The articles in this volume: The Legislation of War: A Study of the Story of the Israelite War against Midian (Numbers 31) - Ariel Kopilovitz ‘You shall hamstring their horses and burn their chariots’ (Joshua 11:6): The Identification of Horses and Chariots as the Weapons of Israel’s Enemies in Biblical Literature - Yakov Dolgopolsky-Geva A Complete Root Glossary of Canaanite Words and Forms from the Amarna Tablets - Esther Haber ‘We must have a king over us, that we may be like all the other nations’ (I Sam 8:19): Israelite Kings in Art - Irit Ziffer The Story of the Sons of God and the Daughters of Men (Gen. 6:1–4) in Light of the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women Akkadian Itineraries: From the Kingdom of Akkad to the Assyrian Empire - Amitai Baruchi-Unna The Akkadian Wisdom Composition ‘Hear the Advice’: Traditional Wisdom versus Rebellious Skepticism - Yoram Cohen The Leqah Tov Commentary on Song of Songs: Its Place in the History of Biblical Exegesis and its Relationship with the Commentary of Rashi - Jonathan Jacobs Nachmanides’ Exegesis of Midrash in his Commentary on the Torah - Miriam Sklarz Additions and Changes in Nachmanides’ Commentaries relating to the Geography of Israel - David Shneor Book Reviews For contents and article abstracts please press "Sample pages "

Sharon Flatto's comprehensive study offers the first systematic overview of the eighteenth-century Jewish community of Prague and the first critical account of the life and thought of its pre-eminent rabbinic authority, Ezekiel Landau. Her detailed analysis, firmly rooted in the historical and cultural context of the period, challenges the conventional portrayal of Landau as a staunch opponent of esoteric practices and reveals the centrality of kabbalistic thought in this key central European city. Kabbalah, an esoteric lore whose study was traditionally restricted, played a surprisingly prominent and far-reaching role in eighteenth-century Prague. In this book Sharon Flatto uncovers the centrality of this mystical tradition for Prague’s influential Jewish community and its pre-eminent rabbinic authority, Ezekiel Landau, chief rabbi from 1754 to 1793. A towering eighteenth-century rabbinic leader who is best known for his halakhic responsa collection the Noda biyehudah, Landau is generally considered a staunch opponent of esoteric practices and public kabbalistic discourse. Flatto challenges this portrayal, exposing the importance of kabbalah in his work and thought and demonstrating his novel use of teachings from diverse kabbalistic schools. She also identifies the historical events and cultural forces underlying his reluctance to discuss kabbalah publicly, including the rise of the hasidic movement and the acculturation spurred by the 1781 Habsburg Toleranzpatent. In telling this story, the study offers the first systematic overview of the eighteenth-century Jewish community of Prague, and the first critical account of Landau’s life and writings, which continue to shape Jewish law and rabbinic thought to this day. Extensively examining Landau's rabbinic corpus, as well as a variety of archival and published German, Yiddish, and Hebrew sources, it provides a unique glimpse into the spiritual and psychological world of eighteenth-century Prague Jewry. Reconstructing the intellectual world and traditional society in which Landau lived, this study reveals the dominance of rabbinic culture in Prague during this transitional period, the ongoing significance of kabbalistic ideas and practices, and the city’s numerous distinguished figures and institutions. Its analysis of the spiritual trends that animated this culture demonstrates that Prague’s late eighteenth-century rabbinate was more influential, more conservative, and less open to modernization than has been recognized. Debunking the widespread scholarly portrayal of Prague as primarily under the influence of the modernizing West, Flatto shows that this key central European city was shaped more by traditional east European Jewish culture than by Western Enlightenment thought. By unraveling and exploring the many diverse threads that were woven into the fabric of Prague's eighteenth-century Jewish life, the book offers a comprehensive portrayal of rabbinic culture at its height in one of the largest and most important centres of European Jewry.

Avec cette 21e livraison consacrée à “Enfants de Kafka”, Perspectives entre dans sa troisième décénie. Un long parcours qui nous a permis d’aborder les sujets les plus divers: “Malraux et ses harmoniques juives” comme “Samson et superman”. Deux axes de réflexions se sont dégagés : “La nature de l’héritage” et “Réception et création”. Le premier insiste surtout sur l’apport spécifique de Kafka et le second sur l’accueil, la perception personnelle de cet apport mais la ligne qui sépare ces deux axes est poreuse, l’apport spécifique de Kafka est ressenti différemment selon les auteurs qui ont participé à ce numéro.

For contents and article abstracts press on Sample pages which is located on the right of the cover photo. The articles in this volume: Aharon Shemesh and Moshe Halbertal - The Meʾun (Refusal): The Complex History of Halakhic Anomaly Shulamit Elizur - The Early Scope of Parashat Sheqalim Gideon Bohak - The Hidden Hekhalot: Towards Reconstructing an Unknown Hekhalot Composition from the Cairo Genizah Avraham Grossman - The Impact of Rabbi Samuel of Spain and Reuel of Byzantium on Rashi’s School Idit Einat-Nov - Uncertainty as a Poetic Principle: A Reading of Nəʾum Ašer Ben Yəhudah by Shlomo Ibn Ṣaqbel English and Hebrew Abstracts

This book breaks new ground in several areas of Talmudic philology, especially with regard to the central work of classical rabbinic literature, the Mishnah, and its companion volume the Tosefta. The first section, devoted to the textual criticism of the Mishnah, exposes a number of widespread fallacies with regard to the so-called "Palestinian" and "Babylonian" manuscripts of this work. The second section, the largest and most innovative of the book, seeks to place the textual criticism of the Tosefta on a firm foundation on the basis of a detailed analysis which upends the scholarly consensus in this area. The third section contributes to the ongoing debate concerning the relationship between Mishnah and Tosefta, emphasizing the multifaceted nature of this relationship which varies substantially from one passage to another. Finally, the afterword makes an impassioned plea for editors of classical rabbinic texts to abandon the antiquated notions of legitimate editorial practice which still prevail in the field in favor of approaches which have long been accepted in other disciplines.

For contents and article abstracts press on Sample pages which is located on the right of the cover photo. The articles in this volume: Alexander Rofé - Redressing the Calamity in the Transmission of the Bible Yonatan Feintuch - The Textual Development of the Aggadah of Rav Ada b. Abba (b BB 22a) in Light of the Evidence of an Early Genizah Fragment Avi Shmidman - Quina Poems for the 10th of Tevet and the 17th of Tamuz Avraham Fraenkel - Kingdoms and their Harsh Decrees in Medieval Italian Jewish Poetry Tzahi Weiss - ‘Most of the Errant Err in Malkhut’: The Worship of the Shekhinah in Early Kabbalah Tsippi Kauffman - Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Przysucha English and Hebrew Abstracts

This book contains eight conversations on the Gospel of John between the Bible scholar Yair Zakovitch and Early Christianity scholar Serge Ruzer. The Gospel of John, the Fourth Gospel, differs considerably from the other three canonical Gospels, representing an independent writing and outlook. Usually dated to the end of the first century CE, this composition reflects a particular offshoot of early Christian identity being defined vis-à-vis both Jewish messianic beliefs of broader appeal and perceptions current among other groups within the Jesus movement. Accordingly, the conversations in the book deal with the issues crucial for understanding John's polemical strategies: Jesus as second Moses (inter alia, when performing wonders); crucifixion and sacrifice of Isaac; Jews in the Forth Gospel; biblical exegesis employed in John; the Prologue of John as programmatic introduction and hermeneutical key; and, finally, the author of John as a diligent editor of an inherited narrative and as a daring innovator vis-à-vis the Synoptic tradition reflected in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. The discussion highlights two intriguing features of the Fourth Gospel: the first – its complicated balancing act between the desire to present the claim for Jesus’ messiahship as continuation of biblical expectations and propagating ideas both daring and innovative; the second – its being a witness for Jewish beliefs otherwise attested only in much later rabbinic sources. This turns John into a precious witness both for developments within earliest Christianity and for trajectories in broader Judaism.

For contents and article abstracts press on Sample pages which is located on the right of the cover photo. :Participants in this volume Dr. Matti Huss Prof. Uri Ehrlich Dr. Maoz Kahana Prof. Alexander Lubotzky Prof. Yair Lorberboim Prof. Yosef Ofer Prof. Menahem Kister Dr. Avraham (Rami) Reiner Dr. Avi Shmidman

We are pleased to present the readers with a new, double issue of Massorot , volumes 16–17, published through the collaboration of the Center for Jewish Languages and Literatures and the Jewish Oral Traditions Research Center of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The present volume offers ten articles devoted to Hebrew and Jewish language studies, some by veteran researchers, others by younger scholars. Half of them were originally presented as lectures at the Fourth International Conference of the Center for Jewish Languages and Literatures, convened to mark the 25th anniversary of the Center at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The theme of the conference, held in Tammuz 5770 / June 2010, was “Original Compositions and Translated Works in Jewish Languages”. The articles published in this volume deal with a range of Jewish languages, the majority of them Jewish languages of Romance stock: the articles by Shmuel Refael, Ángel Berenguer Amador, and Omer Shafran focus on Judeo-Spanish (or Judezmo, Ladino); the articles by Cyril Aslanov and Doron Modan are devoted to Jewish varieties of French; and the article by Michael Ryzhik concentrates on Judeo-Italian. Jewish Malayalam, the study of which is still in its infancy, is discussed in the article by Ophira Gamliel. Issues relating to the study of languages in contact, which frequently arise in Jewish language analysis, come to the fore in several of the articles in the present volume: the article by Esther Adamit analyzes the ways in which multiple languages influenced the selection of Jewish toponyms appearing on the title pages of Hebrew-letter works published in Europe; and the contribution by Doron Modan analyzes the influence of several European languages on the Hebrew component incorporated in a collection of communal regulations written in the language of the Jews of Bordeaux and Bayonne.Two of the articles in this volume discuss Hebrew language traditions. The article by Moshe Bar-Asher analyzes the Hebrew that emerges from tombstone inscriptions from Meknes as reflected in the volume Avne Zikkaron, by Rabbi Yosef Messas. The contribution by Ilan Eldar discusses the origins of the traditional Ashkenazic pronunciation of Hebrew. The book features article summaries in English.

The Land of the Bible, cradle of Judaism and Christianity, is a world of wonders. Here Abraham was asked by God to sacrifice his first born son Isaac, returning from decades of exile in Egypt the Israelites established a nation, and Jesus with the Twelve Apostles founded what would be known as Christianity. Due to its strategic position and spiritual significance, this small piece of land attracted kings, emperors, and sultans who throughout thousands of years claimed it in their quest to dominate the world. It is also a land of unique topographical phenomena: most notably the world's lowest spot, the Dead Sea, the largest Makhtesh, the Great Rift Valley, the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. Michael Medina’s three dimensional photos accompanied by Professor James H. Charlesworth’s descriptions walk you in Jesus’ footsteps as well as through some of the Holy Land’s most significant and spectacular historical, archeological, and topographical wonders.

Modernity offers people choices about who they want to be and how they want to appear to others. The way in which Jews choose to frame their identity establishes the dynamic of their social relations with other Jews and with non-Jews—a dynamic complicated by how non- Jews position the boundaries around what and who they define as Jewish. This volume seeks to uncover these processes, historically as well as in contemporary behaviour, and to find explanations for the various manifestations, in feeling and action, of 'being Jewish'. Boundaries and borders raise fundamental questions about the difference between Jews and non-Jews in modern life. At root, the question is how 'Jewish' is understood in social situations where people recognize or construct boundaries between their own identity and those of others. The question is important because this is by definition the point at which the lines of demarcation between Jews and non-Jews, and between different groupings of Jews, are negotiated. Collectively, the contributors to this volume expand our understanding of the social dynamics of framing Jewish identity. The volume opens with an introduction that locates the issues raised by the contributors in terms of the scholarly traditions from which they have evolved. Part I presents four essays dealing with the construction and maintenance of boundaries, two showing how boundaries come to be etched on an ethnic landscape and two which question and adjust distinctions among neighbours. Part II focuses on expressive means of conveying identity and memory, while in Part III the discussion turns to museum exhibitions and festive performances as locations for the negotiation of identity in the public sphere. Part IV features a dialogue between observers of the paradoxes of Jewish heritage revival in Poland, and the perception of that revival by Jews and non-Jews.