This volume contains the following essays: Adiel Schremer | Parvanka: The Mandaean Context of an Anti-Heretical Polemic in the Babylonian Talmud Shlomi Efrati | A Quire of Chapters of Sanhedrin and Megillah, Part II: A Unique Textual Tradition of the Babylonian Talmud Shulamit Elizur | Ke-ha- yom ha-ze bi-Yerushalayim: The Origins, Distribution and Evolution of a Prayer Marking the Conclusions of Ceremonies Vered Raziel-Kretzmer | How Late was the Palestinian Rite Practiced in Egypt? New Evidence from the Cairo Genizah Joshua Blau | Review of: Alexey Eliyahu Yuditsky, A Grammar of the Hebrew of Origen’s Transcriptions, Jerusalem: The Academy of the Hebrew Language, 2017 [Hebrew] English Abstracts

This issue contains the following essays: Ronnie Goldstein | YHWH’s Inheritance and His Enthronement Shraga Bar-On and Yakir Paz | The Land of God to the Sons of God: Deuteronomy 32: 8-9 and the Inheritance of the Land of Israel Shlomi Efrati | A Quire of Chapters of Sanhedrin and Megillah, Part 1: A Unique Textual Tradition of the Babylonian Talmud Mordechai Akiva Friedman | The Shabbat Evening Prayer in the Palestinian Congregation of Fustat in Abraham Maimonides’ Times

The Book of Lamentations is comprised of six laments for the national catastrophe, which fundamentally changed the course of the history of the Jewish people: the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple followed by the exile of a large part of the Jewish people to Babylon. An examination of the exegeses and research on the Book of Lamentations after World War II shows that most exegeses refer in one way or another to the Holocaust as an event similarly tragic - and perhaps even more so - to the destruction and suffering described in Lamentations. However, one mustn't forget that the Holocaust is only one link, albeit unique, in the chain of the catastrophes and disasters known by the Jews over their 5,000-year history.

Given the availability of literal commentaries to the Bible, including those of Rashi, R. Joseph Kara, Samuel Ben Meir (Rashbam), R. Abraham Ibn Ezra and others, one of the key questions that vexed R. Joseph Bekhor Shor and his contemporaries was whether there was a need for yet another additional Bible commentary. The argument put forward here suggests that R. Joseph Bekhor Shor chose a path that combined continuity and innovation. The fluid movement between the familiar and the novel is the main contribution of R . Joseph Bekhor Shor's exegesis. While remaining committed to the traditional approach to interpretation, R. Joseph Bekhor Shor succeeded in paving new pathways and introducing original methods that had not previously been developed by his predecessors . This book serves as a vital tool for researchers of the Bible commentaries of Northern France, for those who study the teachings of R. Joseph Bekhor Shor and for all who enjoy studying the Bible and its commentaries .

Kobez al Yad , an annual of the Mekize Nirdamim Society, is a forum for the publication from manuscript sources of ancient texts in Jewish studies that are shorter than book-length. The articles in this volume: Vered Raziel Kretzmer and Uri Ehrlich - Additional Leaves from the “Tetragrammaton Siddur” Eden HaCohen - Fragments of Yoṣer Compositions for the Day of Atonement by Shelomo Sulayman al-Sinjary Yehoshua Granat - A Yoṣer Composition for Simḥat Torah, based on Psalm 119, by Yosef ibn Abitur Avi Shmidman - Fragments of Weekday Qerovot Attributed to Yosef ibn Abitur Ariel Zinder - New Seliḥot by Yosef ibn Abitur and Yiṣhaq ben Levi ibn Mar Shaul Michael Rand - Hoshaʿna El meriaḥ ʿarugat ganni – A Qedushta for 18 Benedictions for Hoshaʿna Rabba by Dosa he-Ḥazan be-Rabbi Yehoshuaʿ in Imitation of the Qillirian Qedushta: Hoshaʿna El emuna Sarah Cohen - The Piyyutim of Yaʿakob al-Aʿyan Tova Beeri - The Poems of Yeḥezkel ha-Kohen ben Eli Mordechai Akiva Friedman - A Letter to Abraham the Pious in Praise of the Prayer Ritual in Fustat Simcha Emanuel - Supplement to Arugat HaBosem, the Piyyut Commentary of Abraham ben Azriel Benjamin Bar-Tikva - Tehillah: A Letter-Decorated Baqqasha by Yehosef ha-Ezovi Shulamit Elizur - A Collection of Medieval Wisdom Proverbs from Ashkenaz

The Book of Micah is composed of prophecies by Micah, a contemporary of Isaiah. Micah flourished ca. 733-712 BCE, or even a little later, but before the invasion of the mighty Assyrian army of Sennacherib to Judah. Not all the prophecies of Micah have been preserved, and not all the prophecies included in the Book of Micah had been penned, or delivered by Micah. In his detailed introduction and the commentary to the Book of Micah, the author deals with the complicated problems pertaining to the book, its literary units, and their oral and written history. The author of the commentary is Professor (emeritus) Yair Hoffman, from the department of Bible in Tel Aviv University, who authored also the commentary on the Book of Jeremiah (2001; 2 volumes), in the Mikra Leyisra’el series. He is the author and editor of numerous volumes and papers in Hebrew and English. He served as the head of the School of Jewish Studies of Tel Aviv University. Professor Hoffman’s commentary on the Book of Micah is a must for any Bible student. This commentary on the Book of Micah is part of Mikra Leyisra’el , an ongoing series of scientific Hebrew commentaries to the Bible composed by renowned scholars from universities in Israel and abroad. The commentaries are written according to the most recent achievements of biblical scholarship, and relevant studies in Semitic linguistics, Ancient Near Eastern studies, and archaeology, with special attention to the contribution of the medieval Jewish commentators and grammarians. The Mikra Leyisra’el series boasts the commentaries on the books of Deuteronomy (2 volumes); Joshua; Judges; Samuel (2 volumes); Isaiah 40-66 (2 volumes); Jeremiah (2 volumes); Ezekiel (2 volumes); Joel and Amos; Obadiah and Jonah; Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah; Proverbs (2 volumes); Song of Songs; Ruth; and Esther. The commentary on Lamentations is now in its final production stage and the books of Kings (2 volumes); Ezra-Nehemiah; Haggai; Malachi; and Daniel are now in advanced stages of editing. More volumes are in various stages of preparation.

Mesopotamian and biblical societies in antiquity were characterized by their patriarchal structure. The father was head of the family unit, and his rule extended over many areas of life. He had broad legal authority over the members of his household, including his offspring. It is therefore expected that in the ancient sources a dominant father figure would be mentioned alone or almost alone. And yet, in Mesopotamian and biblical texts, particularly legal writings, the exclusivity of the father is not always explicit. In many of the Mesopotamian and biblical writings, especially legal texts, the mother is mentioned in various contexts and in a range of realms, mainly those pertaining to her offspring. This intriguing phenomenon raised the question whether the mother in the ancient Near East and ancient Israel had legal authority in the household. The book The Legal Status of the Mother in the Ancient Near East and the Bible sheds light on the world of the ancient mothers and their status within the households and the societies in which they lived. This study demonstrates that the mother acted by virtue of the legal status she possessed in matters related to her sons and daughters’ marriages and their behavior towards her. This book is for those walking in the fields of Mesopotamian and biblical research, and for readers interested in the universal subject in question - the relations between the mother and her offspring.

Contents: Nili Wazana – Preface In Memoriam Gershon Galil Prof. Zecharia Kallai 24.6.1923-17.1.2016 ) Amihai Mazar Prof Trude Dothan 12.10.1922-28.1.2016 ) Biblical Studies David Frankel - The Final Form of the Story of the Rape of Dinah in Light of Textual and Redaction Criticism Noam Mizrahi - From Wisdom to Hymn: The Literary, Textual and Linguistic Development of Jer 10:12-13 Miriam Sklarz - The Poet Before God, Against his Enemies and Facing his Congregation Naphtali S. Meshel - Dramatic Irony and double entendre in the Book of Job Amitai Baruchi - Unna Plural Forms Referring to ‘Elohim’ and the Israelite Cultic Proclamation Recurring in the Cult of the Calf The Bible in Relation to the Ancient Near East Shira J. Golani - ‘That (No) Plague May Come Upon Them for Being Registered’ (Exod 30:12): Census and Plague in the Bible in Light of the Ancient Near East Mordechai Cogan - Restoring the Empire: Sargon II’s Campaign to the West in 720/19 BCE History of Exegesis David Kopeliovich - Hated by his Brothers: The Typological Function of Jeremiah the Prophet in Josephus’ Jewish War Jonathan Jacobs - Use of the ʻNarrative Parableʼ by Northern-France Disciples (11th-12th Centuries) Isaac Gottlieb and Stewart Vanning - Rupert of Deutz (c.1075-1129) and Jewish Commentaries on the Joseph Story Itamar Kislev - The Contribution of Minhat Yehuda for Improving the Text of Rashbam’s Torah Commentary Yohanan Kapah - Joseph Hayyun’s Maggid Mishne

Articles in this volume: Emanuel Tov - The Development of the Text of the Torah in Two Major Text Blocks Michael Segal, Emanuel Tov, William Brentת Seales, Clifford Seth Parker, Pnina Shor, Yosef Porath, with an Appendix by Ada Yardeni - An Early Leviticus Scroll from En-Gedi: Preliminary Publication Kristin De Troyer - Reconstructing the Older Hebrew Text of the Book of Joshua: An Analysis of Joshua 10 Armin Lange - 4QXIIg (4Q82) as an Editorial Text Gary A. Rendsburg - How Could a Torah Scroll Have Included the Word זעטוטי Nancy Benovitz - Psalm 91:1 and the Rabbinic Shemaʿ in Greek on a Byzantine Amuletic Armband Yosef Ofer - A Fragment of the Aleppo Codex (Exodus 8) that Reached Israel Rachel Hitin-Mashiah - Main Division in the Verse in the 21 Prose Books: Syntactic Study Jordan S. Penkower - An Esther Scroll from the 15th Century: Determining its Type among Five Traditions (Oriental, Sefardi, Ashkenazi, Italian, Yemenite)

Samuel b. Judah ibn Tibbon (c. 1165-1232) is most famous for his translation of Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed into Hebrew. He translated other writings as well and produced original works of philosophy and biblical exegesis. This book makes available for the first time ever Ibn Tibbon’s Perush Qohelet, a sprawling adaptation of Maimonides’ method of exegesis to the complete verse-by-verse explication of a biblical book. The edition is presented with full annotation -- identifying Ibn Tibbon’s sources and explaining his ideas and terminology -- and analytical introduction, which presents the life and writings of the author, describes the commentary itself in detail, explains the method and philosophy of the commentary, and charts its historical influence. In later medieval Jewish thought, few figures were unaffected by this foundational work of Maimonideanism.

The publication of the commentary on the book of Deuteronomy is a moment for students of the Bible and for the educated Hebrew reader to celebrate. Now, for the first time, we have a critical Hebrew commentary on the book of Deuteronomy. The author, Jeffrey Tigay, is emeritus professor in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. The commentary is part of the series Mikra Leyisrael (Bible for Israel), a series of critical commentaries on the Bible whose authors are recognized scholars at universities in Israel and abroad. The commentaries make extensive use of the best of traditional Jewish exegesis of the Bible and modern Biblical scholarship and the disciplines that contribute to understanding the Bible in the context of the cultures of the ancient Near East – philology and the history and archaeology of the region – and literary scholarship. The book of Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Torah, is also known as “the Repetition of the Torah.” It is essentially a lengthy speech that Moses delivered to the Israelites on the Plains of Moab just before they entered the land of Canaan. But the book is not simply a review of the four preceding books. It sometimes adds to what they say or presents their contents from a different perspective, or even presents a contradictory version of what they say. According to 2 Kings chapter 22, the book was found in the course of renovations to the Temple during the reign of Josiah, king of Judah, in 622 BCE. Deuteronomy contains the most fully developed expression of the Torah’s concern for law and justice and for the welfare of the poor and disadvantaged. What is unique about Deuteronomy is its absolute demand for centralization of worship in the Temple in Jerusalem, that is, the abolishment of all local places of worship elsewhere – a demand that would be the equivalent of abolishing all synagogues and limiting the worship of God to single central synagogue in Jerusalem. A truly revolutionary demand! Jewish scholars throughout the generations sought to resolve the contradictions between the commandments and ideas of the first four books of the Torah and Deuteronomy. This kind of harmonizing exegesis is already found in the Bible itself, in the book of Chronicles, from the end of the Persian period. The present commentary deals with these contradictions, evaluates the traditional explanations, explains the contradictions in the light of modern critical scholarship, and explains how the laws of Deuteronomy developed in later Jewish tradition. The commentary deals with the historical background of Deuteronomy, its language and literary form, and explains the text in accordance with its peshat, or original/intended, plain meaning. Prof. Tigay’s commentary is a must for all who wish to study the book of Deuteronomy and deepen their understanding of it. This new commentary benefits from Biblical research that has taken place during more than 20 years since the first edition of this commentary (by the same author) published in English by the Jewish Publication Society of America as the final volume of their Torah Commentary, and it deals with numerous additional matters of interest to Hebrew readers. Regretfully page 447 is missing from the second volume. The missing page appears in the " Preview " link that appears above. Volume one starts with chapter 1 verse 1 and continues through chapter 16 verse 17; volume two starts with chapter 16 verse 18 and continues through the end of the book, chapter 34 verse 12.