FORMTEXT This study examines the Pentateuchal account of Israel’s preparations for entering Canaan, appearing within the concluding section of the Book of Numbers. Literary-critical analysis reveals that each of the passages that comprise this account is the product of several stages of composition, with each literary stratum reflecting the ideological tendencies of the authors responsible for its creation. It emerges that ideological disputes that raged in Judea of the Persian period, when these texts were composed, manifested themselves in historiographical accounts describing a much earlier time – that just prior to the entry into Canaan. The wilderness period, seen as decisive for Israel’s past, and the notion of the Mosaic Torah believed to have been given during this formative era, along with the obvious parallel to these Judean authors’ own days, those of the return from exile, led them to depict the events at the end of Moses’ time in ways that addressed the burning questions of Yehud of the Persian period. The textual and historical analysis reveals that a previously unrecognized substratum, running throughout the account, has been augmented by several editorial additions. This recognition in turn sheds new light on the Pentateuch’s formation and on the historical circumstances reflected in its composition . FFFFFFFF000100000000060054006500780074003200300000000000000000000000000000004E00D605D4052000D405D805DB05E105D8052000E905D905D505E405D905E2052000D105EA05D905D005D505E8052000D405E105E405E8052000D105D005EA05E8052000D405D005D905E005D805E805E005D8052E002000D105E805D905E805EA052000D405DE05D705D305DC052000D405D905D0052000D405DB05D905EA05D505D1052000E205DC052000D205D1052000D405E205D805D905E405D40500000000000000000000

Table of Contents: Ariel Kopilovitz Ezekiel's Theology of Holiness and Impurity as a Key to Understanding the Description of the Departure of the 'Glory of YHWH' from the Temple (Ezekiel 8-11) Nadav Na'aman The Story of the Exodus between Historical Memory and Historiographical Composition Gideon Bohak A New Genizah Fragment of the Aramaic Levi Document Binyamin Katzoff Blessings over Mitzvot in Eretz Israel and in Babylonia: Further to David Rosenthal, 'Tefillin Blessing in Eretz Israel and in Babylonia' Yacov Fuchs MS Mantova 30 Itamar Kislev 'Exegesis in Perpetual Motion': The Short Commentary of Ibn Ezra as a Source for Rashbam in his Commentary on the Pentateuch Aviram Ravitsky The Doctrine of the Mean and Asceticism: On the Uniformity of Maimonides' Ethics Moshe Idel Sefer Yetzirah: Twelve Commentaries on Sefer Yetzirah and the Extant Remnants of R. Isaac of Bedresh's Commentary Maoz Kahana How did the Hatam-Sofer Seek to Trump Spinoza? Text, Hermeneutics, and Romanticism in the Writings of R. Moses Sofer

Table of Contents Tefillin Blessing in Eretz Israel and in‰·EE ‡I ‰·EE ‡I„ „Ú (A Note to DavidTefillin Blessing inBook Review Ronnie Goldstein A New Look at Deuteronomy 32:8-9 and 43 in the Light of Akkadian Sources 5 Shraga Bar-On and Yakir Paz ‘The Lord’s Allotment is his People’: The Myth of the Election of Israel by Casting of Lots and the Gnostic–Christian–Pagan– Jewish Polemic 23 David Rosenthal Babylonia 63 Shlomo Naeh Rosenthal’s Article, ‘Eretz Israel and in Babylonia’) 87 Aharon Mondschein On Rashbam’s Rediscovered ‘Lost Commentary’ on Psalms 91 Avraham (Rami) Reiner An Addition to M. Beit-Arié’s Article, ‘An Unusual Method of Rendering the Date From the Creation in Hebrew Manuscripts’ 143 Miriam Frenkel The Forgotten Road to India: A Monumental Study of Medieval Jewish India Traders

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.

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

Subordinated King (Melekh Evyon, ) studies the conception of kingship, and its status, powers and authority in Talmudic literature. The book deals with the conception of Kingship against the background of the different approaches to kingship both in Biblical literature and in the political views prevalent in the Roman Empire. In the bible one finds three (exclusive) approaches to kingship: rejection of the king as a legitimate political institution - since God is the (political) king; a version of royal theology according to which the king is divine (or sacral); and a view that God is not a political king yet the king has no divine or sacral dimension. The king is flesh and blood; hence his authority and power are limited. He is a Subordinated King. While the first conception in its day to day realization is close to anarchy, according to the second conception the king holds all the powers – in foreign and domestic affairs, in the law, economy, administration, army, and especially in the religious and the ceremonial realms. In contrast, the third conception subscribes to the principle of separation of powers: between the King, and the high court (Sanhedrin, bet ha-din ha-gadol), the priests and the prophets. The sages of the Mishnah and Talmud were well aware of these three conceptions. In the legal-halakhic parts of the Talmudic literature (Mishnah, Tosefta, parts of the halakhic midrash, and the halakhic discussions in the Babylonian and Palestinian Talmuds) the Sages followed the third conception of kingship, restructuring it according to their theological and socio-political views. When compared to the theological-political views common in the ancient near east and in late antiquity the political model designed by the Talmudic sages is a genuine innovation. Nonetheless, there are in the aggadic (non-halakhic) parts of the Talmudic literature echoes of the other two biblical conceptions of kingship, which undermine the conception that constitutes the halakhic sources.

Essays in this volume include: Mordechai Cogan – Some Text-Critical issues in the Hebrew Bible from an Assyriological Perspective Gary N Knoppers – Projected Age Comparisons of the Levitical Townlists: Divergent Theories and their significance Michael Avioz – The Date of the Destruction of the First Temple in Ancient Versions and Early Biblical Interpretation Moshe J Bernstein –"Rewritten Bible": A Generic Category which has outlived its usefulness?

An introduction book to prophetic literature concentrates on the essence of prophecy as a phenomenon in the history of religion, in the history of prophecy in Israel and the different kinds of prophets in Israel.

This introduction is meant to accompany the reader in the scientific study of the book of Deuteronomy. It is meant for researchers, teachers, and students of Biblical texts in the advanced stages of first degree studies. The language is clear, not professional and the book explains basic issues so that any educated Hebrew speaker can read it. The book deals with ritual laws, legal matters and with speech and narrative elements.

In this volume the author attempts to describe the whole prophetical narrative in the Hebrew Bible, delimiting the extent of the single stories and establishing the date of their composition, their ideas, and message.The discussion centers on the problem of the literary genres, whether the stories are history, legend, parable or any other genre.The artistic value of some of these biblical masterpieces is highlighted. The conclusions bear upon the value of the prophetical stories as sources for the political and religious history of ancient Israel This third edition has been extensively revised and augmented. The second edition, published in 1986, was translated into English, Italian and Russian.