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The Judaeo-Arabic Translation and Commentary of Salmon ben Yerōḥām on the Book of Esther
This volume comprises an edition and translation of one of the earliest specimens of Jewish programmatic commentary on the book of Esther. The commentary’s author, Salmon b. Yerōḥām, is a central early figure in the “Golden Age” of Karaism (late-9th–11th cent.), a Jewish scripturalist and penitential movement centered at that time in Jerusalem. Among the various facets of Salmon’s commentary that we explore in our introduction are his translation technique, exegetical method, homiletical emphases, and polemical concerns. We also explore his use of sources, both explicit and tacit (in the latter case to a surprisingly broad degree as regards rabbinic sources and Saadia), as well as the reception of Salmon’s commentary in subsequent Jewish exegetical tradition.
Leadership, Charity, and Literacy
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This book is a history of Ottoman Jews that challenges prevailing assumptions about Jews’ arrival in the empire, their relations with Muslims, and the role of religious and lay leaders. The book argues that rabbis played a less prominent role as communal and spiritual leaders than we have thought; and that the religious community was one of several frameworks within which Ottoman Jews operated. A focus on charitable and educational communal practices shows that with time Jews preferred to avoid the scrutiny of rabbis and the community, leading to private initiatives that undermined rabbinical and lay authority.
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In: Zutot
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In this article I present three cases in the first chapter of Yevamot where a baraita in the Tosefta is cited as multiple smaller sources in the Yerushalmi. I demonstrate that in all three cases, the Palestinian Talmud preserved the more original form of the baraitot, while the Tosefta contains a later, edited form of the tannaitic material in which multiple baraitot are combined into one. Furthermore, I consider the implications of this phenomenon for understanding the nature of baraitot in both the Palestinian Talmud and the Tosefta, as well as how these baraitot developed into their final form.

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In: Zutot
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In: Zutot
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There is an unusual legend found in a few Jewish works where the biblical figure Shem son of Noah is portrayed becoming immortal. In these stories over time he becomes unhappy that he is unable to die, serving as a cautionary tale about trying to achieve eternal life. Many elements of this legend explicitly contradict traditional Jewish ideas, and it has long been speculated that the legend is based on an Arab tale. The Muslim story of Jesus resurrecting Shem appears to be the basis for this story.

In: Zutot
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In the third introduction to Elijah Levita’s book Masoret ha-masoret (1538), the author cites many literary works available to him on the question of the antiquity of the biblical vowels and cantillation marks. The sources of two such citations, named the Book of Semadar and Tzah sefatayim, have been deemed to date lost or unknown. It is shown that the citations are attested in very close form in medieval manuscripts the citation from the Book of Semadar appears in a copy of the long recension of Horayat ha-qoreʾ, whereas the citation from Tzah sefatayim appears in the section on vowels in R. Moses ben Isaac’s Book of the Onyx (Sefer ha-Shoham).

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In: Zutot
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Around the turn of the 17th century, the Swedish antiquary and mystic Johannes Bureus (1568–1652) claimed to have discovered the primordial theology and science of his Scandinavian ancestors encoded in their system of writing, the runic alphabet, inspired in large part by earlier Christian interpretations of the Kabbalah. In the leadup to the Swedish intervention in the Thirty Years’ War, he viewed the discovery as the ecumenical solution to the confessional divisions that were rending Europe asunder. This article explores how Bureus’s simultaneously typical and idiosyncratic engagement with the Kabbalah originated, what functions it served in his broader antiquarian program, and how it evolved to adapt to the shifting contours of Protestant scholarship in the first half of the 17th century.

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In: Zutot
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MS Mich. 335 in the Bodleian library, from the 15th century, is a collection of philosophical works in Hebrew, predominantly concerned with logic. Among them is a short text entitled Treatise on the Four Inquiries, attributed to ‘Al-Muqammas.’ The present study shows that this treatise is in fact a Hebrew adaptation of the first chapter of Dāwūd al-Muqammaṣ’s Twenty Chapters, which was repurposed into a self-standing introduction to logic. This finding enhances the growing appreciation of Al-Muqammaṣ’s place in the history of Jewish philosophy, extending it to the field of logic. The study is accompanied by an edition of the Hebrew text with a parallel English translation.

In: Zutot

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This article analyses an overlooked phenomenon in the history of Reformed Hebraism in the era of ‘high orthodoxy’ (c. 1640–1720), namely the increasing interest in Kabbalah as an ancient tradition of ‘mystical’ exegesis. It enquires into the reasons that propelled this interest, proposing that they are to be found in the attempt to elaborate an acceptable notion of an allegorical sense of Scripture that was current in antiquity, as well as in the insistence (which was of particular importance in anti-Remonstrant polemics) that the Trinity and the divinity of the Messiah were known to the ancient Jews through the Old Testament and its interpretation. Finally, the article shows how these ideas developed in the more specific context of Dutch Reformed theology, where Kabbalah was understood by some scholars (especially around the Groningen professor Jacob Alting) as evidence of the spiritual dimension inherent in the Mosaic covenant.

In: Zutot