In the late fifteenth century, many of the Jews expelled from Spain made their way to Morocco and established a dynamic community in Fez. A number of Jewish families became prominent in commerce and public life there. Among the Jews of Fez of Hispanic origin was Samuel Pallache (circa 1550-1616), who served the Moroccan sultan as a commercial and diplomatic agent in Holland until Pallache's death in 1616. In Samuel Pallache , his world is viewed as a microcosm of early modern society, one far more interconnected, cosmopolitan, and fluid than is often portrayed. Pallache's missions and misadventures took him from Islamic Fez and Catholic Spain to Protestant England and Holland. Through these travels, the authors explore the workings of the Moroccan sultanate and the Spanish court, the Jewish communities of Fez and Amsterdam, and details of the Atlantic-Mediterranean trade. At once a sweeping view of two continents, three faiths, and five nation-states and an intimate story of one man's remarkable life, Samuel Pallache is history at its most compelling.

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. Among the articles in this issue: Dan Greenberger | An Essay on the Ten Commandments attributed to R. Saadia Gaon Haggai Mazuz | Ma'aśeh Mehmeṭ: Re-examination and Critical Edition Gad Freudenthal and Hannah Kasher | Kalonymus ben Kalonymus rebukes Joseph Ibn Kaspi Pinchas Roth | A Collection of Rulings from Medieval Montpellier Eliezer Schlossberg | The Commentary of R. Avraham ben Shelomo the Yemenite on the Book of Zephaniah: A Critical Edition

Articles in this issue : Hallel Baitner | Sprinkling at the Temple Entrance: A Forgotten Temple Ritual Gideon Libson | Maimonides and the Muslim Theologian Muhammad Al-Ghazali on the Generality of Law and the Doctrine of Distinction Yosseph Schwartz | Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed in Jewish and Christian Mysticism: A Chapter in Comparative Historiography Adam Afterman and Ido Pinto | On Apotheosis in the Kabbalah of Rabbi Bahya ben Asher

Elijah the Prophet is a remarkably impressive figure whose life is full of dramatic moments: the decree to stop the rain, the fierce tension with King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, the war on idolatry which had its climax on Mount Carmel with the killing of the prophets of Baal, God’s revelation at Horeb, the ascent to heaven in a chariot of fire, etc. These episodes sparked the imagination of readers and commentators, thinkers and artists, who continued to study the figure of Elijah throughout the generations. The book Until Elijah Comes: The Portrayal of Elijah the Prophet in Tannaitic Literature is an examination of Elijah’s multi-faceted character as reflected in Tannaitic sources, the earliest stratum of rabbinic literature. Adiel Kadari presents an in-depth analysis of the major issues related to Elijah the Prophet in the intellectual world of the sages, such as the principles and limits of halakhic discourse, messianism and eschatology, religious and political zealotry, the phenomenon of prophecy and the question of its persistence in the post-biblical era, and the relationship to history, religious piety and asceticism. The analysis of Elijah in this volume is rooted in philological studies concerning the origin and transmission of the text, and branches out to an examination of ideological aspects and worldviews. The synthesis of various approaches employed in the study of rabbinic literature yields a rich and variegated discourse. The book’s various chapters reveal the tremendous importance of Elijah in the eyes of the sages, as well as the exegetical and ideological struggles over the shaping of his image.

This book offers a cultural biography of Maimonides as a product of his multi-cultural and multi-religious background. It studies “the great eagle” in his multi-faceted historical and cultural context, and highlights the deep impact on him of Islamic culture as a whole: not only his philosophy, but also his legal and scientific writings as well as his correspondences. The aim of the book is twofold. On the one hand, it highlights universal patterns in Maimonides’ thought. On the other hand, it shows Maimonides’ relevance to the study of Medieval Islam. The presentation of Maimonides as a Mediterranean thinker elucidates his consistent interpretation of his own Jewish tradition in contemporary terms, as they were shaped by his Mediterranean legacy.

The book Shamanism and Literary Criticism deals with the unique attention that scholars of art and literature pay to the object of their study. This specific attention is based on a communitarian approach, a special type of research empathy, and a contemplation radically focused on literature, art, and the community of its readers. What do scholars of literature do in a community where literature is created, read, and interpreted by them? What is the attitude of these scholars to literature and its readers? What is the role entrusted to them by their community? This book offers a new theory about the attitude of the study of literature toward literature, art, and communality. It illustrates the theory and its features as a method of research and interpretation in the works of Uri Nissan Gnessin, Micha Yosef Berdyczewski, Shimon Halkin, A. B. Yehoshua, Aharon Appelfeld, Dahlia Ravikovitch, Ronit Matalon, Orly Castel-Bloom, and Anna Hermann.

Jewish Studies is published annually by the World Union of Jewish Studies (WUJS) and provides an outlet for the publication of articles, studies, documents and various other contents in Jewish studies. The journal publishes articles in Hebrew and in English, which undergo a review process. It focuses on studies of a methodological-programmatic nature and reviews various areas of Jewish studies. The journal was first published in 1971 under the title 'Newsletter of the World Union of Jewish Studies'. Since 1996 it is published in its current form as Jewish Studies - Journal of the World Union of Jewish Studies . In addition to articles, the journal features a section for recent WUJS news and publications, as well as reviews of new books published in the various fields of Jewish studies. Few articles in this issue: Michael Schneider | The Liturgical Roots of the Kabbalistic Concept of "Unification" Eliyahu Rosenfeld | "One Must Speak with Silence": The Function of Silence in Virginity Claim Stories from the Babylonian Talmud Richard Hidary | The Talmud as Rhetorical Exercise: Progymnasmata and Controversiae in Rabbinic Literature Eli Gurfinkel | The Order and Structure of the List of the Maimonidean Principles: Between Form and Meaning Hagay Shtamler | "The Course of Ideas in Israel" as a Response to Wissenschaft des Judentums"

Jewish Studies is published annually by the World Union of Jewish Studies (WUJS) and provides an outlet for the publication of articles, studies, documents and various other contents in Jewish studies. The journal publishes articles in Hebrew and in English, which undergo a review process. It focuses on studies of a methodological-programmatic nature and reviews various areas of Jewish studies. The journal was first published in 1971 under the title 'Newsletter of the World Union of Jewish Studies'. Since 1996 it is published in its current form as Jewish Studies - Journal of the World Union of Jewish Studies . In addition to articles, the journal features a section for recent WUJS news and publications, as well as reviews of new books published in the various fields of Jewish studies. Few articles in this volume: David (Dimitry) Kopeliovich | From Absence to Presence: Jeremiah's "wandering" between the Book of Kings and the Book of Chronicles Itzhak Amar | Marriage and Birth in the Davidide Narrative of Chronicles (1Chr. 11-2 Chr.36): A Mere Component of Retribution? Brachi Elitzur | Messianic and Anti-Messianic Elements Reflected in Traditions about Hezekiah from the Second Temple, Mishnaic, and Talmudic Periods Naama Weiss | The Basic Structure of Kinship in the Book of Genesis and Rabbinic Midrash Adiel Kadari | The Halakha of Elijah: Heavenly Knowledge, Piety and Danger New Books and Periodicals in Jewish Studies: Manuscripts and annotated Critical Editions Journals Anthologies, Jubilee and Memorial Book Monographs

Articles in this issue: Menahem Kahana | The Tosafot (‘Marginal Annotations’) in Sifre on Deuteronomy Omri Livnat | Discoveries from Constantine: New Liturgical Poems by Yosef Ibn Avitur and Evidence of the Inclusion of Byzantine Poems in a North African Maḥzor Omer Michaelis | Ṣūfī Terminology and Its Meaning in Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed Jonatan Howard | The System of Exceptions: On the Organizational Structure of Grammatical Knowledge in Medieval Ashkenaz

During the last decades there have occurred significant upheavals in the political and military position of many religious and ethnic communities in the Middle East and North Africa. Communities which had been rejected and discriminated for decades rose to power or strengthened their political position in their countries by means of military struggles. Meanwhile, in Israel/Palestine, the ethnical-religious Jewish minority has become a ruling majority, while excluding the former Arab-Muslim-Sunni majority, following the wars of 1948 and 1976. This book examines these processes.