Midrash Aggadat Bereshit is a Midrash for the Book of Genesis, which has a unique structure. It includes 28 units, each composed of three chapters: a Torah chapter - on a verse from Genesis; a Prophets chapter - on a verse from Prophets; and a Ketuvim chapter - on a verse from Psalms. This division reflects the Torah reading at Shacharit on Shabbat, the Haftara that follows, and the reading of Ketuvim during the Shabbat Mincha.

Few articles in this issue: Ruti Bardenstein and Noam Frey | The Secularization of Hebrew slixa (‘Sorry’, ‘Excuse Me’, ‘Pardon’) Mitka R. Golub | The Element בעל in Personal Names from Archaeological Excavations in the Land of Israel during the Iron Age II Period and from the Bible Chanoch Gamiel | Two Different Lexical Approaches: Rashi vs. Ibn Ezra Jonathan Howard | The Biblical Text of Gesenius–Kautzsch: An Addendum to Halivni’s Paper Yehonatan Wormser | From פֵּאוּר to דָּגֶש לְתִפְאֶרֶת הַקְּרִיאָה: Change and Development in the Use of a Hebrew Grammatical Term

Few articles in this issue: Uri Ehrlich and Vered Raziel-Kretzmer | Prose or Poetry? - Clarifying the Eretz Israel Version of the ‘You Smote’ Passage in the Maʿariv Prayer Avi Shmidman | Did Palestinian Qinnot Serve as Seliḥot in the Babylonian Rite? Michael Rand | Interdigitated Piyyutim and the Principle of Polyphonic Performance in Late Eastern Piyyut Ophir Münz-Manor | Analog Piyyut in a Digital World: Towards Computational Study of Payytanic Literature Eden Hacohen | ‘God has made the one as well as the other’ ‒ Parallels and their Deconstruction in Piyyut Dalet of Yannai’s Qedushta’ot

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. Among the articles in this issue: Dan Greenberger | An Essay on the Ten Commandments attributed to R. Saadia Gaon Haggai Mazuz | Ma'aśeh Mehmeṭ: Re-examination and Critical Edition Gad Freudenthal and Hannah Kasher | Kalonymus ben Kalonymus rebukes Joseph Ibn Kaspi Pinchas Roth | A Collection of Rulings from Medieval Montpellier Eliezer Schlossberg | The Commentary of R. Avraham ben Shelomo the Yemenite on the Book of Zephaniah: A Critical Edition

Articles in this issue : Hallel Baitner | Sprinkling at the Temple Entrance: A Forgotten Temple Ritual Gideon Libson | Maimonides and the Muslim Theologian Muhammad Al-Ghazali on the Generality of Law and the Doctrine of Distinction Yosseph Schwartz | Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed in Jewish and Christian Mysticism: A Chapter in Comparative Historiography Adam Afterman and Ido Pinto | On Apotheosis in the Kabbalah of Rabbi Bahya ben Asher

Elijah the Prophet is a remarkably impressive figure whose life is full of dramatic moments: the decree to stop the rain, the fierce tension with King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, the war on idolatry which had its climax on Mount Carmel with the killing of the prophets of Baal, God’s revelation at Horeb, the ascent to heaven in a chariot of fire, etc. These episodes sparked the imagination of readers and commentators, thinkers and artists, who continued to study the figure of Elijah throughout the generations. The book Until Elijah Comes: The Portrayal of Elijah the Prophet in Tannaitic Literature is an examination of Elijah’s multi-faceted character as reflected in Tannaitic sources, the earliest stratum of rabbinic literature. Adiel Kadari presents an in-depth analysis of the major issues related to Elijah the Prophet in the intellectual world of the sages, such as the principles and limits of halakhic discourse, messianism and eschatology, religious and political zealotry, the phenomenon of prophecy and the question of its persistence in the post-biblical era, and the relationship to history, religious piety and asceticism. The analysis of Elijah in this volume is rooted in philological studies concerning the origin and transmission of the text, and branches out to an examination of ideological aspects and worldviews. The synthesis of various approaches employed in the study of rabbinic literature yields a rich and variegated discourse. The book’s various chapters reveal the tremendous importance of Elijah in the eyes of the sages, as well as the exegetical and ideological struggles over the shaping of his image.

Articles in this issue: Menahem Kahana | The Tosafot (‘Marginal Annotations’) in Sifre on Deuteronomy Omri Livnat | Discoveries from Constantine: New Liturgical Poems by Yosef Ibn Avitur and Evidence of the Inclusion of Byzantine Poems in a North African Maḥzor Omer Michaelis | Ṣūfī Terminology and Its Meaning in Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed Jonatan Howard | The System of Exceptions: On the Organizational Structure of Grammatical Knowledge in Medieval Ashkenaz

The Second Commandment’s injunction against making graven images and likenesses resonates in all facets of Jewish visuality throughout the generations. Although Jews have always created and consumed art, the attitude to figural art –anthropomorphic and zoomorphic representations – has oscillated, like a pendulum, between strict prohibition and full permissibility. Figureless Art traces a lesser-known chapter in the history of Jewish art – a period governed by the swing to extreme stringency that left its mark on Late Antique synagogues in the Land of Israel. This anti-figural trend manifested in the avoidance of anthropomorphic and zoomorphic depictions and in the deliberate obliteration of anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures on stone carvings and mosaic carpets that adorned the synagogues. What is the meaning of this strict trend? Did it emerge from within the Jewish world or was it stimulated, conversely, by external influences? Who was responsible for the effacement of the figures in the synagogues and when did these iconoclastic events occur? This book examines these phenomena through a broad historical, religious, and cultural perspective, based on visual and literary sources from Late Antique and early Muslim Palestine.

This anthology is a collection of stories, written by women at the turn of the twentieth century and published in the Yiddish press at that time. The have been translated to Hebrew for the first time. From its beginning the Yiddish press enabled all levels of society to sound their voices. Women too were quick to meet this challenge, and until the First World War more than ninety of their works were published: novellas, plays, fiction and a wide variety of short stories. This collection of nineteen stories represents this abundance and its unique qualities. It sounds anew the voices of forgotten women authors, who disappeared even from the eyes of critics and researchers: Maria Lerner, Isabella, Rokhl Brokhes, Yente Serdetsky, Salome Perl, Rokhl Feigenberg and others. Their stories open a window to the world of women at a time of dramatic changes in the lives of Jews in the Russian Empire. They portray conflicts between the generations, especially between the authors and their mothers, the dilemmas of love, and the anguished movement between the small town and the big city, between maintaining traditions and breaking free of frameworks. These stories highly enrich our knowledge of Jewish society at that time and are a fundamental expression of the part women played in that society.

Rabbi Moses ben Nahman (c. 1194-1267), rabbi, commentator, Kabbalist, and public leader, was one of the most prominent and influential Jewish figures in the Middle Ages. His diverse works reflect the history of Jewish communities in Western Europe in the thirteenth century and particularly the story of his own life. This book seeks to illuminate Nahmanides' works and beliefs, on the background of the challenges during his life. How was his thought formed, and what were its sources? In what stage of his life was he acquainted with the Kabbalah? To what extent was his immigration to Eretz Israel the consequence of Barcelona disputation? This book offers a new – historical-biographical – perspective for understanding Nahmanides' religious and intellectual world.

The dictionary is the fruit of a three-decade long research on the vocabulary distinctive of the contemporary Georgian-Jewish language, and especially its Hebrew component. This research is based on ongoing field work performed in various places in Georgia and in Israel. The vocabulary reflects the uniqueness of the language and culture, and to a large extent also the anthropology and history of the community of Georgian Jews.

Few articles in this issue: Haim Hayun | Between Bible and Midrash: The Story of Abram and Sarai in Egypt (Genesis 12:10–20) and the Story of Moses’ Birth (Exodus 2:1–10) Bnayahu Bronner | On Ḥerem Adam (Proscription of Persons) and its Significance: The Temple as a Place of Freedom and Justice Hagit Shabtai | Prophetic Rebuke and Northern Redaction: Judges 6:7–10 as a Test Case for Understanding the Processes of Composition and Redaction in Judges and the Deuteronomistic History Noach Hayut | Individual and Collective Retribution in the Book of Kings