This volume continues the series Textbook of Aramaic Documents (TAD) begun with vol. 1, Letters (1986), and vol. 2, Contracts (1989). The standard set by previous volumes is maintained here, and the authors are to be congratulated for producing an edition that, without exaggeration, deserves to be called definitive. A final vol. 4 is to appear, "to cover papyrus fragments and inscriptions on potsherds, stone, and wood." Like the preceding volumes, vol. 3 has these central features: first, beautiful new copies of the texts, made with consummate skill, in almost every case from prolonged or repeated consultation of the originals; second, printed transcriptions of the texts; third, accompanying translations into Modern Hebrew and English. Additional components assist the consultation and comprehension of the texts: bibliographies, a foreword and an introduction, excursuses, tables, and charts, including, for example, a foldout with a reconstruction of the original scroll of Ahiqar. There is an economical but extensive glossary (some twenty-four pages) with many of the features of a concordance of words (to be treated at greater length below). As the authors quietly assert (p. vi), there are new readings for almost every piece. The implication is that all previous editions now become outmoded in their most essential function, that of giving a reliable text; in view of the extraordinary care and skill with which Porten and Yardeni have examined and presented the texts, it is unlikely that any future advance in this regard is possible. This edition is in that sense definitive. This edition is elaborate, but one of its many virtues is that the user finds it economical. Each of the many features in this lavish series is directed to a well-defined purpose, and even the bilingual presentation of certain parts (Modern Hebrew and English) is not felt as something overloading the work.

This is the first comprehensive dictionary of the Hebrew and Aramaic component of Modern Ottoman Judezmo – the traditional language of the Turkish and Balkan Sephardim, descendants of the Jews exiled from Spain in 1492. Its over 5000 entries and subentries reveal popular pronunciations of the words as well as the creative grammatical constructions, imaginative semantic innovations, and idiomatic expressions, proverbs and sayings incorporating Hebrew and Aramaic elements, which form a part of the unique Jewish subculture created by the Ottoman Sephardim. The dictionary is preceded by an overview of the Judezmo (also known as Judeo-Spanish, Ladino) language in its historical development, and an analysis of the Hebrew and Aramaic elements used by Judezmo speakers before the modern period covered by the dictionary

This study in cognitive science brings together traditional philosophical questions about meaning and meaning relationships with recent findings in cognitive psychology, neurology, ethno-linguistics, and new methods of semantic research. Part 1 is a query into the nature of meaning relations as projected in the notion of conceptual and semantic fields. Words related in meaning are organized in a semantic field. Theoretical as well as methodological questions about semantic fields are dealt with in the light of new findings about conceptual networks, memory structure, retrieval mechanisms, and the modularity of language as revealed by differences of age, status, sex, culture, etc. It is suggested that a firm basis exists for further research in relations in various semantic fields, viewing these fields as the actual realization of cognitive networks. Part 2 details the obstacles as well as the benefits gained in conducting research on a semantic field of a difficult philosophical concept such as ‘similarity’. Verbs, nouns, adjectives, prepositions, and idiomatic expressions of similarity and related notions (mainly in Hebrew) are examined through their semantic relations and their respective roles in the semantic field. Two main conclusions result from this investigation: a) ‘Similarity’ is a bundle of relations rather than a unitary concept. It gathers under one roof subtypes of similarity such as: analogy and comparison, parallelism, duplication, part-whole relations, copy, forgery, and mistaken identification. Each subtype has its own logical characteristics. b) The mechanism that gathers these subtypes of similarity under one concept, ‘similarity’, is based on a quasi-contradiction or tension between unity and plurality, between precision (‘the very image’) and loose ends (‘images’). These two characteristics of ‘similarity’ account for its aptness to perform its cognitive function as an adjuster, a liaison between newly acquired, unlabeled information and a whole body of structured knowledge. Part 3 sets forth further applications of the semantic field method. Alternations of closely related words and expressions in the field shed new light on the choice of words and the issue of selectional restriction in meaning. Alternation of related discourse metaphors points out their nature as rule-governed devices. Several rules of meaning render such metaphors understandable and meaningful. This study is an initial step toward a theory of the logical-semantic basis of metaphor. The complete book shows what is gained by combining traditional philosophical and linguistic questions with modern research methods and their findings.

This book discusses the various incarnations of words, the configuration of special words and special grammatical phenomena . The words come from a multitude of sources and realms: Jewish holidays, Aramaic, collocations, grammar words and more.

Aramaic translations were considered a reliable source for Jewish prayers when reading the Torah on Shabbat and holidays at synagogues. Translation did not serve only as an instrument for explaining the Torah, but also for expanding and enriching it, enabling readers and listeners to learn from it and make it more relevant to their personal lives. The Israelites’ houses of prayer produced multiple rich spiritual texts – sermons, prayers and liturgical poems – and were occupied by believers who regularly recited and translated the Holy Scriptures. Jewish tradition and history have luckily preserved quite a few Aramaic translations, the most interesting of which is attributed to Jonathan Ben Uzziel, a text that accurately depicts the literary qualities and conceptual world of translation.

Here the author has sought to contribute a fresh approach to salient themes in the Freudian texts that could be regarded as the underpinnings of Freud's idiosyncratic attitude toward religious feeling and, ultimately, of his own problematic identification with Moses. Working with an impressive array of citations from Freuds' papers, Ater argues that Freud's complex religious identification as well as his scientific outlook – particularly as regards to the deepest strata of the unconscious, group psychology, and the genesis of religion – share a single psychological structure.