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

This book analyzes the influence that Aristotelian logic had on the understanding of methods of halakhic inference. “Methods of halakhic inference” refer to methods of Talmudic inference and argumentation, mainly the thirteen exegetical principles of the Torah, enumerated at the beginning of the Sifra. The thirteen exegetical principles are the most famous methods of halakhic inference. They are considered basic and fundamental rules by which the oral halakhic tradition is related to the Scriptures. No wonder, therefore, that there are dozens of commentaries to this set of rules. The study presented in this book focuses on the logical trend of commentaries on the Thirteen Principles. In these commentaries Aristotelian logic was applied, in a variety of ways. This special way of combining philosophy and halakha has significance not only for the history of the development of Talmudic methodology, but also for the understanding of the ongoing interaction between particular Jewish ideas and tradition on the one hand, and the external “universal” culture and literature on the other. Analysis of the logical commentaries on the Thirteen Principles can demonstrate how the original Greek doctrines were transmitted, mainly through Arabic philosophy, but sometimes also through Christian-scholastic philosophy, to the medieval Jewish sages, and how these Jewish sages applied those doctrines to develop a more sophisticated Talmudic methodology.

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

Tarbiz is the only Hebrew academic journal that is devoted to the entire range of Jewish studies. Appearing quarterly, this journal is the principal forum for the expression of the most important developments in Jewish studies in our generation, and its contributors include the leading scholars in the various fields of Jewish studies in Israel and the world, as well as young scholars who are beginning to make their mark. Tarbiz was first published in 1930 at the Institute of Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, under the editorial pen of Prof. Jacob Nachum Epstein z"l.

This study describes the mystical experience, a central issue in Rabbi Abraham Abulafia’s work. The author stresses the significance of Abulafia’s writing in medieval Jewish mysticism, and the ambivalent approaches toward him. Abulafia calls his theory by two names: ‘Prophetic Kabbalah’, the ecstatic Kabbalah, and ‘Kabbalah of Names’, which focuses on letter combinations of holy names. Ecstatic Kabbalah is distinguished by its aim as well as the technique for obtaining it. The ecstatic Kabbalists strive to experience revelation and near unison with God, by movement, the enunciation of letters, breathing exercises, and music. Abulafia often describes this experience using erotic imagery. This edition includes an additional chapter, a survey of Gershom Scholem’s approach, which situates Abulafia within the general Kabbalah discipline.