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Moses Hayim Luzzatto's Quest for Providence
City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 10-2014 'Like Iron to a Magnet': Moses Hayim Luzzatto's Quest for Providence David Sclar Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/380 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] “Like Iron to a Magnet”: Moses Hayim Luzzatto’s Quest for Providence By David Sclar A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty in History in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The City University of New York 2014 © 2014 David Sclar All Rights Reserved This Manuscript has been read and accepted by the Graduate Faculty in History in satisfaction of the Dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Prof. Jane S. Gerber _______________ ____________________________________ Date Chair of the Examining Committee Prof. Helena Rosenblatt _______________ ____________________________________ Date Executive Officer Prof. Francesca Bregoli _______________________________________ Prof. Elisheva Carlebach ________________________________________ Prof. Robert Seltzer ________________________________________ Prof. David Sorkin ________________________________________ Supervisory Committee iii Abstract “Like Iron to a Magnet”: Moses Hayim Luzzatto’s Quest for Providence by David Sclar Advisor: Prof. Jane S. Gerber This dissertation is a biographical study of Moses Hayim Luzzatto (1707–1746 or 1747). It presents the social and religious context in which Luzzatto was variously celebrated as the leader of a kabbalistic-messianic confraternity in Padua, condemned as a deviant threat by rabbis in Venice and central and eastern Europe, and accepted by the Portuguese Jewish community after relocating to Amsterdam. -
Late Aramaic: the Literary and Linguistic Context of the Zohar’, Was Conducted in the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at University College London
As per the self-archiving policy of Brill Academic Publishers: the article below is the submitted version. The final version is published as ‘The Aramaic of the Zohar: The Status Quaestionis’, in L.O. Kahn (ed.), Jewish Languages in Historical Perspective (IJS Studies in Judaica; Leiden: Brill, 2018), pp. 9–38. The Aramaic of the Zohar: The Status Quaestionis1 Alinda Damsma Toward the end of the thirteenth century the Kabbalah in Spain reached its creative peak with the emergence of Sefer ha-Zohar, Judaism’s most important corpus of mystical texts.2 It is a 1 This is an extended version of the paper I presented at the ‘Jewish Languages’ conference at University College London (26–27 July 2016). I would like to thank the conference organisers, Dr Lily Kahn and Prof. Mark Geller, for their kind invitation as well as for the acceptance of my paper in this volume. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the conference ‘Zohar — East and West’ at Ben Gurion University, Beer Sheva, in conjunction with the Ben-Zvi Institute in Jerusalem (28–30 December 2015). It is a pleasure to thank my respective hosts and audiences. I am particularly indebted to Prof. Theodore Kwasman, Prof. Ronit Meroz, and Prof. Willem Smelik, for reading the draft of this paper and kindly offering their expertise. I bear sole responsibility, however, for any errors that this paper may contain. The Aramaic dialects referred to in this article are abbreviated as follows: JBA = Jewish Babylonian Aramaic. This dialect was used in Babylonia from about 200 CE until 900 CE (one of its sub-dialects is BTA= Babylonian Talmudic Aramaic, the main dialect employed in the Babylonian Talmud). -
The Theology of Nahmanides Systematically Presented
The Theology of Nahmanides Systematically Presented DAVID NOVAK THE THEOLOGY OF NAHMANIDES SYSTEMATICALLY PRESENTED Program in Judaic Studies Brown University BROWN JUDAIC STUDIES Edited by Shaye J. D. Cohen, Ernest S. Frerichs, Calvin Groldscheider Editorial Board Vicki Caron, Lynn Davidman, Wendell S. Dietrich, David Hirsch, David Jacobson, Saul M. Olyan, Alan Zuckerman Number 271 THE THEOLOGY OF NAHMANIDES SYSTEMATICALLY PRESENTED by David Novak THE THEOLOGY OF NAHMANIDES SYSTEMATICALLY PRESENTED by DAVID NOVAK University of Virginia Scholars Press Atlanta, Georgia THE THEOLOGY OF NAHMANIDES SYSTEMATICALLY PRESENTED By David Novak Copyright © 2020 by Brown University Library of Congress Control Number: 2019953676 Open access edition funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities/Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program. The text of this book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDeriva- tives 4.0 International License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. To use this book, or parts of this book, in any way not covered by the license, please contact Brown Judaic Studies, Brown University, Box 1826, Providence, RI 02912. STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL JUDAISM Edited by Lenn E. Goodman To the Memory of Harry H. Ruskin (1905-1989) The righteous man lives in his faith. - Habakkuk 2:4 other works by David Novak Law and Theology in Judaism (2 volumes) Suicide and Morality The Image of the Non-Jew in Judaism Halakhah in a Theological Dimension Jewish Christian Dialogue Contents Editor's Foreword ix Preface xi Introduction 1 Notes 17 Chapter 1 The Human Soul 25 Chapter 2 Faith 31 Chapter 3 Tradition 51 Chapter 4 Miracles 61 Chapter 5 Natural and Supernatural 77 Chapter 6 The Land of Israel 89 Chapter 7 The Commandments 99 Chapter 8 Eschatology 125 Bibliography 135 List of Abbreviations 136 Index of Names and Subjects 137 Index of Passages 141 Publishers’ Preface Brown Judaic Studies has been publishing scholarly books in all areas of Ju- daic studies for forty years. -
The Jewish Encyclopedia
T H E J E W I S H E N C Y C L O P E D I A A GU ID E TO ITS CO NTE N TS A N A ID TO ITS U S E O S E P H A C O BS J J , Rsvxs c EDITO R FU N K WAGNALLS CO M PAN Y N E W YO R K A N D LO N D ON 1906 PR E FACE IN the followin a es I g p g have endeavored , at the s Funk Wa nalls m an reque t of the g Co p y, to give such an account of the contents of THE J E WISH E N C CLO E DIA s as Y P , publi hed by them , will indicate the n u n at re of the work in co siderable detail , and at the same time facil itate the systematic use of it in any of i i ts very varied sections . For th s purpose it has been found necessary to divide the subj ect- matter of the E N CYCLO PE DIA in a somewhat different manner from that adopted for editorial purposes in the various departments . Several sections united under the con trol of one editor have been placed in more logical order in ff e a di er nt parts of the following ccount , while , on the other hand , sections which were divided among different editors have here been brought together under one head. In justice to my colleagues it is but fair to add that they are in no sense responsible for this - redistribution of the subject matter , or indeed for any of the views which either explicitly or by implication are expressed in the following pages on some of the disputed points affecting modern Jews and Judaism . -
Isaiah 34 and Lilith Tim Bench, Abilene, TX
Isaiah 34 and Lilith Tim Bench, Abilene, TX. The most influential Genesis character for us today is (arguably) not Adam, or Eve, Or Cain, Abel, Moses, Abraham, or any of the well-known Genesis characters. Instead, the most effecting character (as we will soon see) may well be a woman many of us have never heard of…. .Lilith.…לילית “Lilith” defined As per Strong's Concordance- 3917. “lilith: a female night-demon Transliteration: lilith Short Definition: monster” Lilith (1892) by John Collier in Southport Atkinson Art Gallery “Lilith”….Adam’s first wife?? As per Jewish folklore, the two “creation versions” dictate that Eve was NOT Adam’s first wife. “Lilith” (the name perhaps inspired by Sumerian mythology about female vampires called “Lillu” or Mesopotanian myths about succubae (female night demons) called “lilin”) is mentioned four times in the Babylonian Talmud. It is not until the Alphabet of Ben Sira (800-900s) that Lilith is associated with the first version of Creation. “Lilith”….Adam’s first wife?? According to the Alphabet of Ben Sira, Lilith was Adam’s first wife but the couple fought constantly. Lilith ultimately decided to leave Adam. She uttered God’s name and flew away into the air, leaving Adam alone in the Garden of Eden. God sent three angels after her and commanded them to bring her back to her husband, one way or another. When the angels found Lilith by the Red Sea they were unable to convince her to return and could not force her to obey them. A deal is ultimately reached…Lilith vowed not to harm newborn children if they are protected by an amulet with the names of the three angels written on it… “The Story of Lilith: The Alphabet of ben Sira Question #5 (23a-b) www.jewishchristianlit.com. -
Forsaken HBI Series on Jewish Women
Forsaken HBI Series on Jewish Women Shulamit Reinharz, General Editor Sylvia Barack Fishman, Associate Editor Th e HBI Series on Jewish Women, created by the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, publishes a wide range of books by and about Jewish women in diverse contexts and time periods. Of interest to scholars and the educated public, the HBI Series on Jewish Women fi lls major gaps in Jewish tudiesS and in Women and Gender Studies as well as their intersection. Th e HBI Series on Jewish Women is supported by a generous gift from Dr. Laura S. Schor. For the complete list of books that are available in this series, please see www.upne.com Sharon Faye Koren, Forsaken: Th e Menstruant in Medieval Jewish Mysticism Sonja M. Hedgepeth and Rochelle G. Saidel, editors, Sexual Violence against Jewish Women during the Holocaust Julia R. Lieberman, editor, Sephardi Family Life in the Early Modern Diaspora Derek Rubin, editor, Promised Lands: New Jewish American Fiction on Longing and Belonging Carol K. Ingall, editor, Th e Women Who Reconstructed American Jewish Education: 1910–1965 Gaby Brimmer and Elena Poniatowska, Gaby Brimmer: An Autobiography in Th ree Voices Harriet Hartman and Moshe Hartman, Gender and American Jews: Patt erns in Work, Education, and Family in Contemporary Life Dvora E. Weisberg, Levirate Marriage and the Family in Ancient Judaism Ellen M. Umansky and Dianne Ashton, editors, Four Centuries of Jewish Women’s Spirituality: A Sourcebook Carole S. Kessner, Marie Syrkin: Values Beyond the Self Ruth Kark, Margalit Shilo, and Galit Hasan-Rokem, -
The Zohar and Its Influence on the Cabala. 235
THE ZOHAR AND ITS TNFFXJENCE ON THE CABALA. BY, BICRNIIAUD PICK. NAME AND CONTENTS OF THE ZOHAR. THE titles of the Zohar vary. It is called "Midrash of Rabbi Si- there mon ben Jocliai." from its reputed author ; "Midrash, Let "Seplier ha- be light," from the words in Gen. i. 4 ; more commonly Zohar," from Dan. xii. 3, where the word Zohar is used for "the brightness of the hrmament." The title in full is: Scphcr ha-Zohar al ha-Torah, nie-isli Elohim Kodesh, liu more mcod Jia-tana R. Simo)i ben Jochdi, etc., i. e., "The Book of Splendor on the Law, by the very holy and venerable man of God, the Tanaitc rabbi Simon ben- Jochai, of blessed memory." The editio priiiccps is the one of Mantua (3 vols., 1558-1560) and has often been reprinted. The best edition of the book of Zohar is that by Christian Knorr von Rosenroth, with Jewish com- mentaries (Sulzbach, 1684, fol.) to which his rare Kabbala Denu- data (1677-1684) forms an ample introduction. This edition was reprinted with an additional index (Amsterdam, 1714, 1728, 1772, 1805, 3 vols.). Recent editions of the Zohar were published at Breslau (1866, 3 vols.), Livorno (1877-78, in 7 parts), and Wilna (1882, 3 vols.; 1882-83 in 10 parts, containing many commentaries and additions). The body of the work takes the form of a commentary of a highly mystic and allegorical character extending over the entire Pentateuch ; but the Zohar is not considered complete without the addition of certain appendices attributed to the same author or to some of his personal or successional disciples. -
VI Appendices
VI Appendices AppendixA:The Hebrew Original of the Parable of the Pearl In this appendix, Iwould like to offer acritical edition of the Hebrew original of the entire chapter that serves as the basisofmostofthe discussions in the second part of this study; Ishallthen translate and analyse the lastpart of this chapter,paragraph [d], as part of the thematic approach Ihavedelineated above. Or ha-S´ekhel is one of Abulafia’smost popularbooks and it is extant in approximatelythirty manuscripts. I have chosen four manuscriptsinorder to checkthe variants that mayhaveanimpact on the meaning of the givenpassages. These manuscriptswerecopied between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, constitutingsome of the earliest manuscripts of the book, while the base manuscript,Ms. Firenze-Medicea Laurenziana Plut II. 20/1, is avery legible fifteenth-century codex, whose version was compared to another,un- identifiedmanuscript with the variants being marked in the margin. The printed ver- sion on pages 33–36 of Amnon Gross’sedition does not mention from which manu- script it wasprinted, but it is most probablyMs. Fulda, Oct.Ba2. וג הף קט טס לע יפ תכ יב פד רי צנה – אל רו צנ אי הנ PLUT.II.20/1 ףד 17א–18ב שה ני יו םי לע יפ תכ יב דיה : מ = כ " מי טנ בוה , קה יה הל 80, ףד 33ב–34ב. פ= כ" פי רי צנה – אל רו צנ אי הנ PLUT .44.16/7, ףד 76א–77א. ימ = כ " מי ני ןכ 40, ףד 174א–176א. פס אר רו שה לכ – לח גק ' לח לק ' נע יי בן ' יס ןמנ ' וכ לל וס הד של ןו מה בו רח בש לכ לה וש ונת : ]a[ נה כה רב וה עד ונ נע יי ינ כם לל יי בם של נו תו בו אי נר שו שה עפ אה הל מי ינ אע כת לו ון וה סא בי מת יצ וא ןת , הו או מה צו אי וא ןת ¹ ןמ כה אח הל ופ לע . -
The Feminine Image in Kabbalah
Divine Qualities and Real Women The Feminine Image in Kabbalah Long before women gained entry into the halls of Jewish learning, Jewish mystics explored and extolled feminine aspects of the Divine ithin the Jewish religious tradition, the literature of WKabbalah is second to none in its engagement with the feminine. The mystical authors of medieval Spain and southern France, the men who produced the Zohar and related texts, were averse to simplistic conceptions of gender. {By BITI ROI 62 | Summer 2010 Divine Qualities and Real Women /// Biti Roi Their sensitive attunement to sexual, as a synonym for God. Grammatically, it is mental, physiological and social aspects of a feminine Hebrew noun, but the Shekhinah female existence is strikingly manifest in initially lacked any female attributes or their imaginative contemplation of God and even a distinctive identity of its own. In the speculations about the interplay of the divine works of early kabbalists, however, it was and earthly realms. Indeed, the contemporary transformed into a queenly personification discourse on women in Judaism – which is of the Godhead, the Matronita: still bound up with Talmudic categories and How many thousands, how many myriads the strictures of halacha – can benefit greatly of holy camps does the blessed Holy One from the riches of kabbalistic imagery and have! … Above them He has appointed perceptions of women and femininity. Matronita to minister before Him in the Sefer Ha-Zohar – “The Book of Splendor” – is a sprawling masterpiece that presents palace … Every mission that the King a complex conception of divinity based wishes issues from the house of Matronita; upon an intricate exploration of the hidden every mission from below to the King meanings of the Hebrew Bible. -
V Abulafia's Kabbalah Versus Other Kabbalists
VAbulafia’sKabbalahversus other Kabbalists 24 Prophecy and Individuality The emphasis on the readingofthe parable thatviews it as dealingwith Abulafia’s own role as the son of God and the possessor of the pearl is part of the more indi- vidualistic propensity of his general approach. Under the pressureofthe noetic vi- sions he adopted from the Greek sources as mediated by Muslim and Jewish texts, Abulafia regards the paramount processes as amatter of an individual’smind and as reversible events that an aspirant mayre-experience if he so chooses. He also al- legorised collective events such as the Exodus from Egypt and the Sinaitic revelation. As Abulafia explicitlystates:Sinai, Paradise, and the Land of Israel are analogous to alower entity,just as the Seat of Glory,Jerusalem, and the supernal academyall rep- resent the same entity on high, although they are reinterpreted as being related to the experience of aliving person.¹ Ipropose to designatethis type of allegory as spiritu- alistic exegesis,² which also reverberatesinhis followers’ writings.³ AccordingtoAbulafia’sunderstanding,his Kabbalah had two mains goals: one is union with God and the other is the attainment of prophecy.The formerisunder- stood as the goal of the Torah,⁴ and the various expressions of Abulafia’sunitive vi- sion have been analysed in detail elsewhere.⁵ The second one, which Ihaveanalysed in aseparate study,isdiscussed in numerous instances in Abulafia’stexts.⁶ However, Iwould like to adduce one more expression of the centrality of this ideal. In the in- troduction -
Rediscovering the Study of Spanish Kabbalism in Wissenschaft Des Judentums: Adolf Jellinek in Leipzig, 1842–1856
Rediscovering the Study of Spanish Kabbalism in Wissenschaft des Judentums: Adolf Jellinek in Leipzig, 1842–1856 by Samuel J. Kessler Abstract This article examines the works of Adolf Jellinek (1821–1893) on the history of mys- ticism and the Kabbalah, which were written during his fourteen-year residence in Leipzig. It argues that studying the Spanish Kabbalists allowed Jellinek to work through ideas concerning the development of Jewish theology and the interplay of Jewish and non-Jewish philosophical perspectives. The article briefly describes Jellinek’s early ed- ucation and attraction to Leipzig; his first writings on Kabbalah; and concludes with an analysis of his larger philological and genealogical projects on the authorship and literary background of the Zohar. Though Jellinek’s later prominence as a rabbi and preacher in Vienna has had the tendency to obscure his years in Leipzig, it was Jell- inek’s work in Saxony that laid the groundwork for most of his subsequent scholarship on Jewish mysticism. This article is a brief introduction to this research and one more step toward revealing the still too often forgotten Wissenschaft interest in the history of Jewish mysticism. 1. Introduction In 1842, at the age of twenty-one, Adolf Jellinek (1821–1893) arrived in Leipzig. Attracted to the city because of its well-regarded Faculty of Oriental Languages, and especially the possibility to study with the Arabist Heinrich Leberecht Fleischer (1801–1888) and the Wissenschaft des Judentums schol- ar (and the university’s Hebrew lecturer) Julius Fürst (1805–1873), Jellinek resided in the Saxon city until 1856, when he was recruited by the Viennese Jewish community to become its rabbi in Leopoldstadt. -
Rediscovering the Study of Spanish Kabbalism in Wissenschaft Des Judentums: Adolf Jellinek in Leipzig, 1842–1856
Rediscovering the Study of Spanish Kabbalism in Wissenschaft des Judentums: Adolf Jellinek in Leipzig, 1842–1856 by Samuel J. Kessler Abstract This article examines the works of Adolf Jellinek (1821–1893) on the history of mys- ticism and the Kabbalah, which were written during his fourteen-year residence in Leipzig. It argues that studying the Spanish Kabbalists allowed Jellinek to work through ideas concerning the development of Jewish theology and the interplay of Jewish and non-Jewish philosophical perspectives. The article briefly describes Jellinek’s early ed- ucation and attraction to Leipzig; his first writings on Kabbalah; and concludes with an analysis of his larger philological and genealogical projects on the authorship and literary background of the Zohar. Though Jellinek’s later prominence as a rabbi and preacher in Vienna has had the tendency to obscure his years in Leipzig, it was Jell- inek’s work in Saxony that laid the groundwork for most of his subsequent scholarship on Jewish mysticism. This article is a brief introduction to this research and one more step toward revealing the still too often forgotten Wissenschaft interest in the history of Jewish mysticism. 1. Introduction In 1842, at the age of twenty-one, Adolf Jellinek (1821–1893) arrived in Leipzig. Attracted to the city because of its well-regarded Faculty of Oriental Languages, and especially the possibility to study with the Arabist Heinrich Leberecht Fleischer (1801–1888) and the Wissenschaft des Judentums schol- ar (and the university’s Hebrew lecturer) Julius Fürst (1805–1873), Jellinek resided in the Saxon city until 1856, when he was recruited by the Viennese Jewish community to become its rabbi in Leopoldstadt.