These two collections of Yiddish letters date from the second half of the 17th century and are being published here in full for the first time. The opening five-letter collection was archived together with extensive information about three Jews from Hamburg-Altona, who had been arrested and investigated in Copenhagen in August 1666. The second collection consists of eighteen letters exchanged between Hamburg-Altona and Copenhagen in January 1678. They concern the family and business affairs of a range of people, among them some of Glikl Hamel’s relatives, business associates and acquaintances. Together, the two collections provide a wealth of illuminating new details about the economic, cultural, social, and family life of early modern Ashkenazi Jews in Northern Europe, and also shed light on the practice of Yiddish letter-writing at the time. The English section consists of an introduction followed by a synopsis of each letter, while the Hebrew section comprises a transcription of the original texts as well as their facsimile images.

Shlomo Naeh - Tradition and Interpretation in Mishnah Sheqalim 5:3–5 and Its Talmud David Henshke - On the Strata in the Passover Haggadah in the Mishnah David Rosenthal - An Additional Stage in the History of the Mishnaic Text Robert Brody - Two Traditions with Regard to a Particular Passage in Mishna Sheqalim Moshe Bar-Asher - On General Rules and Individual Cases in Mishnaic Noun Formation Daniel Boyarin - Once Again: ‘Two Dominions in Heaven’ in the Mekhilta Menahem Kister - The Manifestations of God in the Midrashic Literature in Light of Christian Texts Menahem Kahana - ‘When You Enter the Land’: A Tannaitic Controversy and Its Realistic Meaning Joseph Tabory - The Baraita of the Four Sons Moshe Assis More on the Question of the Redaction of Yerushalmi Neziqin Binyamin Elizur - A Genizah Manuscript of Yerushalmi Sheqalim according to Its Recensions Yoav Rosenthal - The Integration of Sugyot on Mishnah Middot into Bavli Tamid Aharon Shweka - The Tablets of Stone, the Law, and the Commandment Vered Noam - Did the Rabbis Know Josephus’ Works? H. Ben-Shammai - Yohar: The transformations of a Middle-Persian Word in Judaeo-Arabic and in Medieval Hebrew Hananel Mack - Homilist and Literalist: Rabbi Moses Hadarshan Heralds a Literal Exposition of the Bible Simcha Emanuel -From First to Third Person: A study in the Culture of Writing in Medieval Ashkenaz M. H. Schmelzer - Avigdor Aptowitzer’s Letters to Shalom Spiegel

Articles: Eyal Regev - Hever Ha-Yehudim and the political ideology of the Hashmoneans Michael Schneider - Goats, Demons and Angels Tamar Kadari - Transferred Petirot in Midrash Song of Songs Rabbah Eran Viezel - The divine content and the words of Moses Tsippi Kauffman - Ritual immersion at the beginning of Hasidism Bracha Yaniv - The throne of glory Jonatan Meir - The 'Wondrous Charlatan'

Tarbiz is the only Hebrew academic journal that is devoted to the entire range of Jewish studies. Appearing quarterly, this journal is the principal forum for the expression of the most important developments in Jewish studies in our generation, and its contributors include the leading scholars in the various fields of Jewish studies in Israel and the world, as well as young scholars who are beginning to make their mark. Tarbiz was first published in 1930 at the Institute of Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, under the editorial pen of Prof. Jacob Nachum Epstein z"l.