Judaica

This is the first exhibition in Israel of works by Friedrich Adler (Laupheim, 1878 – Auschwitz, 1942), a member of the Deutscher Werkbund (German Craft Alliance) – an association of designers, architects and manufacturers who paved the way, in the first half of the twentieth century, from Historicism to Jugendstil, to Art Deco and budding Modernism in Germany. The group set out to instill "style and spirit" in the industrial world of capitalism and in the urban landscape (often depicted critically by George Grosz, see lithograph), believing in art's ability to effect a change in society and in the religious hegemony.

Adler, considered one of the earliest modern industrial designers, was a contemporary of Walter Gropius (1883-1969), who founded the Bauhaus School in Weimar.

The volume "New Directions in Spiritual Kinship: Sacred Ties Across the Abrahamic Religions," edited by Todne Thomas, Asiya Malik and Rose Wellman, undertakes a comparative analysis of "spiritual kinship" (such as God-parenthood) in Christianity, Judaism and Islam. My chapter, "Kinship as Ethical Relation," starts by questioning the usefulness of spiritual kinship as a category for the understanding of Judaism and expands that critique into an alternate model that might be more useful for comparative purposes. I argue that the idea of "Spiritual Kinship" emerges precisely from an a set of Christian taxonomies that are often implicitly or explicitly anti-Jewish (kinship of the flesh vs. kinship of the spirit, the letter and the spirit of the law, etc.) which makes it unsuitable as an "Abrahamic" category. Moreover, the specific ways in which it is unsuitable for comparative purposes actually demonstrate the importance of this category for understanding of Christianity and of the anthropological kinship categories (affinal, consanguineal and fictive)  that were in large measure adapted from European Christian sources. Viewing kinship as a set of ethical relations, by contrast, does indeed allow for useful comparison across these religious divides and makes better sense of the ethnographic and textual data. Examples are brought from both modern and medieval Jewish life.

The Bulletin of the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts.  Journal of Eastern Studies  / ed. E. Kotlyar. – Kharkiv: The Center for Eastern Studies of KSADA, 2010. – # 8 (Vol. 3:  Jewish Art and the Ukrainian Context: Horizons of Traditional Artistic Culture). – 360 p.
Вісник Харківської державної академії дизайну і мистецтв. Сходознавчі студії / Упор. Є. Котляр. – Харків: Центр сходознавства ХДАДМ, 2010. – № 8 (Вип. 3: Єврейське мистецтво і український контекст. Обрії традиційної художньої культури). – 360 с.
The Center for Eastern Studies at the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts (KSADA) presents the Third Volume of Eastern Studies, a special issue of the Bulletin of the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts. This is the first time that an entire issue of a Ukrainian academic journal is devoted to Jewish art. The present volume deals with topics of traditional art and culture; the Fourth Volume will present current research findings in Art Judaica and work of Jewish artists beyond the scope of tradition. The two volumes’ special focus, “Jewish Art and the Ukrainian Context,” has attracted numerous submissions by scholars from Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Israel, the U.S., and Canada. The essays included in our collection are evidence of considerable international interest in Jewish art and cultural heritage that are in some way directly or indirectly bound up with Ukraine.
In setting ourselves the goal of bringing together in the Ukrainian academic field both native and overseas researchers of Art Judaica, we hardly expected to see such a thematically diverse spectrum of material submitted for publication. To introduce it to the general academic reader, we want to note that Jewish art on Ukrainian soil has been marked by extraordinary achievements, masterworks, and names which have become a part of not only Jewish, but also world art culture. Traces of antiquity and the Middle Ages, influences of the Rec’ Pospolita and of three world empires – Russian, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman – as well as of other countries and states, made Jewish culture in this region inimitably variegated. This culture took on a shape all its own, manifesting itself in a variety of temporal and cultural milieus. The universe of the Eastern European Jewish shtetl produced a cultural environment that brought to life astounding works of Ashkenazi Jewish art, including wooden and stone “defense”-style synagogue architecture and ritual objects made of stone, clay, metal, wood, and textiles, which served in the Jews’ daily round and ritual. The architectural and object surroundings of the former Jewish shtetls along with the graves of the Chasidic masters (the Zaddiks), sites of mass pilgrimage by Chasidim from all over the world, by their power of mass attraction today constitute a historical landscape in their own right.
The traditional artistic universe of the Pale of Jewish Settlement, discovered by Shimon An-sky, became, in the art historian Abram Efros’ phrase, an “Aladdin’s lamp,” a source of living inspiration for the Jewish avant-garde tearing beyond the limits of the ghetto and leading forth into the world open artists such as Chagall, Lissitzky, Ryback, and dozens of others who set the fashion and the shape of world modernism. In addition, the artistic heritage of the Crimean Jews and Karaites reflected the coalescence of cultural Jewish elements with the Turkic-Tatar world. These phenomena are making a comeback today, after having sustained varying levels of loss due to the wars and totalitarian regimes of the 20th century. Contemporary Art Judaica in many ways is a turn to addressing this world, simultaneously combining evolved national forms and novel ideas with the universal objectives of art.
World academic forums and periodicals devoted to Judaica and Jewish art have long been working to introduce Eastern European Jewish Studies, as well as Jewish Ukrainian cultural discourse, into the scholarly context of today.
In bringing this discipline into the foreground, we are, in effect, conveying to the reader the collective art historical research of the very phenomenon of Ukraino-Judaica, as it was capaciously labeled by the well known ukrainist Marten Feller. This phenomenon has in many ways determined the cultural diversity of Ukraine, especially Ukraine’s Western regions, lending them a peculiar image of their own; it also conditioned the mutual integration of the Ukrainian context with the European and world cultural and hermeneutic space.
This volume includes articles on Jewish ritual objects and traditional art, historical-artistic heritage and collections of decorative and applied craft works.
We are grateful to colleagues at the Center for Eastern Studies, and to Ukrainian, Russian, and overseas researchers for their participation in preparing this volume. Special thanks to Elen Rochlin (Jerusalem) and Bogdana Pinchevskaya (Kyiv) for their translations of materials included in the present volume, as well as to Oleg Koval and Konstantin Bondar (Kharkіv) and Gregory Kotlyar (New York) for their academic and logistical support for the appearance of the present collection in print.
We hope that the publication of this collection will not only prove of interest for specialists and the public concerned with landmarks of traditional Jewish culture in Ukraine, but that it will also attract the attention of those responsible for the preservation of Ukraine’s multinational heritage. This is a priceless resource for future generations and the development of modern tourist and pilgrimage infrastructures, where the Jewish urban historical heritage, and, especially, the heritage of the shtetls, occupies a niche all its own.

Examining a selection of modern urban spaces, this article describes how
the history of medieval Ashkenazi Jewry is displayed in Germany today, as well as
who displays it and for whom. The preoccupation of Germany with its Jewish past
is not trivial; it is an institutionalized trend designed not only to teach the public
about local medieval history, but also to educate it to re-include medieval Jews into
its history.

Русский Сборник: Исследования по истории России : архивные
находки и источниковедение / Ред.‑сост. О. Р. Айрапетов, Ф. А. Гай-
да, И. В. Дубровский, М. А. Колеров, Брюс Меннинг, А. Ю. Полунов.
Т. XXX. М. : Модест Колеров, 2021. 904 с.
Электронные версии «Русского Сборника» доступны в интернете:
www.iarex.ru/books

A MYSTICAL PASSOVER: A TRANSFORMATIONAL PASSOVER HAGGADAH offers a powerful trans-denominational psycho-spiritual approach to the Passover experience that includes individual and group psycho-spiritual exercises to help transform the holiday into a deeply mystical and magical experience for young and old alike.

El 22 de Shebat de 5770 (10 de febrero de 2010), la lectura de la parashá Yitro (Éxodo 18:1-20-23) me hizo reparar en un misterio de la Torá digno de un apéndice al vademécum para perplejos de mi maestro Maimónides. En Éx. 18:19 y, más claramente, en Éx. 18:23, el madianita suegro de Moshé transmite instrucciones de Adonay a un yerno que, poco después, sería el intermediario del Señor en la entrega de la Ley a Israel. ¿Quién era este idólatra para aconsejar a Moshé en nombre del Di-s de Israel?

this article introduces the reader to the considerations that had to be taken when cleaning and refreshing two of its large display cases at the Jewish Museum of Greece. The staff of the museum planned in advance, ensuring the safety of the objects and staff. eventually it is natural for unpredicted problems to occur in the real time process. The Museum acknowledged the convenience of the visitor pathway and, moreover, granted visual access to the treatment actions by encouraging communication with the working staff, enriching the visitor experience. The process was beneficial for evaluating the staff's teamwork and the production of a record, and a methodology to be followed for other display cases of the museum and potentially by other institutions.

De keuze van het onderwerp is ingegeven door een constatering dat in het hedendaagse Joods - Christelijke debat vanuit christelijke zijde zo weinig teruggevallen wordt op de geschriften van de oude rabbijnen zelf. Met de geschriften bedoel ik dan de (Palestijnse en Babylonische) Talmud, de Targums en andere geschriften van oude rabbijnen. Dit was aanleiding om een boek uit de 18e eeuw te raadplegen van een rabbijn die tot het christendom is overgegaan, nl. Salomo(n) Duijtsch. Deze man heeft het volgende boek, Jeschugnat Israëel, ofte Israels verlossinge en eeuwige behoudenis, geschreven waarin hij zijn ‘broeders naar het vlees’ aantoont dat de oude rabbijnen wel degelijk over christelijke onderwerpen zoals de Drie-eenheid, de lijdende Knecht, de Heilige Geest hebben geschreven. De onderwerpen zijn in dit boek zeer uitgebreid, zodat we ons beperken tot het onderwerp, de Drie-eenheid. In hoofdstuk 1 geef ik een korte beschrijving wie Salom(n) Duijtsch was en welke boeken hij heeft geschreven. Vervolgens geef ik in hoofdstuk 2 weer wat zijn beweegreden was om dit boek uit te geven. Ten slotte geef ik in hoofdstuk 3 een aantal voorbeelden hoe Duijtsch zich van zijn taak heeft gekweten. In de bijlagen zijn een aantal bladzijden uit de Babylonische Talmud toegevoegd, die in het stuk van Duijtsch worden genoemd

"Megaleh Temirin (Revealer of Secrets), ed. Jonatan Meir, Three volumes, Mosad Bialik, Jerusalem

Megaleh Temirin (Revealer of Secrets), first published in Vienna in 1819, is one of the sharpest and wittiest pieces of Jewish literature written in the first half of the nineteenth century, and is perhaps the most important piece of Hebrew prose composed before the stories of Mendele Mocher Seforim. A sly and complex story deriding Hasidism and Hasidim, it is told through the correspondence between the beadles of Hasidic courts and contemporary rabbis, and it presents a dark picture of  avaricious frauds and swindlers whose main concern was control over territory and the souls of believers, a goal achieved by beguiling the authorities and attacking all opponents. Perl lends his book a ‘Hasidic’ feel both in its physical design and in its language, presenting a Maskilic version of In Praise of the Ba’al Shem Tov that lays Hasidism bare so that no reader will ever be able to look at that, or any other Hasidic book, in the same way again. In addition to the book’s satiric sting, which would have been enough to bring its readers a dual pleasure, Perl’s hints at contemporary people and places, hidden within anagrams and numerological tricks. With the unraveling of these clues, which also include the use of actual Hasidic sources, the book is a valuable, contemporary view of historical reality. A meticulous reading of the book may therefore open a window on the hidden worlds of Hasidism and the Haskalah at the start of the nineteenth century.


The first volume (Imagined Hasidism) serves as an introduction to the complex satirical writings of Josef Perl of Tarnopol (1773-1839). At the center of the book stands an analysis of the satires, Megaleh Temirin (1819) and Bochen Tzadik (1838), including a systematic treatment of the ‘characters’ in the central works and a discussion of the dozens of manuscripts to be found in the Perl Archive in Jerusalem. Perl’s writings are analyzed here in the fuller context of Hebrew and Yiddish literature in general and Maskilic and Hasidic literature in particular, as well as other polemical writings and governmental records critical of Hasidism. The study thus presents a complex and nuanced picture of the relationship between literature and history, between the anti-Hasidic reports and the more complicated historical reality, and lays the groundwork for further research into the genre of nineteenth-century Maskilic satire.

The second and third volumes (Megaleh Temirin) present for the first time an annotated edition of Megaleh Temirin. It is based on the first edition and the scattered manuscripts and it includes a comparison to its Yiddish translation. The book is accompanied by appendices on its origins and contents, including fundamental treatments of several passages: an explication of the encoded names, the Hasidic sources used by the author, and the variants found in the manuscripts and in the only edition of the book in Yiddish.

The editor of the book, Professor Jonatan Meir, teaches in the Goldstein-Goren Department of Jewish Thought at Ben-Gurion University. He has published several articles on the Haskalah of Eastern Europe, Hasidism, and a number of varied topics in twentieth-century Kabbalah.


Contents

Volume 1  - Critical Edition

Concerning this edition
Key personalities
Sefer Megale Temirin – Critical Edition


Volume 2 - Appendixes:
1. Glossary, Abbreviations, Acronyms
2. Explanation of the Speaking Names
3. Perl’s Hasidic Sources
4. Manuscripts of Sefer Megale Temirin
5. Yiddish Introduction to Sefer Megale Temirin
Bibliographic Abbreviations

-------------------------------
Reviews:
(1) Dan Meron, 2013, ‘Megaleh Temirin’, Kivunim Hadashim 29, 55 pages (Hebrew)
(2) David Assaf, 2014, ‘Hasidim will not Read it but Tear it’, Haaretz, Tarbut ve-Sifrut, p .6 (Hebrew) http://onegshabbat.blogspot.co.il/2014/04/blog-post_18.html
(3) Eliezer Brodt, 2014, 'New book Announcement- Megale Temirin', The Seforim Blog http://seforim.blogspot.co.il/2014/01/new-book-announcement-megale-temirin.html
(4) Matan Hermoni, 2014,  הסבתא המופקרת של הספרות העבריתHaaretz, Sfarim (Hebrew) http://www.haaretz.co.il/.premium-1.2382365
(5) Shinichi Yamamoto, 2015, 山本　伸一, "ヨナタン・メイール編著『想像のハシディズム』", ユダヤ・イスラエル研究　第28号  http://www.waseda.jp/assoc-jsjs/jistudies.html
(6) David Biale and David Assaf,, 2015, 'Revealer Revealed', Jewish Review of Books, pp. 17-21  http://jewishreviewofbooks.com/articles/1454/revealer-revealed/
(7) Hillel Halkin, 2015, "Sex, Magic, Bigotry, Corruption- and the First Hebrew Novel', Mosaic Magazine,  http://mosaicmagazine.com/observation/2015/05/sex-magic-bigotry-corruption-and-the-first-hebrew-novel/
(8) Tomer Persico, 2015, "Interview", Lula'at haEl Blog, http://tomerpersico.com/2015/08/10/meir_perl/

En el judaísmo europeo se practicó la poligamia  desde tiempos bíblicos hasta por lo menos el siglo XVI. Es errónea la opinión de que Rabbenu Gershom ben Judah (960-1040?) terminó, halájicamente, con la poligamia entre los judíos. En el siglo XIII, el influyente halajista catalán R. Shelomo ben Adret, conocido como el Rashba, fue consultado sobre la prohibición de la bigamia establecida por Gershom en el siglo XI, y el rabino contestó que no la conocía y que en cualquier caso no tenía validez en España.  No obstante, reconoció su posible vigencia para el caso de judíos askenazis que, nacidos en otra parte, se hubieran mudado a España o Provenza,  aunque relativizó incluso esta opinión afirmando en una responsa que la prohibición de Gershom ya había caducado. Algunos rabinos contemporáneos agregaron que la bigamia era inaceptable sólo en aquellas tierras donde, por fuerza de la costumbre, la mujer tenía, al momento de casarse, la expectativa de que su marido no sería bígamo. Tal el caso de R. Yom Tov al-Ashbili, llamado el Ritba, que razonaba que la bigamia era automáticamente legal si la primera esposa la consentía. En Rusia, la poligamia judía continuó vigente hasta el siglo XIX.

The article is devoted to research in the field of Jewish art by Ukrainian art critic Danyla Scherbakivsky (1877-1927); the topic is viewed through the prism of the sсholar’s biography and professional activities in the context of Ukrainian Art. The photographs, pictures, expedition diaries and drafts of articles by D. Scherbakivsky from 1906 to 1926 years, which were taken from the author's Fund and other collections in the Institute of Archaeology of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, are analyzed. On the great volume of materials demonstrates systematic interest by receacher to the monuments of Jewish art as an integral part of Ukrainian art and his desire to understand the traditional artistic culture of the Jewish town (shtetl) in the former Jewish “pale of settlement”, features of architecture and wall-paintings of the synagogues, ritual objects, the typology of Jewish gravestones and symbols. The great value of the receacher’s remaining visual and theoretical heritage for the historiography and modern science shows, according to the formation of the subsequent disappearance of Jewish culture.
Kotlyar E. Danyla Scherbakivsky: Research and Discovery on Jewish Art // Narodoznavchi Zoshyty (The Ethnology Notebooks) Magazine. – Lviv: Ethnology Institute of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. – # 5(119). – P.884-913
Котляр Є. Данило Щербаківський: наукові розвідки та відкриття єврейського мистецтва // Народознавчі зошити. – Львів: Інститут народознавства НАН України, 2014. – Серія мистецтвознавча. – Число 5 (119), вересень-жовтень. – С. 884-913.

What is the relationship between friendship and human flourishing? This is a central topic in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and one to which Maimonides also returned throughout his career. Despite the relative neglect of this topic in recent scholarship, I argue that friendship (philia) was an important link between moral and intellectual perfection for Maimonides. He identified Aristotle’s virtue friendship with the love between students and teachers and also interpreted many of the divine commandments as efforts to promote both family and virtue friendship among the Jewish people. Friendship was aligned thematically in Maimonides’ writings with topics like kinship and sexuality, circumcision, and the ethics of speech, all of which point in different ways to the unresolved tension between rational and sensual aspects of our human condition. This article therefore contributes to the investigation of the relationship between Maimonides’ legal and philosophical writing on social themes. While Aristotle clearly influenced his reading of biblical and rabbinic texts for example, I will also argue that Maimonides’ religious and communal commitments helped to push his reading of Aristotle in a broadly inclusive direction— both with respect to the range of different goods that are appropriate to an ideal human life as well as the potential accessibility of those goods to different classes of persons. I offer this article as a corrective to the exaggerated focus on seclusion and solitary contemplation that has characterized academic scholarship on Maimonides.

מונוגרפיה על השתלשלות מנהגי הערלה והדם לאחר ברית המילה, החל מדברי חז"ל, דרך ספרות החילוקים והגאונים כמו גם פייטנות אותה תקופה, פירקוי בן באבוי [כולל גילוי נדיר של מקבילה לדבריו], התפשטות מנהגי בבל ואר"י בראשונים ועד למגוון המנהגים בימינו אנו, כולל מנהגים מעניינים, כגון קבורת ערלות עם המוהל, שרפת הערלה, שימוש בערלה לצרכים רפואיים, דם שעל פי התוקע, ידי הכהן בברכת כהנים, ה'ווימפל' ועוד רבים.
בסוף הקובץ, מצורף פרק נוסף - 'טעמי מנהג קבורת ערלת ברית המילה בעפר' שאמור להתפרסם כמאמר נפרד בקובץ חצי גבורים.

גרשם שלום -- תולדות התנועה השבתאית // 
History of the Sabbatian Movement was the first attempt by one of the giants of scholarship on Jewish mysticism, Gershom Scholem (1897-1982), to present a comprehensive picture of Sabbatianism as a single narrative. The book is based on the series of lectures given at the Hebrew University during 1939-1940, which are of special importance in that they laid the foundation for all of Scholem’s research in the years to come, including his extensive monograph Sabbatai Sevi: the mystical Messiah, 1626-1676, first published in 1957. What follows is a sketch of the massive History of the Sabbatian Movement, over which Gershom Scholem toiled his whole life but never completed. The lectures are presented here for the first time based on the original manuscripts, alongside the text of an additional series of lectures that Scholem gave as part of the “Month of Study” organized by Berl Katznelson in 1941. These long-hidden texts reveal new facets of the Sabbatian movement and its history, as well as of Gershom Scholem as a historian, and serve as prologue to any further study of this most stormy and complicated episode in Jewish history. The new edition includes a comprehensive introduction by the editors on all of Gershom Scholem’s studies on Sabbatianism. //---//

Table of Contents:
“The Open Book” - Jonatan Meir and Shinichi Yamamoto /
Introduction /
Chapter One: The Faces of the Generation /
Chapter Two: The Messianic Movement from its Beginnings to its Height /
Chapter Three: The Twists and Turns of the Sabbatian Movement /
Chapter Four: The Historical Development of Sabbatianism /
Appendix A: Messianism from the Spanish Expulsion to the Eve of Emancipation (Month of Study, 1941) /
Appendix B: The Sabbatian Movement: Its Roots, Its Development, and its Aftermath (Introduction, 1942-45 /
Appendix C: Bibliography of Works by Gershom Scholem on Sabbatianism /
Index /
Notes on the Cover Image (from the collection of Paweł Maciejko)

//--// Order The BOOK
http://www.schocken-jts.org.il/english/bookstore/prodView.asp?idproduct=408

Throughout the nineteenth century, Maskilic journals increased their publication of anti-Hasidic satires. From the eighteen-sixties onward, this literature came primarily as a response to the revival in the publishing of Hasidic hagiography and to the spread of Hasidism into new territory. To this point, no complete review or even general survey has been performed on this extensive polemical literature, despite the fact that it has much to teach us about Hasidism and the Haskalah in those years. We are not speaking of an insignificant bibliographical lacuna, but of a disregard for an entire field of research which would shed light not only on a forgotten chapter of modern Hebrew and Yiddish literature but also on an important chapter in the relationships between Maskilim and Hasidim in that period and the genesis and development of the different streams of Hasidism. This Maskilic literature intended to do more than eradicate Hasidism; it aimed to strengthen the self-consciousness of the individual Maskilim who found themselves alone in Hasidic territory. Paradoxically, the literature documented the very movement it intended to eradicate from the world. The distorted reflection displayed in the anti-Hasidic literature does more than present a caricature of its subject -- it conceals hitherto unknown elements about the nature and development of the Hasidic movement. The present article deals with one such case, a satire on Bratslav Hasidism from 1863, which has at its core a Maskilic satirical text written by Yehiel Meller on pilgrimage to the grave of R. Nahman of Bratslav in Uman.





כתבי עת של משכילים לאורך המאה התשע עשרה הרבו לפרסם סאטירות בגנותה של החסידות. משנות הששים ואילך באה ספרות זו בעיקר כתגובה להתעוררות הדפסת ספרות השבחים החסידית ולהתפשטות החסידות במרחבים חדשים. לא קיימת עד עתה סקירה שלימה, ואף לא מיפוי כללי, של אותה ספרות פולמוסית ענפה, על אף שיש בה ללמד הרבה על דרכי החסידות וההשכלה באותן שנים.  לא מדובר רק בחסרון ביבליוגרפי שאין לו משמעות, אלא בהתעלמות משדה מחקר רב עניין שעשוי להאיר לא רק על פרק נשכח בספרות עברית ויידיש החדשה אלא גם על פרק חשוב ביחסים בין משכילים לחסידים באותה תקופה, ועל דרכי צמיחתם, פיצולם והתפתחותם של זרמים שונים בחסידות. הייתה זו ספרות שיותר מאשר נועדה לבער את החסידות נועדה לחזק את תודעתם העצמית של המשכילים הבודדים במרחבים החסידיים; ספרות שבאופן פרדוקסלי תיעדה תנועה אותה חפצו לבער מן העולם. הבבואה המעוותת בה התהדרה הסאטירה האנטי חסידית לא רק הציגה דימוי – אלא טומנת בחובה הצבעה על אלמנטים חדשים ועל התפתחויות בחסידות. במקרה אחד ממין זה הנוגע לחסידות ברסלב בשנות השישים של המאה התשע עשרה עוסק המאמר. שלפנינו - שעיקרו מהדורה של טקסט משכילי שכתב יחיאל מלר - בשנת 1863 - על העלייה לקבר ר' נחמן מברסלב באומן
"""

This essay discusses the significance of Judaica created from shmire (a blessed coin; from the Hebrew root sh-m-r meaning safeguarding; plural: shmiros) and the range of objects made by forging a collection of such coins into a ritual object. William Gross has a special collection of these objects, perhaps the largest in the world. We are thus fortunately able to reference the collection to underline various aspects of this truly singular phenomenon. All illustrations are from the Gross Family Collection. The custom is unique to Hasidism. In fact, it can be used as a useful parameter for identifying Hasidic objects in a collection.

Windows on Jewish Worlds • Essays in Honor or William Gross, Collector of JudaicaEdited by Shalom Sabar, Emile Schrijver, and Falk Wiesemann

In the following article we will examine at length some of the dynamics by which R. Yosef Hayyim of Baghdad—the renowned Ben Ish Hai (1834–1909) - integrated Kabbalah into daily life, and the complex way that he combined the teachings of the Rashash with simplified, esoteric practices meant for the general public. Needless to say, the relationship between the Kabbalists of Jerusalem and R. Yosef Hayyim illuminates a fascinating chapter in the history of Kabbalah in the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century.

http://mj.oxfordjournals.org/content/33/2/148.short?rss=1

L’article a pour sujet la personnalité extraordinaire du kabbaliste le Rabbin Levi Isaac Krakovsky (1891–1966), un des étudiants oubliés du Rabbin Yehuda Leib Ashlag (1885–1955). Krakovsky diffusait l’enseignement de son maître en Amérique en anglais, écrivait des douzaines de livres et essayait d’établir des yeshivot de Kabbalistes. Contrairement à son maître, il présentait un enseignement exotérique et une vision de diffusion de la Kabbale dans le monde entier. Son influence était minime, mais un de ses élèves était Shraga Philip Berg qui continuait son chemin et le complétait de plusieurs points de vue. L’article se base sur de riches matières archivales, parmi lesquelles de longues essays de l’auteur en manuscrit qui sont décrits ici pour la premiere fois. D’une telle façon, nous décrivons le dévelopment de la Kabbale en Amérique du début du vingtième siècle jusqu’ aujourd’hui.

The present study explores the origins of Jewish ritual immersion – inquiring when immersion first appeared as a rite of purification and what the reasons may have been for this development specifically at this time. Textual and archaeological evidence suggest that immersion emerged at some point during – or perhaps slightly prior to – the first half of the first century B.C.E. It is suggested here that the practice grew out of contemporary bathing practices involving the Hellenistic hip bath. Through a process of ritualization, full-body immersion emerged as a method of purificatory washing clearly differentiated from profane bathing. By way of a subsequent process of 'hyper-ritualization', some ventured further to distinguish purificatory ablutions from profane bathing by restricting use of 'drawn water' for purification and by assigning impurity to anyone who bathed in such water. Before us is an enlightening example of one of the many ways wherein Jewish religious practices evolved and adapted in response to Hellenistic cultural innovations.

Hay Revelaciones entrelazadas. La primera e indisputable para la ortodoxia judía y cristiana es la Torá, ese documento increado y anterior al cosmos mismo (por lo menos según afirman mi maestro Najmánides, la Midrash Tanhuma 1 y el Talmud Yerushalmí en Shekalim 25b y Suta 37a). * Pero no es ésta la única manifestación de Dios entre los hombres. A veces la Palabra se proyecta más allá del Libro y se inscribe, encriptada, en nuestro devenir, reverberando de maneras diversas en nuestras vidas y en la biografía de nuestra especie.

Another thing is that Abelard Reuchlin not only passed along Inner-Circle knowledge that he was told, but he expounded upon it so that it could be more clearly understood by those who otherwise would not. He put forth a viable means in which to examine the texts of the time which includes those who were the witnesses to the creation of Christianity, those Jews who were writing the Talmud. In addition, he caused others, like me, to examine this further and allowed us to realize just how valuable it is in our studies to look much closer at the involvement of the Jews in trying to prevent the rise of those who would go on to create and promote Christianity. For, the Jews of the time, saw it (Christianity) for what it was truly was, an effort or tactic used by their enemies, as a part of the war that they had been fighting. And therefore, a fraud which needed to be exposed as such. The cause of the Pharisees and Scribes was for basic human rights, the end of slavery, and the foundation of a new fair democratic government. And, instead of teaching irrational and superstitious religion, they were trying to wean people off of that and replace it with sound, rational, practical, ethical reasoning. While Christianity, by contrast, was created to do the opposite of that. And that is because some greedy Roman rulers whose lives of luxury would be drastically changed, if the Pharisees and Scribes accomplished their goals for the people. Of course, to get people to believe in Christianity, the creators of Christianity had to make it appear to be something 'good', in much the same way that trappers set traps for dumb animals. Which, is exactly how those ancient royal rulers (the less than 1% of the time) saw non-royals, as nothing more than their own chattel which was there for no other reason than their own use for whatever purposes that they saw fit. Thus, Christianity was created as a means for them to better secure, control and manipulate the people, that they saw as their own sheep or chattel. This paper highlights the course that Abelard Reuchlin had taken in order to reach the conclusions that he was able to in order to advance our understanding of what the world was really like during the time in which the New Testament was being written and just who had motive to do so. And, his work also reminds us that we must consider all of the evidence of the time (that means the Jewish texts, the Jews of the time, and the Jewish war that was involved in the creation of Christianity). Reuchlin's work underscores our need to better understand what we study in the correct context in order to find out just who was actually writing at the time, and why. It is because of Abelard Reuchlin's work (and that of others, or course), that my own work was made more complete. I urge everyone to read and learn from the work that Reuchlin had devoted his life to in order that future generations could have that extremely important information.

Rabí Rubén hij o de Hitzterboli formuló la siguiente regla: Cuando existe una sospecha sobre cierta persona, probablemente lo hizo. Y si no lo hizo completamente, tomó parte en ello y si no hizo nada, lo quiso realizar y si ni pensó en hacerlo, vio como otro lo hacía y se alegró.

Збірник «Історичні мідраші Північного Причорномор'я» складений за матеріалами VІІІ-ї міжнародної науково-практичної конференції «Історичні мідраші Північного Причорномор'я», котра відбулася 15-17 квітня 2019 року в Миколаївському національному університеті імені В.О. Сухомлинського та була присвячена темі: «Єврейське населення України в 1917-1921 рр.: мілітарні події та наслідки Громадянської війни». Том ІІ містить статті за напрямками: участь єврейського населення України в революційних подіях 1917-1921 рр.; євреї на фронтах Першої світової та Громадянської війни; єврейські погроми на території України в модерну добу: причини та характер; історія розвитку єврейських громад Півдня України; єврейська община в сучасному етнополітичному просторі України та світу: взаємини, проблеми та перспективи розвитку; джерела та історіографія з проблем історії єврейського населення регіону Північного Причорномор’я; єврейське населення Радянської України; діяльність єврейських благодійних організацій в України: історія і сучасність.

One of the more astounding books produced by Bratslav Hasidism is Liqquṭei tefilot (1822–1827), composed by R. Nathan Sternhartz of Nemirov, which established a whole new genre in Bratslav literature. This article discusses the book's genesis, publication, and primary goals, as well as the controversy it generated. The new Bratslav theology that emerged after the death of Rabbi Naḥman led to disputes, both internal and external, over the role and character of R. Nathan. Examining this particularly obscure chapter in the early history of Bratslav Hasidism sheds light on the movement as it exists today in all its diversity, both ideological and social. Keywords Bratslav Hasidism – Hasidism – Jewish mysticism – Kabbalah

Full Article
http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/1477285x-12341269;jsessionid=1n5j66dblsols.x-brill-live-03

The Haskalah, or “Jewish Enlightenment,” is often considered to be a secularizing trend within modern European Judaism. Yet as recent studies have begun to show, this characterization ignores the Romantic and religious attitudes of many Haskalah authors (maskilim). This article reassesses the Haskalah’s relationship to esotericism and Kabbalah by analyzing the life and work of Elyakim Getzel Hamilzahgi (1780–1854), a Galician maskil with a deep commitment to Kabbalistic study. Hamilzahgi’s pioneering textual criticism of Kabbalistic texts, particularly the Zohar, countered the attitudes of Western European scholars and Eastern European Hasidim alike. His scholarship aimed to purify Kabbalah from corruption and to render it a source for a renewal of Jewish religious culture.

ÍNDICE Prólogo Capítulo de tapa (1) -Por qué soy judío Parte I -Los orígenes del sentimiento anti-israelí en América latina Capítulo 2 -Las relaciones entre Israel y América latina, 1948-2009 Parte II -Ensayos neomodernistas Capítulo 3 -Introducción al neomodernismo (ensayo pre-judío) Capítulo 4 -¿Hacia un nuevo Medioevo? El neomodernismo frente al conflicto global actual (ensayo pre-judío)

The satirical writings of Lucian of Samosata had a tremendous influence on the literature of the Eastern European Haskalah, shaping its criticism of the burgeoning Hasidic movement in the nineteenth century as if there were no gap between it and the Roman Empire of the second century. Lucian’s criticism of false prophets, self-proclaimed philosophers, and common fools and frauds, like his satirical dialogues with the world of the dead, provided the perfect model for those Maskilim who opposed the revelations of the Hasidic movement in both theological and social realms. One particularly salient testimony to the classical satirist’s influence is the astounding translation of his story “Alexander the False Prophet” by the Maskilic writer Meir Letteris, the first translation of Lucian’s work into Hebrew. The translation, printed in full below, was based on the German edition of Christoph Martin Wieland and published in the journal Ha-Tsefirah, which Letteris edited in 1823. As with every translation, it is a new product, shaped in and by its own context. This essay discusses the tendencies and apparent goals of the translator, the additions and omissions he made to the text, and the influence of Lucian’s satirical style on the Haskalah.

Збірник «Історичні мідраші Північного Причорномор'я» складений за матеріалами VІІІ-ї міжнародної науково-практичної конференції «Історичні мідраші Північного Причорномор'я», котра відбулася 15-17 квітня 2019 року в Миколаївському національному університеті імені В.О. Сухомлинського та була присвячена темі: «Єврейське населення України в 1917-1921 рр.: мілітарні події та наслідки Громадянської війни». Том І містить статті за напрямками: євреї України в роки Другої світової війни;. видатні єврейські діячі: біографічні нариси; гуманітарний аспект (педагогіка, соціологія, філософія, політологія, культурологія, право).

Megaleh Temirin (Revealer of Secrets), first published in Vienna in 1819, is one of the sharpest and wittiest pieces of Jewish literature written in the first half of the nineteenth century, and is perhaps the most important piece of Hebrew prose composed before the stories of Mendele Mocher Seforim. A sly and complex story deriding Hasidism and Hasidim, it is told through the correspondence between the beadles of Hasidic courts and contemporary rabbis, and it presents a dark picture of  avaricious frauds and swindlers whose main concern was control over territory and the souls of believers, a goal achieved by beguiling the authorities and attacking all opponents. Perl lends his book a ‘Hasidic’ feel both in its physical design and in its language, presenting a Maskilic version of In Praise of the Ba’al Shem Tov that lays Hasidism bare so that no reader will ever be able to look at that, or any other Hasidic book, in the same way again. In addition to the book’s satiric sting, which would have been enough to bring its readers a dual pleasure, Perl’s hints at contemporary people and places, hidden within anagrams and numerological tricks. With the unraveling of these clues, which also include the use of actual Hasidic sources, the book is a valuable, contemporary view of historical reality. A meticulous reading of the book may therefore open a window on the hidden worlds of Hasidism and the Haskalah at the start of the nineteenth century.

The first volume (Imagined Hasidism) serves as an introduction to the complex satirical writings of Josef Perl of Tarnopol (1773-1839). At the center of the book stands an analysis of the satires, Megaleh Temirin (1819) and Bochen Tzadik (1838), including a systematic treatment of the ‘characters’ in the central works and a discussion of the dozens of manuscripts to be found in the Perl Archive in Jerusalem. Perl’s writings are analyzed here in the fuller context of Hebrew and Yiddish literature in general and Maskilic and Hasidic literature in particular, as well as other polemical writings and governmental records critical of Hasidism. The study thus presents a complex and nuanced picture of the relationship between literature and history, between the anti-Hasidic reports and the more complicated historical reality, and lays the groundwork for further research into the genre of nineteenth-century Maskilic satire.

The second and third volumes (Megaleh Temirin) present for the first time an annotated edition of Megaleh Temirin. It is based on the first edition and the scattered manuscripts and it includes a comparison to its Yiddish translation. The book is accompanied by appendices on its origins and contents, including fundamental treatments of several passages: an explication of the encoded names, the Hasidic sources used by the author, and the variants found in the manuscripts and in the only edition of the book in Yiddish.

The editor of the book, Professor Jonatan Meir, teaches in the Goldstein-Goren Department of Jewish Thought at Ben-Gurion University. He has published several articles on the Haskalah of Eastern Europe, Hasidism, and a number of varied topics in twentieth-century Kabbalah.



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Contents


Introduction                                                                                     
Scholarship on the anti-Hasidic writings of Josef Perl • Hasidic hagiography and the emergence of satire • Two-fold reading of Perl’s writings and the gematriyot • Satire, literature, and history • ‘Holy Books’ and subversive books

Chapter 1: Josef Perl, Rabbi Nathan of Nemirov, and the ‘Holy Books’
Prayer of the fall of Hasidism and the expungement of their books • Sefer Shivhe ha-Besht and the critique of hagiography • Sefer Sipurey Ma‘asiyot and the parodic response to it • Rabbi Nathan of Nemirov, ‘heretical books’ and the ‘Holy Books’ • In praise of the true Tsaddikim • ‘Laughter of the heretics’: testimonies about the polemics against Sefer Shivhe ha-Besht • ‘Holy Books’, ‘sacredness of hagiography’, and parodies of hagiography • Appendix: Parodic manuscript about an opponent of the ‘Holy Books’ who was reborn as a horse

Chapter 2: Speaking Names in Sefer Megale Temirin                             
Time of the composition of Megale Temirin, censorship, and a note on the Buch • Hasidic books and the emergence of parody • Structure of Sefer Megale Temirin • The Introduction to Sefer Megale Temirin • Main Hasidic courts • The court in Żołyń (Łożne) and the peregrinations of the Buch • The court of Dishpal (Międzyboż), moneyboxes of the Besht, the holy relics • The court in Aklo (Olika) and the ritualized reading of Sefer Shivhe ha-Besht • Function of the footnotes and the parodic hagiography • History of the rabbis – clandestine opponents of Hasidism • The Besht in Tarnopol • Rabbi Meir Jacob of Zasław and the letters from Galicja  • Zaddikim in Galicja • Ciphered stories • ‘Holy Places’: reincarnations of a praise from Sefer Shivhe ha-Besht • The revelation of the Buch and the death of the secretary • ‘Gang of criminals’: another death and an escape to the Land of Israel • The End: Ovadia Ben Petahia and the rabbi of Opatów

Chapter 3: Joseph Perl, Hirsh of Zydaczów, and the Polemics of Gematriyot
Reb Zevi Hirsh of Zydaczów and Hasidism in Galicja • Maskilic opposition to the Zydaczówer • Letters concealed in Sefer Megale Temirin • A manuscript about the misdeeds of the Hasidim • Books, education, and a note on Reb Nathan of Nemirov • Zydaczówer’s ban on the Maskilim and the first Gematria • Parodic letter of Perl and the second Gematria • About the parodic letter and the jumble of gematriyot • Denunciation and expulsions of R Zevi Hirsh • ‘Father of impurity’: Joseph Perl and the writings of the rabbi of Komarno • Final note • Appendix: Parodic letter against the Zydaczówer

Chapter 4: Speaking Names in the Book of Sefer Bohen Zaddik               
The manuscript of Sefer Bohen Zaddik and the difficulties with its publication • Structure of the book • In search for the true Zaddik and the rabbi of Opatów • Travels of Ovadia Ben Petahia between the towns of Galicja • Kromcza Ruska (Zaleszczyki) or the entrance to Galicja • ‘Briks’ (Tarnopol): Rabbi Jehoshua Heschel Babad and the school • ‘Bicik’ (Lemberg) Rabbi Jacob Orenstein and a ban on the Maskilim • ‘Abdera’ (Brody) Rabbi Ephraim Zalman Margaliot and Sefer ha-Zoref • The explanation of the names of the rabbis • Utopia and dystopia • The hidden butcher and his kabbalistic writings • The discovery of the colonies • The image of the disciples of the Gaon and the ‘true Hasid’ • ‘The solution for the East’ or heterotopia •  The will to flee and the emissary

Chapter 5: The Imaginary Influence of Sefer Megale Temirin                     
The myth about the success of the book • Pamphlet Megale Sod • The manuscript about the misdeeds of the Hasidim • Dialogues about Sefer Megale Temirin • For whom Sefer Megale Temirin was intended and who read it • Note concerning Sefer Megale Temirin in Yiddish • Influence real and imagined • Was Sefer Shivhe ha-Besht written by a parodist? • Temerl Bergson and Sefer Megale Temirin • Writ of defense of Hasidism • Sefer Megale Temirin and the Hebrew literature • Appendix: writ of defense of Joseph Judah Lob Sossnitz

Afterword: Note on the Anti-Hasidic Outlook                                       

Bibliographic Abbreviations   

Reviews:
(1) Dan Meron, 2013, ‘Megaleh Temirin’, Kivunim Hadashim 29, 55 pages (Hebrew)
(2) David Assaf, 2014, ‘Hasidim will not Read it but Tear it’, Haaretz, Tarbut ve-Sifrut, p .6 (Hebrew) http://onegshabbat.blogspot.co.il/2014/04/blog-post_18.html
(3) Eliezer Brodt, 2014, 'New book Announcement- Megale Temirin', The Seforim Blog http://seforim.blogspot.co.il/2014/01/new-book-announcement-megale-temirin.html
(4) Matan Hermoni, 2014,  הסבתא המופקרת של הספרות העבריתHaaretz, Sfarim (Hebrew) http://www.haaretz.co.il/.premium-1.2382365
(5) Shinichi Yamamoto, 2015, 山本　伸一, "ヨナタン・メイール編著『想像のハシディズム』", ユダヤ・イスラエル研究　第28号  http://www.waseda.jp/assoc-jsjs/jistudies.html
(6) David Biale and David Assaf,, 2015, 'Revealer Revealed', Jewish Review of Books, pp. 17-21  http://jewishreviewofbooks.com/articles/1454/revealer-revealed/
(7) Hillel Halkin, 2015, "Sex, Magic, Bigotry, Corruption- and the First Hebrew Novel', Mosaic Magazine,  http://mosaicmagazine.com/observation/2015/05/sex-magic-bigotry-corruption-and-the-first-hebrew-novel/
(8) Tomer Persico, 2015, "Interview", Lula'at haEl http://tomerpersico.com/2015/08/10/meir_perl/
(9) Ariel Evan Mayse, 'Review', Jewish History (2015)ת  http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10835-015-9245-2
(10) Review - Gal-Ed

The article focuses on the author's research on the chronographical background of the Zodiac Mosaic Calendar in Synagogue at Hammath-Tiberias. He researched to find the origin of mosaic decoration, the twelve zodiac sign, the four seasons, and Helios, which was found in synagogues in two parts of Palestine, Galilee and Judah. The chronograph of the mosaic art was extensively debated. The author further studied the history of Palestine Jews in the 4th century. Most of the work was done during the period of Hillel II.
The author concludes that the mosaic from the Stratum IIa synagogue with the Zodiac Calendar was executed in the time of Hillel II, who said to have died around 365 CE. He proposes the new date of the execution of the Zodiac Mosaic from Hammat-Tiberia (Stratum IIa) after the earthquake in 363, that is, in 364 or 365.

The aim of this paper is to understand how early Jews used prayer and study to combat chronic stress and anxiety in the brain and body. Drawing on insights from neurophysiological research into such matters, the author examines an important talmudic text, b. Soṭah 49a, which describes what happens when an ardent disciple engages in prayer and study with great focus and intensity. This individual, the text asserts, will find himself in a state of mystical peace and tranquility that transcends the stress of life in a world spiraling out of control without the Jerusalem Temple. In fact, the disciple experiences not only stability in this ever-shifting world but satisfaction of an other-worldly sort. With the help of contemporary neurophysiological research, the article proposes that the circle of rabbis responsible for this portion of the Babylonian Talmud are prescribing intense prayer and study as a means not only of making contact with the other world but, in the process, of combatting stress and anxiety on the brain and body in the present world.

Review
"This excellent study is [...] recommended for academic libraries."
Daniel Scheide, Florida Atlantic University, Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews, Volume VII, No. 2
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Abstract
It is difficult to ignore the diversity of the kabbalah or both its modest and coarse manifestations over the course of the twentieth-century – phenomena that have latterly garnered considerable attention in both the lay and research literature alike. That said, it appears that the historical background for these current developments, namely the world of the kabbalists in the late 1800s and early 1900s, has yet to merit an in-depth study. The dozens of hagiographies that are now being written by the progeny and admirers of the said kabbalists paint a romantic picture of a “glorious past.” In these books, the early twentieth century is described as a kabbalistic renaissance that is on equal footing with the days of Isaac Luria in Safad. Surprising as it may be, the Hebrew and Yiddish belles-lettres and, following in their footsteps, the research literature from Gershom Scholem onwards has left the impression that kabbalah deteriorated in the beginning of the twentieth century to the point of nearly vanishing of the world stage. According to this same narrative, only the efforts of a few surviving kabbalists—a sort of dying elite—kept the flame from expiring. On those rare occasions in which scholars bring up these practitioners, they are referred to as “the remnants of the kabbalists” or similar epithets. This characterization was painted in even louder colors upon describing the era’s Jerusalem-based kabbalists. At one and the same time, then, there are descriptions of both a great awakening and steep decline. The author’s attempt to make sense of this contradiction is one of the catalysts behind the present study. Its origins aside, the book focuses on the kabbalah seminaries (Yeshivot or academies) in Jerusalem from 1896 to 1948 as well as the various manifestations of kabbalah within traditional Jewish society.
Kabbalistic Circles in Jerusalem breaks new ground on the robust activities of Jerusalem’s kabbalistic yeshivot, foremost among them Beit el, Rehovot haNahar, and Sha'ar haShamayim. By virtue of these institutions’ publications and the unearthing of tens of documents and manuscripts that were deposited in sundry archives, the book surveys the daily schedule and methodology of these yeshivot; their methods for disseminating kabbalah books; the dynamics between revelation and concealment that undergirded all the kabbalists’ endeavors; the arrangement of the RaShaSh Siddur’s first print run; the messianic outlooks that were espoused in this community regarding the attempts to discover the Sambatyon River and the lost tribes; and the content and assorted roles of the Tikkunim literature. What is more, the author explores the disagreements between competing groups—most notably, the feud over the extent to which occult wisdom should be exposed to the general public—and the various gradients of Jewish mysticism within these seminaries.
Against this backdrop, shedding light on Jerusalem’s kabbalist circles between the years 1896 and 1948 opens a door to the wider world of the myriad kabbalistic streams in East Europe and Arab lands, the Maghreb included. The foundations that were laid by these yeshivas in the early twentieth century also paved the way for the contemporary blossoming of kabbalah in many and manifold circles. In this sense, retracing the pertinent developments in the Land of Israel at the outset of the twentieth century is imperative not only for repairing the distorted picture of the past, but for understanding the ongoing surge in kabbalah study
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This book endeavors to fill a lacuna in the literature on early twentieth-century kabbalah, namely the lack of a comprehensive account of the traditional kabbalah seminaries (Yeshivot) in Jerusalem from 1896 to 1948 as well as the various manifestations of kabbalah within traditional Jewish society. The foundations that were laid in the early twentieth century also paved the way for the contemporary blossoming of kabbalah in many and manifold circles. In this sense, retracing the pertinent developments in Palestine at the outset of the twentieth century is imperative not only for repairing the distorted picture of the past, but for understanding the ongoing surge in kabbalah study.

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