The articles in this volume: Yoav Rosenthal The History of the Final Chapter of Tractate Shevu ʿ ot Menahem Kister Exod 4:24-26: The Complexity of Jewish and Christian Interpretations Ronny Vollan Coptic Hebraists in the Middle Ages? On the Transmission of Rav Sa ʿ adiah Gaon’s Tafsīr Avi Shmidman The Liturgical Role of Ḥatanu Poems in שפוך חמתך ‘ Avraham Fraenkel Curse Poetry and the Verses of Ancient Jewish Italy Mordechai Akiva Friedman Maimonides Appoints R. Anatoly Muqaddam of Alexandria Oded Yisraeli From ‘ Torat Ha-Shem Temimah ’ to the Torah Commentary: Milestones in Nahmanides’ Creative life Avishai Bar-Asher Sefer ha-Neʿelam , New Parts of Sefer Or Zaru ʿ a and Clarifications Regarding the Early Writings of R. Moses de León: Studies and Critical Editions Books Received English Abstracts For contents and article abstracts in English press on Sample pages which is located on the right of the cover photo.

Eshbal Ratzon - The Gates of the Sun and the Moon in the Astronomical Book of Enoch Aharon Semesh - Transmitting Regular and Irregular Semen Impurity at Qumran: A Study of 4QTohora (4Q274) Michael Rand - Was Mahzor Eretz Israel - A Geniza Codex Indeed Used in Eretz Israel? New Fragments of the Codex and their Contribution to an Understanding of the Nature of its Liturgical Rite Simcha Emanuel - The Rabbis of Germany in the Thirteenth Century: Continuity of Crisis? Ram Ben-Shalom - Kabbalistic Circles Active in the South of France (Provence) in the Thirteenth Century For contents and article abstracts press on Sample pages which is located on the right of the cover photo.

For contents and article abstracts press on Sample pages which is located on the right of the cover photo. The articles in this volume: Aharon Shemesh and Moshe Halbertal - The Meʾun (Refusal): The Complex History of Halakhic Anomaly Shulamit Elizur - The Early Scope of Parashat Sheqalim Gideon Bohak - The Hidden Hekhalot: Towards Reconstructing an Unknown Hekhalot Composition from the Cairo Genizah Avraham Grossman - The Impact of Rabbi Samuel of Spain and Reuel of Byzantium on Rashi’s School Idit Einat-Nov - Uncertainty as a Poetic Principle: A Reading of Nəʾum Ašer Ben Yəhudah by Shlomo Ibn Ṣaqbel English and Hebrew Abstracts

For contents and article abstracts press on Sample pages which is located on the right of the cover photo. The articles in this volume: Alexander Rofé - Redressing the Calamity in the Transmission of the Bible Yonatan Feintuch - The Textual Development of the Aggadah of Rav Ada b. Abba (b BB 22a) in Light of the Evidence of an Early Genizah Fragment Avi Shmidman - Quina Poems for the 10th of Tevet and the 17th of Tamuz Avraham Fraenkel - Kingdoms and their Harsh Decrees in Medieval Italian Jewish Poetry Tzahi Weiss - ‘Most of the Errant Err in Malkhut’: The Worship of the Shekhinah in Early Kabbalah Tsippi Kauffman - Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Przysucha English and Hebrew Abstracts

For contents and article abstracts press on Sample pages which is located on the right of the cover photo. :Participants in this volume Dr. Matti Huss Prof. Uri Ehrlich Dr. Maoz Kahana Prof. Alexander Lubotzky Prof. Yair Lorberboim Prof. Yosef Ofer Prof. Menahem Kister Dr. Avraham (Rami) Reiner Dr. Avi Shmidman

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'

Table of Contents: Elchanan Reiner - Joshua is Rashbi, Hatzor is Meron: On the Typology of a Galilean Foundation Myth James Nathan Ford and Alon Ten-Ami - An Incantation Bowl for Rav Mešaršia son of Qaqay Shulamit Elizur - Esa Meshali (I Shall Present my Lesson) Matti Huss - The Beginning of Joseph Ibn Shimeon’s Ne ' um Toviyahu ben Zidqiyahu Yosef Ofer - Why Did Nahmanides Misread the Inscription on the Sheqel Coin? Hannan Hever - The Trauma of the Lady of the Palace Bezalel Bar-Kochva - The Essaioi: A Fiction or Historical Reality? Rachel Elior - Essenes or ‘ha-Kohanim bnei Zaddok and Their Allies’ . A Response to Bezalel Bar Kokhva, ‘The Essaioi: A Fiction or Historical Reality?’

Table of Contents: David Henshke - Directing Prayer toward the Holy Place : the Plain Meaning of the Mishnah and Its Echoes in Talmudic Literature Baruch J. Schwartz - R. Judah Heḥasid’s Commentary on Genesis 48:20 Shalem Yahalom - Tosafot Sens: Editions and Characteristics Yaron Ben-Naeh - An Unknown Sabbatean Document Gideon Freudenthal - Salomon Maimon's Development from Kabbalah to Philosophical Rationalism

Table of Contents: Ariel Kopilovitz Ezekiel's Theology of Holiness and Impurity as a Key to Understanding the Description of the Departure of the 'Glory of YHWH' from the Temple (Ezekiel 8-11) Nadav Na'aman The Story of the Exodus between Historical Memory and Historiographical Composition Gideon Bohak A New Genizah Fragment of the Aramaic Levi Document Binyamin Katzoff Blessings over Mitzvot in Eretz Israel and in Babylonia: Further to David Rosenthal, 'Tefillin Blessing in Eretz Israel and in Babylonia' Yacov Fuchs MS Mantova 30 Itamar Kislev 'Exegesis in Perpetual Motion': The Short Commentary of Ibn Ezra as a Source for Rashbam in his Commentary on the Pentateuch Aviram Ravitsky The Doctrine of the Mean and Asceticism: On the Uniformity of Maimonides' Ethics Moshe Idel Sefer Yetzirah: Twelve Commentaries on Sefer Yetzirah and the Extant Remnants of R. Isaac of Bedresh's Commentary Maoz Kahana How did the Hatam-Sofer Seek to Trump Spinoza? Text, Hermeneutics, and Romanticism in the Writings of R. Moses Sofer

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