Dialogues in Judaic Studies

This compilation serves as a foundational historical overview and a selective cultural examination of the evolution, unification, and eventual decline of a diasporic civilization—the Jewish community during the early modern era (approximately 1391–1789) across Europe, the Ottoman Empire, and significant locations within the Iberian Empires in the Americas. Each chapter delves into the critical elements that influenced both unique early modern Jewish societies and a notably cohesive and expansive community-of-communities. The authors address and respond to the following inquiries: What do historians interpret as 'early modernity,' and how effectively does this concept shed light on the history and cult...

This book investigates the liturgical poetry of Christian, Jewish, and Samaritan traditions from late antiquity, approximately during the third to fourth century CE. It examines this poetry in the context of biblical interpretation and prayer conventions, as well as through the lenses of performance, entertainment, and spectacle.

Since liturgical poets were profoundly invested in captivating their audiences, similar to orators and actors, this study regards hymnody as a performative genre akin to oratory and theater, which represent the two primary forms of public performance.

The ‘theatricality’ of liturgical poetry underscores various themes, from the adaptation of b...

In *Sirach and Its Contexts*, a varied group of scholars who focus on the book of Sirach place this second-century BCE Jewish wisdom text within its numerous contexts: literary, historical, philosophical, textual, cultural, and political. Compiled originally by a Jewish sage around 185 BCE, this work has undergone a rich and dynamic history of reception from the Middle Ages to the present day, resulting in a diverse textual tradition as it has been written, rewritten, transmitted, and analyzed. Sirach was not conceived as a book in the modern sense but rather as a continuous stream of tradition.

Previously...

This book investigates the perspectives of Chilean President Salvador Allende and General Augusto Pinochet regarding Jews and the State of Israel.

Throughout his political journey, Allende demonstrated solidarity with European Jews during the 1930s, advocated for the creation of a Jewish state in the 1940s, and resisted leftist critiques of Israel in the 1950s and 1960s. As president, he intervened on behalf of Jewish dissidents in the Soviet Union, denounced Arab terrorism, and upheld robust diplomatic relations with Israel. Pinochet, who overthrew him and assumed dictatorial power in 1973, extended even more gestures of goodwill despite his regime's...

In this monograph, Juan Carlos Ossandón Widow explores the challenging question of when, how, and why the set of twenty-four books known today as the Hebrew Bible was compiled. He thoroughly investigates the two earliest sources on this topic—Josephus’ Against Apion and 4 Ezra—and argues that, alongside the tendency to glorify the past, which results in the perception that divine revelation to Israel has ceased, a crucial reason for establishing a collection of Scriptures at the close of the first century CE was the need to protect the accepted tradition from those who embraced more texts.

In this monograph, Juan Carlos Ossandón Widow explores the challenging question of when, how, and why the set of twenty-four books known today as the Hebrew Bible was compiled. He thoroughly investigates the two earliest sources on this topic—Josephus’ Against Apion and 4 Ezra—and argues that, alongside the tendency to glorify the past, which results in the perception that divine revelation to Israel has ceased, a crucial reason for establishing a collection of Scriptures at the close of the first century CE was the need to protect the accepted tradition from those who embraced more texts.

Since the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947, their material evidence and compelling content have fascinated both scholars and the general public. Regarded as one of the most significant archaeological finds of the 20th century, the unearthed materials have shed light on and rejuvenated extensive areas of biblical scholarship. However, research into the material findings concerning religious sacrifice has been somewhat overlooked. In this analysis, Jamal-Dominique Hopkins delves into the life and archaeology of Qumran, as well as the valued perspectives on sacrifice found in the non-biblical sectarian Dead Sea Scrolls. Hopkins investigates the historical and ideological evolution of...

Since the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947, their material evidence and compelling content have fascinated both scholars and the general public. Regarded as one of the most significant archaeological finds of the 20th century, the unearthed materials have shed light on and rejuvenated extensive areas of biblical scholarship. However, research into the material findings concerning religious sacrifice has been somewhat overlooked. In this analysis, Jamal-Dominique Hopkins delves into the life and archaeology of Qumran, as well as the valued perspectives on sacrifice found in the non-biblical sectarian Dead Sea Scrolls. Hopkins investigates the historical and ideological evolution of...

We interpret the world surrounding us through the constructed spaces we inhabit. These spaces are formed by human activities and, in turn, shape the way people live. This book delves into an analysis of archaeological and textual evidence from the inception of Hasmonean influence in Galilee to the outbreak of the First Jewish War against Rome, exploring how Judaism was socially articulated: in bodily, communal, and regional dimensions. Within each articulation, certain elements of Jewish identity are present, including ideas of purity, communal gatherings, and Galilee's ties with the Hasmoneans, Jerusalem, and the Temple during its last days.

The loss of a child is one of the most painful, sorrowful, and seemingly unnatural experiences that anyone can endure. Nevertheless, it is still unclear if this sentiment was also felt by the people of ancient Israel.

Many studies have explored death in ancient societies by examining burial customs, rituals, biblical views on death and the afterlife, care for the deceased, and even death cults; however, no extensive research has specifically targeted children and death in ancient Israel.

The study of child mortality is closely tied to the challenges within a relatively new area of...

Since the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947, their material evidence and compelling content have fascinated both scholars and the general public. Regarded as one of the most significant archaeological finds of the 20th century, the unearthed materials have shed light on and rejuvenated extensive areas of biblical scholarship. However, research into the material findings concerning religious sacrifice has been somewhat overlooked. In this analysis, Jamal-Dominique Hopkins delves into the life and archaeology of Qumran, as well as the valued perspectives on sacrifice found in the non-biblical sectarian Dead Sea Scrolls. Hopkins investigates the historical and ideological evolution of...

We interpret the world surrounding us through the constructed spaces we inhabit. These spaces are formed by human activities and, in turn, shape the way people live. This book delves into an analysis of archaeological and textual evidence from the inception of Hasmonean influence in Galilee to the outbreak of the First Jewish War against Rome, exploring how Judaism was socially articulated: in bodily, communal, and regional dimensions. Within each articulation, certain elements of Jewish identity are present, including ideas of purity, communal gatherings, and Galilee's ties with the Hasmoneans, Jerusalem, and the Temple during its last days.

For those engaged in the sectarian Dead Sea Scrolls movement, membership in the group would have granted them exceptional privileges, including direct and unmediated access to otherworldly realities. This understanding of the present as a type of liminal space is profoundly rooted in the group’s interpretations of time and space. By applying theories of liminality in conjunction with anthropological research on religious consciousness, this study seeks to demonstrate how sectarian identity, along with ritual and liturgical practices, may have cultivated an experience of present communion with divine entities that was both aspirational and designed to promote the human wo...

This book explores how the intellectual and literary movements of Russia in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries affected Jewish thought and Hebrew literature.

By engaging in a comparative analysis of a diverse range of writings from key Russian and Jewish intellectuals, the book uncovers how ideas about the necessity for a national revival spread from Russian to Jewish intellectual circles.

Jewish thinkers who adopted these concepts modified them to correspond with the realities and experiences of Jewish life in Central and Eastern Europe.

Similarly, the portrayals of an individual's search for the true...

Josephus' Antiquities depicts Moses as the Jewish lawgiver, altering the biblical story for a distinct audience. Nevertheless, who made up that audience, and how did they interpret the term lawgiver? This work utilizes Plutarch's Lives as a proxy for a conceptual audience, providing a historically grounded yet flexible framework of a lawgiver, which emphasizes certain influences that may have been overlooked in understanding Josephus' choices. This methodology reveals patterns of persuasion and resistance in Josephus' engaging and vibrant representation of Moses' legislative activities.

This monograph investigates Josephus’ representations of foreign invasions of Jerusalem as detailed in his Jewish Antiquities. The invasions covered include those by Shishak, Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander the Great, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, and Pompey the Great. In analyzing these stories, the book views the Jewish Antiquities as an extended "prequel" or backstory to his earlier work, Jewish War, examining how these narratives foreshadow and create connections with his previous account of the war against Rome. Furthermore, the book looks at these narratives within the literary framework of the Jewish Antiquities as a whole and how Josephus’ perceived audience expectations might have...

The dual legal codes established by R. Joseph Karo during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries mark a crucial milestone in the development of Jewish Halakhah. No further legal advancements were introduced in the following generations. R. Karo maintained long-standing traditions of Jewish scholarship while simultaneously responding to the global transformations in the history of law and legality, especially in Europe and primarily within the Ottoman Empire. This signifies a thorough interpretation of Jewish Halakhah and the overall modernization of Jewish culture. In this study, Roni Weinstein situates R. Karo's legacy in the context of the concurrent history...

We interpret the world surrounding us through the constructed spaces we inhabit. These spaces are formed by human activities and, in turn, shape the way people live. This book delves into an analysis of archaeological and textual evidence from the inception of Hasmonean influence in Galilee to the outbreak of the First Jewish War against Rome, exploring how Judaism was socially articulated: in bodily, communal, and regional dimensions. Within each articulation, certain elements of Jewish identity are present, including ideas of purity, communal gatherings, and Galilee's ties with the Hasmoneans, Jerusalem, and the Temple during its last days.
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Since the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947, their material evidence and compelling content have fascinated both scholars and the general public. Regarded as one of the most significant archaeological finds of the 20th century, the unearthed materials have shed light on and rejuvenated extensive areas of biblical scholarship. However, research into the material findings concerning religious sacrifice has been somewhat overlooked. In this analysis, Jamal-Dominique Hopkins delves into the life and archaeology of Qumran, as well as the valued perspectives on sacrifice found in the non-biblical sectarian Dead Sea Scrolls. Hopkins investigates the historical and ideological evolution of...

*Wild Visionary* reexamines the life and work of Maurice Sendak through the lens of his identity as a Jewish gay man. Maurice (Moishe) Bernard Sendak (1928–2012) was a passionate, romantic, and surprisingly humorous seeker of truth who made significant contributions to modern literature and culture. By elevating the standards of children's literature, Sendak depicted childhood with a blend of dark realism and vibrant imagination, influenced by his own sensitive 'inner child' and the queer and Yiddish sensibilities that defined his unique voice. Golan Y. Moskowitz intricately weaves together literary biography and cultural history, tracing Sendak's journey from his parents' Brooklyn ho...

In the early 1900s, as the aspiration for Jewish cultural nationalism in the Diaspora was gaining momentum among advocates for Yiddish, the prominent intellectuals of the time included the "Yiddish historians" who played a crucial role in uncovering the history of East-European Jews. Prior to the Holocaust, their goal was to research and present the foundational history of a vibrant community for an audience of educated lay leaders, utilizing Jewish sources of information whenever possible, to aid in the establishment and strengthening of a Yiddish-speaking nation. Following the Holocaust, their focus shifted to providing solace to the surviving remnants...

This book features a collection of eight annotated translations of responsa, along with the original Hebrew texts, concentrating on the Spanish-Portuguese communities that arose after the expulsion during the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries. This collection seeks to familiarize the reader with Jews who, after their expulsion, settled in the Ottoman Empire, in Palestine under Mamluk governance, in Amsterdam, and in Brazil. The expulsion of Jews from the Iberian Peninsula was a devastating period in Jewish history; nevertheless, the revitalization of the post-expulsion Spanish-Portuguese Jewish communities in new settings is a reflection of the human spirit and tenacity.

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*Wild Visionary* reexamines the life and work of Maurice Sendak through the lens of his identity as a Jewish gay man. Maurice (Moishe) Bernard Sendak (1928–2012) was a passionate, romantic, and surprisingly humorous seeker of truth who made significant contributions to modern literature and culture. By elevating the standards of children's literature, Sendak depicted childhood with a blend of dark realism and vibrant imagination, influenced by his own sensitive 'inner child' and the queer and Yiddish sensibilities that defined his unique voice. Golan Y. Moskowitz intricately weaves together literary biography and cultural history, tracing Sendak's journey from his parents' Brooklyn ho...

*Wild Visionary* reexamines the life and work of Maurice Sendak through the lens of his identity as a Jewish gay man. Maurice (Moishe) Bernard Sendak (1928–2012) was a passionate, romantic, and surprisingly humorous seeker of truth who made significant contributions to modern literature and culture. By elevating the standards of children's literature, Sendak depicted childhood with a blend of dark realism and vibrant imagination, influenced by his own sensitive 'inner child' and the queer and Yiddish sensibilities that defined his unique voice. Golan Y. Moskowitz intricately weaves together literary biography and cultural history, tracing Sendak's journey from his parents' Brooklyn ho...

Before 1917, the Russian Tsar wielded total power over a sprawling empire, where more than 5 million Jews lived in seclusion and segregation. During the reign of Tsar Nicholas I (1825–1855), the treatment of Jews became especially brutal. Nicholas sought to obliterate Jewish identity by compelling Jews to convert to Christianity and promoting assimilation through intermarriage. One of the most heartless acts under Nicholas I was the implementation of the Cantonist system, which forcibly enlisted Jewish boys under the age of 13 into military service. These young boys were cruelly torn from their families and communities, suffering severe mistreatment, and were incessantly pressured to...

In this monograph, David Edwards explores how Josephus, in his work *Jewish Antiquities*, reinterprets the biblical stories of Joseph and Esther in unexpected ways, employing them as frameworks for narratives concerning more modern Jewish figures.  

He refers to this method as "subversive adaptation," situating it within the framework of Greco-Roman literary traditions.  

Moreover, he applies the concept of "discourses of exemplarity" to demonstrate how Josephus utilized the tales of historical figures to encourage moral reflection and practical decision-making among Roman elites.  

This book provides an examination of frequently overlooked narratives alongside Josephus' broader lit...