Philosophical quotations from the "Guide of the Perplexed" in Ramón Martí’s "Pugiofidei"

Author(s): Diana Di Segni / Language(s): English,Latin Issue: 21/2015

Ramón Martí’s Pugio fidei is one of the most known works belonging to the genre of medieval religious polemic. It was composed in 1278 and responded to a new need of the Dominican preachers, since in the second half of the XIIIth century, missions to convert Jews and Muslims were intensified. The Pugio fidei fully realizes the project of absorbing the culture of the ‘enemy’ in order to defeat him with his own ‘weapon’. In this impressive work, Martí quotes numerous Jewish sources to demonstrate the truth of Christianity, his attitude towards them being clearly negative. Despite this hostile context, there is one authority that seems to have never been questioned: Moses Maimonides. The aim of the paper is thus to evaluate the role of Maimonides within the Pugio fidei, by focusing on philosophical arguments. For this purpose, quotations taken from the Guide of the Perplexed concerning the eternity of the world will be analysed. Moreover, in light of the resemblance between the Pugio and Thomas Aquinas’ Summa theologiae, it is possible to hypothesize that Martí read Maimonides through Thomas’ eyes. As a matter of fact, the Pugio quite literally recites Thomas’ opinion, who also referred to Maimonides. Therefore, the two Dominicans seem to be strictly connected by the bond represented by Maimonides. For both authors, the Jewish philosopher plays a double role: on the one hand, he guarantees the authenticity of Aristotle’s quotations on world’s eternity; on the other, he represents the main opposition against the Aristotelian theory.

Literary adaptations of Jewish sages in the works of Josephus Flavius

Author(s): Aleksandra Wojtasik / Language(s): English Issue: 18/2015

The paper focuses on the Judeo-Hellenic writers composing in times of Roman occupation, especially on works created by Josephus Flavius. On the basis of his re-written version of events described in the Bible, one can observe various methods used by Josephus and other authors to accommodate their history for the needs of Greco-Roman world. One such method is depicting notable characters from the Bible in a more understandable way, particularly different prophets from the Old Testament. Those Jewish sages are described surprisingly alike to Greek philosophers, orators and commanders – figures that were well-known to Greeks and admired by them. The article presents specific example for that kind of adaptations, presenting at the same time differences between prophets from the times of the Second Temple and those from before the Babylonian thralldom. Understanding these differences is essential for explaining how Jewish scholars could find a common ground with Greek philosophers.

Следы раввинистической экзегезы на «Благословение Иакова сыновьям» (Быт 49) в апокрифических версиях Толковой Палеи и славяно-русском Пятикнижии, правленном по Масоретскому тексту*

Author(s): Aleksandr I. Grischenko / Language(s): Russian Issue: 3-4/2016

This paper is based on Genesis 49 and touches upon the issue whether there is a possibility that Old Russian bookmen were familiar with rabbinic exegesis of the Holy Scripture. The first relevant text is the apocryphal "Jacob’s Blessing to His Sons", which is known according to the Palaea Interpretata written probably in the 13th century. The text contains a discussion with a Jew who believes that Jacob’s prophecy to his son Dan refers to Samson; but an Old Russian bookman supposes that a descendant of Dan was to be the future Judaic Messiah. This idea could have been adopted both from the Byzantine literature (e.g., St. Hippolytus of Rome) and from the medieval rabbinic literature, as this text contains the Slavonic Hebraism mašljah borrowed directly from Hebrew, with no Greek mediation. The second relevant text is the Slavonic- -Russian Pentateuch edited according to the Masoretic Text probably in the 15th century. There are several exegetic glosses near the names of Jacob’s sons: along with ‘Dan => Samson’ (also in the Semitic form Šamišon), one can find there ‘Zebulun => harbor,’ ‘Issachar => (gentile) sages,’ and ‘Benjamin => Saul and Mordecai.’ These comments have occurred in the rabbinic literature since Genesis Rabba (the 5th century), and later, e.g., in Rashi’s Commentary on the Tanakh (the end of the 11th century).

Admiration and Fear: New Perspectives on the Personality of the Maharal

Author(s): Pavel Sládek / Language(s): English,Hebrew Issue: 2/2017

Rabbi Judah Leva ben Betzalel – the Maharal (ca. 1525–1609) is regarded as one of the key figures of the sixteenth-century rabbinic culture. Yet, given the fragmentary nature of the existing sources, his biography and intellectual profile manifest several unfortunate lacunae. Based on unknown or neglected manuscript and printed sources, this study formulates tentative hypotheses about some of the gaps in our understanding of the Maharal’s attitudes and the reception of his person by his contemporaries. It shows that the Maharal felt very close to his brother Hayyim and suggests that he spent his formative years in the Lublin yeshivah of rabbi Shalom Shakhnah. The renown and respect that the Maharal enjoyed from contemporary scholars does not seem to be the result of the reception of his voluminous writings but rather of his radical views of rabbinic authority and the ruthlessness with which he was ready to carry his ideas through.Aban that the Maharal intended to impose on the rabbinic ordination of candidates of Moravian origin indicates that his move to Prague was perhaps involuntary and explains the reluctance of the lay leaders to elect him as a communal rabbi. Other sources discussed for the first time with regard to the Maharal document that he was both respected and feared even outside the region, for example in Italy. The Hebrew originals of the most important unpublished sources discussed in this study are appended.

Śmierć Schulza

Author(s): Marcin Romanowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2016

The article discusses forms of representation and contextualization of Bruno Schulz’s death in biographical narratives by Jerzy Ficowski, Artur Sandauer, Janusz Rudnicki and Wiesław Budzyński. The author of the article examines relations between Ficowski’s approach and the latter, analyzes narrators positions in context of Raul Hilberg’s triangle: perpetrator–victim–bystander, considers strategies of interpretation of biographical subject’s death in light of subject’s whole life.

Die Politischen Israelitengemeinden in Mähren: Entstehung und legistische Grundlagen, ihre politische Rolle im Nationalitätenstreit, Trennung ihrer säkularen und religiösen Aufgabenbereiche

Author(s): Peter Urbanitsch / Language(s): German Issue: 1/2018

This paper sets out the legal and administrative efforts that were made to reconcile the existence of the old and outdated Jewish communities in Moravia with the new conditions that emerged after 1848. The previously envisaged union of local Jewish and Christian communities proved to be unachievable due to the animosity that existed between Christians and Jews and to the change in the life situation of Jews after being granted freedom of movement, and in view of the emphasis on the religious tasks that the Jewish communities had to fulfill. Independent Jewish political communities were established and were given both political- administrative and cultic-religious-charitable roles. This dual function led to considerable discrepancies in many areas, which is why the idea of separating these two spheres of competence became widespread. Although the various state authorities had differing opinions on this matter, the adherents of a clear-cut separation prevailed in the end. In general, however, this was fraught with various problems (primarily, but not exclusively, of a financial nature), which this paper examines on the basis of specific examples from a number of Jewish political communities.

Numele divin El în Biblia Ebraică

Author(s): Sabina Avram / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2019

The word El, both in isolation and as part of some constructed terms, is one of the most common names atributted to God, in the Hebrew Bible. It also can be found in most of the Semitic languages. Nevertheless, its origins are still not clear, the researches not having reached any definite conclusion yet. The present paper analyses the oldest usages of the term in the Bible, along with the major interpretations given by modern researchers.Not only the word in isolation will be investigated but also its composites, except for the very important terms, such as Elohim, Eloah, El Adonai, which require a more detailed investigation.

Холокауст и рат у књижевности југословенског културног простора

Author(s): Krinka Vidaković-Petrov / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 170/2020

TУМАЧЕЊЕ ОС 2 У КОНТЕКСТУ РЕЛИГИЈСКЕ ПОЛЕМИКЕ СА ХАНАНСКИМ КУЛТОМ

Author(s): Branislav Ivić / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 35/2021

The Article deals with the explanation of Hos.2 in the context of religious polemic with the Canaanite cult. First of all, the Article deals with the cult of Baal that is related to fertility cult. The Article is trying to explain the way prophet Hosea presents the relationship of Yahweh and Israel, through metaphor of marriage as a dominant theme through the first three chapters of the book. He is comparing Yahweh with the loyal husband and Israel is presented as a deceitful woman who takes pleasure in relations with different lovers, namely with Baal(s) as an exponent of the Canaanite religion. The text takes two key narratives when speaking about the fertility cult КТU 1.16 III.2-8 and KTU 1.5-1.6, comparing them with Hos. 2 as a manifesto of the Book of the Twelve. Instead of appointing all the earthly goods to Yahweh, they are giving their gratitude to Baal. As consequence of its complexity the questions related to the fertility cult stay overlooked. The history or reception (Wirkungsgeschichte) by studying Hos.2 tried to get a trace of sacral prostitution and other sexual activities with practical sacral aspects. Further on that subject, on another occasion.

INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE AND FEELINGS OF SHAME AND PRIDE ABOUT STATE POWER: A JEWISH CONTRIBUTION

Author(s): George R. Wilkes / Language(s): English Issue: 35/2021

This essay reflects on the place of shame and pride in interreligious dialogue, focusing on the decades of progress in Christian-Jewish dialogue after the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel. This dialogue has demonstrated what many attempts at dialogue do: dialogues develop in historical contexts marked by the use of power, and partners in dialogue seek a kind of recognition that requires an equality that historic power relationships have obstructed. Feelings of shame and pride have a place at the table even where partners seek to construct an interreligious dialogue that is non-political and separated from historic tensions. Jewish partners to Christian-Jewish dialogue have brought resources from their own religious tradition to engage with these feelings, often centred on their own agency and responsibility, instead of matching the discourses about historic Christian power that have been central in the recent history of Christian-Jewish dialogue. The essay indicates how engaging with responses that reflect such subjective feelings can strengthen efforts to build peace through interreligious solidarity, even where dialogues are intended to focus participants on advancing an agenda identified instead with agreements based on principles and reason.

Pensjonariusze żydowskich domów dla osób starszych na ziemiach polskich (do 1939 r.)

Author(s): Marek Tuszewicki / Language(s): Polish Issue: 46/2020

Jewish homes for the aged (moshav zkenim) began to be established in Eastern Europe in the 1840s. In the interwar period, probably over sixty Jewish institutions of this kind operated in Poland, providing care for several thousand people. We know relatively much about the figures of their founders, benefactors, social activists, and senior employees. However, gaining information about residents themselves requires much more intensive queries. The article is based primarily on articles, reports, and announcements appearing in Jewish press, supplemented by accounts published in memorial books and other sources, to recreate a general portrait of people who lived under the care of such institutions in Warsaw, Lemberg (Lviv), Vilnius, and other places.

ЈЕВРЕЈСКИ И РИМСКИ РОБОВИ ПРЕМА ФЛАВИЈЕВОМ ЈУДЕЈСКОМ РАТУ

Author(s): Jelena Danilović / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 1-3/1997

From the abundance of information the statesman, military commander and writer, Josephus Flavius provides on the Roman conquest of Judea in the first century A.D., we single out and examine in this paper what he recorded about slaves. The aim was to check and study what is generally known about slavery in the age of Antiquity, with the details given by Flavius. The first part of this work deals with the slaves owned by Jews, regardless of their ethnic origin and how they came to be slaves. Like everywhere else in the ancient world, the slaves who lived in the palaces of rulers and noblemen (familia urbana) enjoyed a better position. Educated slaves, who had the confidence of their masters, were entrusted with various assignments and missions, even with organising conspiracies. The slave-women in palaces worked at the weaving loom or produced other handiwork, and were also selected as concubines. Their price was sometimes high. Details as to how slaves were obtained are very scarce. The soldiers taken prisoner in battle did not always become slaves, but captured Romans were immediately put to death, if they did not commit suicide. It was the rule that a Jew could never be the slave of another Jew. In the Roman empire, the word slave was also used for people who had the status of peregrini. In this way, Eleazar, the defender of the Fortress of Massada, called on the people and the army, to commit suicide collectively before the Romans overran the fortress, and in his speech described their earlier status as peregrini, as “harmless slavery”. On the other hand, examples are mentioned in which slaves and freemen demonstrated great devotion and love for their masters. However, a master also had the right to inflict severe punishment on his slaves, which Flavius considered to be his natural right. According to “patriarchal laws” a military commander was forbidden to surrender to the enemy, among other things, so as not to become a Roman slave. The second part of the paper deals with Roman slaves who originated from Judea. There is less data about this with even fewer specific details. A more thorough description exists about the fate of the population of Jerusalem after Vespasian captured the city. Otherwise, Flavius also mentions, but also of the terrible fate of the Jews, after Jerusalem was finally taken. Lastly, law historians, for instance, may find an interesting example in the manner in which Vespasian liberated Josephus Flavius from slavery, after the latter had spent two years in captivity, chained in a prison. His chains were severed with an axe, which symbolised that he had been granted the status of a freeman. Little is known about freemen, but such data speaks of the great confidence their patron showed to them. The best known freeman, of course, was Josephus Flavius himself, who become a peaceful Roman citizen, dedicated to writing the history of the Jewish people.

The Jewish War, God’s Wrath and ‘the Most Unfortunate People’:

Author(s): Lucie Storchová / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

This study shows how Protestant scholars wrote about the First Jewish-Roman War and the destruction of Jerusalem, and demonstrates how this story was updated in relation to Jews and anti-Jewish politics in the Bohemian lands after 1550. Drawing on a large corpus of Latin and vernacular texts, the author shows that the Jewish revolt was linked primarily to eschatological expectations and to a critique of the Jews’ disruption of natural law, religious unity and the social order as based on sovereign-subject relations. With regard to individual works, the author traces the collective imagination of the day that helped to shape the alterity of Jews (including imaginary notions of cannibalism, unsettled lifestyles, and non-normative sexuality) and elaborates on the strategies of legitimisation for violence against contemporary Jewish communities through references to the past.

Herman Czerwiński – zapomniany krytyk z getta warszawskiego w świetle publicystyki teatralnej «Gazety Żydowskiej»

Author(s): Anna Dąbrowska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2022

This article analyses the work of Herman Czerwiński as a leading theater critic of Gazeta Żydowska (Jewish Gazette), published by Jewish journalists under the control of the Nazis in 1940–1942 in the General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region. To date, his contributions to the Gazeta Żydowska have received little scholarly attention, whether in publications about Jewish press or about Jewish theater during the Second World War. The authors of the article focus on Czerwiński’s opinions on the activity of Warsaw Ghetto theaters, his assessment of their repertoire policy, and his way of reviewing performances staged in the ghetto. The primary research method was quantitative-qualitative content analysis of all 279 editions of Gazeta Żydowska. In order to determine how Czerwiński was perceived in the ghetto, the research also included Gazeta Żydowska articles mentioning him, as well as diaries and memoirs of members of the Jewish intelligentsia. The research also reconstructed the critic’s earlier life, particularly his links with theater, based on pre-war publications from Polish and Jewish press.

Kabała a mistycyzm

Author(s): Jadwiga Clea Moreno-Szypowska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 19/2022

The article "Kabbalah and mysticism" is divided into three parts, in which the general understanding of Kabbalah based on mysticism is presented. The first is devoted to the general definition of mysticism, wanting to reflect on this: Is Kabbalah one? In order to be able to answer this question, the author gives voice to the more important scholars of Judaism who have dealt with this issue or are still dealing with it. They are clearly characterizing what mysticism is, they try to create an equivalent explanation of Kabbalah, thus showing its specificity. Once confirmed that Kabbalah can be considered a kind of mysticism, the author moves on to the second part, in which she presents the basic sources of mysticism of Kabbalah. It discusses the most important items of rabbinic and non-rabbinic literature, showing how the non-rabbinic is continuator of the rabbinic. The third part of the article focuses on a deeper description of the initial types of mysticism: creation, chariot and body, which form the foundation for the later mysticism of word and letter. The mysticism of words and letters is kabbalah, that is, the hermeneutical art of biblical exegesis, based on the properties of the Hebrew alphabet and language, as God's tool for knowing Him. The article is based on the considerations of such authors as: Gershom Scholem, Roland Goetschel, Joseph Dan, Charles Mopsik, Marc-Alain Ouaknin, or the controversial Moshe Idel.

The messianic concept in modern Judaism

Author(s): Walter Homolka / Language(s): English Issue: 1 (31)/2022

The history of the Messiah in Judaism is a history of disappointed hopes. Again and again, there were salvation figures to whom this role was ascribed. But redemption from occupation and foreign rule, exile, oppression and persecution failed to materialize. Therefore, the expectation of the Messiah fell to the periphery of Jewish theology. This article examines in what ways the messianic concept plays a role in modern times and what it contributes to describing the relationship between God and humanity in Judaism. The author intends to show the development from the abandonment of a personal Messiah towards the affirmation of the prophets’ hope for a universal messianic age in which the duty of all people to participate in the healing of the world becomes central. What becomes also clear is: The messiah idea cannot be a bridge between Christianity and Judaism.

Counterfactual History and Diasporic Identity in Philip Roth’s The Plot against America

Author(s): Raluca Moldovan / Language(s): English Issue: 45/2023

The Plot against America, a 2004 novel by acclaimed American author Philip Roth, starts out from a counterfactual premise, i.e., that aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh defeated Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1940 election, running on an isolationist platform summarised in the slogan “America first!” The novel is a masterful exploration of trauma and the perception of history viewed through the eyes of a young boy, the author’s alter ego, Philip, who is also the narrator,and who sees his family and others around him question their place in society and their identity as American Jews in a world swiftly turning against them.

Jewish thinkers of the 20th century. In search of redemption – Gershom Scholem (1897–1982)

Author(s): Marek Urban / Language(s): English Issue: 21/2023

It is not easy to describe the place of twentieth-century Jewish thinkers in philosophy and world history as their contribution is immeasurable. It is also difficult to assess the significance of their work since many of them became fully assimilated with the countries in which they lived and adapted their mentality accordingly (e.g., Henri Bergson, Léon Brunschvicq, Georg Simmel, Ernst Cassirer, Jean Wahl, and Vladimir Jankélévitch). Jewish thinkers tried to think like Jews – as is manifestly evident in the personal elements of their work (e.g., Hermann Cohen), in the way in which they explained philosophical and universal problems (e.g., Martin Buber), and in their works that re-introduced Jewish and biblical metaphysics without formally relating it to Jewish thought (e.g., Franz Rosenzweig and Emmanuel Levinas). Some Jewish thinkers (e.g., Gershom Scholem) desperately sought salvation, strove to discover their identity, were shaken by the Shoa, and derived their thinking from religious and historical sources. The aim of the article is to present several selected issues of Scholem’s rich legacy devoted to Messianic thought, Hasidism, and Jewish mysticism, omitting his insightful reflections related to Kabbalistic thought.