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

We are pleased to present the readers with a new, double issue of Massorot , volumes 16–17, published through the collaboration of the Center for Jewish Languages and Literatures and the Jewish Oral Traditions Research Center of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The present volume offers ten articles devoted to Hebrew and Jewish language studies, some by veteran researchers, others by younger scholars. Half of them were originally presented as lectures at the Fourth International Conference of the Center for Jewish Languages and Literatures, convened to mark the 25th anniversary of the Center at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The theme of the conference, held in Tammuz 5770 / June 2010, was “Original Compositions and Translated Works in Jewish Languages”. The articles published in this volume deal with a range of Jewish languages, the majority of them Jewish languages of Romance stock: the articles by Shmuel Refael, Ángel Berenguer Amador, and Omer Shafran focus on Judeo-Spanish (or Judezmo, Ladino); the articles by Cyril Aslanov and Doron Modan are devoted to Jewish varieties of French; and the article by Michael Ryzhik concentrates on Judeo-Italian. Jewish Malayalam, the study of which is still in its infancy, is discussed in the article by Ophira Gamliel. Issues relating to the study of languages in contact, which frequently arise in Jewish language analysis, come to the fore in several of the articles in the present volume: the article by Esther Adamit analyzes the ways in which multiple languages influenced the selection of Jewish toponyms appearing on the title pages of Hebrew-letter works published in Europe; and the contribution by Doron Modan analyzes the influence of several European languages on the Hebrew component incorporated in a collection of communal regulations written in the language of the Jews of Bordeaux and Bayonne.Two of the articles in this volume discuss Hebrew language traditions. The article by Moshe Bar-Asher analyzes the Hebrew that emerges from tombstone inscriptions from Meknes as reflected in the volume Avne Zikkaron, by Rabbi Yosef Messas. The contribution by Ilan Eldar discusses the origins of the traditional Ashkenazic pronunciation of Hebrew. The book features article summaries in English.

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

Moshe Simon-Shoshan: The Story of Honi Hame'agel in Mishnah Ta'anit 3:8: A Case Study in the Art of Mishnaic Narrative The articles in this volume: Gilad Sasson: The Expanded Biblical Story about Abigail Who Prevents David from Shedding Blood Uriah Kfir: On Poetry and Potency: En Ron Becha – A Muwashshah by Abraham haBedersi Nicham Ross: The Tale if Not Higher and its Hasidic Source Ariel Levinson: The Riddle of Berdichevsky's Miriam Mimi Haskin: Dancing Amidst Flames of Fire: The Hora Dance in the Hebrew Culture and Literature Dror Eydar: 'Sometimes the Holy May Erupt Out of the Ghostly Shame of our Language': On the Subconscious Materials in the Hebrew Language and Literature Eran Tzelgov: Ha-makom ve-shivro: Desire, Place and Myth in Moshe Smilansky's Khawadja Nazar Dana Keren-Yaar: Modernism of Her Own: Miriam Yalan-Stekelis and Trips Boys Take to where Dolls Grow Roni Miron: Historiography and the Problem of Historical Continuity: A Hermeneutical View of Baruch Kurzweill's Thinking Hadas Shabat-Nadir: The 'Yeshurun Effect' in the Poetry of the Seventies: Avot Yeshurun, Dan Pagis and Erez Biton Miriam Neiger: 'And I didn't say, "A vision for the end of days"': Eschatology in the Poetry of Yehuda Amichai Anat Danziger: Four Exercises in Visual Poetrics: On the Poetry Album of Dalia Rabikovitch

Volume one: A List of Galit Hasan-Rokem's Publications Intimate Dialogue: A Personal View of Galit Hasan-Rokem's Poetry On the Three 'Who is She...' Questions in the Song of Songs Rabbi Meir, the Babylonian Talmud, and Menippean Satire From Narrative Practice to Cultural Poetics: Literary Anthropology and Rabbinic Sense of Self Noah, his Family, and Other Animals: Midrash, Folklore and the Interpretation of a Biblical Story (or: Homage to Structuralism) 'The Earthquake in the Valley of Arbel': A Galilean Apocalyptic Tradition and its Historical-Liturgical Context The Literary-Parable in Seder Eliyahu Raba, in Light of the Homiletic-Parable in Rabbinic Literature 'Unto the Voice of the Girl's Songs': On Singing Women in Medieval Hebrew Poetry (The Andalusian School and it Offshoots) Intertextual Appropriation as Code: Between Palestine and Spain Jewish and Christian Dispute Poems on the Relationship between the Body and the Soul The Sorcerer Balaam According to Midrash Me'am Lo'ez The Plebeian and the Cultivated Proverb in Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote 'Irme Kero Madre' (Mother, I Wsih to Go): The Concept of Jerusalem in a Judeo-Spanish Folk Song as a Movement between Myth and Praxis Indescribable Female Beauty: Sephardic Wasfs, the Song of Songs, and Baffled Readers The Image of the Jew in Yiddish Proverbs Midrash Eliyahu, Mendelssohn's Version Freud and the Topos of the Wandering Jew The Retum of the Wandering Jews(s) in Samuel Hirszenberg's Art List of Contributors List of Abbreviations English Abstracts Volume two: Mitzvot Hannah: Visual Depictons of the 'Three Women's Commandments' among the Jews of Europe from the Middle Ages to Late Nineteenth Century Magic Dress of Jewish Groom from Rada'A' - a Town in Yemen Trousseaus of Jewish Brides from Izmir: Biographical Objects The Study of Folklore and the Process of Secularization of Modern Jewish Culture The Power of a Proverb - the Role of a Proverb in Agnon's Story Four Sages Who Were in Our Town: The Social Milieu in the Rabbinic Study Hall - from the Babylonian Talmud to S.Y. Agnon Source and Oblivion - Story, Folk and Folktale in Agnon's Writing Agnon's Biblical Ethnographies: Edo and Enam and the Quest for the Ultimate Song The Narrative Sub-Structures of S.Y. Agnon's 'The Lady and the Peddler' Leah Goldberg Meets Brenner 'Deportation Does no Solve Anything' - on 'Khirbet Khizeh' by S. Yizhar Purim in Sheinkin-Carnival in Tel Aviv of the Eighties A Yid Gefint an Eytse (Yiddish: A Jew Gets Advice) - A Reading in the Life History and Proverbs and Sayings of an Israeli Man of Transylvanian Origin in His Life in Communist Romania 'To Make Many More Menachem Mendels': Childlessness, Parturiton, and Creation in Messianic Habad Men and Women Narrating the Myth of the Creation of Woman - Hegemonic and Subversive Message 'Gobelin' Needlepoint: Introducing the Concept of 'Transitional Object; to the Study of Material Culture Jews in the Arabic Map: Hebrew Place Names Spoken by Local Arabbs - a Literary-Cultural Reading The Identity of Israeli Arabs as Reflected in Hebrew-Bases Nicknames The 'Bible Now': Contemporization, Political Satire and National Memory 'The Princess in the Rock': A South Indian Tale 'He That Travels Far Knows Much' English Abstracts

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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?’

CONTENTS Nili Wazana: Preface List of Abbreviations Jeffrey H. Tigay: Professor Moshe Greenberg ז"ל Mordechai Cogan: Professor Moshe Greenberg ז"ל Jonathan Ben-Dov: Professor Shemaryahu Talmon ז"ל Michael Sigal: Professor Shemaryahu Talmon ז"ל Baruch J. Schwartz: Professor Jacob Milgrom ז"ל Biblical Studies Rimon Kasher: Walking in the Way of God in the Hebrew Bible Micha Roi: The Story of Elijah’s Flight (1 Kings 19): A Comparative Study on the Pattern of ̒Departure Stories’ in the Bible The Bible in Relation to the Ancient Near East Nili Samet: Sumerian City Laments and the Book of Lamentations: Toward a Comparative Theological Study Yigal Bloch: Sěgullâ – A Re-examination of the Meaning of the Term Based on Two Assyrian Documents from the Thirteenth Century B.C.E. Yoel Elitzur: Qīr of the Aramaean: A New Approach Amitai Baruchi-Unna: Genres Meet: Esarhaddon’s Prayer in the Inscription AsBbA and Akkadian Prayers from the ̒Washing the Mouth’ Ritual History of Exegesis Yaakov Raphael Garzon: Sharp Anti-Christian Polemics in Rashi’s Commentaries to Genesis 1:1 Aharon Mondschein: Studies in the Rhymed Opening Verses of R. Abraham ibn Ezra in his Long Commentary on the Book of Exodus Carmiel Cohen: ‘This will put the mind more at ease’: Gersonides’ Alternative for Talmudic Hermeneutics in his Commentary on the Torah Aharon Ofir Shemesh: Henry Baker Tristram, Scholar of Nature in the Bible: His Methods for Identifying Plants and Animals and his Commentary Book Reviews Naphtali Meshel: (The Biblical Encyclopaedia Library), Jerusalem 2009 (in Hebrew)> Yoram Cohen: Inscriptions. History, Historiography and Ideology. A conference in Honour of Hayim Tadmor on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday, 20 November 2003, Jerusalem: The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 2009 (in Hebrew)> Rimon Kasher: , The Early History of the Babylonian Exile (8th–6th Centuries B.C.E.), Haifa: Pardes Publishing House, 2010 (in Hebrew)> Dvora Dimant: at Qumran in their Ancient Context (STDJ 78), Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2008> Books Received (compiled by Yaakov Dolgopolsky) List of Contributors English Abstracts

This book is based on an M.A. dissertation done under the supervision of Prof. Shulamit Elizur in the department of Hebrew Literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The book is dedicated to the investigation of some of the central attributes of the liturgical poems of redemption (Piyyutei Geʾulah) written by Solomon Ibn-Gabirol (1021–1054 CE). In this reading, these poems are seen as a central arena ringed and crisscrossed by swirling, often conflicting voices – a poetic model that did not exist in Hebrew liturgical poetry until the advent of Ibn Gabirol. My central argument is that Ibn Gabirol’s principal innovations are in the fields of rhetoric and textual composition. The rhetorical innovation in these poems is contained mainly in the short, stanza-long speeches which the poet uses to introduce the various participants of the Hebrew drama of redemption. The compositional innovation evolved out of the diverse ways these speeches were interwoven in the poems, each of which contains 4–5 stanzas and thus 4–5 points of view. This dramatic shift in the form and content of the piyyutim of redemption resulted in the creation of a group of poems characterized by a highly charged discourse on suffering, longing, anger, and faith.