Zeev Gries’s analysis of what books were being published and where shows the importance of the printed book in disseminating religious and secular ideas, creating a new class of Jewish intellectuals, and making knowledge of the world available to women. This unique perspective on Jewish intellectual history in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries through the history of book-publishing throws light on many of the key Jewish cultural issues of the time. This book offers the reader a voyage in the new world that opened up to the enlightened Jewish reader of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a time when the first glimmerings of emancipation and secular education were giving large numbers of Jews their first exposure to science, literature, and art, and opening their minds to new ideas. And as on any voyage led by a knowledgeable guide, there are fascinating side-trips along the way: insights into the world of scholarship, then and now, and into the nature of knowledge. All this was happening at a time when Jews’ civil status and place in society was undergoing a great change in Europe. In this seminal work, Zeev Gries shows that although the history of the book in the Jewish world has long been regarded as the province of librarians and bibliophiles, it is, in fact, the history of the Jewish intellect. He starts by tracing the awakening of a dormant Jewish intelligentsia—men, women, and children who were thirsty for knowledge. Books were the magic kiss that opened new doors to the modern world; within a century, Jews were making invaluable contributions to the advancement of science and of culture more generally. By surveying the literary output of those years, the author is able to discover what books were being published, where they were published and distributed, and who was reading them. He surveys the fields of halakhic literature, ethical literature, kabbalistic and mystical literature, literature for children and women, and more general literature. He talks about the role of libraries and of book reviews. Above all, he considers the role of books as agents of culture: were they guardians of hallowed sanctity or harbingers of secularization? Gries shows how the types of books favored by the Jewish reading public offer an insight into the changing nature of their ‘portable homeland’. He then goes on to discuss the Haskalah movement and the tensions between increasing secularization and the more traditional world-view, as well as how the resurrection of Hebrew as a secular literary language contributed to the awakening of Jewish nationalism. Nevertheless, he argues that the study of the literary history of the period reveals that secular and Zionist leanings were not the only trends present; Jewish literature continued to be permeated with the spirit of religion. Part I The Awakening of the Dormant Intelligentsia Introduction 1 Readers of Books and the Reading of Books 2 Halakhic Literature and High-Level Commentary 3 Ethical Literature in Hebrew and Yiddish 4 What Can be Learned from a Single Private Library and Something about Public Libraries 5 Kabbalistic Literature in General and its Appearance in Hasidism in Particular 6 Literature for Children and Women or Literature Intended for Everyone? Part II The Book as Guardian of Sanctity or as Herald of Secularization 7 The New Hebrew Literature: Continuity or Revolution? 8 The Printing and Circulation of Jewish Books in the Nineteenth Century and the Identity of their Authors 9 Book Reviews in the Hebrew Press 10 A Bibliographer and Librarian as an Agent of Culture: The Contribution of Avraham Ya'ari to the Study of Jewish Printing in Eastern Europe Appendix 'The Young Avraham Ya'ari' by S. H. Bergman

The articles in this volume: The living and the dead in the march of redemption - Noam Zohar The chronicle of Ahimaaz and its place in Byzantine literature - Stephen Benin Miriam's well- French customs relating to the Sabbath third meal - Israel Ta-Shma The term 'Haggada' in the parable of the beloved in the palace in The Zohar - Frank Talmage The expression "Feeling of compulsion" in Crescas - Zeev Harvey The vision of the nobles of Israel in the Jewish philosophy of the Middle ages - Shaul Regev Herman Cohen and Franz Rosenzweig - Rivkah Horwitz Models of the ideal religious man in Rabbi Soloveitchik's thought - Lawrence Kaplan An addition to my article "Mazmiah Qeren Yeshu'a" - Yehuda Liebes On the semantic components of the expression "Mazmiah Qeren Yeshu'a" - Shlomo Morag Rejoinder to Shlomo Morag - Yehuda Liebes Summeries in English of all the articles at the end of the volume.

The articles in this volume: To behold the stars and the heavenly bodies - Shlomo Pines and Ze'ev Harvey Expounding the work for creation - B. Lifshitz The Arba'ah Turim of Rabbi Abraham Bar Judah, disciple of Don Hasdai Crescas - Shalom Rosenberg Fin-de-siecle orientalism and the aesthetics of Jewish self-affirmation - Paul Mendes-Flohr Response: Criteria for the designation "Halakhic Ruling" - Haim Soloveitchik Book review: Notes on Medievil Jewish-Christian polemics - Moshe Idel Summeries in English of all the articles at the end of the volume.

The articles in this volume: Mazmiah Qeren Yeshu'ah - Yehuda Liebes Plucking of grain on the Sabath and the Jewish-Christian debate - Menahem Kister The polemics against allegory in the commentary of Rabbi Joseph Bekhor Shor - Sarah Kamin Inadvertent heresy in Medievil Jewish thought: Maimonides and Abarbanel vs. Crescas and Duran? - Daniel Lasker Book review: Gershom Shalom: historian or philosopher? An answer to E. Schweid's criticism - Joseph Dan Clarification of concepts - Nathan Rotenstreich More about "Mysticism and Judaism" - Hava Lazarus-Yafeh Response: Response to D. Tamar - Rachel Elior Summeries in English of all the articles at the end of the volume.

The articles in the volume: Ch. Milikowsky - Elijah and the Messiah A.A. Hallevy - Jewish Thought and Greek Thought J.s. Levinger - The Laws concerning forbidden foods according to Maimonides Y. Bilu - The Dibbuk in Judaism: Mental disorder as cultural resource Y. Libes - New light on the matter of the Ba'al Shem Tov and Shabbetai Zevi E. Schweid - Martin Buber as a philosophical interpreter of the Bible E. Luz - The second innocence Jewish Humanism in the work of Akiva Ernst Simon Review D. Tamar - A critical edition of Galya Raza: Galya Raza, ed. R. Elior, Jerusalem 1982 Summaries in English at the end of the volume

The articles in this volume: Hokhmat Yevanit-Rhetoric? - D. Rappel The anthropological theory of miracles in medievil Jewish philosiphy - A. Ravitzky Maimonides' Epistle on martyrdom - D. Hartman On "Torah" in the middle ages - J. Sadan Sefer Ha-Maskil: An unknown Hebrew book from the thirteenth century - I. Ta-Shma Nietzche's image of the Jew, Judaism and Zionism - J. Golomb Zionism and messianism in the thought of Franz Rosenzweig - E. Luz English summeries of all the articles.

The articles in this volume: Ya'akov of Kefar Niburaia- A sage turned Apostate - O. Israi Kabbalistic materials from the school of Rabbi David ben Yehudah he-Hasid - M. Idel Abraham Sabba: His life and work - D. Manor Spinoza and biblical criticism - P. Slyomovics Foundations of Hermann Cohen's religious philosophy - E. Schweid "Ma'aseh Merkava" in Rabbinic literature - J. Dan English summeries of all the articles.

The articles in this volume: On the question of beliefs and concepts in the Targums - A. Shinan Maimonides on chance in the world of generation and passing away - A. Nuriel Christian influences in the Zohar - Y. Liebes Kabbalistic elements in Crescasw Light of the Lord - W. Z. Harvey A chapter in the development of the Kabbalah in Yemen - M. Hallamish Solomon Schiller's conception of the forces at work in Jewish history - S. Bar-Sela Moses Mendelsson in relation to Maimonides and Spinoza: two notes - S. Pines English summeris of the articles.