Rabbinic Tradition Research Articles

Transfiguring Medievalism: Poetry, Attention, and the Mysteries of the Body

Transfiguring Medievalism: Poetry, Attention, and the Mysteries of the Body

Rabbanite Views and Rabbinic Literature in Judeo-Persian Karaite Exegesis

This article discusses the outlook of Judeo-Persian Karaite authors on Rabbanite law and rabbinic literature based on an exegetical corpus written in Early Judeo-Persian from the eleventh century, which mostly remains in manuscript form. A close examination of this corpus demonstrates the authors’ complex attitude towards their contemporary Rabbanites and early Jewish literature. By relying on the teachings of the Karaite community of Jerusalem (the “Mourners of Zion”), the corpus’ authors criticize certain Rabbanite views and concepts, while still accepting other parts of the rabbinic tradition which did not challenge their ideology. In so doing, the authors establish themselves as part of the Karaite exegetical tradition, and, more broadly, of the Jewish intellectual world.

Abraham ibn Daud’un İbn Hazm’ın Nesih ve Tahrif Eleştirisine Karşı Tevrat Savunusu

Abraham ibn Daud (ö. 1180) İspanyalı önde gelen Yahudi âlimlerdendir. Onun yaşadığı dönemde İspanya toprakları Murabıtlar, Muvahhidler ve Hıristiyan krallıklar arasında savaşlara sahne olmuştur. İbn Daud, Müslümanlar ve Hıristiyanlar tarafından Yahudiliğe yöneltilen eleştirilere karşı Yahudiliği savunmuştur. İbn Daud, ayrıca Karaî Yahudilerin Rabbani Yahudilere yönelik eleştirilerine de cevap vermiştir. İbn Daud, Yahudiliği savunmak üzere biri inanca dair diğeri de Rabbani geleneğin otantikliğine dair iki temel eser yazmıştır. Bunlardan biri Arapça kaleme aldığı el-ʿAḳīdetu’r-Rāfiʿa, diğeri de İbranice Sefer ha-Kabala’dır. Sefer ha-Kabala, Karaîlerin eleştirilerine karşı Rabbani Yahudiliğin Musa’dan itibaren kesintisiz bir şekilde geldiğini ispatlamaya gayret eden bir eserdir. İlk Aristocu Yahudi düşünür olarak bilinen İbn Daud, başyapıtı olan el-ʿAḳīdetu’r-Rāfiʿa adlı eserinde ise Aristo felsefesi ışığında Yahudi inancının üstünlüğünü göstermeye çalışmakta, aynı zamanda Müslümanların nesih ve tahrif iddialarına cevap vermektedir. Elinizdeki makalede, İbn Daud’un nesih ve tahrifle ilgili cevapları incelenecektir. Bunu yaparken İbn Daud’un muhtemel kaynakları ve istifade ettiği eserler de tespit edilmeye çalışılacaktır. Diğer taraftan İbn Daud’un nesih ve tahrif iddialarını hangi Müslüman âlimin eserleri üzerinden okuduğuna dair soru da bu makalede cevaplandırılmaya çalışılacaktır.

The Politics of Galut: On the Rabbinical Tradition of the Least Bad Solution

Abstract Since exile, the galut, is an outcome of Israel’s defeat, the Jewish political tradition rests on the quest of the least bad solution. This contrasts with Greek-Western political theory. Residing in foreign kingdoms, Jews had to accept their domination and invest in ways to survive in hostile environments. The article shows how rabbinical literature invented a kind of proto-theory of survival and opens opportunities for Jewish agency. Even the State of Israel, generally seen as a rupture in Jewish history, fits into this traditional political logic of survival in exile.

Meir Kahane: The Public Life and Political Thought of an American Jewish Radical

Meir Kahane: The Public Life and Political Thought of an American Jewish Radical

Paul and His Letters: Thinking with Josephus. By F. B. A. Asiedu

F. B. A. Asiedu’s stimulating monograph pursues a little-explored but important comparison of two pivotal figures in Second Temple Judaism: the Apostle Paul and the Jewish prophet–historian and apologist, Flavius Josephus. Asiedu claims that Josephus represents ‘an expression of self-consciously post-Pauline Judaism’ from first-century Rome (p. 179; cf. p. xv). The contrast between both thinkers is not structured around common theological themes (i.e. their views of God, Mosaic Law, etc.). Rather, uniquely, it is biographically focused, drawing out similarities between each writer’s life, mostly overlooked by historians and critics (pp. xiii–xiv). The Jewish parameters for the investigation are made clear. Josephus provides important primary evidence for ‘the attested practices . . . for what a first-century Jewish writer affiliated with the Pharisees . . . was likely to do’ (p. xiv). In this regard, Paul and Josephus ‘represented themselves as Pharisees and as former Pharisees and in the company of Pharisees’ (p. xxiii). Asiedu posits that the Judaism of Josephus stands somewhere between Paul and Philo and the rabbis and the Rabbinic tradition (p. xxiii), helpfully setting the similarities and differences between Paul and Josephus in first-century Jewish life (pp. xxiii–xxxv). Nevertheless, Asiedu more gravitates towards the evidence of Paul’s letters than a continuous biographical comparison with Josephus throughout the monograph.

Two Sons of Adam

The qurʾānic Cain and Abel narrative in Q Māʾidah 5, which features a wellknown ethical maxim about the value of human life, exhibits a conspicuous connection to a Jewish precursor. As has been observed since the time of Abraham Geiger, the coincidence of the narrative and the maxim in Mishnah tractate Sanhedrin and its parallels in classical rabbinic literature appears to demonstrate the Qurʾān’s direct dependence on a Jewish source. In this article, I will pursue a more nuanced approach to the relationship between Sūrat al-Māʾidah and rabbinic tradition. On the one hand, I will propose a new interpretation of the famous motif of the raven that Cain imitated in burying his brother, which has persistently—but incorrectly—been understood to be drawn from a midrashic precursor. On the other, I will show that Sūrat al-Māʾidah does not intersect with tractate Sanhedrin solely at the point of this individual tradition; rather, investigation of the larger context of both the qurʾānic passage and the apparent source of the Jewish maxim in the Mishnah indicates that the two are linked through a much larger web of intertwined textual allusions. This coincidence possibly has implications for our understanding of the circumstances of the sūrah’s revelation as well as of the Jewish presence in the Medinan milieu, especially on the basis of the Qurʾān’s legitimation of violence in response to the alleged Jewish crime of spreading corruption in the land (fasād fī ’l-arḍ).

The Return of Biblical Theology: Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks and the Theological-Literary Movement

Abstract Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, the former Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, is probably the most important and well-known Jewish theologian of the twenty-first century. He believed passionately that Jewish values have relevance for all of mankind. What is somewhat surprising is the source of R. Sacks's theology. Orthodox Jewish theology has traditionally been anchored in either the perspective of Talmudic Rabbis as transmitted through the halacha and the aggadda, or based on the works of the great medieval Jewish philosophers such as the Rambam, Crescas and Yehuda Halevi. In contradistinction to these approaches, R. Sacks turned to the Bible as the primary source of his theology. This “returning to the bible” is consistent with other trends in orthodox Jewish scholarship which also emphasizes a return to intensive study of the biblical text using modern methodologies. However, since biblical theology is open to a myriad of differing and even contradictory opinions, the role of rabbinic tradition is of utmost importance. Thus, for Rabbi Sacks's theology to have lasting impact it needs to be based on, and a natural extension of, the timeless Jewish tradition. This essay will explore these issues.

A response to Martin Weimer’s ‘The Talmudic way of thinking cannot suddenly have disappeared from us: Death instinct, anti-Semitism and Jewish traditions in the foundation matrix of group analysis’

The author of this article poses three inter-related themes. 1) The primacy of the death instinct that accounts for destructivity in groups and, especially, for anti-Semitism. 2) There is a blind spot in group analysis that conceals the importance of anti-Semitism in its inception and history, which he deems to be largely derived from Foulkes’s idealization of groups and denial of their destructive potential. Hence, anti-Semitism is part of the foundation matrix of group analysis. 3) Group analytical practice, right down to its clinical details, can be understood as a performative realization of the rabbinic Jewish tradition. The present reviewer disagrees with these three points and expounds the reasons for this. However, he welcomes the opportunity it provides to engage in a most needed critical discussion.

“The Lightest Ones of the World and the Greatest Ones of the World” in the Palestinian Traditions of the Mishnaic and Talmudic Periods

Abstract This article discusses the development of a rabbinic tradition that draws on verses from Samuel’s speech dealing with the authority of leaders (1 Sam 12:6–11) against the backdrop of rabbinic political circumstances. In its earliest manifestations, this tradition is integrated into a story describing one of the confrontations concerning the determination of the Jewish calendar. These confrontations occurred in the Beit Midrash in Yavne under the leadership of Rabban Gamliel. The article traces the changes the confrontation underwent during the transitions between the different literary genres and suggests that these changes were influenced by the character of the social tension that existed when each genre was redacted. This article deals with the question of authority, power, and leadership in Palestine in the period of the Sages.

Mordechai Z. Cohen. The Rule of Peshat: Jewish Constructions of the Plain Sense of Scripture and Their Christian and Muslim Contexts, 900–1270.

Mordechai Z. Cohen. <i>The Rule of Peshat: Jewish Constructions of the Plain Sense of Scripture and Their Christian and Muslim Contexts, 900–1270</i>.

Inspiration and Revelation of the Qur’an and Its Relation to the Bible

The Qur’an often compares its own inspiration and revelation with previous scriptures to its audience. However, the Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity had manifold understandings of the inspiration and revelation of scripture. The rabbinic tradition posits various degrees of inspiration behind canonical scriptures: the Torah was dictated by God to Moses, while other prophets had lesser degrees of divine inspiration. Many Christian churches typically held a dual authorship concept, where the human author wrote under the inspiration of a divine author. Many Muslim traditions held various understandings of the agency, or lack thereof, of Muḥammad in the utterances of the Qur’an. Nonetheless, the Qur’an claims that its own inspiration is no different from some biblical books. Since the rabbinic and Christian views differ, it is imperative to understand the Qur’anic concept of itself on inspiration and revelation (waḥy and tanzīl), especially since it compares itself with other scriptures. Additionally, it is argued that the Qur’an’s self-referentiality as a “kitāb” that descends does not necessarily denote a “book” (neither heavenly nor earthly), but an order or commandment, which is more loyal to the root definition.

"These and Those are the Words of the Living God, but …": Meaning, Background, and Reception of an Early Rabbinic Teaching

This is the first article-length treatment of the famous rabbinic dictum "These and those are the words of the living God, but the Law always follows Beit Hillel." The statement's significance lies in the innovative manner in which it negotiates the monistic and pluralistic tendencies within the rabbinic tradition. "These and those …" first emerged in the late tannaitic or early amoraic period as a reworking of an earlier Tosefta text. The Yerushalmi, consistent with its overall monistic tendencies, cited this text only for its ruling in favor of Beit Hillel, marginalizing its affirmation that the teachings of Beit Shammai represent "the words of the living God." The Bavli embraced both the pluralistic and monistic stances of "These and those …" and further placed the declaration in a wider narrative context, imbuing it with social and ethical significance.

What Did We Hear at Sinai?

This article examines key texts on the experience of the giving of the Ten Commandments from the Bible, through rabbinic tradition, medieval commentators and two Hasidic masters.

“These and Those Are the Words of the Living God, but …”: Meaning, Background, and Reception of an Early Rabbinic Teaching

This is the first article-length treatment of the famous rabbinic dictum “These and those are the words of the living God, but the Law always follows Beit Hillel.” The statement's significance lies in the innovative manner in which it negotiates the monistic and pluralistic tendencies within the rabbinic tradition. “These and those …” first emerged in the late tannaitic or early amoraic period as a reworking of an earlier Tosefta text. The Yerushalmi, consistent with its overall monistic tendencies, cited this text only for its ruling in favor of Beit Hillel, marginalizing its affirmation that the teachings of Beit Shammai represent “the words of the living God.” The Bavli embraced both the pluralistic and monistic stances of “These and those …” and further placed the declaration in a wider narrative context, imbuing it with social and ethical significance.

The Beginning of the Christian Era Revisited: New Findings

We have re-examined and discussed all chronological, historical and astronomical elements which can be referred to the year of Herod the Great’s death, which occurred—according to Josephus—after a lunar eclipse and before Passover. Since the XIX century, most scholars still assume the eclipse occurred on 13 March 4 BC, so that Dionysius Exiguus was wrong in calculating the beginning of the Christian era—by four years at least—because Herod the Great must have been alive when Jesus was born. We have solved the apparent incompatibility of the events narrated by Josephus, occurring between the eclipse of 13 March 4BC and a too-near Passover (12 April 4 BC), by determining another date after studying all eclipses visible from Jerusalem in near years. This analysis—supported by a novel simulation of naked–eye visibility of partial lunar eclipses—has shown that the most eligible eclipse associable to Herod’s death occurred in the night of 8–9 November 2 AD. Besides this astronomical finding, our conclusion is also supported by significant correlation between segmented sleep and eclipse intervals; by its compatibility with the long sequence of events narrated by Josephus and with the rabbinic tradition about Herod’s death. This dating also agrees with other historical facts connected to Roman and Jewish history. In conclusion, Herod the Great must have died in the first month of 3 AD and, very likely, Dionysius Exiguus was correct.

“They Remembered That They Had Seen It in a Jewish Midrash”: How a Samaritan Tale Became a Legend of the Jews

This article relates the transmission history of a single Samaritan text and its fascinating trajectory from a Samaritan legend into early modern rabbinic tradition, and on to nineteenth and early twentieth century Jewish studies circles. It focuses on the only Samaritan narrative cited in all of Louis Ginzberg’s monumental Legends of the Jews (1909–1938). Often called the “Epistle of Joshua son of Nun,” I trace the trajectory of this story from a medieval Samaritan chronicle to Samuel Sulam’s 1566 publication of Abraham Zacuto’s Sefer Yuḥasin. From there, we move to early modern belles lettres in Hebrew and Yiddish, western scholarship and then to the great Jewish anthologizers of the fin de siècle, Micha Yosef Berdyczewski, Judah David Eisenstein and Louis Ginzberg. I will suggest reasons why this tale was so appealing to Sulam, a Sephardi scholar based in Istanbul, that he appended it to Sefer Yuḥasin, and what about this tale of heroism ingratiated it to early modern European and then early Zionist readers. The afterlife of this tale is a rare instance of Samaritan influence upon classical Jewish literature, undermining assumptions of unidirectional Jewish influence upon the minority Samaritan culture from antiquity to modern times.

Iggrot Ha'Ari Volume 1

Iggrot Ha’Ari is an open-access, undergraduate research-based journal that publishes multidisciplinary articles related to Jewish scholarship and religious thought. Iggrot Ha’Ari translates to “The Lion’s Letters.” The word “lion” reflects Columbia University’s mascot, Roar-ree, while the language of “letters” is a reference to the rabbinic tradition of respona. Together under advisory from the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, Iggrot Ha’Ari aims to promote Jewish knowledge and to provide students with the ability to academically master topics relevant to their own religious identity.&#x0D; Iggrot Ha’Ari hopes to provide readers with opportunities to create networks of scholars among authors and editors and foster relationships founded on Jewish scholarship.

Parallelism and Beyond: The Relationship between Targum Psalms and Rabbinic Literature

Abstract This study examines six manners in which rabbinic literature and Targum Psalms interact. 1. An earlier rabbinic tradition provides the backdrop against which the Targum’s translation must be understood. 2. The Targum applies a tradition it uses to translate one part of a psalm towards translating another verse in that same psalm. 3. The Targum revises earlier rabbinic traditions to suit its own ideological and literary concerns. 4. The Targum adapts interpretations that were originally generated well beyond the confines of the psalm being translated and even the Psalter as a whole. 5. The Targum inserts itself into popular late antique exegetical discourses of particular psalms. 6. It rejects a widespread interpretive trend attested to in rabbinic literature. Overall, by moving beyond the mere notation of parallelism, we gain a clearer portrait of the translator’s relationship with rabbinic literature, his working methods, and the ideologies that impelled his creative endeavours.

THE SEMITIC SCHOOL OF CHRISTIAN PATRISTICS

The Jewish community of Antioch was not monolithic. Communities of different currents tended to gather separately. Apparently, some of them, having received the news of the coming of the Messiah from the apostles, became the first centers of Christianity in Antioch, providing the basis for the future theological school. Such Semitic features of Antiochian patristics as literalism, historicism, and a kind of mystical materialism provoked criticism from other schools. On the other hand, Aramaic-speaking Christians could rightly call the Hebrew-Aramaic Bible "our Scriptures." As heirs to Old Testament prophets and legislators, Syrian apologists addressed the "Greeks" in a paternal tone. Theophilus of Antioch and Theodore of Mopsuestia even show a direct dependence on the rabbinic tradition of interpretation.