The question of the manner in which the Tannaitic and Amoraic literature was passed on, orally or in writing, is of great importance in determining the basic cultural and historical facts in the world of the Sages, in understanding the development of the Oral Law and in the formation of its literature. In Jacob Sussman's revolutionary study, this complex subject was re-examined based on a thorough and profound study of various Talmudic sources, while comparing them with external, time-based evidence, published for the first time in Talmud Studies in 2004. It is published again in this book, along with detailed indices for source texts and various topics discussed therein.

This book surveys the development of Jewish religious law and practice in relation to healthcare, with an emphasis on their influence on Israeli medical law. It contains discussions on the nature of Jewish law and and ethics, especially in comparison to Catholic moral theology and the Western political traditions . The book is divided into key themes: approaches to health, illness and the body; medical nursing and social services; doctor-patient relationships; the uses of the dead and living body; fertility, genomics and infertility; Jewish sexual ethics and the medicalization of religion; abortion; care for neonates; the timing of death and organ transplantation from the brain-dead, and end-of-life care . The book should be of interest to students and scholars of bioethics, Jewish religious law, history of Israeli law, and the interactions between social history of medicine and biomedical law . This is a much expanded and revised Hebrew version of the 2014 book Jewish Medical Ethics published by Cambridge University Press.

This extraordinary commentary by an anonymous late twelfth-century northern French exegete interprets the Song of Songs solely according to its plain meaning as a story of two young lovers and their developing relationship. The exegete pays attention to every detail of the text, offering many enlightening insights into its meaning, all the while expanding upon the 'way of lovers' – the ways that young people in love go about their lovemaking. The French background of the exegete is made clear by many references to knights, coats of arms, weapons, chivalry, and of course, wine drinking, as well as numerous glosses in Old French. The edition is accompanied by an extensive introduction which analyzes the various exegetical, literary, and linguistic features of the text.

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

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. Contents Avishai Bar Asher Isaac b. Shelomo Ibn Sahula Commentary on Psalms Leore Sachs-Shmueli The Beginning of Sefer Toldot Adam by Joseph of Hamadhan Eric Lawee and Doron Forte The Book of Strictures on Rashi's Torah Commentary Ascribed to Rabad Ofer Elior R.Shalom 'Anabi's Commentary on the Laws of the Foundations of the Torah Yohanan Kapah R. Joseph Hayyun's Commentary on Amos

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

Articles: Haim Weiss | ‘From That Hour the Doom Was Sealed’: On Class Reversals in the ‘Legends of Destruction’ Vered Tohar | ‘Rabbi Hanina and the Frog’: An Ancient Ashkenazi story Adapted for Children by Asher Barash Lital Lieberman-Avital | ‘Take the Illness and Give the Medicine’: Removal by Salt – Traditional Women’s Healing Practice on a Socio-Cultural Borderline Yuval Harari | Wonders and Sorceries in Yeruham: A Magical-Political Rashomon Dalia Marx | Welcoming the Sabbath in the Kibbutzim: Secular Religiosity Narmina Abdulaev | Narration Surfing: Folklore Published on the Internet and Its Analysis Shany Kotler-Fux | ‘Hitler-Pants’ Parodies: Folklore in Israel’s Virtual Sphere Reviews: Aharon Maman | [Review of:] Yosef Tobi and Tsivia Tobi, Judeo-Arabic Literature in Tunisia, 1850–1950, Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 2014, 367 pp. Jacqueline Laznow | [Review of:] Tsivia Tobi, From Bride to Daughter-in-Law: The World of Jewish Women in Southern Tunisia and Its Reflection in Popular Literature, Jerusalem 2016, 344 + [iv] pp. [Hebrew] Tzila Zan-Bar Zur | [Review of:] Idit Pintel-Ginsberg, The Angel and the Tcholent: Food Representations in Folktales, Haifa 2016, 176 pp. [Hebrew] English Abstracts

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

Contents Tsippi Kauffman and Itamar Brenner | Narrative and Normative Discourse in the Sugiyot of Procreation Yair Lorberboim | On the Rejection of Reasons in Halakhic Discourse: The Debate on the Reason for the Prohibitions on Marring the Corners of the Head and the Beard Esti Eisenmann | God's Attributes according to Rambi and Crescas Raphael Shuchat | The Place of Manuscripts in Research of the Vilna Gaon’s Writings Ora Wiskind-Elper | Rebbe Yehoshua Heschel Rabinovitz of Monastyrishche: Contemplations of a Hasidic Leader on Judaism in Troubled Times Yaron Naim | Rabbi Kalphon Moshe Hacohen’s Struggle with the Issue of Women’s Status David M. Feuchtwanger | On Theology, Politics and Disobedience in Agnon’s Shlom Olamim Ronit Irshai | The Return of Aqedah Theology: The Relationships between Religion, Gender and Ethics