ZutotPub Date : 2024-09-12DOI: 10.1163/18750214-tat00001
Stephen G. Burnett
{"title":"Martin Luther, Kabbalah, and Jewish Magic","authors":"Stephen G. Burnett","doi":"10.1163/18750214-tat00001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18750214-tat00001","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Martin Luther concerned himself with Kabbalah at two points during his long career as a theologian. From 1513 to 1519, he first considered and then rejected Kabbalah as a kind of spiritual ‘ladder’ that allowed believers a fuller experience of the otherwise ‘hidden’ God. Later, in 1543, he wrote against the Jews’ ‘superstitious’ beliefs about the tetragrammaton and kabbalistic ‘magic’ generally. This essay will consider the sources of Luther’s kabbalistic knowledge, his understanding of what Jews believed about Kabbalah, and how Kabbalah fit into Luther’s own views concerning Jews and Judaism more generally. Luther believed that the devil was involved in promoting Kabbalah and Jewish magical practices both to deceive its practitioners and their followers, and as a way of redirecting worship away from the true God.</p>","PeriodicalId":40667,"journal":{"name":"Zutot","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2024-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142209214","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ZutotPub Date : 2024-08-26DOI: 10.1163/18750214-tat00002
Saverio Campanini
{"title":"Gershom Scholem and Christian Kabbalah: A Reappraisal","authors":"Saverio Campanini","doi":"10.1163/18750214-tat00002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18750214-tat00002","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper tries to shed light on the value and limitations of the label ‘Christian Kabbalah’ for our knowledge of the historical phenomenon it describes. It works out how Christian scholars approached Kabbalah for a variety of reasons, be they instrumental, polemicizing or glorifying approaches, or for further motives. In addition, the article examines how the basic lines of the field of research around the Kabbalah in general were established and which impulses emanated from Gershom Scholem in particular. It concludes with an examination of Scholem’s religious philosophy with regard to his own research interest in the Kabbalah, which goes, in Scholem’s words, beyond historiography in some cases. Scholem described academic research on Kabbalah as ‘ironic’ and this irony affects his own ambivalent attitude towards the Christian Kabbalists of the Renaissance and the early modern epoch.</p>","PeriodicalId":40667,"journal":{"name":"Zutot","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2024-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142209306","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ZutotPub Date : 2024-08-26DOI: 10.1163/18750214-0000010045
Omri Livnat
{"title":"Arabic Didactic Verse and Hebrew Poetry in the Middle East","authors":"Omri Livnat","doi":"10.1163/18750214-0000010045","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18750214-0000010045","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article examines the relationship between Arabic didactic verse and Hebrew poetry in the early 10th-century Middle East. Scholars have argued that Arabic didactic verse served as a model for Hebrew poets at the beginning of the 10th century and that, allegedly, this was one of the earliest signs of Arabic poetry’s influence on Hebrew poets. By surveying Arabic didactic verse and two Hebrew poems ostensibly composed following it (the first is commonly attributed to Nissi al-Nahrawānī and the other is by Saadiah Gaon), this article argues that there is no indication of a connection between the Arabic model and Hebrew poetry from this early period.</p>","PeriodicalId":40667,"journal":{"name":"Zutot","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2024-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142209366","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ZutotPub Date : 2024-06-26DOI: 10.1163/18750214-bja10044
Benjamin Scolnic
{"title":"The Oil That Lasted a Thousand Years: Daniel 9:24 and the Anointing of the Holy of Holies","authors":"Benjamin Scolnic","doi":"10.1163/18750214-bja10044","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18750214-bja10044","url":null,"abstract":"<p>While the familiar Hanukkah story of the ‘miracle of the oil’ is often dismissed as quaint and fanciful, it may be seen as a final link in an interesting chain of traditions about the sanctity of Judaism’s holiest of places. In the book of Exodus, one type of oil is used to light the lamps and another oil is used to anoint the Tabernacle and make it inviolate. The Tabernacle became part of the First Temple so there was no need to anoint the Holy of Holies there. In the time of the First Temple, some considered the Temple to be inviolate. When the First Temple was destroyed, no aspect of the new Temple was anointed. In the 160s <span style=\"font-variant: small-caps;\">BCE</span>, during the Antiochene persecution, some felt the need to explain how the Temple could have been violated. The author of Daniel 9 reinterpreted Jeremiah’s prophecies of the 70 years of exile to be 70 weeks of years so that everything that had befallen the Judeans was seen as part of God’s overarching plan. The complex issues of continuity/discontinuity between, and the violability/inviolability of the temples, underlie Dan. 9 and related texts.</p>","PeriodicalId":40667,"journal":{"name":"Zutot","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2024-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141505007","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ZutotPub Date : 2024-03-27DOI: 10.1163/18750214-bja10043
Moshe Idel
{"title":"On Equality and Irreducibility of Female to Male in Safedian Forms of Kabbalah","authors":"Moshe Idel","doi":"10.1163/18750214-bja10043","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18750214-bja10043","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 In kabbalistic writings equality between the male and female divine entities recurs in dozens of instances and this is also the case in Safedian forms of Kabbalah. However, there is an additional theme to equality, that is shared by the two main and extensive literary corpora, that of Moses Cordovero and the much later texts of his former disciple, that of R. Hayyim Vital: the irreducibility of the female principle to the male one during the sexual encounter. The present study explores the passages reflecting the details of this similarity, as well as the theurgical impact of the feminine soul, in the wider context of the relationship between some important ideas shared by those distinct kabbalistic writings.","PeriodicalId":40667,"journal":{"name":"Zutot","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2024-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140375089","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ZutotPub Date : 2024-02-23DOI: 10.1163/18750214-bja10042
Shalem Yahalom
{"title":"On the Antiquity of the Virginity Blessing","authors":"Shalem Yahalom","doi":"10.1163/18750214-bja10042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18750214-bja10042","url":null,"abstract":"A variety of sources support the claim that different versions of the virginity blessing were recited throughout the Jewish communities during the Middle Ages. Despite its widespread use, the virginity blessing and confirmation ritual are not mentioned in the Talmud, and the wording of the blessing is first mentioned only in <jats:italic>Sefer Halakhot gedolot</jats:italic>. The absence of this blessing in earlier texts can be considered from two alternative perspectives. The first is that the blessing was composed after the Mishnah and Talmud were canonized. Alternatively, it was indeed an early blessing, but it was practiced in circles that operated outside the scholarly mainstream. Ruth Langer preferred the second possibility. This study will adopt Langer’s position that the blessing originated in the Land of Israel. It will show, however, that this blessing could not have been recited in ancient times and that it must have been a later development.","PeriodicalId":40667,"journal":{"name":"Zutot","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2024-02-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139946248","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ZutotPub Date : 2023-12-05DOI: 10.1163/18750214-bja10040
Oded Cohen, Roni Cohen
{"title":"The Jewish Traveler and the Protestant Shoemaker: A Hans Sachs Poem in Yiddish","authors":"Oded Cohen, Roni Cohen","doi":"10.1163/18750214-bja10040","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18750214-bja10040","url":null,"abstract":"This article discusses a new finding – the first known Yiddish translation of a literary piece by the famous 16th-century Meistersinger Hans Sachs (1494–1576). The translation was copied, shortly after the original piece was printed in German, as part of a manuscript that includes various lists on various topics copied by a traveling Jew named Uri ben Simon. The examination of the translation and its context in Uri ben Simon’s codex are used as an example of inter-cultural exchange in the early modern German space.","PeriodicalId":40667,"journal":{"name":"Zutot","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138512089","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ZutotPub Date : 2023-11-23DOI: 10.1163/18750214-bja10041
Naoya Katsumata, Wout van Bekkum
{"title":"Two Aramaic Piyyutim from the Second Crusade (1148)","authors":"Naoya Katsumata, Wout van Bekkum","doi":"10.1163/18750214-bja10041","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18750214-bja10041","url":null,"abstract":"A single folio from <jats:sc>MS</jats:sc> 119 in the Geneva Genizah includes two unknown and unpublished piyyutim in Aramaic, which are presented in this study for the first time. The two hymns can be precisely dated to the year 1148, the time of the Second Crusade. They resemble each other to a significant extent in terms of content and prosody, referring to a dire historical situation that can be explicitly linked to the siege of Damascus in the summer of 1148. This study presents a critical edition of the two Aramaic piyyutim together with an English translation alongside other textual elements within the remarkable context of this unique folio.","PeriodicalId":40667,"journal":{"name":"Zutot","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-11-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138512144","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ZutotPub Date : 2023-10-16DOI: 10.1163/18750214-bja10039
Dov Bergman
{"title":"The Hazanic Revival in Later Hasidism","authors":"Dov Bergman","doi":"10.1163/18750214-bja10039","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18750214-bja10039","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract During the early stages of the Hasidic movement, a mixed sentiment towards hazanut (cantorial music) existed. However, a significant shift occurred during the later period of Hasidism. Embracing change, hazanim (cantors) started performing at Hasidic courts. With the rise of the ‘celebrity hazan ’ in the late 19th century, certain American Hasidic rebbes harnessed the widespread popularity of hazanut to advance philanthropic endeavors within the Hasidic world.","PeriodicalId":40667,"journal":{"name":"Zutot","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136181881","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}