{"title":"The Book of Revolutions: The Battles of Priests, Prophets, and Kings that Birthed the Torah, written by Edward Feld","authors":"Gary G. Porton","doi":"10.1163/15700704-12341407","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700704-12341407","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":40689,"journal":{"name":"Review of Rabbinic Judaism","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44732581","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}
{"title":"A Note on an Anti-Christian Polemic in an Early Eichah Commentary","authors":"H. Basser","doi":"10.1163/15700704-12341406","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700704-12341406","url":null,"abstract":"This note draws attention to anti-Christian polemical activity in Ya ʾacov ben Reuven’s Karaite commentary to Lam. 4:22, found in the Eichah section in his Sefer ha ʾOsher. Apparently (if not a much later gloss), the passage at hand comes from an 11th or 12th century Byzantine setting.1 Unless otherwise warranted, I am inclined to accept the comment at face value as that of Ya ʾacov ben Reuven.2 The text, p. 7/150r MS C11 (Institute of Oriental Manuscripts, the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia),3 says","PeriodicalId":40689,"journal":{"name":"Review of Rabbinic Judaism","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47868088","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}
{"title":"The Social Significance of Expressions of Hierarchy, Equality, and Fraternity in Rabbinic Traditions about Moses and Aaron from the Land of Israel","authors":"B. Elitzur","doi":"10.1163/15700704-12341401","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700704-12341401","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article discusses rabbinic traditions about Moses and Aaron that address questions of hierarchy, status, envy, and fraternity between the brothers. It suggests that considering the time periods and places in these traditions were written adds a crucial dimension to understanding them. Information about the social and religious challenges of the era illustrates the social dynamics at the end of the Second Temple period and in the time of the Mishnah and Talmud. This reveals an aspect of the nature of the leadership crisis and shows the positions and desires of the emerging heirs to leadership. Such an historicist approach relies on the paradigm in the literature regarding Aaron’s character. It allows for optimal understanding of trends in treatment of these traditions among the sages in the Land of Israel.","PeriodicalId":40689,"journal":{"name":"Review of Rabbinic Judaism","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46623710","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}
{"title":"“A Great Soul Reincarnated among Gentiles:” The Attitude of Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Hakohen Kook and Rav Tsvi Yehudah Hakohen Kook to Nietzsche","authors":"Hagay Shtamler","doi":"10.1163/15700704-12341404","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700704-12341404","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This essay describes the attitude of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kook (1865–1935) as well as that of his son, Rabbi Zvi Yehudah Hakohen Kook (1891–1982), to Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844–1900) and his philosophy. It shows that the father read Nietzsche differently from the son. The father criticizes Nietzsche profusely, while the son often mentions him appreciatively and even said that he was a great soul that reincarnated among the gentiles. The essays suggests that their dissimilar approaches resulted from the different intellectual challenges each faced due to the different cultural periods in which they lived.","PeriodicalId":40689,"journal":{"name":"Review of Rabbinic Judaism","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48762329","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}
{"title":"Jewish Conversion in the Riots of 1391: The Legal Justification","authors":"Shalem Yahalom","doi":"10.1163/15700704-12341399","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700704-12341399","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This study presents the halakhic rulings that preceded the riots of 1391 in Spain and provided the moral infrastructure that allowed the conversion to Catholicism of Rabbi Isaac ben Sheshet Perfet (known by the acronym Rivash) and many other Jews. Rivash was willing broadly to define duress, which exempts one from halakhic obligations. The rulings Rivash attributed to Rabbi Shlomo ben Avraham ibn Aderet (known by the acronym Rashba) – that the commandment “He shall live by them” applies even when a Jew is forced under the threat of death to abandon his faith and that the choice of martyrdom is a secondary religious commandment – were both revolutionary statements. They provided legitimacy to the religious elite – and, as a matter of course, to the simple folk – to choose life, even if it required converting to Christianity.","PeriodicalId":40689,"journal":{"name":"Review of Rabbinic Judaism","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64910069","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}
{"title":"Cross-Over Diseases and Constructions of Difference: Pigs and Pandemics in Jewish Sources","authors":"J. Crane","doi":"10.1163/15700704-12341395","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700704-12341395","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Concerns about zoonotic diseases and efforts to differentiate between groups intertwine at the intersection of critical animal studies, biomobility and epidemic discourses, and religious studies. Using the case in rabbinic literature of pandemics moving from pigs to humans, this study unfolds in historical stages. Period I, “Flesh” (3rd C to 12th C), considers the issues at hand: a pandemic, pigs, the question of what to do and why. Period II, “Metaphor” (12th C to 16th C), turns pigs into metaphors for sociopolitical concerns, to make strong distinctions between sets of humans. Period III, “Science” (16th C to 20th C), argues that evidence should help inform decisions of what to do in the face of a zoonotic pandemic. The conclusion, “Directions,” considers first the possibility of reverse-zoonosis, of human infecting animals, before offering reflections for several fields of study.","PeriodicalId":40689,"journal":{"name":"Review of Rabbinic Judaism","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43788540","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}
{"title":"Reading Talmudic Sources as Arguments: The Case of Water Used by a Baker","authors":"Yuval Blankovsky","doi":"10.1163/15700704-12341396","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700704-12341396","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000By discussing a short sugya, this paper demonstrates how to read the components of a typical Talmudic discussion – Mishnah, Tosefta, Yerushalmi and Bavli – as arguments. In contrast to widely used academic approaches, I show that it is possible to ascribe disagreement to parallel sources without passing judgment either on their chronological order or on whether one of the sources is a direct response to the other. The appendix offers a new theoretical model for approaching the synoptic problem in rabbinic literature.","PeriodicalId":40689,"journal":{"name":"Review of Rabbinic Judaism","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48260316","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}
{"title":"The Story of Nahum Ish Gamzu and the Poor Man in the Babylonian Talmud: The Compassionate Socially Aware Hasid","authors":"Isaiah Ben Pazi","doi":"10.1163/15700704-12341398","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700704-12341398","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Nahum Ish Gamzu is a colorful and revered character in the Babylonian Talmud. In one dramatic legend, as a result of an interaction with a poor man, Nahum decrees upon himself a disproportionate punishment: to have his arms and legs amputated and his body covered with boils. This article examines the various sources of the story, places the story in the context of similar stories in Talmudic discourse, and shows that the editors of the Talmud wished to present Nahum in contrast to Rav Ada, who had similar abilities but did not wish to prevent a house from collapsing. Nahum was compassionate and socially aware, in contrast to Rav Ada, who did not want to use his piety to help others. In drawing this contrast, the editors reworked the literary nucleus found in the Jerusalem Talmud, shaping the stories and placing them side by side so that the contrast between these two types of Hasid is clear.","PeriodicalId":40689,"journal":{"name":"Review of Rabbinic Judaism","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42956054","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}
{"title":"The Scapegoat Ritual: Between Biblical and Tannaitic Law","authors":"Yosef Marcus","doi":"10.1163/15700704-12341397","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700704-12341397","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000In Leviticus 16, Aaron is commanded to bring a bull to atone for himself and his household (v. 3) along with two goats to atone for the children of Israel (v. 5). He sprinkles the blood of the bull and one of the goats in different places in the Temple and sends the second goat, the scapegoat, to “ʾAzazel to the desert.” The biblical scapegoat ritual is discussed extensively in the research community, mainly due to its similarity to ancient pagan rituals. Here, I present the interpretation of the early rabbis, which states that atonement is attained not by sending the goat away but through the confession performed on it. I also discuss the novelty introduced in the early rabbinic literature, concerning the disposition of the goat: thrown off the cliff and not just sent to the desert.","PeriodicalId":40689,"journal":{"name":"Review of Rabbinic Judaism","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43362604","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}
{"title":"Shaul Magid, The Bible, the Talmud, and the New Testament","authors":"M. Gruber","doi":"10.1163/15700704-12341400","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700704-12341400","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":40689,"journal":{"name":"Review of Rabbinic Judaism","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47569497","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}