{"title":"The Rabbinic Conversion of Judaism: The Unique Perspective of the Bavli on Conversion and the Conversion of Jewish Identity. Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity. Volume 99, written by Moshe Lavee","authors":"Gary G. Porton","doi":"10.1163/15700704-12341347","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700704-12341347","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":40689,"journal":{"name":"Review of Rabbinic Judaism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2018-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/15700704-12341347","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41973032","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":"“Like a Throne of Glory:” The Apotropaic Potential of Ṣîṣîṯ in the Hebrew Bible and Early Rabbinic Literature","authors":"Wojciech J. Kosior","doi":"10.1163/15700704-12341342","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700704-12341342","url":null,"abstract":"Although at first glanceṣîṣîṯmeet the definitional criteria of an amulet, there are just three passages in the early rabbinic literature that only indirectly suggest such an interpretation. Yet, as it turns out, the tassels feature strong connections with the priestly clothes, and given the protective role played by the latter inside the Tabernacle,ṣîṣîṯcan be interpreted as a lay functional equivalent of the sacerdotal garment. The present paper has three main purposes: first, to scrutinize the passages from B. Men. (41a, 43b and 44a) that are often taken as witnessing to the apotropaic function of fringes; second, to contextualize tassels in the network of the priestly objects:teḵēlęṯ, ša‘aṭnēzandṣîṣ; third, to advance a hypothesis regarding the implicit apotropaic potential ofṣîṣîṯ.","PeriodicalId":40689,"journal":{"name":"Review of Rabbinic Judaism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2018-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/15700704-12341342","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49039764","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":"Body Marks in Jewish Sources: From Biblical to Post-Talmudic Times","authors":"M. Bar-Ilan","doi":"10.1163/15700704-12341337","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700704-12341337","url":null,"abstract":"During the course of two millennia, Jews imprinted signs and scripts on their bodies. Although the Bible prohibits tattooing (Lev. 19:28), some Jews wrote the Lord’s Name on their body, probably with ink. Here we examine evidence for this practice: Ezekiel 9:4–6, Cain’s Mark (Gen. 4:15), Isa. 44:5, Exod. 28:36, and 39:30, where examples of setting the Lord’s Name on one’s arm or forehead are delineated. This practice may have originated among priests (see Num. 6:22–27, which we argue is to be read literally and not as a metaphor) and only later was imitated by the laity. Thus, priests blessed orally and committed their blessing into a bodily inscription on the people they blessed. The Talmud also contains evidence that some Jews had the Lord’s Name written on their bodies in ink, and Hekhalot literature contains two detailed descriptions of how people were inscribed with God’s Name, in a kind of rite-of-passage. Other texts (e.g., Rev. 19:16; Gal. 6:17) provide additional evidence that Jews in antiquity inscribed the Lord’s Name on their bodies.","PeriodicalId":40689,"journal":{"name":"Review of Rabbinic Judaism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2018-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/15700704-12341337","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46476432","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":"War and the Military in Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach’s Halakhic Decisions","authors":"Amir Mashiach","doi":"10.1163/15700704-12341340","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700704-12341340","url":null,"abstract":"Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (1910–1995) was one of the most influential Halakhic authorities of the twentieth century. Although he was an ultra-Orthodox rabbi, Rabbi Auerbach dealt with the complexity of army and military life. This article shows that he possessed of a clear “operational way of thinking,” reflecting deeply on the unique needs of the military of the Jewish State. Additionally, the article examines various approaches of filling the normative gap in issues of war and the military. Rabbi Auerbach based his specification of the Halakhah on his personal understanding and his own S’vara , that is, Halakhic logic.","PeriodicalId":40689,"journal":{"name":"Review of Rabbinic Judaism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2018-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/15700704-12341340","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43971025","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":"Tout Fait Maison : A Law Code Crafted by the Eighteenth Century Jewry of Metz","authors":"S. Herman","doi":"10.1163/15700704-12341336","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700704-12341336","url":null,"abstract":"This inquiry examines Le Recueil des Loix, Coutumes, et Usages Observes par les Juifs de Metz . Evocative of the medieval German Sachsenspiegel, the volume’s detailed regulations supply a rich portrait of a Jewish community in Alsace-Lorraine during the turbulent final decades of the ancien regime . While France evolved during these decades from feudalism to democracy, the Jews transitioned from serfs main-mortables or royal chattels to citizenship. Ideals of the emerging French democracy were imprinted upon the Code Napoleon (1805), a distinctively anti-feudal, secular expression of French citizens’ newfound autonomy. In contrast, the Recueil originated in an act of will on the part of the Jews’ overlords. In accordance with royal orders, it was deposited in the records of the royal court at Metz in about 1742; royal judges and members of the bar consulted the Recueil in all manner of disputes involving Jewish litigants and Jewish law. The Recueil, as the handiwork of eighteenth century Alsatian Jews, was unique in engrafting Jewish law and ethics upon French law of the ancien regime .","PeriodicalId":40689,"journal":{"name":"Review of Rabbinic Judaism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2018-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/15700704-12341336","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44992337","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":"“I bear the burden of treating the gentiles”: Jewish Halakhic Authorities’ Attitudes towards Treating Muslims in the 12th–18th Centuries","authors":"A. O. Shemesh","doi":"10.1163/15700704-12341339","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700704-12341339","url":null,"abstract":"The paper focuses on the religious, social, and historical aspects of the ancient Jewish prohibition against treating non-Jews. It discusses the attitude of rabbinic authorities towards providing medical service to Muslims in medieval and pre-modern times. It points out that circumstances did not enable the public to fulfill these instructions to the letter, and therefore many halakhic authorities in the post-Talmudic period dispensed with the prohibition almost completely. The question of treating Muslims was discussed by halakhic authorities in both Christian and Muslim countries. Stricter views were voiced concerning the treatment of Christians, but the dispensation to treat Muslims and deliver their babies was more pronounced. Halakhic authorities claimed that the original prohibition regarded idolaters, while Muslims do not engage in idolatry. Another major claim supporting the concession was a concern for animosity and harassment within the non-Jewish environment.","PeriodicalId":40689,"journal":{"name":"Review of Rabbinic Judaism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2018-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/15700704-12341339","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49608308","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":"Rabbinic Inquiry (Hakirah) as the Place Rabbinic and Academic Talmudic Discourse Meet: The Case of “Two Hold a Cloak”","authors":"Yuval Blankovsky","doi":"10.1163/15700704-12341338","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700704-12341338","url":null,"abstract":"This paper explores the common ground and differences between academic and rabbinic Talmudic hermeneutics. It does this by situating R. Elhanan Bunem Wasserman’s (1874–1941) inquiry pertaining to the much beloved Talmudic debate over “Two Hold a Cloak” within the context of the critical academic commentary on that Talmudic discourse.","PeriodicalId":40689,"journal":{"name":"Review of Rabbinic Judaism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2018-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/15700704-12341338","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48480727","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":"Early Rabbinic Judaism and the Danger in Ezekiel 1","authors":"R. V. D. Water","doi":"10.1163/15700704-12341326","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700704-12341326","url":null,"abstract":"Rabbinic tradition indicates a revision of the text of the Book of Ezekiel in the first century CE and suggests the rationale behind it. Hanania ben Hezeqiah is said to have “harmonized” Ezekiel with the Torah shortly before the first Jewish revolt, to save the book from suppression by the rabbis. Hasty redaction, followed by immediate standardization, offers the best explanation for the atrocious grammar, orthography, and syntax of the received Hebrew text, along with the plethora of words and expressions common to post-biblical Hebrew. The goal of Hanania’s project was to discourage the conflation of the enthroned figure in Ezek. 1 with the “one like a son of man” in Dan. 7:13 and thus combat the “two Powers heresy.” His project is related to the outburst of speculation on the throne of YHWH and the merkabah in the mid-first century CE","PeriodicalId":40689,"journal":{"name":"Review of Rabbinic Judaism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2017-08-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/15700704-12341326","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47429311","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":"Machiavelli and Sforno","authors":"B. Pinchuk, L. Zalcman","doi":"10.1163/15700704-12341330","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700704-12341330","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":40689,"journal":{"name":"Review of Rabbinic Judaism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2017-08-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/15700704-12341330","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46568364","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":"Revelation and Authority: Sinai in Jewish Scripture and Tradition. The Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library, written by Benjamin D. Sommer","authors":"Gary G. Porton","doi":"10.1163/15700704-12341332","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700704-12341332","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":40689,"journal":{"name":"Review of Rabbinic Judaism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2017-08-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/15700704-12341332","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43537875","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}