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.

When were the books of the "Former Prophets" written? Who wrote them? Who are the editors that made these books the most important source; describing the continuous history of the Jewish People in their land, from the time of the conquest of the Land of Canaan through the destruction of the Holy Temple and the Babylonian exile? These questions are at the center of this book. The name of the book, "From Settlement to Exile" reflects the sequence of events described in the books of the Former Prophets. The book discusses whether a failure could have been predicted from the events described, or whether there were also successful and tranquil periods prior to the destruction that brought hope to the hearts of the people and realistic expectations of establishing a lasting kingdom. Although the impression is that the Former Prophets describe a continuous history that leads inevitably to destruction, research proves that the Former Prophets were written by a number of authors during successful periods as well as difficult ones. The text actually includes several chapters or individual verses that were added after the destruction in order to find an explanation for the disastrous destruction event.

Articles Dina Stein - Rabbinic Tales in the Israel Folktale Archives: Holy Men and Tricksters Osnat Sharon - Elephant, Leviathan and Nineveh the Great City: Sibbuv Rabbi Petachia and Midrash Yonah, Printed Side by Side Nina Pinto-Abecasis - The Piropo as a Bridge between Cultures in Tetuan (Northern Morocco) Adam Ratzon - Al ma yismash kbiru , ya alt tadbiru [Whoever would not listen to elders will not manage in life]: A Literary-Cultural Reading of the Proverbs and Personal Narratives of an Egyptian-Israeli Woman Jacqueline Laznow - ‘I didn’t know I wanted to be a rabbi, there was no name for what I wanted to be’: Life Stories of Women Rabbis Living in Israel Towards a History of Folklore Meir Nizri - Israel and the Sabbath as Bride and Groom in Various Sabbath Hymns

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, The Palestinian Morning Service in Fragments of an Early Liturgical Rotulus Amitai Harroch, The Liturgical Poems of Khalaf Bar Sa ʿ īd Ella Tovia, An Anonymous Exegesis of the Sifrei from the Europian Geniza Yacov Fuchs, Completing Leqaḥ Ṭov on the Qillirian Qerova ‘Zekhor Eikha Anu’ Y. Tzvi Langermann, ‘The Topic of Rosh Ḥodesh’— Chapter 18 of ‘Īssūr we-Hetēr’, an unpublished pre-Maimonidean Judeo-Arabic Halakhic Compendium Aviram Ravitsky, ‘The Principles of Qal va-Ḥomer’—New Material from the School of Rabbi Isaac Canpanton Dov Schwartz, A Philosophic and Kabbalistic Commentary on Psalm 29 by Rabbi Michael b. Shabtai Balbo Eli Gurfinkel, Rabbi David Ibn- Yaḥya’s Commentary to Maimonides’s Introduction of The Guide for the Perplexed

Nili Wazana Preface Baruch J. Schwartz Professor Menahen Haran ז"ל Biblical Studies Yair Zakovitch The Concretization of Metaphors and Metaphoric Language in the Bible Leah Jacobsen The Meaning of Elisha’s Words: ‘I would like to kiss my father and mother and I will follow you’ (I Kings, XIX 20a) Chaim Cohen The Hapax Legomenon דיו (Ink) in the Context of ’ ואני כתב על הספר בדיו ‘ (Jeremiah 36:18): A ‘False Friend’ in Modern Hebrew Due to the Masoretes’ Misunderstanding of the Preposition בדי Meaning ‘To’ or ‘For’ Hava Shalom-Guy The Confessional Prayer in Nehemiah 9:6-37: A Literary-Historical Consideration The Bible in Relation to the Ancient Near East Uri Gabbay The Sumerian Cultic Laments: History, Remembrance and Theology Nili Samet Reading Literary Texts Historically: The Sumerian City Laments as a Test Case Edward L. Greenstein A Woman’s Voice in Lamentations 3 Jakob Klein Bat-Ṣiyyon in the Book of Lamentations and the ‘Lamenting Goddess’ in Mesopotamian Literature Shlomo Bachar Three Appearances of a Figure in Song of Song: Who is she that is ‘Coming up’, ‘Looking through’ and ‘Leaning on’? History of Exegesis Nahem Ilan Lamah/Lammah Meaning No/Don’t in Saadya Gaon’s Translations and Commentary David Shneor A Summary of the Study of Rashi’s Bible Maps and the Reasons for their Disappearance from the Printed Editions of Rashi’s Commenatry Eran Viezel God’s Revelation to the Biblical Authors in the Writings of R. David Kimhi Miriam Sklarz Anonymous Quotations from Ibn Ezra in Nachmanides’ Commentary on the Pentateuch Book Reviews English Abstracts For contents and article abstracts please press "Sample pages "

The discovery of the Cairo Geniza has transformed scholarly research in multiple areas of Jewish Studies and revolutionized several disciplines. It has provided the materials for thousands of studies and is by no means exhausted. Alongside the Cairo Geniza, an additional "Geniza" is slowly emerging in Europe, one that consists of many thousands of individual pages that were torn from Hebrew manuscripts hundreds of years ago and subsequently used for bookbinding and as folders for archive files. Although the first fruits of the European Geniza appeared considerably before the discovery of its Cairo counterpart, this "European Geniza" has not been at the center of scholarly interest, and relatively few scholars have made use of it. However, in recent decades thousands of new fragments have come to light, increasing the quantity previously known to us exponentially. Hidden Treasures from Europe seeks to bring the European Geniza to the forefront of scholarly research. Chapter One is an extensive and detailed introduction to the nature of this Geniza. The heart of the book, Chapters Two through Twelve, comprises the first publication of eleven important texts found in the European Geniza that are not extant in published editions or in whole manuscripts. These were carefully chosen from among a much broader range of previously unknown texts that were preserved in the European Geniza. Half of these compositions are Bible commentaries (Section I, Chapters Two–Six), and the other half are commentaries to the Talmud (Section II, Chapters Seven–Twelve). Most were composed in France, Germany, or Italy, while the country of origin of one early work, Sefer efeî, has yet to be determined.

The articles in this volume: Naama Alfasi-Weiss The Biblical Story of the Announcement of Isaac’s Birth : A Structural Analysis Avraham (Rami) Reiner On the Origins of the Expression Amen, amen, amen sel Rella Kushelevsky Between the Heritage of the Middle Ages and the Winds of the Renaissance: The Midrash of the Ten Commandments in the Parma Manuscript 2269 (De Rossi 473) Tal Goitein Elijah’s Cup: An Unknown Fifteenth-Century Depiction of the Custom in the Erna Michael Haggadah Noga Rubin ‘ The Legend of Three and Four’: An Account of Jewish Story-Telling Tradition in Prague of the Seventeenh Century Tsila Zan-Bar Tsur ‘ A woman is like a stew, warm and nourishing’: Kitchen and Femininity in the Folk Culture of Afghan Jews Yael Zilberman ‘ I would have died had God not sent me Elijah the Prophet’: Class, Body, and Sexuality in the Life Stories of Elderly Oriental (Mizrahiot) Women of Beer Sheva Noga Libi Cohen ‘ In the merit of a woman – the miracle happened’: Conformism and Subversion in the Story of Judith as Told by an Ultra-Orthodox Woman Towards a History of Folkloristics Rina Benari Blessing Scrolls and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem: The Case of the Blessing Scroll from Mława – 1925 Book Reviews Yael Guilat Material-Culture Research in Israel [On: Aviva Muller-Lancet, Garments with a Message: Ethnography of Jewish Wear in Islamic Lands, Jerusalem: Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem 2010, 389 + 67 pp. (in Hebrew)] Haim Weiss Current Aspects of Folklore Research [On: Regina F. Bendix & Galit Hasan-Rokem (eds.), A Companion to Folklore (Blackwell Companions to Anthropology, 15), Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012, 660 pp. (Paper edition, 2014)] Dani Schrire Encyclopedic Knowkege and Jewish Folklore [On: Raphael Patai & Haya Bar-Itzhak (eds.), Encyclopedia of Jewish Folklore and Traditions, Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, 2013, 2 volumes, 680 pp.] English abstracts at the end of the book.

The book Human Choice: Biblical Narrative and the Drama of Choice suggests, in contrast to the dominant position in the field of theology, that humanity and not God stands at the heart of biblical narrative. Underpinning many biblical narratives is a theology that may be termed a “theology of choice”, a theology predicated on the belief that human’s central task is to choose between good and evil. Theology of choice leads to biblical narratives' focus on the internal conflicts of characters, their struggles and the choices that they must make. The principle that a person’s choices determine one’s destiny lies at the foundation of biblical narrative and is one of the basic tenets of Israelite belief. In contrast to the belief in a predetermined destiny characteristic of idolatrous culture as evident in many ancient mythologies as well as Greek tragedy, the outlook underlying many biblical narratives is that a person is a free being and is responsible for one’s actions and one’s ultimate destiny. The book also argues against the belief that the books of the Bible reflect polarized thinking and a dichotomous worldview. A sophisticated literary analysis treating the different levels of the narrative – the syntagmatic, paradigmatic and dramatic – with a focus on the use of tripartite contrast – a literary device yet to be noticed in biblical research – reveals that the biblical perspectives are not polar in nature, but rather include complexity and a gray zone lying between the dichotomy of black and white. The doubts and wavering of middle-ground characters such as Lot, Saul and Ahab create a drama about choice and infuse the narratives with complexity and interest. Middle-ground characters in biblical narratives represent human complexity, characterized by internal conflict and struggles, and the need to decide between conflicting desires, values and beliefs. This tension creates the biblical drama of choice which focuses on human choice.

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: Avi Shmidman, The Selihot of R. Joseph Ibn Abitur for the Tenth of Tevet Dan Greenberger, Alfasi's Responses to R. Isaac b. Barukh Ibn al-Baliya's Ccritiques Sarah Cohen, The Selihot of R. Sadoq al-'Amani Na'ama Ben-Shachar, The Baraita of Joseph ben Uzziel Dov Schwartz, Two Wedding Sermons by R. Michael ben Shabtai Balbo

The articles in this volume: The Legislation of War: A Study of the Story of the Israelite War against Midian (Numbers 31) - Ariel Kopilovitz ‘You shall hamstring their horses and burn their chariots’ (Joshua 11:6): The Identification of Horses and Chariots as the Weapons of Israel’s Enemies in Biblical Literature - Yakov Dolgopolsky-Geva A Complete Root Glossary of Canaanite Words and Forms from the Amarna Tablets - Esther Haber ‘We must have a king over us, that we may be like all the other nations’ (I Sam 8:19): Israelite Kings in Art - Irit Ziffer The Story of the Sons of God and the Daughters of Men (Gen. 6:1–4) in Light of the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women Akkadian Itineraries: From the Kingdom of Akkad to the Assyrian Empire - Amitai Baruchi-Unna The Akkadian Wisdom Composition ‘Hear the Advice’: Traditional Wisdom versus Rebellious Skepticism - Yoram Cohen The Leqah Tov Commentary on Song of Songs: Its Place in the History of Biblical Exegesis and its Relationship with the Commentary of Rashi - Jonathan Jacobs Nachmanides’ Exegesis of Midrash in his Commentary on the Torah - Miriam Sklarz Additions and Changes in Nachmanides’ Commentaries relating to the Geography of Israel - David Shneor Book Reviews For contents and article abstracts please press "Sample pages "

For contents and article abstracts press on Sample pages which is located on the right of the cover photo. The articles in this volume: Aharon Shemesh and Moshe Halbertal - The Meʾun (Refusal): The Complex History of Halakhic Anomaly Shulamit Elizur - The Early Scope of Parashat Sheqalim Gideon Bohak - The Hidden Hekhalot: Towards Reconstructing an Unknown Hekhalot Composition from the Cairo Genizah Avraham Grossman - The Impact of Rabbi Samuel of Spain and Reuel of Byzantium on Rashi’s School Idit Einat-Nov - Uncertainty as a Poetic Principle: A Reading of Nəʾum Ašer Ben Yəhudah by Shlomo Ibn Ṣaqbel English and Hebrew Abstracts