Among the articles in this issue: Yair Lorberbau | On Rules and Reason on Law and Halakhah - A Fresh Conceptual Framework for the Study of the Rationale of the Commandments Shalom Zadik | The Status of the Tormented Heretic according to Rabbi Hsdai Crescas and his Relation to Abner of Burgos Hillel Ben-Sasson | The concept of Repentance in the Zohar Itzhak Brand | Commandments between Man and God and between Man and his Fellow: A Study in the Dualistic Thought of R. Isaac Abarbanel Eliezer Baumgarten and Uri Sfrai | Kabbalah and Marriage Customs in Early Modern Italy Dvir Warshavski | Zot Torat Ha-'Ola : The Belief in the Creation of the World in Rema's Thought

Contents Tsippi Kauffman and Itamar Brenner | Narrative and Normative Discourse in the Sugiyot of Procreation Yair Lorberboim | On the Rejection of Reasons in Halakhic Discourse: The Debate on the Reason for the Prohibitions on Marring the Corners of the Head and the Beard Esti Eisenmann | God's Attributes according to Rambi and Crescas Raphael Shuchat | The Place of Manuscripts in Research of the Vilna Gaon’s Writings Ora Wiskind-Elper | Rebbe Yehoshua Heschel Rabinovitz of Monastyrishche: Contemplations of a Hasidic Leader on Judaism in Troubled Times Yaron Naim | Rabbi Kalphon Moshe Hacohen’s Struggle with the Issue of Women’s Status David M. Feuchtwanger | On Theology, Politics and Disobedience in Agnon’s Shlom Olamim Ronit Irshai | The Return of Aqedah Theology: The Relationships between Religion, Gender and Ethics

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