This volume from the series of Mikra Leyisrael contains the commentary of the books Ezra and Nehemia , which provide important information on the return from Babylonia and Persia to Judea after Cyrus' decree and the rebuilt of Jerusalem.

Written at different times and for different audiences - some for scholars of rabbinic literature, some for laymen or for scholars not necessarily Jewish - the essays gathered together in this volume nevertheless have an inner coherence. They reflect the author's lifetime interest in the history of halakhah - not as intellectual history per se, but rather a concern to identify measurable deflection in the unfolding of halakhic ideas that could point to an undetected force at work. What was it that stimulated change, and why? What happened when strong forces impinged upon halakhic observance, and both the scholarly elite and the community as a whole had to grapple with upholding observance while adapting to a new set of circumstances? Haym Soloveitchik's elegant presentation shows skilfully that the line between adaptation and deviance is a fine one, and that where a society draws that line is revelatory of both its values and its self-perception. Many of the articles presented here are well known in the field but have been updated for this publication (the major essay on pawnbroking has been expanded to half again its original size); some have been previously published only in Hebrew, and two are completely new. An Introduction highlights the key themes of the collection and explains the underlying methodology. Having these essays in a single volume will enable scholars and students to consult all the material on each theme together, while also tracing the development of ideas. The opening section of the volume is a brief description and characterization of the dramatis personae who figure in all these essays: Rashi and the Tosafists. It covers the halakhic commentaries and their authors; the creativity of Ashkenaz; and the halakhic isolation of the Ashkenazic community. The second section focuses on usury and money-lending, including the practice of pawn-broking, while the third section deals with the ban on Gentile wine and how that connected to the development of money-lending. The final section presents general conclusions in the form of four studies of the communal self-image of Ashkenaz and its attitude to deviation and change.

In this second volume of his essays on the history of halakhah, Haym Soloveitchik grapples with much-disputed topics in medieval Jewish history and takes issue with a number of reigning views. His insistence that proper understanding requires substantive, in-depth analysis of the sources leads him to a searching analysis of oft-cited halakhic texts of Ashkenaz, frequently with conclusions that differ from the current consensus. Medieval Jewish historians cannot, he argues, avoid engaging in detailed textual criticism, and texts must always be interpreted in the context of the legal culture of their time. Historians who shirk these tasks risk reinforcing a version that supports their own preconceptions, and retrojecting later notions on to an earlier age. These basic methodological points underlie every topic discussed. In Part I, devoted to the cultural origins of Ashkenaz and its lasting impact, Professor Soloveitchik questions the scholarly consensus that the roots of Ashkenaz lie deep in Palestinian soil. He challenges the widespread notion that it was immemorial custom (minhag kadmon) that primarily governed Early Ashkenaz, the culture that emerged in the Rhineland in the late tenth century and which was ended by the ravages of the First Crusade (1096). He similarly rejects the theory that it was only towards the middle of the eleventh century that the Babylonian Talmud came to be regarded as fully authoritative. On the basis of an in-depth analysis of the literature of the time, he shows that the scholars of Early Ashkenaz displayed an astonishing command of the complex corpus of the Babylonian Talmud and viewed it at all times as the touchstone of the permissible and the forbidden. The section concludes with his own radical proposal as to the source of Ashkenazi culture and the stamp it left upon the Jews of northern Europe for close to a millennium. The second part of the volume treats the issue of martyrdom as perceived and practised by Jews under Islam and Christianity. In one of the longer essays, Soloveitchik claims that Maimonides’ problematic Iggeret ha-Shemad is a work of rhetoric, not halakhah—a conclusion that has generated much criticism from other scholars, to whom he replies one by one. This is followed by a comprehensive study of kiddush ha-shem in Ashkenaz, which draws him into an analysis of whether aggadic sources were used by the Tosafists in halakhic arguments, as some historians claim; whether there was any halakhic validation of the widespread phenomenon of voluntary martyrdom; and, indeed, whether halakhic considerations played any part in such tragic life-and-death issues. The book concludes with two essays on Mishneh torah which argue that that famed code must also be viewed as a work of art which sustains, as masterpieces do, multiple conflicting interpretations.

This book is an updated Hebrew translation of The Modulated Scream: Pain in Late Medieval Culture . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010. The subject of this book is human pain in the later middle ages (13th - 15th centuries) in Western Europe. The author surveys and analyzes the ways people wrote about pain in different situations (like the difference between childbirth and toothache), and the ways people described their own pains. In a world with very few pain-killers and nothing at all to make surgery bearable, people suffered much more pain than we do today. Consequently, since they could not banish pain, they sought meanings for it. Physicians claimed that one should not try to soothe pain, since pain was an indicator of disease and as such, it was useful. Lawyers and judges claimed that the infliction of pain by torture was a tried-and-true method for eliciting true confessions from criminal suspects. Experts in Christian theology debated the nature of Christ’s pain during his Crucifixion, and mystics tried to identify with it, even to feel it. The common people were exhorted by preachers to bear their illnesses with patience, since pain on earth saved them future sufferings in the afterworld. In conclusion, medieval attitudes towards pain were radically different from modern ones: while we try and conquer pain, seeing it as a challenge, people in the past, who were often in constant pain, gave reasons for suffering and adopted pain as part of their lives.

In this book, based on lectures delivered at the Historical Society of Israel, the famed historian G. W. Bowersock presents an examination of political developments in the Arabian Peninsula on the eve of the rise of Islam. Recounting the growth of Christian Ethiopia and the conflict with Jewish Arabia, he describes the fall of Jerusalem at the hands of the late Sassanian (Persian) Empire. He concludes that the Byzantine Empire's defeat of the Sassanian forces, which destabilized the region, provided the opportunity for the rise and military success of Islam in the seventh century. Using close readings of surviving texts, Bowersock sheds new light on the complex causal relationships among the Byzantine, Ethiopian, Persian, and emerging Islamic forces.

Rashi w as the first Biblical Commentator in Northern France/Ashkenaz to compose a comprehensive commentary to the Book of Proverbs , and this commentary has survived in 55 manuscripts scattered in libraries throughout the world. For the first time we present a critical edition of this commentary to Proverbs. This critical edition is based on MS New York JTS Lutzki 778 . Variant readings from six other accurate manuscripts, the two earliest printed editions, and three later printed editions appear in the apparatus of variants . The edition also contains a “super-commentary” in which difficult words & sections in need of clarification are explained. The editor searched for Rashi’s sources - both those explicitly stated and those not . Preceding the critical edition is an introduction which analyzes important topics such as: interpolations to the commentary , Rashi’s exegetical approach, language & syntax and the Jewish-Christian debate.

The Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie (1892-1975) was one of the most fascinating and mysterious figures of the twentieth century; a potent man of small dimensions, a cruel and generous leader, abstinent yet extravagant, a petty politician and statesman who took part in one of the most important junctions in history – the battle against Mussolini. He was a young revolutionist and aging reactionary, worshipped by many as the son of god. He sought asylum in Jerusalem, only to betray it later. A ruthless leader whose life ended in solitude, humiliation, and murder. Time Magazine named Haile Selassie “Man of the Year” in 1935, and he was among the “Top 25 Political Icons in History” in 2011.

The purpose of this volume, like its predecessor, is to uncover fragments of important Hebrew works hidden in the “European Genizah”. Thousands of pages of Hebrew manuscripts have been discovered in this “Genizah”, which is scattered in hundreds of libraries and archives throughout Europe and even beyond. In the late medieval and early modern eras, these pages were used to bind books and as folders of archival documents. The nine works published herein are from a variety of genres: Biblical exegesis, Talmud commentary, halakhic literature, and liturgical interpretation. They appear in this volume in chronological order, from earliest to latest. The most significant of the works is also the work whose discovery required more effort than all of the others; it appears in the first chapter of the book. This work was written in ninth or tenth-century Palestine. It reveals valuable information on the history of halakhah in Palestine of that era, and also teaches a great deal about how Palestinian Traditions made their way to the European continent.

Journeys of the Soul: Concepts and Imageries of Paradise in Medieval Kabbalah covers the most decisive period in the history of Jewish speculation about the Garden of Eden. At the heart of the book is a thorough analysis of the compositions written by medieval kabbalists and other esotericists dedicated to that ultimate locus of retribution. Alongside their concrete and abstract portraits of the Garden, these works discuss its relationship to the Godhead and the role it plays in personal eschatology, anthropology, and psychology. The book examines trends within the interpretive history of the biblical Paradise in medieval Jewish thought more generally, and in medieval kabbalistic literature in particular. The notion of gradations or distinct sites within the Garden of Eden is explored in light of its possible influences, and the appearance of the Garden of Eden within kabbalistic psychology is considered in light of thirteenth-century theosophical doctrines. A lengthy treatment is devoted to those works which delineate the architectonic structure of the supernal Garden and depict the visual appearance of the earthly temples (hekhalot) of the lower Garden, while mapping them onto the structurally complex interrelationships within the Godhead. Within this context, the book treats a number of textual conundrums concerning the very development of the kabbalistic canon, including the appearance of the Zohar. Throughout the book, the author also investigates scientific paradigms, legendary traditions, and theological polemics in the religious literature of the period concerning the appearance and structure of the Garden of Eden. Similar exegeses, shared traditions, and a common conceptual foundation of the eschatological Paradise are identified in the kabbalistic literature, alongside echos of the Jewish apocrypha, Rabbinic literature, and Hekhalot texts. Dr. Avishai Bar Asher has been awarded the Matanel Prize for the best book in Jewish Thought published during the years 2018-2019.

In the postmodern, relativist world-view with its refutation of a single, objective, and ultimate truth, it has become difficult if not impossible to argue in favour of one’s own beliefs as preferable to those of others. Miriam Feldmann Kaye’s pioneering study is one of the first English-language books to address Jewish theology from a postmodern perspective, probing the question of how Jewish theology has the potential to survive the postmodern onslaught that some see as heralding the collapse of religion. Basing her arguments on both philosophical and theological scholarship, Feldmann Kaye shows how postmodernism might actually be a resource for rejuvenating religion. Her response to the conception of theology and postmodernism as competing systems of thought is based on a close critical study of Rav Shagar (Shimon Gershon Rosenberg) and Tamar Ross. Rather than advocating postmodern ideas, she analyses their writings through the lens of the most radical of continental postmodern philosophers and cultural critics in order to offer a compelling theology compatible with that world-view. Whether the reader considers postmodernism to be inherently problematic or merely inconsequential, this study demonstrates why reconsidering these preconceptions is one of the most pressing issues in contemporary Jewish thought.