Rabbinic Literature

''לחם צר ומים לחץ' – לחמהּ של קהילת המורדים במצדה'

by Guy Stiebel

בתוך: סטרינסקי א' ורז א' (עורכים), מלח הארץ כרך 6, סדרה למחקרי ים המלח, הוצאת מאגנס, ירושלים, תשע"ב, עמ' 116-104.

''לחם צר ומים לחץ' – לחמהּ של קהילת המורדים במצדה'

by Guy Stiebel

בתוך: סטרינסקי א' ורז א' (עורכים), מלח הארץ כרך 6, סדרה למחקרי ים המלח, הוצאת מאגנס, ירושלים, תשע"ב, עמ' 116-104.

Book Review: Food and Identity in Early Rabbinic Judaism by Jordan D. Rosenblum (Cambridge University Press, 2010)

by Julia Watts Belser

Published in the journal "Religion" (March 2012)

Crying Out for Rain: The Human, the Holy, and the Earth in the Ritual Fasts of Rabbinic Literature

by Julia Watts Belser

Julia Watts Belser, “Crying Out for Rain: The Human, the Holy, and the Earth in the Ritual Fasts of Rabbinic Literature.”  Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology 13:2, 2009 : 219-238.

I trace the religious significance of rain in Tractate Taanit, a 6th century volume of the Babylonian Talmud that... more I trace the religious significance of rain in Tractate Taanit, a 6th century volume of the Babylonian Talmud that addresses fasts in response to drought among rabbinic Jewish communities in late antiquity.  Tractate Taanit incorporates rain symbolism into key rabbinic conceptions of Torah, revelation, and divine compassion.  As the tractate crafts rain into a symbol that expresses God’s presence and relationship with Israel, it also articulates drought as the essential expression of divine absence.  Within the tractate, fasting serves as the quintessential collective response to the physical and spiritual crisis of drought.  Fasting practice in Tractate Taʿanit fashions the vulnerable collective body into an instrument particularly suited to cry out for divine answer.  By invoking and intensifying the experience of suffering caused by drought, the community uses its communal body to align itself with both a suffering God and a suffering earth, each of which yearn for reconciliation.

Reading Talmudic Bodies: Disability, Narrative, and the Gaze in Rabbinic Judaism

by Julia Watts Belser

Julia Watts Belser, “Reading Talmudic Bodies: Disability, Narrative, and the Gaze in Rabbinic Judaism.” in Disability in Judaism, Christianity and Islam: Sacred Texts, Historical Traditions and Social Analysis. World Religions and Disability, vol. 2, eds. Darla Schumm and Michael Stoltzfus. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

The Face of God and the Etiquette of Eye-Contact: Visitation, Pilgrimage, and Prophetic Vision in Ancient Israelite and Early Jewish Imagination

by simeon chavel

JSQ 19 (2012) 1–55

* Download via link below or email me for pdf *

The article analyzes the motif of looking at Y's face in a variety of biblical texts, as a reflex of the protocols or... more The article analyzes the motif of looking at Y's face in a variety of biblical texts, as a reflex of the protocols or etiquette of human interaction. It aims to illustrate that different genres situate or employ the motif in alternate contexts and ways. Well-known and lesser-known changes were made in biblical texts where the motif exists. The article argues these were done in order to mute the motif, not because of its anthropomorphic discourse regarding the deity, but because of the impropriety of its direct discourse about looking at him. The article suggests, on the basis of Rabbinic materials, that this sensibility responds to a growing text-centeredness, as lay people have greater contact with the text and access to it.

"The Witness of Times: An Anthropological Reading of Niddah." In Reading Leviticus, 124-43. J. Sawyer, ed. Sheffield: Academic Press, 1996.

by Adriana Destro

Adriana Destro - Mauro Pesce, "Il rito ebraico di Kippur: il sangue nel tempio, il peccato nel deserto", in G. Galli (ed.) Interpretazione e Perdono. Atti del Dodicesimo Colloquio sull'interpretazione. Genova 1992, 47-73 (con M. Pesce).

by Adriana Destro

The Law of Jealousy: Anthropology of Sotah

by Adriana Destro

“Before and After Babel: Linguistic Exceptionalism and Pluralism in Early Rabbinic Literature.” Diné Israel 28 (2011): 31*-68*.

by Steven Fraade

Review of Green, Deborah A. and Laura S. Lieber (eds.), Scriptural Exegesis: The Shapes of Culture and the Religious Imagination, Essays in Honour of …

by William Tooman

the flood in rabbinic literature

by Christophe Leblanc

a post in my blog

The principle of analogy and teleology in the story of the Flood The principle of analogy and teleology in the story of the Flood

Salamandra and the Flames of Hell

by Reb Chaim HaQoton

Throughout Rabbinic literature—the Talmud and the Midrash—a mysterious creature known as the Salamandra is mentioned.... more Throughout Rabbinic literature—the Talmud and the Midrash—a mysterious creature known as the Salamandra is mentioned. This creature is also mentioned by various early philosophers and scientists. It is reported to have been created in fire and therefore have fire-resistant capabilities. Other sources attribute the origins of the Salamandra to witchcraft. This discrepancy is elaborated upon and several methods of resolution are presented. Nonetheless, all these mythological stories seem to contradict the reality where no such creature is found. This paper explores and reconciles the differences between various descriptions of the Salamandra’s origin and its role in rabbinic literature. Many Classic Rabbinic sources (from Medieval to contemporary) have been used throughout this work to illustrate the Salamandra’s significance in Jewish theology and laws of purity.

The earliest texts of the Birkat Haminim

by Ruth Langer

Metatron as the Prince of the Presence

by Andrei Orlov

Metatron as the Mediator

by Andrei Orlov

Metatron as the Heavenly Priest and Celestial Choirmaster

by Andrei Orlov

Metatron as the Prince of the World

by Andrei Orlov

The Pillar of the World: The Eschatological Role of the Seventh Antediluvian Hero in 2 (Slavonic) Enoch

by Andrei Orlov

Identifying Sectarian Characteristics in the Phylacteries from Qumran

by Yonatan Adler

Published in: Revue de Qumran, 89 (2007), pp. 79–92.

The present study has examined the question of whether the Qumran phylacteries are to be viewed as representative of... more The present study has examined the question of whether the Qumran phylacteries are to be viewed as representative of practices generally observed by mainstream Judaism during the second temple period, or whether these exemplars represent customs peculiar to the Qumran sectarians. Two scribal characteristics have been identified as distinctive of biblical texts deriving from sectarian circles – vulgar orthography and non-Masoretic textual character. It has been shown that the vast majority of the phylactery exemplars from Qumran display at least one of these sectarian characteristics, and should thus be recognized as sectarian phylacteries. Only two exemplars, 8QPhyl I and 4QPhyl D-F, were found to have been completely compatible with Pharisaic scribal norms. While virtually all of the exemplars displaying sectarian scribal practices include “extended” scriptural passages not prescribed by rabbinic law, the two exemplars which are compatible with normative Pharisaic scribal practices contain only the four “abbreviated” scriptural passages prescribed by rabbinic law. As such, the phylactery exemplars from Qumran provide no evidence for the theory that the Decalogue was commonly included in phylacteries during the second temple period as part of “extended” scriptural portions.