Piyyuṭ and Midrash
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Jewish Prayer: New Perspectives
14:30-16:00 Ninth Session International Conference Prayer in Kabbalah and Hassidism Chair: Boaz Huss, Ben-Gurion University Moshe Ha llamish, Bar-Ilan University The Kabbalistic Contribution to the Benedictions of Jewish Prayer: Identity Bracha Sack, Ben-Gurion University New Perspectives Prayer as Shi'ur Qomah Jonatan Meir, Ben-Gurion University The History of Sefer Likutei Tefilot 11-13 Sivan 5773 16:15-17:45 Tenth Session 20.5.2013 - 22.5.2013 Prayer in the Modern Period Barkan Conference Room Chair: Yael Lin, Ben-Gurion University Zlotowski Student Administration Building George Y. Kohler, Bar-Ilan University The Refusal of the Early Reform Rabbis to Abandon The Marcus Family Campus Beer-Sheva Messianic Prayer Texts Zvi Mark, Bar-Ilan University Prayer and Mysticism in the Poetry of Zelda, Yona Wallach and Sivan Har-Shefi Dalia Marx, Hebrew Union College (Jerusalem) From the Rhine Valley to Jezreel Valley: New Formulations of the Kaddish Ben-Gurion University of theNegev 18:00-19:00 Concluding Session Chair: Haim Kreisel, Ben-Gurion University Moshe Idel, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem For information: [email protected] The Liturgical Turn from the Kabbalah of Safed to 972-8-6472532 Hasidism Visit the conference website All the lectures in Hebrew unless noted otherwise http://hsf.bgu.ac.il/cjt/prayer The Goldstein-Goren International Center for Jewish Thought Monday May 20, 2013 Wednesday May 22, 2013 18:00 Opening Session 14:30-16:00 Fourth Session 9:15-10:45 Seventh Session Chair: Uri Ehrlich, Ben-Gurion University The World of Piyyut Studies in the Formulation of the Prayers, 2 Greetings: Chair: Peter Sh. -
The Greatest Mirror: Heavenly Counterparts in the Jewish Pseudepigrapha
The Greatest Mirror Heavenly Counterparts in the Jewish Pseudepigrapha Andrei A. Orlov On the cover: The Baleful Head, by Edward Burne-Jones. Oil on canvas, dated 1886– 1887. Courtesy of Art Resource. Published by State University of New York Press, Albany © 2017 State University of New York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu Production, Dana Foote Marketing, Fran Keneston Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Orlov, Andrei A., 1960– author. Title: The greatest mirror : heavenly counterparts in the Jewish Pseudepigrapha / Andrei A. Orlov. Description: Albany, New York : State University of New York Press, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016052228 (print) | LCCN 2016053193 (ebook) | ISBN 9781438466910 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438466927 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Apocryphal books (Old Testament)—Criticism, interpretation, etc. Classification: LCC BS1700 .O775 2017 (print) | LCC BS1700 (ebook) | DDC 229/.9106—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016052228 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For April DeConick . in the season when my body was completed in its maturity, there imme- diately flew down and appeared before me that most beautiful and greatest mirror-image of myself. -
The Name of God the Golem Legend and the Demiurgic Role of the Alphabet 243
CHAPTER FIVE The Name of God The Golem Legend and the Demiurgic Role of the Alphabet Since Samaritanism must be viewed within the wider phenomenon of the Jewish religion, it will be pertinent to present material from Judaism proper which is corroborative to the thesis of the present work. In this Chapter, the idea about the agency of the Name of God in the creation process will be expounded; then, in the next Chapter, the various traditions about the Angel of the Lord which are relevant to this topic will be set forth. An apt introduction to the Jewish teaching about the Divine Name as the instrument of the creation is the so-called golem legend. It is not too well known that the greatest feat to which the Jewish magician aspired actually was that of duplicating God's making of man, the crown of the creation. In the Middle Ages, Jewish esotericism developed a great cycle of golem legends, according to which the able magician was believed to be successful in creating a o ?� (o?u)1. But the word as well as the concept is far older. Rabbinic sources call Adam agolem before he is given the soul: In the first hour [of the sixth day], his dust was gathered; in the second, it was kneaded into a golem; in the third, his limbs were shaped; in the fourth, a soul was irifused into him; in the fifth, he arose and stood on his feet[ ...]. (Sanh. 38b) In 1615, Zalman �evi of Aufenhausen published his reply (Jii.discher Theriak) to the animadversions of the apostate Samuel Friedrich Brenz (in his book Schlangenbalg) against the Jews. -
A Tree in the Garden
MAIER BECKER A Tree in the Garden The Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge are one and the same tree. When the verse states ‘God caused to sprout the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge’ (Gen. 2:9) it should be understood to mean, God caused to 1 sprout the Tree of Life which is also the Tree of Knowledge . R. J OSEPH KIMHI THIS COMMENT SEEMS to fly in the face of the basic details of the creation story in the Bible. In fact, it appears to contradict outright an explicit Biblical verse where God says “now (that man has eaten from the Tree of Knowledge), lest he partake from the Tree of Life as well” (3:22). 2 If the trees are one and the same, then by eating from the Tree of Knowledge man had already partaken of the Tree of Life! This essay proposes a reading of the Genesis story which provides a textual and conceptual basis for R. Kimhi’s explication, based on midrashic sources. I will suggest that R. Kimhi’s com - mentary sheds light on fundamental issues relating to man’s mortality and his relationship with God. 3 The Textual Starting Point The Bible introduces the Tree of Life stating; “God caused to sprout from the ground every tree that was pleasing to the sight and the Tree of Life betokh— within, the garden” (2:9). The text could have simply stated “the Tree of Life bagan —in the garden.” What does the word betokh , come to add? Onkelos translates the word betokh in this verse to mean bemitsiut— in the middle of the garden. -
Resume 2012-13
1 Susan L. Einbinder Oak Hall East SSHB Room 256 365 Fairfield Way U-1057 Storrs, CT 06269 860-486-9249 WORK HISTORY University of Connecticut Professor, Hebrew & Judaic Studies and Comparative Literature Dept. of Literatures, Cultures and Languages, August 2012 – Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion (Cincinnati, OH) Professor, Hebrew Literature, 2001-2012. Associate Professor,1996-2001; Assistant Professor, 1993-1996. Courses include introductory surveys and electives in medieval and modern Hebrew literature; I have covered the medieval Jewish history survey and will cover a required survey on the prophetic literature of the Bible in the spring 2011. University of Maryland, Dept. of Hebrew and East Asian Languages (College Park, MD) Visiting Lecturer, 1992-1993. Courses: Biblical Poetry; Modern Israeli Fiction; Hebrew Bible as Literature; Holocaust Fiction. New York University - General Studies Program (NY, NY), 1990-1992. Adjunct: Introd. to Ancient Western Civilization; Medieval & Renaissance Civilization; Student advisement; Higher Education Opportunities Program (HEOP) instruction. Manhattan School of Music, Humanities Department (NY, NY), 1990-1992. Adjunct: The Artist & Social Responsibility; Readings on Art and Performance Theory. Colgate University – Dept. of Philosophy & Religion (Hamilton, NY) Visiting Instructor and Chaplain to Jewish Students, 1987-88. Courses: The Bible as Literature; GNED (General Education) Introduction to Western Civilization; Israeli Fiction. EDUCATION October 1991 - Ph.D., English & Comparative Literature (M.Phil., honors, 1986; M.A., 1978) Columbia University, NY, NY. Dissertation: Mucārad&a as a Key to the Literary Unity of the Muwashshah&, supervised by Joan Ferrante (with Pierre Cachia of Columbia and Menahem Schmelzer of the Jewish Theological Seminary). May 1983 - Rabbinic ordination (M.A.H.L.,1981) Hebrew Union College - NY. -
The Mechanics of Providence
Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism Texte und Studien zum Antiken Judentum Edited by Maren Niehoff (Jerusalem) Annette Y. Reed (Philadelphia, PA) Seth Schwartz (New York, NY) Moulie Vidas (Princeton, NJ) 172 Michael D. Swartz The Mechanics of Providence The Workings of Ancient Jewish Magic and Mysticism Mohr Siebeck Michael D. Swartz, born 1954; 1986 PhD at New York University in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures; taught at Emory University and the University of Virginia; currently Professor of Hebrew and Religious Studies at the Ohio State University in Columbus. orcid.org/0000-0001-8167-5816 ISBN 978-3-16-155002-7 / eISBN 978-3-16-156682-0 DOI 10.1628/978-3-16-156682-0 ISSN 0721-8753 / eISSN 2568-9525 (Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism) Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen National- bibliographie; detaillierte bibliographische Daten sind im Internet über http://dnb.dnb.de abrufbar. © 2018 Mohr Siebeck Tübingen. www.mohrsiebeck.com This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that permitted by copyright law) without the publisher’s written permission. This applies particularly to repro- ductions, translations and storage and processing in electronic systems. The book was typeset by epline in Böblingen, printed on non-aging paper by Gulde Druck in Tübingen, and bound by Großbuchbinderei Spinner in Ottersweier. Printed in Germany. For Steven Swartz Table of Contents Preface . IX Acknowledgements . XI Abbreviations . XV Introduction . 1 Part I: Magic 1. Jewish Magic in Late Antiquity . 25 2. Scribal Magic and Its Rhetoric . 45 3. The Dead Sea Scrolls and Later Jewish Magic and Mysticism . -
The Book of Jubilees and the Midrash on the Early Chapters of Genesis
Vol. 41:3 (163) July – September 2013 THE BOOK OF JUBILEES AND THE MIDRASH ON THE EARLY CHAPTERS OF GENESIS THE PROPHET MICAIAH IN KINGS AND CHRONICLES ECCLESIASTES: PART II: THEMES SUBTLETIES IN THE STORY OF JOSEPH AND POTIPHAR’S WIFE ISAIAH 7:14B IN NEW MAJOR CHRISTIAN BIBLE TRANSLATIONS WAS EZRA A HIGH PRIEST? BE-DOROTAV: NOAH’S “GENERATIONS” IN LIGHT OF ANTEDILUVIAN LONGEVITY REFLECTIONS OF READERS: NOTE ON A LATIN TERM IN TARGUM PSEUDO-JONATHAN “MOSES WROTE HIS BOOK AND THE PORTION OF BALAAM” (TB BAVA BATRA 14B) OUTSMARTING GOD: EGYPTIAN SLAVERY AND THE TOWER OF BABEL www.jewishbible.org THE JEWISH BIBLE QUARTERLY In cooperation with THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, THE JEWISH AGENCY AIMS AND SCOPE The Jewish Bible Quarterly provides timely, authoritative studies on biblical themes. As the only Jewish-sponsored English-language journal devoted exclusively to the Bible, it is an essential source of information for anyone working in Bible studies. The Journal pub- lishes original articles, book reviews, a triennial calendar of Bible reading and correspond- ence. Publishers and authors: if you would like to propose a book for review, please send two review copies to BOOK REVIEW EDITOR, POB 29002, Jerusalem, Israel. Books will be reviewed at the discretion of the editorial staff. Review copies will not be returned. The Jewish Bible Quarterly (ISSN 0792-3910) is published in January, April, July and October by the Jewish Bible Association , POB 29002, Jerusalem, Israel, a registered Israe- li nonprofit association (#58-019-398-5). All subscriptions prepaid for complete volume year only. The subscription price for 2013 (volume 41) is $24. -
Frankely Speaking
JEAN & SAMUEL FRANKEL CENTER FOR JUDAIC STUDIES FALL 2017 FRANKELY SPEAKING INSIDE 2 From the Director 3 Art Spiegelman 4 New Faculty 5 Visiting Faculty 6 2017-18 Fellows 8 Alumni Spotlight 9 Students 12 Retiring Faculty 14 Mazel Tov! 15 Books Joshua Scott at the Huqoq 16 Save the Date Excavation project in Israel. From the Director Lessons from the Ancients By Jeffrey Veidlinger, Director of the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies and Joseph Brodsky Collegiate Professor of History and Judaic Studies hat can we moderns learn from But the ancient sages also believed that many the ancients? This is one of the boundaries were artificial—they struggled many questions the Frankel intensely in defining gender boundaries, for Center will be investigating this instance, recognizing that gender identification Wyear through the Frankel Institute’s “Jews and was more fluid than the laws imagined. The the Material in Antiquity” theme year. Eleven rabbis were also engaged in efforts to demarcate scholars from around the world will be in the borders between human and beast, and residence at the University of Michigan to between human and divine. They were interested examine how ancient Jews and those in their orbit in understanding how we as humans fit into and understood the physical world around them. impact our physical environment. We will also be using this opportunity to look The ancients were also interested in the production afresh at the world around us. of knowledge. They endeavored to figure out I am not a historian of ancient Judaism myself, but which sources of information were real and I have learned a lot reading applications for the which were fake. -
The Book of Jubilees and the Midrash on the Early Chapters of Genesis
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES AND THE MIDRASH ON THE EARLY CHAPTERS OF GENESIS ZVI RON The Book of Jubilees is a retelling of Genesis and the beginning of Exodus in the form of an angel speaking to Moses. It was written by a Jew in Hebrew some time around the early second century BCE, perhaps even earlier. The original Hebrew is lost to us today; our translations are based primarily on Ethiopic texts. The main focus of the work is to demonstrate that the narra- tives in the early part of the Bible contain legal instruction, although the legal elements are hidden in the biblical narrative.1 Jubilees often supplements the biblical narratives with additional information, in much the same way as the Midrash; at other times Jubilees provides a resolution to a difficulty in the biblical text, another concern of the Midrash. As such, the Book of Jubilees may be categorized as an early form of midrashic literature.2 Some of the interpretations in Jubilees are, in fact, preserved in later midrashic literature. The title "Book of Jubilees" reflects the author's particular way of viewing the chronology of the world as a series of forty-nine year cycles, but it was also sometimes referred to as "The Little Genesis" (Bereshit Zuta in Arama- ic),3 since it is an abbreviated retelling of Genesis.4 Jubilees was not incorpo- rated into rabbinic literature, as it differs in some very fundamental legal points, most famously its insistence on a purely solar calendar, as opposed to the rabbinic lunar/solar model,5 and stringencies regarding Shabbat ob- servance.6 In this article we will show how Jubilees dealt with various diffi- culties in the text of Genesis in ways sometimes similar to and sometimes very different from the later rabbinic midrashic literature. -
Jewish Studies
JEWISH STUDIES Editors Yaacov Deutsch, Ithamar Gruenwald, Galit Hasan-Rokem, Ora Limor Volume 48 '2012 Journal of the World Union of Jewish Studies Jerusalem nlln n ry-rþ Þr)lì!t llÞ'þ irTltt ,Dpn-lln n'þt ,uttllr l¡zy' ¡h:'rr lr¡n'N )"yü)n o 48 Jl: ¡r'1;'rr;'r 'yl¡¡þ t¡¡þly'r ìrttx;'r þu ny¡ fn) Erþt¿ltt LANGUAGE MIX AND MULTILINGUALISM IN ANCIENT PALESTINE: LITERARY AND INSCRIPTIONAL EVIDENCE1 Steven D. Fraade Yale Universìty l. Introduction and Methodological Qualms Early rabbinic literature has much to say about language: the language of creation; the language of the first humans; the language of revelation; the language of scriptural recitation, translation, and interpretation; the language of ritual performance; the language of prayer; the language of daily speech; and the Iangaage of mouming, among others. More properly, I should have begun by saying thaf early rabbinic literature has much to say about languages; that is, the multiplicity of languages that might be or have been employed in each of the preceding domains of speech, whether elevated or mundane. For although Hebrew, as llllizii fìü/Þ, or the "language of holiness/temple/God," theologically and culturally occupies a place of supreme privilege, it shares the stage with a variety of other languages, principallyAramaic (often referred to as nto''llo or tÞllÞ lluÞ in rabbinic sources), which is also honored for its 1 Given my incompetence in many of the matters discussed below, I had to lean heavily on a diverse assortment of colleagues, without whose assistance this essay would not have been possible: Moshe Bar-Asher, Elitzur Bar-Asher Siegal, Jonathan Ben-Dov, Yochanan Breuer, Robert Brody, Aaron Butts, Peter Cole, Hannah Cotton, Yaron Eliav, Isaiah Gafni, Ithamar Gruenwald, Noam Mizrahi,Yonatan Moss, Ophir Müntz-Manor, shlomo Naeh, Hindy Najman, Rachel Neis, Micha perry, Gary Rendsburg, Michael Satlow, and Holger Zellenlin. -
Vested with Adam's Glory
A. Orlov VESTED WITH ADAMS GLORY: MOSES AS THE LUMINOUS COUNTERPART OF ADAM IN THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS AND IN THE MACARIAN HOMILIES Two Luminaries In the group of the Dead Sea Scrolls fragments known under the title the Words of the Luminaries (4Q504),1 the following passage about the glory of Adam in the Garden of Eden can be found: ... [ ... Adam,] our [fat]her, you fashioned in the image of [your] glory ([äë] ãåáë úåîãá äúøöé) [...] [... the breath of life] you [b]lew into his nostril, and intelligence and knowledge [...] [... in the gard]en of Eden, which you had planted. You made [him] govern [...] [...] and so that he would walk in a glorious land... [...] [...] he kept. And you im- posed on him not to tu[rn away...] [...] he is flesh, and to dust [...] ...2 Later in 4Q504, this tradition about Adams former glory follows with a reference to the luminosity bestowed on another human body the glorious face of Moses at his encounter with the Lord at Sinai: 1 On the Words of Luminaries, see: M. BAILLET, Un receuil liturgique de Qumrân, grotte 4; «Les Paroles des Luminaries» // RB 67 (1961) 195–250; IDEM, Remarques sur l’édition des Paroles des Luminaires // RevQ 5 (1964) 23–42; IDEM, Qumran Grotte 4 III (4Q482–520) (DJD, 7; Oxford, 1982); E. GLICKLER CHAZON, «Words of the Lu- minaries» (4QDibHam): A Liturgical Document from Qumran and Its Implications (Ph.D. dissertation, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 1991); IDEM, 4QDibHam: Liturgy or Literature? // RevQ 15 (1991—1992) 447–455; IDEM, «Dibre Hammêorot»; Prayer for the Sixth Day (4Q504 1–2 v–vi) // Prayer from Alexander to Constantine: A Critical Anthology / Eds. -
The Cosmological Temple in the Apocalypse of Abraham
The Cosmological Temple in the Apocalypse of Abraham A monster below, on the left side, swims in all those rivers. He comes with his mighty scales, each one as strong as iron, and he arrives there in order to draw water and defile the place. All the lights are darkened before him; his mouth and his tongue flame with fire; his tongue is as sharp as a mighty sword until he gets as far as entering the sanctuary within the sea, and then he defiles the sanctuary, and the lights are darkened, and the supernal lights disappear from the sea. —Zohar I.52a For, as the nut has a shell surrounding and protecting the kernel inside, so it is with everything sacred: the sacred principle occu- pies the interior, whilst the Other Side encircles it on the exterior. —Zohar II.233b Introduction In chapter 18 of the Apocalypse of Abraham, Abraham, having entered into the celestial throne room, receives a vision of all creation and the entire human history from the beginning to the end. This dis- closure accounts for much of the apocalypse, stretching from chapter 19 to chapter 31. Although the main portion of the vision is devoted to describing the history of humankind, from the fall of Adam and Eve until the appearance of its eschatological messianic figures, the beginning of this vision is concerned with cosmological matters. In the cosmological revelations situated in chapters 19 and 21, the seer 37 38 ■ Divine Scapegoats contemplates the complex architecture of the heavenly realm and learns about the structure and features of the lower realms, which include earth and the underworld.