Although rabbinic compilations were composed hundreds of years after the destruction of the Second Temple, and despite differences in language, genre, and cultural setting, Dynamics of Midrashic Traditions seeks to demonstrate that both corpora preserve a common heritage, albeit replete with conflicting traditions and polemics. The integrative study carried out in this book sheds light on both corpora, paying special attention to the dynamics that shape and reshape the midrashic traditions throughout their transmission. The book deals with exegetical aspects incorporated in textual variants of the Bible, in Second Temple Literature (especially the "rewritten Bible", Sirach, Book of Jubilees, the Dead Sea scrolls, Hellenistic Jewish works, Philo of Alexandria), as well as passages of Paul and early Christian writers, scrutinizing them in tandem with parallels from rabbinic literature, Targum and ancient piyyutim . Among the themes discussed are the following: the knowledge of good and evil given to Adam; Abraham the monotheist; Moses’s death; Pesher and allegoristic interpretation; and halakhic issues in rabbinic literature and the Dead Sea scrolls. Table of Contents in English

This issue contains the following essays : Guy D. Stiebel | ʻBurns Like Fireʼ - Mustard and Viniculture in Roman Palestine Jonathan Vardi | Song-Cycles in the Dīwān of Samuel Ha-Nagid Hillel Ben-Sasson | Transgressions and Punishments. The Special Contribution of Rabenu Yonah Gerondi’s Shaʿarei Teshuvah Kedem Golden | Addenda to the Poetry of Yosef Ben Tanḥum Hayerushalmi Avishai Bar-Asher | ‘Berikh Shemehʼ: The History of an Anonymous Aramaic prayer that Found its Way into Sefer ha-Zohar and the Prayer Book

This issue contains the following essays : Menahem Kahana - The Good in the Sight of Heaven and Right in the Sight of Man Yair Furstenberg - From Tradition to Controversy: New Modes of Transmission in the Teachings of Early Rabbis Gideon Bohak - A New Genizah Fragment of Toledoth Yeshu in Aramaic Yehoshua Granat - To Alexandria, with the sound of bell and pomegranate: Yehuda Halevi’s Arrival in Alexandria in Light of a Newly Identified Poem by Aaron Ibn Al-ʿAmmānī Shulamit Elizur - Between Poetic and Statutory Formulations: A Note on the History of the Ha-Maʿariv ʿAravim Benediction Menahem Kister - ‘The Lord of Hosts is His Name in Ha-Maʿariv ʿAravim Benediction: Metamorphoses and Erosion of Benediction Formulae Joshua Blau - Review of: W. Randall Garr and Steven Ellis Fassberg (eds.), A Handbook of Biblical Hebrew , I: Periods, Corpora, and Reading Traditions (xii + 228 pp.); II: Selected Texts (vi + 136 pp.), Winona Lake, IN 2016

This issue contains the following essays: Ariel Seri-Levi | Sělîḥâ in the Priestly Literature David Henshke | ‘It is Joy for Him’: On Additions to the Mishnah and Their Developments Ella Tovia | A Different Version of Bavli Sabbath and Its Implication for the Final Stage of Its Redaction Mordechai Akiva Friedman | Repetition of the Evening ʿAmida on Festivals and Special Sabbaths in the Custom of Eretz Israel Uri Safrai and Uri Ehrlich | The Ancient Version of the Maʿariv ʿAravim Blessing in Cairo Genizah Prayer-Books Mosh Idel | R. Nehemiah ben Shlomo’s Commentaries on the Alphabet of Metatron – Additional Inquiries English Abstracts

This volume contains the following essays: Adiel Schremer | Parvanka: The Mandaean Context of an Anti-Heretical Polemic in the Babylonian Talmud Shlomi Efrati | A Quire of Chapters of Sanhedrin and Megillah, Part II: A Unique Textual Tradition of the Babylonian Talmud Shulamit Elizur | Ke-ha- yom ha-ze bi-Yerushalayim: The Origins, Distribution and Evolution of a Prayer Marking the Conclusions of Ceremonies Vered Raziel-Kretzmer | How Late was the Palestinian Rite Practiced in Egypt? New Evidence from the Cairo Genizah Joshua Blau | Review of: Alexey Eliyahu Yuditsky, A Grammar of the Hebrew of Origen’s Transcriptions, Jerusalem: The Academy of the Hebrew Language, 2017 [Hebrew] English Abstracts

This issue contains the following essays: Ronnie Goldstein | YHWH’s Inheritance and His Enthronement Shraga Bar-On and Yakir Paz | The Land of God to the Sons of God: Deuteronomy 32: 8-9 and the Inheritance of the Land of Israel Shlomi Efrati | A Quire of Chapters of Sanhedrin and Megillah, Part 1: A Unique Textual Tradition of the Babylonian Talmud Mordechai Akiva Friedman | The Shabbat Evening Prayer in the Palestinian Congregation of Fustat in Abraham Maimonides’ Times

The articles in this volume: Hallel Baitner - The Unintentional Killer and the Blood-Avenger –New Perspectives in the Rabbinic Exegesis of Num 35 Shulamit Elizur - The Origins of the Seliḥot Piyyutim Shalem Yahalom - The Pilpul Method of Talmudic Study: Earliest Evidence A. Bar-Asher - The Earliest Sefer ha-Zohar in Jerusalem: Early Manuscripts of Zoharic Texts and an Unknown Fragment from Midrash ha-Neʿlam [?] For contents and article abstracts in English press on Sample pages which is located on the right of the cover photo.

The articles in this volume: Nili Samet - New Light on the Administrative Term bēn bayît in Biblical and Rabbinical Sources Bezalel Bar-Kochva - The Religious Persecutions of Antiochus Epiphanes as a Historical Reality David Henshke - Between Blessings and Prayer: On the History of the Amidah Prayer Mordechai Sabato - On the Inclusion of the ‘Mikan Ameru’ Homilies in the Halakhic Midrashim Michael Rand - Surviving Fragments of the Qillirian Heritage in Provence/Catalonia and in Spain: In the Wake of New Materials from the Genizah Jonathan Vardi - Between Shemuel Ha-Nagid and the Poets of Zaragoza For contents and article abstracts in English press on Sample pages which is located on the right of the cover photo.

The articles in this volume: Shlomo Naeh - שם משמר and שם שבת : A Further Study of the Temple ‘Seals’ Menahem Kahana - The Relations between Exegeses in the Mishnah and Halakhot in the Midrash Shimon Fogel and Uri Ehrlich - On the History of the Ancient Version of the ‘Hashkivenu’ Blessing Eran Viezel - Medieval Bible Commentators on the Question of the Composition of the Bible: Research and Methodological Aspects Aviram Ravitsky - Saʿadya Gaʾon and Yaʿqūb al-Qirqisānī on the Logical Structure of the Rational and Traditional Laws: Logic and Kalām in the Karaite-Rabbanite Controversy Avishai Bar-Asher - Kabbalah and Minhag: Geonic Responsa and the Kabbalist Polemic on Minhagim in the Zohar and Related Texts For contents and article abstracts in English press on Sample pages which is located on the right of the cover photo.

The articles in this volume: Avi Shveka The Date Written on Seal Impressions Used in the Temple Gideon Bohak Bereshit Reshit in Gematria: New Sources for the Study of the Jewish Esoteric Tradition in the Talmudic and Gaonic Periods Yochanan Breuer Textual Problems and Methods of Interpretation and Translation in Hilchot Re’u Mordechai Akiva Friedman Your Circumstances are the same as Your Ancestors’: A Responsum from the Geniza on the Additional Festival Days in the Diaspora Jonatan Vardi ‘ כָּתַב סְתָיו ’ and Other Poems Misattributed to Ibn Gabirol Avishai Bar-Asher New Fragments from Sefer Or Zaruʿa and Sefer ha-Neʿlam Books Received English Abstracts For contents and article abstracts in English press on Sample pages which is located on the right of the cover photo.

The articles in this volume: Bezalel Bar-Kochva An Extraordinary Jewish Ethnography Related by a Roman-Gallic Augustan Historian Menahem Kahana On Halakhic Tolerance as it Evolved: An Early and Forgotten Disagreement between Beit Shammai and Bet Hillel Shulamit Elizur Did Yannai's Kedusha-piyyutim Influence Those of Other Payyetanim ? Pinchas Roth Halakha and Criticism in Southern France: R. David ben Shaul on the Laws of Wine Made by Gentiles Simcha Emanuel 'From Where the Sun Rises to Where it Sets': The Responsa by Rashba to the Sages of Acre For contents and article abstracts in English press on Sample pages which is located on the right of the cover photo.

The articles in this volume: Yoav Rosenthal The History of the Final Chapter of Tractate Shevu ʿ ot Menahem Kister Exod 4:24-26: The Complexity of Jewish and Christian Interpretations Ronny Vollan Coptic Hebraists in the Middle Ages? On the Transmission of Rav Sa ʿ adiah Gaon’s Tafsīr Avi Shmidman The Liturgical Role of Ḥatanu Poems in שפוך חמתך ‘ Avraham Fraenkel Curse Poetry and the Verses of Ancient Jewish Italy Mordechai Akiva Friedman Maimonides Appoints R. Anatoly Muqaddam of Alexandria Oded Yisraeli From ‘ Torat Ha-Shem Temimah ’ to the Torah Commentary: Milestones in Nahmanides’ Creative life Avishai Bar-Asher Sefer ha-Neʿelam , New Parts of Sefer Or Zaru ʿ a and Clarifications Regarding the Early Writings of R. Moses de León: Studies and Critical Editions Books Received English Abstracts For contents and article abstracts in English press on Sample pages which is located on the right of the cover photo.