrash; this section analyzes categories such as Consolation and God's Mercy and Justice with respect to different rabbinic documents. Part Two of the book is entitledSpecial cases and general conceptions; these are category-formations that are particular to individual rabbinic documents. Part Three addresses midrashic compilations that lack theological category-formations. Part Four presents a perspective in respect to theological foundations discussed in the previous sections of the book preface emphasizes that rabbinic theology is a corpus of coherent ideas in contradistinction to episodic sayings. Neusner's task in this superb book is to search for the larger implications of various topics in rabbinic texts. In order to prove his theorems Neusner works backward from the theological concepts in the texts to the rules that generated them. To this reviewer this is sound scholarship; a similar approach is found in the well-known theorems of generative semantics in the field of linguistics. Neusner asserts that propositional category-formations within rabbinic theology are not formal or topical categories; formal or topical categories do not yield insights into what Neusner calls systemic logic (p. xv). Often, the source of what is distinctive to each rabbinic document (e.g., Sifre to Numbers) derives from the biblical book to which the document is devoted. introduction quickly moves to the underlying hypothesis of Neusner's study. Rabbinic midrash rests on solid theological foundations; according to Neusner the rabbis did not produce arbitrary results in their systematic and thoughtful explorations. Midrashic documents are the outcomes of such processes as systematization, definition, and classification as well of generalization. data that one may raise from the texts are classified and then joined together by a given category formation. This reviewer maintains that midrashic texts could have only survived due to their internal theology. It is readily apparent that there was an underlying system in rabbinic literatureits theological foundation-much like languages that have their generative systems which assist in producing countless numbers of sentences based upon grammar. student of rabbinic text has usually internalized this theological system by reading text after text, without necessarily being able to express it. Neusner claims that the rabbis were guided by category-formations to ask repeatedly similar questions and consequentially they placed in order data in the Hebrew Bible. …

Mythopoetic Imagination and the Hermeneutic Bridging of Temporal Spacing: On Michael Fishbane's Biblical Myth and Rabbinic Mythmaking

Mythopoetic Imagination and the Hermeneutic Bridging of Temporal Spacing: On Michael Fishbane's Biblical Myth and Rabbinic Mythmaking

In the Days of the Barley Harvest: The Iconography of Ruth

This paper discusses the iconography of Ruth as depicted in two manuscripts, the Tripartite Mahzor, a Jewish prayer book of around 1322 from the Lake Constance region and the Padua Bible, a Christian picture Bible of around 1400 from Italy. Both manuscripts were influenced by the general European iconography of Ruth, but also share some special iconographic similarities based on Jewish commentaries and midrashic texts. The Jewish connection of the Christian Padua Bible is testimony to the Christian interest in the literal sense of the Bible and its Jewish interpretations among some Christian exegetes from the twelfth century on. Alongside the Christian interest in Jewish commentaries it is possible to suggest an additional interest in Jewish or Jewish like pictorial traditions of the book of Ruth.

Dialogical Reading in the Rabbinic Exegetical Narrative

This article investigates the reading dynamics of the rewritten Bible or the exegetical narrative in rabbinic literature of late antiquity. The exegetical narrative is composed of a story which simultaneously represents and interprets its biblical counterpart. Its singularity resides precisely in this synergy of narrative and exegesis. As exegesis, it creates new meanings from the biblical verses, and as narrative, it dramatizes those meanings by means of the biblical story world. The concurrent presence of two distinct voices, biblical and rabbinic, as well as two distinct types of discourse,narrative and exegetical, that navigate between these voices, creates a unique type of reading dynamic that I call dialogical reading. It is this dynamic that enables the midrashic text to create new meanings from old and highlights the challenge this genre presents to the theory of reading.