The Babylonian Talmud is the Jewish composition of greatest scope, and its influence on Jewish life is decisive. Jewish sages have devoted more time and energy to its study and halakhic interpretation than to any other book, including the Bible, to the extent that "talmud Torah," Torah study, is mainly perceived as the study of the Babylonian Talmud. Its academic study, in contrast, is still in its initial stages. Critical editions, with the text based on the best manuscripts and an exhaustive and thorough critical commentary, have been published of only a few of the thirty-seven tractates of the Babylonian Talmud. Central questions pertaining to the manner of the formulation of the Talmud, its redaction, and its transmission are still unresolved. This is different from the state of research of other Rabbinic works, the study of which has taken significant strides in recent decades. Critical, balanced, and cautious interpretation of talmudic sugyot (discursive units) will likely illustrate the treasures to be revealed by a scholarly reading of the Babylonian Talmud: illuminating new facets of which traditional study is unaware; the consistent presentation of its meticulous literary fashioning, its contentual depth, and the creative force embodied in this corpus. All these find expression even in sugyot that seem tenuous and bothersome to the traditional student. Tiqqun Olam (Repairing the World) seeks to advance the research of the Babylonian Talmud with an annotated edition of the fourth chapter of Tractate Gittin, which contains various regulations that were enacted "for tiqqun olam." This chapter was chosen for the wide variety of its topics and the redactive methods employed, and for the benefit to be gained from their critical analysis. The widespread study of this chapter in high schools and yeshivot also influences its selection, in the hope it will aid both students and scholars in highlighting his difficulties and in exposing the overt and covert trends of the Amoraim and the redactors of the sugyot. The first chapter of this book examines the meanings of the term "tiqqun olam" in the Mishnah and the Tosefta, along with the structure of the tannaitic units containing regulations "for the repairing of the world" in these two tannaitic works. The main body of the book contains a systematic discussion of these mishnayot and sugyot, using philological-historical methodology, alongside the literary analysis, which has not been sufficiently developed in talmudic research to now. The talmudic text is divided into forty-nine sugyot. For each the book offers a new text based on MS. Firkovich 187, a list of parallels, a selection of textual variants and discussion of their originality, and a commentary. The commentary includes a detailed explanation of the sugyot and an analysis of their strata. A unique attempt is made to glean from within the traces of the difficulties within the sugyot and the dissonance they exhibit the aims of the redactors, who frequently formulated new laws, while devoting sophisticated literary effort in order to mask these innovations, and to impart to the sugyah a harmonious composition. In this book, much effort was invested to reveal the plain meaning of the Talmud, employing the tools of scholarly research - which, for various reasons, are not integrated into the widespread study of the Talmud today. The book undertakes to open a window to the academic world and its methodology, to enable Talmud students to come to know the world of Babylonian Talmud scholarship that is both demanding and profound, but also intriguing, while offering new insights.

Sifre is a Tannaitic midrash on the book of Numbers, and is rightfully considered to be one of the fundamental assets of our ancient literature. Its previous edition was published about hundred years ago by R. Hayyim Shaul Horovitz. Since then, additional manuscripts have been discovered of Sifre, its first commentators, and medieval collections and midrashim that cite it. This was accompanied by the significant development of the methodological conceptions of the study of the Rabbinic literature, and of the ways to publish critical editions of this literature. All these factors justify the publication of a new scientific edition of this midrash . The text of the new edition, that is based on MS. Vatican 32, includes many versions that differ from the earlier version, and that occasionally shed new light on the exegeses and halakhot of the Sifre. It is accompanied by the scholarly apparatus that lists and explains all of the edition's changes from the version of MS. Vatican. The number of direct and indirect textual witnesses presented in the "Textual Variants" section of the new edition is twice, and at times even triple, the number of textual witnesses that were available to Horowitz. In the detailed commentary on the expositions in Sifre, I made considerable use of all the Sifre commentators who preceded me, and who made a decisive contribution to the literal explanation of the midrash's exegeses and the clarification of their meaning. Thanks, however, to the diverse textual witnesses available to me and the great progress made in recent generations in the study of the language and teachings of the Tannaim, I believe that I have succeeded in recreating the original version of many expositions, in giving them a new and straightforward explanation, and in advancing the research of their redaction . The edition is intended, first and foremost, for the scholars, in Israel and throughout the world, who are engaged in the research of all aspects of the Rabbinic literature. Additionally, the new edition will likely aid the community of Torah scholars who teach and study in yeshivot, and the educated public at large. The first half of the work, comprising the portions of Naso and Beha'alotekha, was published by Magnes Press in 2011. Contents Part I: The Edition Volume 1 Preface Symbols of the textual witnesses of Sifre on Numbers List of symbols in the edition Introduction Editing rules for the text and the accompanying scholarly apparatus Textual variants Parallels passages in Talmudic literature The commentary Edition of Sifre on Numbers, portions of Naso and Beha'alotekha (the base text, and below it: 1. Scholarly notes to the base text; 2. Talmudic parallels; 3. Textual variants) Volume 2 Preface Edition of Sifre on Numbers, portions of Shelach till Masei (the base text, and below it: 1. Scholarly notes to the base text; 2. Talmudic parallels; 3. Textual variants) Part II Commentary on Sifre, Piska‛ot 1-58 (portion of Naso) Part III Commentary on Sifre, Piska‛ot 59-106 (portion of Beha'alotekha) Part IV Commentary on Sifre, Piska‛ot 107-161 (portions of Shelach – Masei ) List of abbreviations of the primary sources and the scholarly literature Indices

The Mekhilta of R. Shimeon Ben Yohai is a Tannaitic Midrash on Exodus, redacted in the early third century in the spirit of the disciples of R. Akiba. This text was lost over the years, but a significant part of it was reconstructed on the basis of pages from the Cairo Geniza and citations by medieval scholars in an edition by J.N. Epstein and E.Z. Melamed. Heretofore this Mekhilta has not received a comprehensive commentary, and its study has been based only on selected passages. This book presents the first systematic study of the Nezikin portion in the Mekhilta. It is based on a re-examination of the manuscripts, suggesting improved readings and completion of lacunae, a thorough study of the terminology and methodology used in the text, close comparison with parallel passages in the Mekhilta of R. Ishmael and throughout Talmudic literature, and detailed analysis of its redaction. The book contains elucidating innovations regarding the literal meaning of the homilies, the precise understanding of midrashic terminology, the explicit and implicit literary connections between the Mekhilta and the Mishna and Tosefta, and a fascinating quest after its creation and redaction, helping to interpret the multitude of dissonances in content and style that appear in the section on Nezikin (Torts). The insights on substance and in principle to be found in this book constitute a major contribution to the interpretation and study of the Mekhilta of R. Shimeon Ben Yohai in particular, and the method of creation and redaction of Tannaitic Midrashim in general. Students of Torah and anyone interested in Talmudic research will find this book most edifying.

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'

Sifre on Numbers: An Annotated Edition Abstract Menahem Kahana I concluded the Preface to my work, Prolegomena to a New Edition of the Sifre on Numbers, that was published in 1982, by writing: "It is my hope that just as I was privileged to finish this Prolegomena, so, too, may I, aided by Heaven, be privileged to publish the edition itself". During the years that have passed since writing those lines, despite my concentrating on other topics, I continued to search for textual witnesses of the Sifre that were concealed in libraries throughout the world, in the East and the West, and I continued my efforts to interpret its expositions and decipher its hidden treasures. Now, after having completed the preparations for the entire edition and the commentary for the first half of the work, comprising the portions of Naso and Beha'alotekha, I decided the time has come to publish them. Sifre is a Tannaitic midrash on the book of Numbers, and is rightfully considered to be one of the fundamental assets of our ancient literature. Its previous edition was published about ninety years ago by R. Hayyim Shaul Horovitz. Since then, additional manuscripts have been discovered of Sifre, its first commentators, and medieval collections and midrashim that cite it. This was accompanied by the significant development of the methodological conceptions of the study of the Rabbinic literature, and of the ways to publish critical editions of this literature. All these factors justify the publication of a new scientific edition of this midrash. The text of the new edition, that is based on MS. Vatican 32, includes many versions that differ from the earlier version, and that occasionally shed new light on the exegeses and halakhot of the Sifre. It is accompanied by the scholarly apparatus that lists and explains all of the edition's changes from the version of MS. Vatican. The number of direct and indirect textual witnesses presented in the "Textual Variants" section of the new edition is twice, and at times even triple, the number of textual witnesses that were available to Horowitz. In the detailed commentary on the expositions in Sifre, I made considerable use of all the Sifre commentators who preceded me, and who made a decisive contribution to the literal explanation of the midrash's exegeses and the clarification of their meaning. Thanks, however, to the diverse textual witnesses available to me and the great progress made in recent generations in the study of the language and teachings of the Tannaim, I believe that I have succeeded in recreating the original version of many expositions, in giving them a new and straightforward explanation, and in advancing the research of their redaction. The edition is intended, first and foremost, for the scholars, in Israel and throughout the world, who are engaged in the research of all aspects of the Rabbinic literature. Additionally, the new edition will likely aid the community of Torah scholars who teach and study in yeshivot, and the educated public at large. To view and purchase volume 4 please press here Contents Volume 1 Preface Symbols of the textual witnesses of Sifre on Numbers List of symbols in the edition Introduction Editing rules for the text and the accompanying scholarly apparatus Textual variants Parallels passages in Talmudic literature The commentary Edition of Sifre on Numbers, portions of Naso and Beha'alotekha (the base text, and below it: 1. Scholarly notes to the base text; 2. Talmudic parallels; 3. Textual variants) Separate supplement of the edition of Sifre, portions of Shelah-Masai (text and scholarly notes to the base text) Volume 2 Commentary on Sifre, portion of Naso Volume 3 Commentary on Sifre, portion of Beha'alotekha List of abbreviations of the primary sources and the scholarly literature אקדמות להוצאה חדשה של ספרי במדבר