Jewish Tradition Research Articles

The Jewish Cemetery as Jewish and Non-Jewish Local Cultural Heritage in a Rural Hungarian Settlement

AbstractThe starting point for the present study is the thematization of the concept of “Jewish cultural heritage” and, in this context, the outlining of the role and position of cemeteries in Jewish tradition. The case study focuses on the Hungarian village of Apc, which was home to a Jewish community of just over a hundred people before World War II. After the Holocaust, only a few survivors returned to the settlement; some of them emigrated, while others remained in Apc for the rest of their lives. In recent decades, what has become of the cemetery, one of the most important sites for the former Jewish community of Apc? This paper explores the process of the heritagization of the local Jewish cemetery, one of the activities carried out by the Together for Apc Association, a civil society initiative launched two decades ago. In 2003, the dilapidated and abandoned “Israelite cemetery” was the first of the settlement's deteriorating assets to be declared as local cultural heritage. With the involvement of various actors from the local community (volunteers and local entrepreneurs), and in contact with Jewish organizations (the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities, the Foundation for Hungarian Jewish Cemeteries), the cemetery was restored over a period of two years and was “inaugurated” in 2006 in the presence of a rabbi, a cantor, a Jewish secular leader, Holocaust survivors and members of the local society. In the fifteen years since then, care has been taken to ensure that the achievements are sustainable and maintained, and the cemetery has been kept open not only for the descendants of the Jewish community but for all interested parties. But the salvaging of the Apc Jewish cemetery is not only an example of the preservation of the built heritage of a single community: while for the village residents it forms part of their local identity, for the Jewish organizations it represents part of their Jewish identity. What happens when two communities stake a claim to the heritagization of the same site? As a shared goal, or “cause,” the “bipolar” process of the heritagization of the Jewish cemetery in Apc has provided an opportunity for dialogue, collective thinking, and problem solving between Jewish and non-Jewish society, even if the various heritagization goals, coming from different directions, have in many cases generated tensions.

The Samaritans’ Understanding of Sacred Space and Perception of Jerusalem

One of the earliest tensions in Jewish history occurred between the northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah. These regions, called Samaria and Judea, were areas where two separate conflicting traditions took shape. These traditions, which state that they are the true guardians of the law of Moses and those who implement God’s commands as he wishes, have displayed different characteristics from each other in many matters such as the holy text, the principles of belief, the prophet, the messiah, and the application of rituals. One of the most important differences between these two traditions is the understanding of the sacred place. Jews stated that Jerusalem was determined by God and that the construction of the Temple there was done by God’s command. The Samaritans, on the other hand, stated that there was no reference to the sanctity of Jerusalem in the Law of Moses, and on the contrary, there were clear references to Mount Gerizim in all the narratives about the Jewish ancestors since Abraham, and they reacted strongly to both the traditions that had taken shape in the Judean region and the understandings about Jerusalem and the Temple. This approach of the Samaritans also appears in the negative portrayals of important prophets and kings such as Samuel, David and Solomon, who played an important role in the emergence of the Jewish tradition.

“Let Our Camp Be Pure”: The Views and Personality of Mordechai Narkiss, “The First Hebrew Curator,” Through His Critiques of Writers on Jewish Art in the 1920s–1950s

Abstract Mordechai Narkiss (1897–1957), the first and long-serving curator of the Bezalel Museum in Jerusalem, was a pioneering scholar in Jewish art history. His significant contributions to the field are epitomized by his insightful critiques, written in Hebrew, of the leading scholars in his era. Narkiss’s rigorous reviews, reinforced by his deep immersion in Jewish tradition and extensive knowledge of the visual arts across various cultures, adeptly identified errors, unfounded assumptions, and methodological shortcomings. He underscored the importance of a solid foundation in both Judaism and art history. This article explores six of Narkiss’s critical reviews of seminal works in the field: Karl Schwarz, Die Juden in der Kunst (1928), Cecil Roth, The Casale Pilgrim (1929), Ernst Cohn-Wiener, Die jüdische Kunst (1929), Rachel Wischnitzer, Symbole und Gestalten der Jüdischen Kunst (1935), Franz Landsberger, Einführung in die Jüdische Kunst (1935), and Jacob Pinkerfeld, Synagogues of Italy (1954). It elucidates the complexities and debates within Jewish art historiography, highlighting Narkiss’s pivotal role in both critiquing and shaping scholarly discourse and emphasizing the ongoing relevance of meticulous research in Jewish art history.

Who Is the Subject of Gender Self-determination?

This essay poses two critical questions about trans politics as elaborated in the Global North today: Who is the subject of gender self-determination? And what, precisely, is mobilized by tying political sovereignty to gendered persecution and ethical world-making, trans or otherwise? To answer those questions, both liberal and antistate iterations of gender self-determination are read through the lens of Judith Butler’s writing on the fractious relationship between ethical responsibility and politics. Focusing on Butler’s engagement with Emmanuel Levinas through a Jewish tradition, the author argues that trans politics have grounded claims to liberal individual and radical collective sovereignty alike in a diasporic metaphor of displacement from a rightful home. In the final analysis, Butler’s work outside of the theory of gender’s performativity helps make clear that gender, as a vector of self-determination and political assembly, advances colonial and settler interests—even when trans.

Violence, Volition, and Volatility: The Embodied Subjectivity of Women in Cults

This paper explores the embodied experience of 25 women who are former cult members. By delving into the stories of three protagonists, we examine how these women engaged with and possibly redefined the cult's socially constructed notion of womanhood. Building on Elizabeth Grosz's theory of subjective embodiment, we demonstrate how these feminine subjectivities were born at the convergence of three distinct forms of authority: charismatic leadership, the influence of Jewish tradition, and the principles of New Age spirituality. Through these lenses, these women formed their own ideals of motherhood and 'maternal instincts, thus subverting the corporal and symbolic norms dictated by the cult. This multi‐faceted approach illuminates how former cult members navigate and resist prescribed roles, ultimately fostering a nuanced understanding of the interplay between authority, tradition, and personal agency in their experiences.

Shaped by His Upbringing: Jesus’ Mission in Luke 4: 16–22 Aligned with Luke 2: 51–52 as a Paradigm for Youth Formation, Empowerment, and Social Engagement Today

This paper examines the formative influence of Jesus’ upbringing in Nazareth, particularly as depicted in Luke 4: 16–22, alongside related passages such as Luke 2: 51–52. Through these accounts, this analysis seeks to elucidate the social, cultural, and spiritual dimensions of Jesus’ early life and their significance in shaping his mission and identity, as well as how his religious customs and community involvement can inspire contemporary youth by integrating the core pillars of faith, education, and family and empowering them to confront modern challenges with a holistic perspective inspired by Jesus’ mission. Methodologically, it should be taken for granted that a tendency to psychologise biblical characters—interpreting their actions or decisions as if they shared modern psychological frameworks—can lead to oversimplifications or misapplications. For example, Jesus’ obedience to his parents reflects a culture of strict family authority, contrasting with today’s focus on independence and self-expression in youth development. By examining key Greek terms such as tethramménos (from trépho: ‘having been brought up’) and katà tò eiōthòs autộ (‘as was his custom’) in v.16, this study emphasises Jesus’ strong connection to his faith and cultural heritage. His regular participation in synagogue life and his upbringing in a religious and familial context (see Luke 2: 51–52) were crucial in shaping his identity and preparing him for his transformative and transforming mission, according to the Isaianic prophecy (61: 1–2) he read on the same occasion. This paper argues that these early experiences, particularly his education within the Jewish tradition and his family’s role in nurturing his spiritual growth, were foundational for the holistic mission Jesus would later proclaim—a mission that sought spiritual, social, and physical liberation.

David Flusser und seine Bedeutung für den jüdisch-christlichen Dialog

The life story of David Flusser (1917 Vienna – 2000 Jerusalem) extends from interwar Czechoslovakia, where he grew up and studied, to the broad research and teaching activities of an erudite professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He was a leading authority on Second Temple Judaism as well as early Christian writings. His contribution to the Jewish-Christian dialogue lies above all in his deep understanding of early Christianity, which he approached with great interest, openness and friendliness. For him, both Jesus and the apostle Paul are inspirational personalities who can only be properly understood in the context of the Jewish tradition of the time. The presented article focuses on how Flusser perceives their relationship to Jewish law (Torah) and how he sees Jewish attitudes to Jesus’ crucifixion.

The Quiet Quote: Thoughts on Quotation Norms and Plagiarism in the Judeo-Arabic Culture of the High and Late Middle Ages

Abstract In this paper, I strive to emphasize the phenomenology of quotation norms among Medieval Jewish scholars in an Islamicate context. The examined texts shed new light on the theme of plagiarism. The article ponders a fascinating connection raised in Jewish tradition between the legal normativity of quotation and the eschatological doctrine of deliverance. This research is both philological and comparative and stands at the intersection between law, literature, and philosophy. The last parts of the article show that the concept of plagiarism is a later phenomenon and that the discourse in this regard is modern by all means. It is connected with concepts such as intellectual property, which is mostly grounded in human rights discourse. In the appendix, I show the reductio ad absurdum of this phenomenon in modern times and address the heightened complexity of the issue in the technological era, with the promotion and growing influence of artificial intelligence.

“It Requires Privacy”: Sharing a House in Thirteenth-Century Paris

Analysis of a legal ruling by Yehiel of Paris (d. ca. 1260) in a rental dispute between two Jewish men sheds light on aspects of Jewish life in a major medieval European city. Two Jews rented an apartment from a Christian owner, and a dispute arose when one of the tenants left mid-term and his replacement, also a Jewish man, tried to renew the lease directly with the landlord. The original tenant claimed the exclusive right to renew the lease and that he was unwilling to share the apartment with the new tenant as this would impinge on his privacy in use of the lavatory. This article attempts to unravel the legal and cultural dimensions of the dispute and the demographic and architectural realities underpinning it. The article maintains that the disputants’ legal arguments drew upon both Jewish legal tradition and the legal norms of the rental market in Paris. The legal and cultural significance of privacy in the medieval urban context also plays an important role in the case.

Вчення Ісуса Христа щодо духовної та фізичної «нечистоти» людини

This research analyses the content, components and essence of one of the topics that causes a lot of debate in the Christian world. The topic of the place of the Law of God and the sanitary law given through Moses in the context of eating clean and unclean animals has generated much discussion and even controversy. The words of Jesus in Mark 7:14-23 seem to confirm that there is no need to observe the commandments concerning clean and unclean food, since all the commandments of the Old Testament were cancelled on the cross. What this biblical passage actually means is the main task of biblical exegesis and critical analysis of this passage. As a result of the analysis of literary sources, it was found that the interpretations of this text vary and are not unanimous. Given the fact that opinions on these texts differ and have different connotations, there is a need for careful research in order to understand with certainty what Jesus Christ meant by these words. It was found that the context of Mark 7:14-23 and the cross-referenced Bible passages indicate that Jesus’ words do not refer to the doctrine of clean and unclean food, but to the traditions of hand and utensil washing held by the Pharisees and scribes. A cultural and historical analysis of this passage shows that the commandment about clean and unclean food was given by God in the desert to remind the Israelites of the division of animals into certain categories, and that they should not adapt to the lives of other peoples who sacrificed such animals or considered them sacred. Later on, Jewish traditions distorted this teaching, which Jesus Christ pointed out to the Pharisees and scribes when they tried to reproach Him for not observing the doctrine of washed hands. After conducting a linguistic analysis, we found that the words of Jesus Christ in Mark 7:14-23 refer exclusively to the fact that the Jews considered food unclean because of unwashed hands and thus lost the true meaning of God’s commandment. In summary, we can note that the problem Jesus Christ highlights is the observance of small regulations that are not even taught in the Bible and because of which the Jewish teachers did not see the essence of God’s commandments: love of God and love of neighbor. That is why the Lord says that it is not the fact that a person is unclean, defiled, or lacking in holiness that makes him unclean, but rather that he does evil deeds that come from his heart. The study also revealed that Mark 7:14-23 does not refer to Christ’s abolition of the laws that regulated the eating of meat from «clean and unclean» animals. Such a position is neither reasonable nor biblically proven. Moreover, the laws of diet are much older than any other laws concerning the physical well-being of man (Genesis 7:2, 3).

“Written upon the Stones”: Of the Cyclops, the Shamir and Other Legends of Origin in Benjamin of Tudela’s Book of Travels

This paper examines legends on the origins (aetiologies) of places and placenames in Benjamin of Tudela’s travel account. Origin stories are prevalent in medieval travelogues, but Hebrew travel accounts employ a unique form that is embedded in placenames. Midrash Shem (מדרש שם), as this form is known in Jewish tradition, is the homiletical interpretation of names, typically characterized in some measure by wordplay. I suggest that these legends and placenames serve Hebrew travel literature both as an evidential tool and as an artistic means of expression, contributing to the construction of “known” and “foreign” lands and peoples, and consequently to the formulation of group identities. En route to the foreign and unknown, yet “own”, holy Eretz Yisrael, Benjamin of Tudela encounters Jewish communities and records a variety of aetiologies throughout the Middle East. In retelling the origins of the travelled landscape, he transmits local mythical, theological and historical content as well as particular Jewish-diasporic socio-political realities. Diversely told origins of Roman architecture, scattered across most of Benjamin’s account, show how these local traditions varied. Some aetiologies fuse traditional with foreign content to affirm a sense of belonging under foreign rule, while others actively undermine established non-Jewish narratives or even oppose competing Jewish narratives.

Analysis of Patristic Interpretation of the “Shema” in Deuteronomy 6:4-5

The Patristic period stands as a pivotal era in the development of Christian doctrine, marked by profound theological and philosophical debates. Amidst these discussions, the Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4-5 retains its central importance for both Jewish and Christian faith traditions, offering insights into the nature of God. This paper explored the Patristic interpretation of the Shema, highlighting the perspectives of the Alexandrian and Antiochene Schools of thought. Key theological issues addressed include the monotheistic concept of God, the symbolic significance of Israel, the unity of God, and the Trinitarian debate. A historical approach was used where the views of selected theologians were explored within their socio-cultural and political settings. Drawing from African perspectives, the study reflected on the enduring relevance of these theological inquiries for contemporary society. Ultimately, the theological insights garnered from Patristic interpretations continue to inform and enrich modern theological discourse, bridging the gap between ancient wisdom and contemporary understanding. Keywords: God, Patristic Era, Shema, Trinity

Jewish Elements in the Ancient Chinese Christian Manuscript Yishen Lun (Discourse on God)

This article identifies and analyzes four passages in the ancient Chinese Christian manuscript Yishen Lun (YSL) that exhibit distinct Jewish characteristics. The phrase “yizhong zuo shenghua” (lines 356–358) mirrors the Book of Acts’ theme of “sanctification of the Gentiles,” rooted in the Jewish dichotomous worldview, placing Jews, or Shihu Ren, at the center. The author’s use of this phrase distinguishes him from yizhong ren (Gentiles) and aligns him with Shihu Ren. In lines 256–263, YSL directly attributes messianic declarations to Jesus, a central issue in Jewish accusations of false Messiahship. In contrast, the Gospel accounts avoid making such direct accusations, as Jesus did not openly declare himself the Messiah. This distinction highlights YSL’s closer alignment with Jewish polemical traditions and legal concerns. Additionally, the use of “City of Judah” in lines 345–347 as an archaic designation for Jerusalem, predominantly found in Jewish traditions, contrasts with the more common “City of David” in other biblical texts. A philological analysis of lines 279–281 reveals imagery analogous to the synagogue parochet covering the Ark of the Scrolls. These four Jewish elements complement the one analyzed in the author’s earlier 2024 article, “The Parable of Wise and Foolish Builders in Yishen Lun and Rabbinic Literature.” That study concludes that the parable of wise and foolish builders in lines 146–156 of YSL aligns more closely with Jewish rabbinic traditions than the Gospel version. These new hermeneutical insights should provide interesting and fresh data for ongoing research into YSL.

Rebranding God: The Jewish Revival Movement between Homeland and Diaspora

Against the gloomy forecast of “The Vanishing Diaspora”, the end of the second millennium saw the global emergence of a dazzling array of Jewish cultural initiatives, institutional modalities, and individual practices. These “Jewish Revival” and “Jewish Renewal” projects are led by Jewish NGOs and philanthropic organizations, the Orthodox Teshuva (return to the fold) movement and its well-known emissary Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidism, and alternative cultural initiatives that promote what can be termed “lifestyle Judaism”. This range between institutionalized revival movements and ephemeral event-driven projects circumscribes a diverse space of creative agency. Indeed, the trope of a “Jewish Renaissance” has become both a descriptive category of an increasingly popular and scholarly discourse across the globe, and a prescriptive model for social action. This article explores the global transformations of contemporary Jewishness, which give renewed meaning to identity, tradition, and politics in our post-secular world in two different sociopolitical contexts. Drawing on long-term ethnographic research, we interrogate the relations between “diaspora” and “homeland” by analyzing two case studies: the Jewish revival movement in Budapest, Hungary, and the Jewish renewal initiatives in Israel. While the first instantiates a diasporic movement anchored in a post-denominational and post-secular attempt to reclaim Jewish tradition for a new generation of Jew-llennials (Millennial Jews), the second group operates against the Orthodox hegemony of the institutional Rabbinate by revisiting religious ritual and textual study. By proposing new cultural repertoires, these movements highlight the dialectic exchange between center and periphery. The ethnography of religious revival decenters the Israeli Orthodoxy as “the homeland” and positions the diaspora at the core of a network of cultural creativity and renewal, while remaining in constant dialog with Israel and other diasporic communities.

The theodicies of Hans Jonas and Jürgen Moltmann: Proposing an alternative reformed angle

Auschwitz had a profound impact on the theological landscape. It led to God’s lordship, goodness and power being put on trial. If God exists and if he is a good and powerful God, why did he not intervene to stop the atrocities committed during the Holocaust? The theologies of the Jewish philosopher Hans Jonas and the Christian theologian Jürgen Moltmann were decisively structured by these questions.Contribution: This article compares the theodicies of these two influential thinkers within the Jewish and Christian traditions by analysing their concepts of God, the nature of the cosmos and human history as well as their respective views on God’s response to suffering. Despite showing appreciation for profound insights, this article points out impasses in their arguments. Drawing on a reformed approach to the question, the article concludes that the anthropodicy question is the real elephant in the room, not the theodicy question. Instead of asking questions about God’s goodness, Reformed theology posits the incomprehensibility of human beings turning against God. We must ask: How does it happen that a self-conscious being possessing innate moral capacities, such as moral emotions and vicarious intersubjective capabilities, rebels against God and engage in atrocious acts? Seen from this perspective, the theodicy question seems to be undergirded by the human propensity to moral disengagement and blame-shifting. Perhaps, instead of putting God on trial, humans must resort to introspection.

Auschwitz and Hiroshima: Günther Anders

Abstract Widely translated into several Western languages (with the exception of English), Günther Anders (1902–92) has, in the last two decades, attained the status of a classic figure within twentieth-century critical thought, close to Herbert Marcuse and the Frankfurt School without ever becoming one of its members. This article analyses his intellectual trajectory and his body of work, which includes many articles, essays, short stories, and even a novel. It focuses on his Jewish roots, which made him a paradigmatic representative of the ‘non-Jewish Jew’: a Jew confronted with antisemitism, an internationalist standing before the Jewish tradition. The crucial premises of his original theory, the author emphasises, were Auschwitz and Hiroshima, the extermination of European Jewry, and the atomic bomb. Set out in his most ambitious work, The Outdatedness of Human Beings (Volume 1, 1956; Volume 2, 1980), Anders’ thought appears as a kind of dialectical sublation, from a Marxist perspective, of Heidegger’s philosophy of technique (where technique has replaced human beings as the subject of history), articulated with a radical criticism of Heidegger’s political ontology.

Jewish exegesis and a vernacular translation of the Hebrew Bible

San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Real Biblioteca, MS. I.i.8 (=E8) and MS. I.i.6 (=E6) are complementary parts of an almost complete Bible, translated from Latin, and transmitting a Castilian version likely produced in the first half of the thirteenth century. Unlike the remaining books in this two-volume Bible, the Psalter’s heading indicates that the Psalms were translated from Hebrew, by Hermannus Allemanus, a scholar of German origin who took part in the projects sponsored by King Alfonso X. Both the attribution of the translation and its dependence on a Hebrew source have never convinced scholars entirely. In spite of the fact that the literature on the topic is vast, and that the text of the Psalter and its glosses have sparked renewed interest in recent years, the challenge of identifying Hebrew exegetical sources that might have influenced the translation has remained largely unaddressed. This article takes up that challenge and aims to contribute to furthering our understanding of the bearing of the Jewish medieval exegetical tradition on this translation of the Bible.

Представления о неисчислимых предметах в литературе на древнегреческом языке: от бессмысленного занятия – до знания Аполлона и Бога

One of the prophecies of the seven astragals oracle from the Pisidian city of Termessus included the saying “to count the waves,” indicating the futility of the intended endeavor. The author seeks to ascertain the purposes behind the Greeks’ utilization of imagery pertaining to uncountable objects such as waves, grains of sand, stars, and others. Additionally, the author aims to explore the perceptions surrounding the act of counting these objects within both domestic and cultural-religious contexts. The article shows that this “incalculability” was attracted by the Greeks to express incommensurable and even opposite concepts. First, through expressions like “to count the waves”, the case was characterized as either impossible or meaningless and stupid. Secondly, countless stars or waves were recalled when there was a need to emphasize the incredibly huge number of objects being described. Third, thanks to Apollo’s revelation announced in the response of the Delphic oracle, the knowledge of the number of grains of sand and the size of the sea formed the basis of the formula of divine omniscience: “I know the number of grains of sand and the depths of the sea”. When the books of the Old Testament were translated, the Hebrew tradition began to speak in ancient Greek. In it, the uncountable objects were needed primarily to emphasize God’s promise to Abraham of the multiplicity of the Israelite people, and for comparisons as well as to describe God’s omniscience. The list of uncountable objects itself differed in part from the standards recognized by the ancient Greeks. The ancient Greek and Jewish traditions merged in Byzantine literature into a single stream of the Christian tradition. The lists of uncountable objects of both traditions have been combined and further expanded upon. The Greek tradinion’s designation for an impossible or meaningless endeavor was retained. Passages from the Old Testament with words of God’s promises to Abraham were quoted and retold. Comparison with uncountable objects was actively used. The Apollo’s revelation was recognized as a deception of this demon, torn away from Apollo and eventually given to God.

The Good of Thomas Aquinas

Aquinas’s thought was recognized as brilliant and insightful from his own time onwards, and there is a resurgence of interest in it today not only among Catholics and other Christians but among contemporary humanistic philosophers also, as a quick review of bibliographic sources will evince. Nonetheless, with many pressing problems in the world, with growing secularization of society, and with rising recognition of the need for multicultural studies, people may wonder why anyone would want to study the thought of a thirteenth-century European Catholic. People may think, what good is Aquinas now? This small essay is an attempt to give a short answer to that question. Our essay has two parts. The first part focuses on Aquinas’s metaphysics. It shows the way in which both the preceding Jewish and Hellenistic traditions are brought together in Aquinas’s work to yield a metaphysics that can handle well complicated philosophical issues still discussed today. The second part focuses on Aquinas’s ethics. It shows the way in which Aquinas’s version of virtue ethics incorporates the significance of the second-personal in human flourishing to yield a decidedly non-Aristotelian ethics.

The Tomb of Nabi Yusha’ in the Upper Galilee: The Evolution of a Sacred Place

Among the six sites regarded as the burial place of Joshua bin Nun, the one of Nabi Yusha’, located on the eastern slopes of the Upper Galilee highlands was regarded with great reverence by the "Matawila" or "Mutawalli" Shi'ites in Southern Lebanon and in the Galilee, including the inhabitants of the village Al-Nabi Yusha’. Jewish tradition tends to reject the identification of Joshua’s tomb at this site but rather identify it with a site in Samaria, and therefore this place did not become part of the traditional sanctified gravesites of saintly figures found throughout the Galilee. This article is related to the date and reason for the construction of the mausoleum in its present form, and of the two domes over it, as well as to the tradition of pilgrimage to the site and the cult of the local Shi’ite inhabitants. In its second part, the article refers to the cultic changes that occurred after the establishment of the State of Israel, and to the question of the location of the tomb today in the process of creating a sacred landscape in the Galilee. The main claim of the article is that tracing the changes in the cult of this site will show the geopolitical importance of this place on the one hand, and the changing social values of the surrounding inhabitants and of the sovereign authority on the other.