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Edinburgh Research Explorer Jewish Law and Academic Discipline Citation for published version: Wilkes, G & Anscelovits, E (eds) 2016, 'Jewish Law and Academic Discipline: Contributions from Europe', Jewish Law Association Studies, vol. XXVI. Link: Link to publication record in Edinburgh Research Explorer Document Version: Peer reviewed version Published In: Jewish Law Association Studies General rights Copyright for the publications made accessible via the Edinburgh Research Explorer is retained by the author(s) and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policy The University of Edinburgh has made every reasonable effort to ensure that Edinburgh Research Explorer content complies with UK legislation. If you believe that the public display of this file breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 29. Sep. 2021 Jewish Law and Academic Discipline Contributions from Europe Edited by Elisha Anscelovits and George R. Wilkes The Jewish Law Association 2016 CONTENTS Jewish Law and Academic Discipline, Contributions from Europe: Editors’ ?? Introduction Section One: Jewish Law as the Law of a Minority 1. Hendrik PEKÁREK-HINZ, The Law on Circumcision in Germany ?? 2. Stephan WENDEHORST, In and Out of Ecclesiastical Law: On the Emergence ?? and Disappearance of the Ius Ecclesiasticum Iudaicum in late 18th and early 19th Century Germany 3. David J. FINE, Towards a Positive-Historical Approach to Contemporary Issues ?? in Jewish Law 4. Amos ISRAEL-VLEESCHHOUWER, Introducing Jews’ Laws through the Study of ?? Genocide and Rape Section Two: Jewish Law as Humanistic Law 5. George R. WILKES, Teaching about ‘War in Jewish Law’ to Non-Lawyers in a ?? European University Context 6. Federico DAL BO, Legal and Transgressive Sex, Heresy, and Hermeneutics in ?? the Talmud: The Cases of Bruriah, Rabbi Meir, Elisha ben Abuyah and the Prostitute 7. Elisha ANSCELOVITS, Second Temple Phronetic Jewish Law ?? 8. Nechama HADARI, On the Halakhic Status of Coercive Treatment in the Case ?? of Patients Suffering from Anorexia Nervosa .

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The Passion for Metaphysics in Maimonides' Thought
Dov Schwartz The Passion for Metaphysics in Maimonides’ Thought My concern in this paper is five chapters in Guide of the Perplexed I:31–35. Centring on an educational and didactic issue, this unit deals with the proper approach to the study of metaphysics as manifest in the requirements concerning four aspects: 1. A scientific aspect: preceding the study of metaphysics by the study of other sciences (logic, mathematics, physics, and astronomy). 2. A methodological aspect: preserving proper rules of thought, proceeding cau- tiously and constantly examining the arguments. 3. An ethical aspect: focusing exclusively on the study of these sciences and keeping away from material concerns. 4. A political aspect: concern for the masses – guaranteeing they do not exceed the limited boundaries of their comprehension while ensuring their access to a minimum of metaphysical assumptions. I will argue that, in this unit, Maimonides relies on what he views as an almost uncon- trollable urge to reach the summits of knowledge. I will further argue that Maimo- nides turned the passion for metaphysics into a powerful political and theological factor. The conclusion of the discussion will be that this unit is one of the most con- centrated expressions of Maimonidean rationalism. Several questions recur in discussions about the Guide: Maimonides’ aim in writing the book, his attitude towards science and its connection to revelation on the one hand, and towards biblical exegesis and rabbinic sources on the other. Additional questions touch on the character of the book, the reason for the order of its chapters, its concealment techniques, the identification of esoteric ideas, and so forth.
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ELISHA BEN ABUYAH Translated from the Palestinian And
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Rehabilitating Elisha
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Stay for the Night. Then, in the Morning, If He Will Redeem You, Good! Let Him Redeem
Stay for the night. Then, in the morning, if he will redeem you, good! Let him redeem. But if he does not want to redeem you, I will redeem you myself, as the Lord lives! Lie down until morning (Ruth 3:13). Rabbi Meir was sitting and teaching in the Bet Midrash in Tibereas, when Elisha, his teacher, cut through the street on horseback, on Shabbat. They said to Rabbi Meir, Elisha your teacher has cut through the street. He went out to Elisha who said to him, what were you engaged in? He said: And the Lord blessed Job more at the end than at the beginning (Job 42:12). He said to him: And what did you say regarding this? Rabbi Meir replied: Blessed means that he doubled Job’s wealth. Elisha said to him: Akiba your master did not teach that. Rather: The Lord blessed Job at the end more than at the beginning means that Job was blessed [in the end] because of the teshuvah and good deeds that he accomplished at the beginning. Elisha said to him: What else did you teach? Better is the end of a matter than the beginning (Ecclesiastes 7:8). Elisha said: And what did you say concerning this? Rabbi Meir replied: Let’s say you have a situation where one purchases some merchandise in his youth and it loses value but in his old age it becomes valuable and he profits by it. Another interpretation of Better is the end of a matter than its beginning: Let’s say there is someone who does evil deeds in his youth but in his old age he does good deeds.
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Elisha Ben Abuya: Torah and the Sinful Sage 1
The journal o/jewish Thought and Philosophy, Vol. 7, pp. 139-225 © 1998 Reprints available directly from the publisher Photocopying permitted by licence only Elisha ben Abuya: Torah and the Sinful Sage 1 Jeffrey L. Rubenstein New York University The figure of Elisha ben Abuya or "Ab.er," the Other, has long fascinated the Jewish imagination. Elisha is variously considered an arch-heretic, atheist, gnostic or apostate, but always a sage whose abandonment of Torah so affected his rabbinic colleagues that they could no longer bear to mention his name. This unfavorable pic- ture of Elisha is a composite produced from interpretations of the tradition of the "Four who entered the pardes" (found in the Tosefta), the curious epithet "Ab.er," later traditions of Elisha from the two Talmuds and midrashic collections, and the tendency of the folk imagination (and scholarly imagination as well) to create ste- reotypical villains.2 If the sources are considered independently, 1 I would like to thank Elliot Wolfson, Michael Satlow, Lawrence Schiffman, Baruch Levine and David Greenstein for their comments and bibliographical references. 2 Already B. Gurion, "'Erekh 'Aber," Ha-Goren 7 (1912), 81, realized that the rabbinic traditions are "an attempt to create a figure of religious opposition" and a "symbol" of heresy, apostasy and rejection. For the (re-)constructions of scholars see H. Graetz, Gnosticismus und judenthum (Krotoschin: B.1. Monasch, 1846), 62-71 and Geshichteder juden, ed. F. Rosenthal (Leipzig: Oskar Leiner, 1893),4:93-94, 158-161; Milton Steinberg, As a Driven Leaf (New York: Berman House, 1939); 1. Finkelstein, Akiba: Scholar, Saint and Martyr (Cleve- land and New York: Meridian, 1962), 163-164, 253-256.
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