Jewish thought and rhetoric may have dominated the Jewish people's way of life for years, but what happens when a Jewish state is established, whose laws and authorities are not necessarily based on that same Jewish tradition? Jewish-Israeli Political Thought is a collection of studies exploring the tension between Israeli and Jewish political philosophy, the relationship between the Jewish people's collective and personal past and present, individual identity and its place in the traditional Jewish collectiveness, and the intermediary role of the ancient Hebrew language in the dialogue between the past and the present. The chapters in this book were written by young scholars of different religious, and sometimes cultural and lingual backgrounds; however, they all live in modern-day Israel, and they all question the relation between traditional-Jewish and modern-Israeli political thought. The diversity of the writers enables a broad and unique perspective on the status of Jewish tradition in contemporary political thought in Israel. The book provides a window into various spatial and temporal horizons in the course of a Jewish tradition that is constantly being re-examined and re-discovered.

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. The articles in this volume: Vered Raziel-Kretzmer, The Palestinian Morning Service in Fragments of an Early Liturgical Rotulus Amitai Harroch, The Liturgical Poems of Khalaf Bar Sa ʿ īd Ella Tovia, An Anonymous Exegesis of the Sifrei from the Europian Geniza Yacov Fuchs, Completing Leqaḥ Ṭov on the Qillirian Qerova ‘Zekhor Eikha Anu’ Y. Tzvi Langermann, ‘The Topic of Rosh Ḥodesh’— Chapter 18 of ‘Īssūr we-Hetēr’, an unpublished pre-Maimonidean Judeo-Arabic Halakhic Compendium Aviram Ravitsky, ‘The Principles of Qal va-Ḥomer’—New Material from the School of Rabbi Isaac Canpanton Dov Schwartz, A Philosophic and Kabbalistic Commentary on Psalm 29 by Rabbi Michael b. Shabtai Balbo Eli Gurfinkel, Rabbi David Ibn- Yaḥya’s Commentary to Maimonides’s Introduction of The Guide for the Perplexed

The Halakha is not just a body of literature; it is also a cultural event. It follows then that the philosophy of Halakha must address the happening of the Halakha. Surprisingly, till now philosophers of Halakha have not addressed this dimension of the event or the happening of the Halakha. The articles in this book are an attempt at facing this challenge. But this is not simple because herein lies a paradox. If the event or the happening is something that lies outside the confines of what is captured in the written word, the effort to write about it is one that must take us on a fascinating journey between what is possible and what perhaps is not. What is the nature of the Halakha as an event? What is the knowledge contained in this dimension of the Halakha that defies conceptualization in the written word? How does the insight that the Halakha is principally an event dramatically affect the philosophy of the Halakha? As we have said, philosophers of the Halakha have not addressed this question before and the authors in this collection – scholars and researchers from a wide range of fields – are all facing it for the first time bringing to it a wide range of tools from fields as varied as philosophy, Jewish thought, performance, cinema, group dynamics, cognition, gender studies and more. Together they offer us a new discourse and framework for conceptualizing the philosophy of the Halakha.

The present comprehensive and orderly collection of texts from the Babylonian Talmud allows a deep insight into the knowledge of the rabbis about the importance and decryption of dream experiences and dream messages. It covers, inter alia, the emergence of dreams and their healing power, mysterious Atonement and possibilities of influencing the content of a dream, nightmares, dream and prophecy, sexual dreams, rules and techniques of dream interpretation. The Talmudic texts are added through detailed explanations and contemporary Jewish and non-Jewish parallels. This book was first published in Vienna in 1923. It is Kristianpollers' thesis, written in his 20s. The thesis was finished as a book in 1914 but publication was delayed due to the first world war. The Hebrew translation was initiated by the authors' son, Professor Nahum Kristianpoller, in memory of his parents who perished in the Holocaust.

The articles in the volume: Yehuda Liebes - Clothed Nudity: The Esoteric Cult of Philo Eran Viezel - Moses’ Role in the Writing of the Torah in Rabbinic Literature and in the Transition to the Middle Ages Dov Schwartz - R. Shem Tov Falaquera’s Method in Abridging R. Solomon Ibn Gabirol’s Fons Vitae Eliezer Haddad - ‘You Shall Not Murder’ in the Writings of Maimonides: Ethics vs. Politics Avishai Bar-Asher - Perush shel Meor haQodesh : The Metamorphoses of Zoharic Homilies in R. Moses de León’s Hitherto Unknown Commentary on the Ten Commandments Iris Felix and Ruth Kara-Ivanov Kaniel - ‘Fire Bearing Fire’: An Unknown Zoharic Text and the Beginning of Zoharic Commentary in the Early Fourteenth Century – the Case of R. Menahem Recanati and R. Joseph Angilet Hagai Pely - Halakhah, Pietism, Kabbalah and Revelation in Sixteenth Century Safed: A Study in R. Yosef Karo’s Works Iris Brown ( Hoizman )- Between ‘Rectification of Evil’ and ‘Plain Nonsense’: The Strict Requirement of ‘A Clean Body’ as a Case Study of the Relationship between Hasidism and Halakhah Emmanuel Bloch - Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch and the Doctrine of ‘Torah im Derech Erets ’ in the Eyes of the Hareidim Uriel Barak - Anti-Semitism from a Theological Perspective: A Study in the Thought of Rabbi Avraham Itzhak HaCohen Kook and his Followers Eli Schonfeld - Jewish Philosophy as Existential Hermeneutics: A Revisiting of the Relation between Philosophy and Judaism in Emanuel Levinas List of Contributors English Abstracts

This issue discusses two main topics: "Serpents in Jewish Lore" - a trans­cultural topic treated as such in four essays and Holocaust Medical Studies. The latter will henceforth be considered a regular topic in KOROT, and will include a selected number of studies presented at the annual meetings of the Nahariya Conferences on Medicine in the Holocaust, convened by Prof. Shaul Shasha. Contents EDITORIAL The Serpent in Medicine, Medical Culture and the Jewish Tradition Ephraim Nissan The Cyclical Snake in Jewish Sources: An Examination of Occurrences of the Ouroboros Samuel Kottek The Serpent in the Talmud Kathleen Walker-Meikle Toxicology and Treatment: Medical Authorities and Snake-Bite in the Middle Ages Helena Paavilainen Viper Bite Therapies in Maimonides‘ On Poisons and the Protection against Lethal Drugs Holocaust Studies Miriam Offer The Study of Jewish Medicine during the Holocaust: Its Creation and Preliminary Steps Etienne Lepicard True Friendship or Relation against Nature? The Libman-Carrel Correspondence, 1923–1934 Peter Schwarzand and Wolfgang Neugebauer Medicine without Humanity: A Brief Outline of the History of Nazi Euthanasia in Vienna, Austria, 1938­1945 Kenneth Collins Practicing Humanity: Four Medical Practitioners and their Holocaust Legacy Varia Moshe Feinsod A Distant Reflection: The Physician in the Eye of the Jewish Medieval Satirist Kalonymus ben Kalonymus (1287­1337?) Zalman Greenbergand and Anton Alexander Professor Israel Jacob Kligler: List of Publications HISTORICALNOTES Kenneth Collins Samuel Levenston: An Historical Footnote Avi Ohry Jewish Physicians and Scientists' Historical Contributions to Society Korot of the Past Joshua O. Leibowitz The 25th Anniversary of Koroth L. Wislicki The Day of Nazification of a Hospital in Berlin BOOK REVIEWS Wolfgang Uwe Eckart: Medizin in der NS­Diktatur: Ideologic, Praxis, Folgen, 2012. Danielle Gourevitch: Limos kai Loimos: A Study of the Galenic Plague, 2013. Regis­Nessim Sachs: Medecins juifs du Xe au XVIIe siecle, 2014. Robert Weston: Medical Consulting by Letter in France 1665­1789, 2013.

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. The articles in this volume: Avi Shmidman, The Selihot of R. Joseph Ibn Abitur for the Tenth of Tevet Dan Greenberger, Alfasi's Responses to R. Isaac b. Barukh Ibn al-Baliya's Ccritiques Sarah Cohen, The Selihot of R. Sadoq al-'Amani Na'ama Ben-Shachar, The Baraita of Joseph ben Uzziel Dov Schwartz, Two Wedding Sermons by R. Michael ben Shabtai Balbo

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 The Piyyutim of R. Jeshua ben R. Joseph ha-Kohen ha-Shofet published by Shulamit Elizur and Tova Beeri " Eten Tzedek le-Foali " - A Kerovah on the Amidah for Fast Days by R. Jehiel bar Abraham of Rome published by Avraham Levin and Avraham Fraenkel Fragments of a Commentary to Tractate Sukkah from the Study Hall of Rashi published by Aaron Ahrend A Fragment from the Commentary by R. Eliezer of Worms ( Rokeah ) to Psalms published by Simcha Emanuel A New Commentary from a Manuscript to the Piyyut " Elohei ha-Ruhot le-Khol Basar " by R. Joseph Bonfils (Tov Elem) published by Yoel Binder The Chapters on the Psyche and Prophecy in the Book Sha`ar Shamayim by R. Isaac ben Abraham ibn Latif published by Adiel Zimran A Commentary to the Guide of the Perplexed (1:1-5) attributed to R. David ben Judah Messer Leon published by Eli Gurfinkel

The relationship between the traditional Jewish past and the present is a key question in Jewish intellectual thought from the Wissenschaft des Judentums in the nineteenth century up to the present day. The Angel of Jewish History casts a philosophical gaze upon the relationship between the traditional Jewish past and the present through the metaphysical worldviews of five formative Jewish Studies scholars: Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, Amos Funkenstein, Gershom Scholem, Baruch Kurzweil, and Nathan Rotenstreich. Their hermeneutic worldviews and writings deal with the nature and formation of modern Judaism, Wissenschaft des Judentums and historicism, the image of the Jewish past and tradition, secularization, and God’s status in present-day Jewish reality. These issues are explored in the book against the background of the tense discourse between the perception of modern Jewish reality as a break from the past and tradition and the argument for continuity despite the changes and developments of modernity. The book was originally published in English.

And before Honor – Humility investigates the moral-spiritual ideal of humility in rabbinic literature, a topic which has until now not been the subject of critical inquiry. Four sugyot (topics of discussion) stand at the center of the inquiry: haughtiness of spirit and lowliness of spirit, the humility of the Holy One blessed is He, humility and irascibility, and the ineluctable tension between the honor of Torah and human dignity. Shmuel Lewis presents a theoretical framework and interpretive approach that fit the unique nature of rabbinic literature and uncover a philosophical layer of thought in texts that have been considered until now merely didactic. His readings tack between close textual investigation and broad conceptual analysis in search of the mutual relations between social conceptions and world pictures. By means of comparison with parallel mutual relations in ancient Greek thought the connections between social conceptions, world pictures and moral ideals comes into view in both moral languages – the biblical-rabbinic and the Greek. The cosmological aspect is approached in the context of the biblical world picture as developed by the Sages in contrast to the Greek kosmos, the social aspect in the context of the beit midrash of the Sages and their relations with people outside their own enclave. The study makes frequent use of anthropological research and applies philosophical methods of social science. This multifaceted approach allows for an overarching view that uncovers surprising meanings in the sources and presents them with a conceptual depth that invites dialogue with parallel discussions in western philosophical discourse.

“For my dear grandson, David, this book in which he will not always recognize – and not incorrectly - the God of his fathers”: Levinas’ dedication encapsulates the issues he addresses in the thirteenth essays collected in De Dieu qui vient à l’idée ( Of God who comes to mind ). In contrast with a whole tradition of Jewish and Christian philosophy (Juda Halevi, Blaise Pascal), Levinas’ God is nor “The God of the philosophers”, neither “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”. “God” is not an object of thought or of faith, He cannot be approached nor by rational knowledge, neither through dialogue, or religious and mystical experience. Basing himself on Husserl’s phenomenology as well as on Talmudic tradition and on the writings of Rabbi Haim Voloziner, Levinas focuses on the ethical meaning encapsulated in the word “God”. Despite his quasi absence, “God” - or the absolute transcendence signified by this word - is never indifferent to the “here below”, he is never detached from “terrestrial existence and from human society”, from the place where infinite responsibility for the other is incumbent on me. In addition to his insights on “God”, Levinas deals with issues such as politics, religion and language, the Marxist concept of ideology, death, hermeneutics, the concept of evil, the philosophy of dialogue. He addresses the thought of Husserl, Heidegger, Rosenzweig, Buber, Bergson, Kierkegaard, Marx, Ernst Bloch, and Derrida.

The Journals of the Haskalah from 1820 to 1845 includes monographs and annotated indices to eight Hebrew periodicals in Holland, Galicia, Germany and Lithuania, published in the first half of the nineteenth century. The monographs analyze the phenomena of the Hebrew Haskalah press, addressing major developments in the history of the Haskalah, such as the emergence of ‘Hochmat Israel’ (The scholarly study of Judaism) in Hebrew, and the emerging centers of Haskalah in Holland, Galicia, and Lithuania. The monographs study the journals and their editors, contributing authors, and the subject matters included in them, and examine their scholarly and literary output. Some of the luminary scholars of the Haskalah contributed to these journals: Shmuel David Luzzatto, Shlomo Yehuda Rapoport, Nachman Krochmal, and Marcus Jost, as well as authors and poets, such as Yitzhak Erter, Shmuel Mulder, Meir Halevi Letteris and Adam Hacohen Lebenson. ‘Hevrat To’elet’ (To’elet Society), established in 1815, published three of the journals: Bikurei To’elet (First Fruits of To’elet, 1820), Pri To’elet (Fruit of To’elet, 1825), both edited by Shmuel Mulder, and Bikurei Hashanah (First Fruits of the Year, 1844), edited by Gabriel Pollak. in 1823/4, the author and editor Meir Halevi Letteris issued the journal Hatzfirah (Dawn). In the early 1840s, two scholars of the German school of the Study of Judaism, Marcus Jost and Michael Creizenach, launched a Hebrew monthly publication in Frankfurt titled Zion (1841–1842). In 1842 and 1844, two Vilna Maskilim, Shmuel Yoseph Fünn and Eliezer Lipman Horowitz, published the journal Pirhei Tzafon (The Northern Flowers). In 1844, Mendel Stern published one issue of Sefer Bikurei Ha’itim (The Book of The First Fruits of the Times), and a year later, in 1845/6, Yitzhak Shmuel Reggio and Israel Busch issued a one-time periodical titled Bikurei Ha’itim Hahadashim (The New First Fruits of the Times). This book is the fourth volume in the series of monographs and annotated indices of Hebrew Haskalah periodicals. It follows the publication of the monographs and annotated indices on Kerem Hemed, titled Kerem Hemed: ‘Hochmat Israel’ [The Scholarly Study of Judaism] As the ‘New Yavneh,’ the Hebrew Journal of the Haskalah in Galicia and Italy (1833–1856), in 2009, and previously on Bikurei Ha’itim, titled Bikurei Ha’itim – Bikurei Hahaskalah [The First Fruits of Haskalah], the Hebrew Journal of the Haskalah in Galicia (in 2005), and the publication of Hame’asef Index and monograph – Sha’ar Lahaskalah [The Gate to Haskalah]: An Annotated Index to Hame’asef, the First Hebrew Periodical (1783–1811), in 2000, by Magnes Press. The annotated indices should serve as a reliable reference tool for viewing and reviewing the major topics and issues that occupied the minds of the editors and the writers of these journals. Readers may now examine the scope and the character of the material published in these eight journals. Likewise, it is now convenient to assess the contribution of participating scholars, authors, and poets, to the Haskalah literature, and to explore their ideological stand on various scholarly or Haskalah-related matters. Association of Jewish Libraries’ Judaica Bibliography Award 2014