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Philosophic Homilies of Nissim of Girona - 14704
Syllabus PHILOSOPHIC HOMILIES OF NISSIM OF GIRONA - 14704 Last update 12-09-2021 HU Credits: 2 Degree/Cycle: 2nd degree (Master) Responsible Department: Jewish Thought Academic year: 0 Semester: 1st Semester Teaching Languages: Hebrew Campus: Mt. Scopus Course/Module Coordinator: Prof. Zeev Harvey Coordinator Email: [email protected] Coordinator Office Hours: Tu 11:30-12:30 Teaching Staff: Prof Zeev Harvey page 1 / 4 Course/Module description: One of the great medieval authorities on Jewish law, Rabbi Nissim ben Reuben of Girona ( Ha-Ran, c. 1310-1376) is known for his Commentary on BT Nedarim, his Commentaries on Rabbi Isaac Alfasi's Halakhot, and his Novellae on various Talmudic tractates. However, he was also a profound and original philosophic homilist. His book of philosophic homilies, known as "Derashot Ha-Ran," had a significant influence on medieval Jewish philosophy both directly and also indirectly, through his student Rabbi Hasdai Crescas and his student's student Rabbi Joseph Albo. Course/Module aims: We shall read together one homily from Derashot Ha-Ran. In the last month of the semester, we shall discuss the papers of participants. Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to: ability to analyze a medieval philosophic sermon Attendance requirements(%): 100% Teaching arrangement and method of instruction: Reading and discussion Course/Module Content: A seminar paper (about 20-25 pp.) or a short paper (about 7-10 pp.). The paper is to be submitted by the final class (11.1.22). It may be on any subject connected with Derashot Ha-Ran, and may be written in accordance with various approaches, e.g., historical, analytic, or philological. -
Ideal" and "Real" in Classical Jewish Political Theory
IDEAL" AND "REAL" IN CLASSICAL JEWISH POLITICAL THEORY Gerald J.Blidstein This essay considers the degree to which Jewish political and legal ? ? theory allows and, indeed, mandates the recognition that the Torah legislates an ideal law which is not appropriate for situations of social and political stress, and the degree to which such situations are really the historical norm rather than the exception. The Talmud, it is shown, adum brates this concept, but in a fairly marginal form.Maimonides places it at center stage of societal governance, apparently expecting that a Jewish so ciety will of necessity be thrown back upon this option; but he also sug gests guidelines for its regulation. R. Nissim of Barcelona (fourteenth century) both expands the concept and also relaxes the Maimonidean re strictions on its use. This final form of the doctrine receives a thorough critique at the hands of Isaac Abrabanel; but it also serves as the linchpin for much contemporary argument for the legitimacy of Israeli legislation from a classical Jewish perspective. The relationship of law and political theory to reality, that is, to the actual doings of people in society and to the concrete problems faced by societies, is undoubtedly complex. Are law and political theory to are shape reality? Or is the reverse true, and both law and theory to take their cue from society? This, of course, is a very abstract formula tion of the issue. It is also an overly extreme and polarized formulation, for it is likely that the relationship of law and political theory to re ality is dynamic and indeed dialectical. -
Readings on the Encounter Between Jewish Thought and Early Modern Science
HISTORY 449 UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA W 3:30pm-6:30 pm Fall, 2016 GOD AND NATURE: READINGS ON THE ENCOUNTER BETWEEN JEWISH THOUGHT AND EARLY MODERN SCIENCE INSTRUCTOR: David B. Ruderman OFFICE HRS: M 3:30-4:30 pm;W 1:00-2:00 OFFICE: 306b College Hall Email: [email protected] SOME GENERAL WORKS ON THE SUBJECT: Y. Tzvi Langerman, "Jewish Science", Dictionary of the Middle Ages, 11:89-94 Y. Tzvi Langerman, The Jews and the Sciences in the Middle Ages, 1999 A. Neher, "Copernicus in the Hebraic Literature from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century," Journal History of Ideas 38 (1977): 211-26 A. Neher, Jewish Thought and the Scientific Revolution of the Sixteenth Century: David Gans (1541-1613) and His Times, l986 H. Levine, "Paradise not Surrendered: Jewish Reactions to Copernicus and the Growth of Modern Science" in R.S. Cohen and M.W. Wartofsky, eds. Epistemology, Methodology, and the Social Sciences (Boston, l983), pp. 203-25 H. Levine, "Science," in Contemporary Jewish Religious Thought, eds. A. Cohen and P. Mendes-Flohr, l987, pp. 855-61 M. Panitz, "New Heavens and a New Earth: Seventeenth- to Nineteenth-Century Jewish Responses to the New Astronomy," Conservative Judaism, 40 (l987-88); 28-42 D. Ruderman, Kabbalah, Magic, and Science: The Cultural Universe of a Sixteenth- Century Jewish Physician, l988 D. Ruderman, Science, Medicine, and Jewish Culture in Early Modern Europe, Spiegel Lectures in European Jewish History, 7, l987 D. Ruderman, Jewish Thought and Scientific Discovery in Early Modern Europe, 1995, 2001 D. Ruderman, Jewish Enlightenment in an English Key: Anglo-Jewry’s Construction of Modern Jewish Thought, 2000 D. -
Jews and Christians in Minden During the Old Reich
Bernd-Wilhelm Linnemeier. JÖ¼disches Leben im Alten Reich: Stadt und FÖ¼rstentum Minden in der FrÖ¼hen Neuzeit. Bielefeld: Verlag fÖ¼r Regionalgeschichte, 2002. 831 pp. EUR 49.00, paper, ISBN 978-3-89534-360-5. Reviewed by Daniel Fraenkel Published on H-German (June, 2005) In the past few years, regional and local stud‐ few places in northwest Germany that can show a ies have added an essential dimension to our un‐ continued Jewish presence since the 1540s. In the derstanding of the pre-Holocaust history of the foreword to his hefty volume, the author defines Jewish minority in Germany and its tangled rela‐ his two-fold concern as, on the one hand, to do tionship to the Christian majority. On the one justice to the self-understanding of an ethnic mi‐ hand, these studies, with their localized geograph‐ nority whose connections and interests went well ical focus, mirror the diversity of the Jewish expe‐ beyond the territorial confines of a small princi‐ rience under the fragmented political reality of pality in the middle Weser region; on the other the German Reich. On the other hand, the con‐ hand, not to lose sight of the detailed historical crete local basis serves as an antidote to the specificity of his theme as it manifested itself in sweeping generalizations and uncritical assump‐ the everyday life of those concerned. He charac‐ tions that have often plagued the historiographi‐ terizes his methodological approach as "Mikroan‐ cal treatment of the subject in the past. alytischer Zugriff bei gleichzeitiger Verankerung Linnemeier's meticulously researched study sowohl des fest umrissenen Unter‐ of the Jewish population in Minden, from the Late suchungsraumes als auch der zu untersuchenden Middle Ages to the beginning of the nineteenth Gruppe in ueberregionalen Zusammenhängen" century, is a valuable addition to a number of re‐ ("Microanalytic approach with the simultaneous cent studies that have examined the history of in‐ anchoring of both the demarcated area and the dividual Jewish communities in northwest Ger‐ researched group in their larger contexts," p. -
אוסף מרמורשטיין the Marmorstein Collection
אוסף מרמורשטיין The Marmorstein Collection Brad Sabin Hill THE JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER Manchester 2017 1 The Marmorstein Collection CONTENTS Acknowledgements Note on Bibliographic Citations I. Preface: Hebraica and Judaica in the Rylands -Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts: Crawford, Gaster -Printed Books: Spencer Incunabula; Abramsky Haskalah Collection; Teltscher Collection; Miscellaneous Collections; Marmorstein Collection II. Dr Arthur Marmorstein and His Library -Life and Writings of a Scholar and Bibliographer -A Rabbinic Literary Family: Antecedents and Relations -Marmorstein’s Library III. Hebraica -Literary Periods and Subjects -History of Hebrew Printing -Hebrew Printed Books in the Marmorstein Collection --16th century --17th century --18th century --19th century --20th century -Art of the Hebrew Book -Jewish Languages (Aramaic, Judeo-Arabic, Yiddish, Others) IV. Non-Hebraica -Greek and Latin -German -Anglo-Judaica -Hungarian -French and Italian -Other Languages 2 V. Genres and Subjects Hebraica and Judaica -Bible, Commentaries, Homiletics -Mishnah, Talmud, Midrash, Rabbinic Literature -Responsa -Law Codes and Custumals -Philosophy and Ethics -Kabbalah and Mysticism -Liturgy and Liturgical Poetry -Sephardic, Oriental, Non-Ashkenazic Literature -Sects, Branches, Movements -Sex, Marital Laws, Women -History and Geography -Belles-Lettres -Sciences, Mathematics, Medicine -Philology and Lexicography -Christian Hebraism -Jewish-Christian and Jewish-Muslim Relations -Jewish and non-Jewish Intercultural Influences -
Nahmanides' Understanding of Abraham's Mesopotamian
NAHMANIDES' UNDERSTANDING OF ABRAHAM’S MESOPOTAMIAN ORIGINS REUVEN CHAIM (RUDOLPH) KLEIN In this paper, we shall discuss which sub-region of Mesopotamia is the true birthplace of Abraham. For the purposes of this article, the region of Mesopo- tamia (the area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers) is divided into two sub-regions: the southern region known as Sumer (Shinar in the Bible) and the northern region known as Aram. Under this classification, Sumer incudes Babylon and the other cities which Nimrod (son of Cush son of Ham) built and ruled in southern Mesopotamia (Gen. 10:8–10). The northern Mesopo- tamian region of Aram includes the city of Aram Naharaim, also known as Haran, and Aram Zoba, also known as Aleppo (Halab). ABRAHAM WAS BORN IN UR In painting the picture of Abraham’s background, most biblical commenta- tors assume that Abraham was born in Ur and that his family later migrated northwards to Haran. The Bible (Gen. 11:28; 11:31; 15:7; Neh. 9:7) refers to the place of Abraham’s birth as Ur Kasdim, literally “Ur of the Chaldeans.” Academia generally identifies this city with the Sumerian city Ur (although others have suggested different sites).1 According to the midrashic account, Abraham’s family left Ur and relocat- ed to Aram in order to flee from Nimrod, who sentenced Abraham to death by fiery furnace for his iconoclastic stance against idolatry.2 After Abraham miraculously escaped from the fiery furnace, his father Terah decided to relo- cate the family from Ur (within Nimrod’s domain) to Canaan, ultimately stopping in the city of Haran in the Aram region (Gen. -
Final Copy of Dissertation
The Talmudic Zohar: Rabbinic Interdisciplinarity in Midrash ha-Ne’lam by Joseph Dov Rosen A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Joint Doctor of Philosophy with Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley in Jewish Studies in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in Charge: Professor Daniel Boyarin, Chair Professor Deena Aranoff Professor Niklaus Largier Summer 2017 © Joseph Dov Rosen All Rights Reserved, 2017 Abstract The Talmudic Zohar: Rabbinic Interdisciplinarity in Midrash ha-Ne’lam By Joseph Dov Rosen Joint Doctor of Philosophy in Jewish Studies with the Graduate Theological Union University of California, Berkeley Professor Daniel Boyarin, Chair This study uncovers the heretofore ignored prominence of talmudic features in Midrash ha-Ne’lam on Genesis, the earliest stratum of the zoharic corpus. It demonstrates that Midrash ha-Ne’lam, more often thought of as a mystical midrash, incorporates both rhetorical components from the Babylonian Talmud and practices of cognitive creativity from the medieval discipline of talmudic study into its esoteric midrash. By mapping these intersections of Midrash, Talmud, and Esotericism, this dissertation introduces a new framework for studying rabbinic interdisciplinarity—the ways that different rabbinic disciplines impact and transform each other. The first half of this dissertation examines medieval and modern attempts to connect or disconnect the disciplines of talmudic study and Jewish esotericism. Spanning from Maimonides’ reliance on Islamic models of Aristotelian dialectic to conjoin Pardes (Jewish esotericism) and talmudic logic, to Gershom Scholem’s juvenile fascination with the Babylonian Talmud, to contemporary endeavours to remedy the disciplinary schisms generated by Scholem’s founding models of Kabbalah (as a form of Judaism that is in tension with “rabbinic Judaism”), these two chapters tell a series of overlapping histories of Jewish inter/disciplinary projects. -
1 David Gans on the Gregorian Reform, Modern Astronomy, and The
1 David Gans on the Gregorian reform, modern astronomy, and the Jewish calendar If we are to identify a uniting thread, or a common denominator, between in David Gans’ diverse works, – history on the one hand, and astronomy on the other – this must be an interest in the measurement of time. David Gans (1541-1613) was a leading Jewish historiographer and astronomer of the early modern period. Born in Lippstadt, he received a rabbinic education in Cracow under R. Moses Isserles, and in Prague, where he spent most of his life, under R. Loew b. Betzalel (the Maharal); but he also immersed himself in the study of history, mathematics, and astronomy. Both his major works, Tsemaḥ David (a Jewish and world chronography) and Neḥmad ve-Naim (a handbook of astronomy), assume in very different ways a range of notions about chronology, calendars, and the flow of time. Gans also wrote a specific treatise on the Jewish calendar, entitled Maor ha-Qaton (‘the smaller luminary’, i.e. the moon – Gen. 1:16); but unfortunately this work is lost. Nevertheless, a sufficient number of references are made to calendar and chronology in the works that are extant to convey his views on the Jewish calendar and, in particular, the Jewish calendar’s significance for the study of astronomy and its relationship with its Christian counterpart.1 By the late 16th century, when Gans was writing, there existed a rich tradition of scholarship on the Jewish calendar for him to draw on. The early 12th century had witnessed an eruption of monographic writing on the Jewish calendar, with books later to be known under the standard title ‘Sefer ha-Ibbur’ (‘Book of the intercalation’ or ‘calendar’), authored by Abraham b. -
Daf Yomi Summary August 10Th 2020!!
?"? ? 152 PAGES UNTIL OUR NEXT SIYUM DAF YOMI SUMMARY AUGUST 10TH 2020!! ?? ? ?? ?? ?? If you want to contribute in any way or have any feedback, ? ??? - ?? ????? please email [email protected] IT'S ALL OUT OF ORDER..... not written down but memorized. THANKS TO RUSSEL LEVY M ay we continue to learn more ????? ? and Orders (????? ), and understand both the patterns within and order chosen to further In compiling the ????? ?, Rebbi, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi generally understand the content! kept to a set of systematized rules in the composition of individual ????? ?, the order of ????? ? inside a ???? ?, and the organization of the ????? ? inside the various ????? . A surprise lies at the PINAT HALACHA beginning of our 7th chapter, with a ??? ? that would serve as an THANKS TO RAV DANI SCHREIBER excellent introduction to our ???? ?. There are 39 categories of Question: I accidentally left the window open overnight on Friday ?????: one who plants, plows, harvests... hits with the hammer, night, and I ended up with a bunch of flies flitting around my and removes item from one domain to another. kitchen while I was preparing Shabbos lunch! I really wanted to swat them away, but I wasn?t sure if I could. Is there any heter? Two questions jump out of the page. Even though most ?????? are only introduced after the 7th chapter, why did Rebbi decide to Answer: One of the prohibited ?????? of ??? is shochait have six chapters that discuss only a subset of ????? of three (slaughtering), which includes taking the life of any animal, or even ??????? Additionally, why were the ????? of hotza?ah split and making a living creature bleed. -
A Late Antique Babylonian Rabbinic Treatise on Astrology Richard
A LATE ANTIQUE BABYLONIAN RABBINIC TREATISE ON ASTROLOGY Richard Kalmin This study supports my claim in earlier research that the fourth century CE is an important turning point in Babylonian Jewish history, a time when texts, attitudes, literary motifs, and modes of behavior deriving from the west, particularly the eastern Roman provinces, achieved literary expres- sion in the Babylonian Talmud (BT), often for the first time.1 Also, this study supports my claim that (a) Babylonia increasingly became part of the Mediterranean world in late antiquity and/or that (b) Syria, Palestine, and Mesopotamia increasingly became a cultural unity during this period, particularly beginning in the fourth century. I am certainly not suggesting that there was no exchange between Mesopotamia and the Roman Empire, or between Syria and Palestine on the one hand and Mesopotamia on the other, prior to the fourth century. Rather, my claim, articulated in much greater detail in earlier research, is that events of the mid-third century led to a period of vigorous west- ernization of Mesopotamia, which first achieves literary expression in Jewish and Christian sources of the fourth century, and that the exchange between the regions was largely one way, from west to east, during most of this period.2 Many modern scholars have discussed ancient rabbinic attitudes toward astrology. Scholarly discussions have been hampered, however, by a lack of familiarity with the latest tools of modern critical scholarship on rabbinic literature,3 and at times an inability to understand rabbinic 1 Richard Kalmin, Jewish Babylonia Between Persia and Roman Palestine (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006); and idem, “The Miracle of the Septuagint,” in The Lee Levine Jubilee Volume (ed. -
A Missed Day in the Life of the Omer
A Missed Day in the Life of the Omer O.H. 489:8.2009 Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson & Rabbi Aaron Alexander This responsum was approved by the CJLS on October 14, 2009 by a vote of eleven in favor (11-3-4). Members voting in favor: Rabbis Kassel Abelson, Miriam Berkowitz, Elliot Dorff, Robert Fine, Baruch Frydman-Kohl, Reuven Hammer, Josh Heller, Daniel Nevins, Elie Spitz, Loel Weiss, David Wise. Members voting against: Rabbis Pamela Barmash, Paul Plotkin, and Adam Kligfeld. Members Abstaining: Rabbis Eliezer Diamond, Susan Grossman, Jane Kanarek, and Jay Stein. The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly provides guidance in matters of Halakhah for the Conservative movement. The individual rabbi, however, is the authority for the interpretation and application of all matters of halakhah. : What may a person who completely forgets a 24-hour cycle of counting the Omer do vis-a-vis counting on subsequent days? May one continue counting the Omer? May one continue to count with a blessing? May one count but without a blessing?1 : – : : From the day on which you bring the sheaf of elevation offering—the day after the Sabbath—you shall count off seven weeks. They must be complete (temimot): you must count until the day after the seventh week—fifty days; then you shall bring an offering of new grain to the Lord. (Lev. 23:15-16) In the era of the , the Omer existed as an offering of the first of the new barley har- vest, beginning on the sixteenth of Nissan, the second day of Pesah according to Talmudic hermeneutics.2 Even after the destruction of the Temple, the obligation to 'count the days' re- 1. -
1934 Unitarian Movement.Pdf
fi * " >, -,$a a ri 7 'I * as- h1in-g & t!estP; ton BrLLnch," LONDON t,. GEORGE ALLEN &' UNWIN- LID v- ' MUSEUM STREET FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1934 ACE * i& ITwas by invitation of The Hibbert Trustees, to whom all interested in "Christianity in its most simple and intel- indebted, that what follows lieibleV form" have long been was written. For the opinions expressed the writer alone is responsible. His aim has been to give some account of the work during two centuries of a small group of religious thinkers, who, for the most part, have been overlooked in the records of English religious life, and so rescue from obscurity a few names that deserve to be remembered amongst pioneers and pathfinders in more fields than one. Obligations are gratefully acknowledged to the Rev. V. D. Davis. B.A., and the Rev. W. H. Burgess, M.A., for a few fruitful suggestions, and to the Rev. W. Whitaker, I M.A., for his labours in correcting proofs. MANCHESTER October 14, 1933 At1 yigifs ~ese~vcd 1L' PRENTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY UNWIN BROTHERS LTD., WOKING CON TENTS A 7.. I. BIBLICAL SCHOLARSHIP' PAGE BIBLICAL SCHOLARSHIP 1 3 iI. EDUCATION CONFORMIST ACADEMIES 111. THE MODERN UNIVERSITIES 111. JOURNALS AND WRIODICAL LITERATURE . THE UNITARIAN CONTRIBUTI:ON TO PERIODICAL . LITERATURE ?aEz . AND BIOGR AND BELLES-LETTRES 11. PHILOSOPHY 111. HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY I IV. LITERATURE ....:'. INDEX OF PERIODICALS "INDEX OF PERSONS p - INDEX OF PLACES :>$ ';: GENERAL INDEX C. A* - CHAPTER l BIBLICAL SCHOLARSHIP 9L * KING of the origin of Unitarian Christianity in this country,