The essays by Shemaryahu Talmon presented in this fourth volume of his collected studies in English were written against the background of the momentous manuscript finds at various sites in the Judean Desert, including approximately 200 biblical or Bible-related manuscripts and manuscript fragments discovered at Qumran. These discoveries date from the crucial period of the turn of the era and afford scholars unprecedented information on the early transmission history of the biblical text. Talmon likens the transmission process (in agreement with Paul Kahle, and contrary to Paul de Lagarde) to a confluence of variant pristine traditions that Judaism, Christianity, and the Samaritan communities severally channeled into one fixed and closely circumscribed text form. It is his thesis that at least some of the "biblical" manuscripts and fragments from Qumran preserve original variants of the wording in the Masoretic Text, which eventually was recognized and transmitted in Judaism as the acclaimed and exclusively binding wording of the Hebrew Bible. These manuscripts and fragments evidence a "textual strategy" consisting of the interaction of the original authors and the transmitters of their work. Scribes and editors were minor partners of the authors. They did not refrain from occasionally changing wordings within a given range of "poetic license," often adapting literary techniques and patterns that had been used by the primary creators of the texts that they copied. The 18 essays reprinted in this volume relate to a variety of phenomena that affected the biblical literature in the stages of transition from oral tradition to hand-written transmission, initially in Paleo-Hebrew, then in the square alphabet, and ultimately in the promulgation of the Masoretic version in print. Talmon's articles published herein initially appeared over a period of about 50 years, thus giving expression to his developing thought regarding the transmission history of the biblical text up to the present time. The papers have undergone revision in the process of preparing the present volume. Scholars and students alike will benefit from owning and using this superb comprehensive collection of studies.

The articles in this volume Israel Knohl : The Linking of Holiness Concepts and the broadening of the Borders of Holiness in the Editorial Layer of the Pentateuch. Alexander Rofé : Divorce in the Hebrew Bible and the Meaning of Sefer Keritut. Ishay Rosen-Zvi : A Protocol of the Yavnean Academy? Rereading Tosefta Sanhedrin. Shlomo Toledano : The Talmudic Methodology of Rabbi Bezalel Ashkenazi. Judith Weiss: The Two Zoharic Versions of the Legend of The Tanna and the Deadman. Iris Brown (Hoizman) : ‘The Violation of the Torah is Its True Fulfillment’;Ultra-Orthodox Ruling against the Halakhah for The Emendation of the Sinners – R. Hayim of Sanz as a Case Study.

There are abstracts of all the articles in English.

Table of Contents David Henshke - A Positive Commandment Overrides a Negative One: The Tannaitic Source of this Principle and its History Assaf Rosen-Zvi - ‘Even Though there is no Proof to the Matter, There is an Indication of the Matter’: The Meaning, Character and Significance of the Phrase in the Tannaitic Literature Adiel Schremer - ‘Behold, the Man has Become Like One of Us’: Polemic, Silencing, and Self-Restraint in Early Rabbinic Midrash David Shneor - The Importance of Paris Manuscript Héb 155 for Understanding the Maps Drawn in Rashi’s Commentary of Numbers XXXIV Hannah Kasher and Charles Manekin - The Commentary of Joseph ibn Kaspi to the Logical Terms of Maimonides Esti Eisenmann - The Role of the Medium and the Natural Place in the Explanation of the Natural Motion in Rabbi Moses ben Yehuda’s Thought

Table of Contents Vered NoamIs - It true that ‘A corpse does not defile’? On Ritual Contamination in Tannaitic Literature Uri Ehrlich - Maʿaseh Bereshit and Shir Shel Yom in the Early Siddur: New Finds from the Cairo Geniza Yair Lorberbaum - ‘Incline thy ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply thy heart unto my knowledge’: Criticism of Aggadah in The Guide of the Perplexed Zvi Mark - The Mystical Fellowship: On the Visions of R. Shmuel Isaac of Doshiv and R. Yitshaq Isaac of Tirovitz (Two of R. Nahman of Braslav’s First Disciples) Book Review Jonatan Meir - Scholem’s ‘Archives’

Table of Contents: Alexander Rofé - Text-Criticism within the Philological-Historical Discipline: The Problem of the Double Text of Jeremiah Jonathan Ben-Dov - Hebrew and Aramaic Writing in the Pseudepigrapha and the Qumran Scrolls: The Ancient Near Eastern Background and the Quest for a Written Authority Itamar Kislev - The Commentaries of Ibn Ezra and Rashbam and the Dispute over the Ingredients of the Altar Incense Yair Lorberbaum - Changes in Maimonides’ Approach to Aggadah Rami Reiner - ‘A Tombstone Inscribed’: Titles Used to Describe the Deceased in Tombstones from Würzburg between 1147–1148 and 1346

Textus is the only scholarly journal in the world devoted solely to issues of the textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible and related questions. The volumes present a wide range of research papers dealing with general topics and the specialized aspects of the work of the Bible Project, in English, French (with Hebrew summaries), and Hebrew. To date twenty three volumes of studies have been published, edited by the editors of the HUBP and other textual scholars Contents Alexander Rofé - Isac Leo Seeligmann – Text Criticism in Context Jože Krašovec - Phonetic Factors in Transliteration of Biblical Proper Names into Greek and Latin D. Andrew Teeter - “You Shall Not Seethe a Kid in its Mother’s Milk”: The Text and the Law in Light of Early Witnesses Christoph Levin Aram und/oder Edom in den Büchern Samuel und Könige David Weissert - Obadiah 20: Septuagint and Vulgate Adele Berlin - Rams and Lambs in Psalm 114:4 and 6: The Septuagint’s Translation of X //
 Y Parallelisms Johann Cook - The Relationship between Textual Criticism, Literary Criticism and Exegesis – An Interactive One? Frank H. Polak - The Place of the Dikaios: Creative Translation and Verse Order in the Septuagint of Proverbs Bradley Gregory - The Rebuilding of the Temple in the Text of Tobit 13 and its Implications for Second Temple Hermeneutics Christopher - Begg Solomon Secures his Kingdom According to Josephus Yonatan Sagiv - “To Give Moses a Pause …”: New Examples of Biblical Textual Divisions as Reflected in Rabbinic Literature and a Suggested Connection to the Calendar Debate Moshe A. Zipor - “The Blessing of the Priests is not Read and not Translated”? Rafael Isaac (Singer) Zer - Was the Masorete of the Aleppo Codex of Rabbinate or of Karaite Origin? Sara Japhet - Did Rashbam Know the Vulgate Latin Translation of the Song of Songs? Yosef Ofer - Methods and Sources of Yedidya Shelomo Norzi in his Treatise Minhat Shay Hebrew Abstracts 

CONTENTS Sara Japhet-Preface Nili Wazana-Professor Moshe Weinfeld Moshe Bar-Asher-Professor Moshe Weinfeld Biblical Studies Tova Ganzel-The Status of Functionaries in the Future Temple of Ezekiel Jacob Milgrom-The Unique Features of Ezekiel’s Temple (Ezekiel 40–48) Noam Mizrahi-Linguistic Analysis and Textual Criticism:The Syntax of Obadiah 19–20 in the Masoretic Text and the Ancient Versions Amos Frisch-The Concept of Kingship in Psalms Yael Shemesh-I find woman more bitter than death’ (Ecclesiastes 7:26): Is there Misogyny in the Bible? The Bible in Relation to the Ancient Near East Shawn-Zelig Aster-What Sennacherib Said, and What the Prophet Heard: On the Use of Assyrian Sources in the Prophetic Narrative of the Campaign of 701 BCE Dead Sea Scrolls and Apocryphal Literature Vered Noam-'You Shall Pass Through Fire’ (Numbers 31:23) – An Early Exegetic Tradition Michal Bar-Asher Siegal-The Problem of Evil in the Syriac Translation of the Book of Ben Sira: the Differences between the Hebrew and the Syriac Texts Reconsidered History of Exegesis Yeshayahu Maori-‘Aggadot Hallukot’ in Rashi’s Commentary on Scripture Gila Prebor-The Use of Midrash in Rashi’s Commentary on Ecclesiastes Sara Japhet-Rashbam’s Introduction to his Commentary on Lamentations Aharon Mondschein-‘The Masoretes fabricated explanations for full and deficient spellings’: On Abraham ibn Ezra’s Struggle against the(Ab)use of Biblical Spelling as an Exegetical Tool Book Reviews Eran Viezel-On: Joseph Cohen, Uriel Simon (eds.), R. Abraham IbnEzra: Yesod Mora Ve-Sod Torah – The Foundation of Reverence and the Secret of the Torah, an annotated critical edition, second revised and enlarged version (Sources and Studies, XI, The Institute for Jewish Bible Interpretation, Bar-Ilan University), Ramat-Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press, 2007, 272 pp. (in Hebrew) Ronie Goldstein-On: Mariano Gómez Aranda, El comentario de Abraham Ibn Ezra al libro de Job: Edición crítica, traducción y estudio introductorio (Serie A: Literatura Hispanohebrea, 6) Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Instituto de Filología, Madrid 2004, cxl, 342, 94 pp.; Mariano Gómez Aranda, Dos Comentarios de Abraham Ibn Ezra Al Libro de Ester: Edición crítica, traducción y estudio introductorio (Serie A: Literatura Hispanohebrea, 9) Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Instituto de Filología, Madrid 2007, cxxviii, 193, 70 pp. 339

Tarbiz is the only Hebrew academic journal that is devoted to the entire range of Jewish studies. Appearing quarterly, this journal is the principal forum for the expression of the most important developments in Jewish studies in our generation, and its contributors include the leading scholars in the various fields of Jewish studies in Israel and the world, as well as young scholars who are beginning to make their mark. Tarbiz was first published in 1930 at the Institute of Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, under the editorial pen of Prof. Jacob Nachum Epstein z"l.

Contents: Articles Reuven Kiperwasser: The Visit of the Rural Sage – Text, Context and Intertext in a Rabbinic Narrative Nicham Ross: A Tale of One Stone and What Lay Beneath It – The Literary Trajectory of a Legend from The Tales of the Baal Shem Tov (Shivhei ha-Besht) until the Writings of S. Y. Agnon Bat-Zion Eraqi Klorman: Society, Economy, Religion, and Magic - Jews and Muslims in the Tribal Sphere Nina Pinto-Abecasis: ‘Ja Ja Ja’ and ‘The European’ – Gender in Nicknaming Among the Jews of Tetuan Miri Yousov-Shalom: ‘May he be with her in Hell’ – A Structural Analysis of Stories from Romania in the Israel Folktale Archives (IFA) Rachel Ben-Cnaan and Ravit Raufman: ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ – The Haredi Version in a National-Religious Virtual Forum Towards a History of Folkloristics Haim Weiss: Science, Folklore and Rationality in Dream Discourse during Late-Antiquity Review Ilana Rosen: Immigrant Narrative and Discourse in a Multi-Cultural Setting