The Sephardi Ḥabura
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TALMUDIC STUDIES Ephraim Kanarfogel
chapter 22 TALMUDIC STUDIES ephraim kanarfogel TRANSITIONS FROM THE EAST, AND THE NASCENT CENTERS IN NORTH AFRICA, SPAIN, AND ITALY The history and development of the study of the Oral Law following the completion of the Babylonian Talmud remain shrouded in mystery. Although significant Geonim from Babylonia and Palestine during the eighth and ninth centuries have been identified, the extent to which their writings reached Europe, and the channels through which they passed, remain somewhat unclear. A fragile consensus suggests that, at least initi- ally, rabbinic teachings and rulings from Eretz Israel traveled most directly to centers in Italy and later to Germany (Ashkenaz), while those of Babylonia emerged predominantly in the western Sephardic milieu of Spain and North Africa.1 To be sure, leading Sephardic talmudists prior to, and even during, the eleventh century were not yet to be found primarily within Europe. Hai ben Sherira Gaon (d. 1038), who penned an array of talmudic commen- taries in addition to his protean output of responsa and halakhic mono- graphs, was the last of the Geonim who flourished in Baghdad.2 The family 1 See Avraham Grossman, “Zik˙atah shel Yahadut Ashkenaz ‘el Erets Yisra’el,” Shalem 3 (1981), 57–92; Grossman, “When Did the Hegemony of Eretz Yisra’el Cease in Italy?” in E. Fleischer, M. A. Friedman, and Joel Kraemer, eds., Mas’at Mosheh: Studies in Jewish and Moslem Culture Presented to Moshe Gil [Hebrew] (Jerusalem, 1998), 143–57; Israel Ta- Shma’s review essays in K˙ ryat Sefer 56 (1981), 344–52, and Zion 61 (1996), 231–7; Ta-Shma, Kneset Mehkarim, vol. -
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. -
David Ricardo's Sefarad
David Ricardo’s Sefarad Sergio Cremaschi Former Professor of Moral Philosophy Amedeo Avogadro University (Alessandria, Novara, Vercelli) ESHET XXII Conference Madrid 7-9 June 2018 1. A blind spot in Ricardo’s biography This paper is meant to be a contribution to a reconstruction of an aspect of Ricardo’s biography, namely the history of his shifting religious affiliations with their biographical, intellectual and political implications. Here I examine the first 21 years of his life, when he was a child in a London Sephardi household and, from the age of 13, a member of the Bevis Mark congregation. My aim is – given the scarcity of primary sources – to add something to the accounts available (Sraffa 1955, 16-43 and 54-61; Heertje 1970; 1975; 2015; Weatherall 1976, 1-21; Henderson 1997, 51-154) by taking advantage of two tools by which to squeeze a bit more out of scant documents. The first is a contextual approach, made possible now by excellent work that has been done by historians on eighteenth-century Anglo-Judaism. The second is pragmatic interpretation of utterances recorded in documents, a technique that may be learned from the no less valuable work done by philosophers of language, one of Sraffa’s close friends no less than the whole Oxford philosophy which the latter did not appreciate too much, John Austin, John Searle and Paul Grice. I contend, first, that something more may be learnt on Ricardo’s formative years, on religion, moral education, intellectual interests awakened and competences acquired, than Sraffa and other biographers -
How Not to Make Halakhic Rulings
How Not to Make Halakhic Rulings Byline: Rabbi Daniel Sperber How Not to Make Halakhic Rulings * Daniel Sperber Introduction In a series of articles and publications I discussed the question of how halakhic decisors (poskim) should act in our day and age, arguing that they should seek to bring people closer to a love of Judaism and halakha, to be inclusive rather than exclusive, and to practice what I called "friendly decision making" (pesikah yedidutit). I am wont to quote a passage from R. Aryeh Leib Friedman's Tzidkat ha-Tzadik (undated, but after 1953), p.115: How much responsibility and caution one requires in interpreting halakha when it comes to real life. How serious and terrifying is the thought of permitting the prohibited.... But clearly it is no less serious and aweful to prohibit the permitted; as we say in the Vidui ha-Gadol, "That which you declared guilty we declared innocent, and that which you declared innocent we declared guilty." And so it is stated in Yerushalmi Terumot 4.3: "R. Eleazar said: Just as it is forbidden to purify the impure, so too it is forbidden to declare the pure impure." Thus, one must always take into account the implications of one's ruling, how much pain and anguish it may cause, weigh the relevant aspects involved in the issue, and seek out a way to find a suitable solution which will bring spiritual satisfaction to the questioners. Of course, we will not always be able to satisfy our "clients" with a "happy reply." But at least we should always try our hardest to do so. -
Religion and Science in Abraham Ibn Ezra's Sefer Ha-Olam
RELIGION AND SCIENCE IN ABRAHAM IBN EZRA'S SEFER HA-OLAM (INCLUDING AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE HEBREW TEXT) Uskontotieteen pro gradu tutkielma Humanistinen tiedekunta Nadja Johansson 18.3.2009 1 CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................... 3 1.1 Abraham Ibn Ezra and Sefer ha-Olam ........................................................................ 3 1.2 Previous research ......................................................................................................... 5 1.3 The purpose of this study ............................................................................................. 8 2 SOURCE, METHOD AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ....................................... 10 2.1 Primary source: Sefer ha-Olam (the Book of the World) ........................................... 10 2.1.1 Edition, manuscripts, versions and date .............................................................. 10 2.1.2 Textual context: the astrological encyclopedia .................................................... 12 2.1.3 Motivation: technical handbook .......................................................................... 14 2.2 Method ....................................................................................................................... 16 2.2.1 Translation and historical analysis ...................................................................... 16 2.2.2 Systematic analysis ............................................................................................. -
Intellectual Mysticism in the Visión Deleitable
religions Article “El entendimiento con el qual me conoscan”: Intellectual Mysticism in the Visión Deleitable Michelle M. Hamilton Center for Medieval Studies, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA; [email protected] Received: 6 October 2019; Accepted: 17 December 2019; Published: 20 December 2019 Abstract: Visión deleytable is a fictional tale based in the Aristotelian philosophical and Neoplatonic mystical beliefs of the Judeo-Arabic tradition of medieval Iberia. This fifteenth-century work of imaginative fiction, a “best-seller” among Iberian readers, tells of the ascent of the active intellect to the celestial spheres and an experience of God. In this narrative, knowledge of the Latin trivium and quadrivium are combined with that of the Arabo-Andalusi philosophic traditions. Particularly noteworthy is the author, De la Torre’s extensive use of Maimonides’ work, the Guide of the Perplexed, as a source for the wisdom revealed in the Visión deleytable. While Maimonides’ position on the mystic experience is debated by contemporary scholars, in the present study I explore how the concept of intellectual mysticism, applied to the Neoplatonic/Aristotelian model of the intellect’s conjunction with the divine as found in Maimonides’ work, also describes the goal toward which the protagonist (and reader) of the Visión deleytable strive. As such, the Visión deleytable reveals how this notion of human-divine union (most notably in the concept of the “prophet-angel”) from the Judeo-Andalusi tradition, transmitted in Arabic and Hebrew, was translated into Spanish and adopted into the Catholic and converso frameworks of the Visión deleytable in fifteenth-century Iberia. Keywords: spanish medieval literature; converso literature; Maimonides; early print works; alfonso de la torre; spanish intellectual history; manuscript studies; prophecy; andalusi philosophy; spanish allegory Alfonso de la Torre’s Visión deleitable (Visión), composed c. -
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. -
MS-603: Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaum Collection, 1945-1992
MS-603: Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaum Collection, 1945-1992. Series D: Internationalional Relations Activities.Activities. 1961-1961 1992 Box 58, Folder 4, FFalashas,alashas, 1978-1979,1978-1979, 1985.1985. 3101 Clifton Ave, Cincinnati, Ohio 45220 (513) 221-1875 phone, (513) 221-7812 fax americanjewisharchives.org 3 CD 3 THE AMERICAN MITT8& 0 January , 1985 (vi~ FAX January 10) .. date a ~re .Tan . bawn/Geor9e ·Gruen :s to Q, from M. Berna Resnikoff c subject The new Ethio ia 3 There ha been so much news, controversy, misinformation and wr gling with-respect to the rescue operation. of Ethiopia Jews t~at it was decided to devote so~e time to c refully study the matter. The meth d chosen was ~o solicit and re- ceive an invitation t join a 9roup ·of local and " foreign correspondent ,who were taken on a day-lonq tour of installations created f9r Ethiopian Jews · that took place on Ja uary 6. We visit d absorption centers, reception centers, we spoke to ewish Agency offic1als, to absorp- tion center directors ~ducators, social workers, psychiatrists and do~ ors. We were free to speak to any a~d all Ethiopian , provided, of_ course, that there was a common language We visited classrooms, assorted ulpanim for different levels, we observed baby cli'nics, syn~qogues, dining ro m balls, assembly rooms and even stockrooms. There we e no apparent obstacles to seeking any and al~ informati the only limitation being that of language. · • One of t e principal findings of this trip is that thi·s is, by f r, the most difficult absorption of any group of Jews. -
Fall 2009 No
Fall 2009 No. 322 Ahuzat Yeladim Celebrating 70 years WIZO’s Day Care Centers Shana Caring for the Environment Latin American Congress Tova Successes and Challenges Women’s International Zionist Organization for an Improved Israeli Society You Are WIZO’s Future… Let’s Get Together! WIZO Aviv International Seminar November 15 – 19, 2009, Tel Aviv, Israel Come join young WIZO members from 50 federations worldwide! Participate in workshops on: Membership Recruitment, Organization, and Fundraising Hear top-level speakers on: Israel Today Women’s Leadership Jewish Education Visit WIZO Projects Tour Jerusalem Leadership Training For young WIZO members up to age 45 YOU BRING A SUITCASE - WE’LL PROVIDE THE REST For further information and registration, contact the head office of your local WIZO Federation subject Editor: Ingrid Rockberger Fall 2009 No. 322 www.wizo.org Assistant Editor: Tricia Schwitzer Editorial Board: Helena Glaser, Tova Ben Dov, Yochy Feller, Zipi Amiri, Esther Mor, Sylvie Pelossof, Briana Simon Rebecca Sieff WIZO Center, Graphic Design: StudioMooza.com 38 David Hamelech Blvd., Photos: Lilach Bar Zion, Allon Borkovski, Israel Sun, Tel Aviv, Israel Sharna Kingsley, Mydas Photography, John Rifkin, Tel: 03-6923805 Fax: 03-6923801 Ingrid Rockberger, Ulrike Schuettler, Yuval Tebol Internet: www.wizo.org Published by World WIZO Publicity and E-mail: [email protected] Communications Department Cover photo: Children in WIZO’s Bruce and Ruth Rappaport reinforced day care center in Sderot celebrate the New Year. Contents 04 President’s -
צב | עב January Tevet | Sh’Vat Capricorn Saturn | Aquarius Saturn
צב | עב January Tevet | Sh’vat Capricorn Saturn | Aquarius Saturn Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 1 | 17th of Tevet* 2 | 18th of Tevet* New Year’s Day Parashat Vayechi Abraham Moshe Hillel Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech of Dinov Rabbi Salman Mutzfi Rabbi Huna bar Mar Zutra & Rabbi Rabbi Yaakov Krantz Mesharshya bar Pakod Rabbi Moshe Kalfon Ha-Cohen of Jerba 3 | 19th of Tevet * 4* | 20th of Tevet 5 | 21st of Tevet * 6 | 22nd of Tevet* 7 | 23rd of Tevet* 8 | 24th of Tevet* 9 | 25th of Tevet* Parashat Shemot Rabbi Menchachem Mendel Yosef Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon Rabbi Leib Mochiach of Polnoi Rabbi Hillel ben Naphtali Zevi Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi Rabbi Yaakov Abuchatzeira Rabbi Yisrael Dov of Vilednik Rabbi Schulem Moshkovitz Rabbi Naphtali Cohen Miriam Mizrachi Rabbi Shmuel Bornsztain Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler 10 | 26th of Tevet* 11 | 27th of Tevet* 12 | 28th of Tevet* 13* | 29th of Tevet 14* | 1st of Sh’vat 15* | 2nd of Sh’vat 16 | 3rd of Sh’vat* Rosh Chodesh Sh’vat Parashat Vaera Rabbeinu Avraham bar Dovid mi Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch HaRav Yitzhak Kaduri Rabbi Meshulam Zusha of Anipoli Posquires Rabbi Yehoshua Yehuda Leib Diskin Rabbi Menahem Mendel ben Rabbi Shlomo Leib Brevda Rabbi Eliyahu Moshe Panigel Abraham Krochmal Rabbi Aryeh Leib Malin 17* | 4th of Sh’vat 18 | 5th of Sh’vat* 19 | 6th of Sh’vat* 20 | 7th of Sh’vat* 21 | 8th of Sh’vat* 22 | 9th of Sh’vat* 23* | 10th of Sh’vat* Parashat Bo Rabbi Yisrael Abuchatzeirah Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter Rabbi Chaim Tzvi Teitelbaum Rabbi Nathan David Rabinowitz -
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. -
David B. Ruderman
DAVID B. RUDERMAN OFFICES: Department of History Herbert D. Katz Center University of Pennsylvania of Advanced Judaic Studies 3401 Walnut St. University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pa. 19104-6379 420 Walnut St. 215 898-3793 Philadelphia, Pa. 19106 215 238-1290 Fax: 215 238-1540 E-mail: [email protected] BIOGRAPHY: Bezalel Gordon, “Ruderman, David B.,” Encyclopaedia Judaica, eds. Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik, vol. 17, 2nd ed. (Detroit, 2007), pp. 519-20. http://www.history.upenn.edu/faculty/ruderman.shtml EDUCATION: 1961-62 Jerusalem Institute, Jerusalem, Israel l962-63 Joint Program, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati, and University of Cincinnati l963-66 City College of New York, B.A. in European History, Magna Cum Laude l964-67 Teacher’s Institute, Jewish Theological Seminary of America l966-68 Columbia University, M.A. in Jewish History l967-71 Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, New York, B.H.L., M.H.L., and Rabbinic degree l968-69 Hebrew University, Jerusalem, visiting graduate student in Jewish history l971-74 Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Doctoral candidate in Jewish history; Ph.D. awarded l975 PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: 1969-71 Instructor in Jewish History and Thought, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, New York, School of Education l969-71 Instructor in History, New York Institute of Technology, New York 1 l971-72 Instructor in Jewish Thought, Institute for Youth Leaders from Abroad, Jerusalem l968-69, l971-74 Instructor in Jewish History and Thought, Hadassah Youth Center, Jerusalem l974-79 Assistant Professor of History; Chair, Jewish Studies Program, University of Maryland, College Park 1980-83 Associate Professor, Louis L.