O jednej z kartek konwersacyjnych Kafki

Author(s): Łukasz Musiał / Language(s): Polish Issue: 15/2020

Translator’s commentary on Franz Kafka’s “conversation cards,” including information on their biographic context of that last text-document written by Kafka, as well as observations on the stylistic peculiarities imposed by the material form of the cards (terseness) and the advancing disease which made the physical activity of writing difficult (run-on sentences, wrong punctuation, and grammatical errors). However, the commentary is not a typical translatological analysis, but rather a note on Kafka’s writing in general. One of the card messages seems to encourage such an approach in particular: "The worst is that I cannot even drink a glass of water, but one can get somewhat satiated with the thirst itself.”

Александрија и мит о мултикултурализму

Author(s): G. G. Stroumsa / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 1/2011

Since its beginning, Alexandria was always a meeting point of different cultures and religions: the cultural tradition of Alexandria had many components – Hellenistic, Jewish, Egyptian, Gnostic and Christian. In this article prof. Stromsa comments on the cultural tendencies in Alexandria before the time of Origen.

Честер Бити папируси

Author(s): Frederick Fyvie Bruce / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 1/2021

Golem i Lewiatan. Judaistyczne źródła politycznej Thomasa Hobbesa

Author(s): Tomasz Tulejski,Arnold Zawadzki / Language(s): Polish Issue: 59/2019

In the article, the Authors point out that Hobbes’s political philosophy (and in fact theology) in the heterodox layer is inspired not only by Judeo-Christianity, but also by rabbinic Judaism. According to them, only adopting such a Judaic and in a sense syncretistic perspective enabled Hobbes to come to such radical conclusions, hostile towards the Catholic and Calvinist conceptions of the state and the Church. In their argument they focused on three elements that are most important for Hobbesian concept of sovereignty: the covenant between Jahwe and the Chosen People, the concept of the Kingdom of God, salvation and the afterlife, and the concept of a messiah.

Zensurresilienz in historischen deutschsprachigen Zeitungen des östlichen Europas: Eine Fallstudie zur jüdischen und deutschen Presse Großrumäniens (1919-1940)

Author(s): Albert Weber / Language(s): German Issue: 3/2020

Two ethnic minorities with German as their native language lived in Romania during the interwar period: in addition to the various ethnic German groups from the former Kingdom of Romania, from the Habsburg and the Russian Empire, a large number of Bukovina and Banat Jewish communities belonged to the Romanian state from 1918 onwards, many of them using the German language in everyday life and at work as well as in literature and the press. Members of both ethnic groups endeavoured through press publications to preserve and extend the civil rights of their communities and to integrate them into the society of their new homeland. The present study analyzes a state practice which stood in the way of these developments: press censorship restricted information, communication and the corrective functions of the two highly developed media landscapes of the Germans and the Jews in Greater Romania. When it comes to the resilience against censorship authorities, the strategies of conformity, loyalty, or resistance of newspaper editors are examined, thus shedding light on the role of these publications for their respective minorities

A Selection of Children’s Rhymes and Songs in Ladino Oral Literature and Their Thematic and Folkloristic Significance

Author(s): Nitsa Dori / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

Ladino oral children’s literature served as a tool for educating and imparting values, and Ladino children’s songs played a very important part in the family’s routine. These songs and rhymes were extremely important – while the women did housework, they sung or told rhymes to the children, thereby enriching their language. Likewise, their content was also very significant – until the beginning of the twentieth century, most girls did not have a formal education, but rather learned stories, songs and rhymes according to the oral traditions passed down from one generation to the next. The uniformity and uniqueness of the oral Ladino creations for children as an integral part of the same collection are recognisable by their fixed beat and rhyme. The language is neither flowery nor high-level, with their content centring on the child’s experiences. This lecture aims to identify the thematic and folkloristic aspects of the Ladino songs and rhymes transmitted orally in my family. The compositions were written down from the following informants – my grandmother, Fanny Afia (1911-1991), and my mother, Susan Levi (born 1934). Both were born in Istanbul, Turkey, and immigrated to Israel in 1948. The storytelling took place during housework or childcare, and was documented from their memories. The lecture will include a discussion of two rhymes about a hakham (rabbi) and a rubisa (rabbi’s wife), two lullabies, and six rhymes for playing with babies or young children. The discussion includes a folkloristic, linguistic and literary analysis of the songs.

“What Has All This Got to Do with the Jewish People?”: The New York Yiddish Press and the Founding of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, 1913-1928

Author(s): Yael Levi / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

The Yiddish press in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century was a major arena in which debates on political and ideological questions within the Jewish world were conducted. The Jewish world dealt intensively in the founding of the Hebrew University during the early decades of the twentieth century. In that context, the Jewish press in the United States had an important role. The Yiddish press was the most influential among the foreign-language Jewish press, and reflected the contemporary political processes regarding that issue. This article addresses the change in the prevailing attitude toward the idea of the university as expressed in New York’s Yiddish press. By examining the various positions taken in the Yiddish press toward the idea prior to the First World War and comparing them to the attitudes expressed after the war, I will argue that before 1914 the opposition to the founding of the university stemmed from both pragmatic and ideological grounds, whereas following 1918 this opposition largely dissipated, and pragmatic considerations fuelled growing support for the idea.

Olga Borovaya, The Beginnings of Ladino Literature: Moses Almosnino and His Readers, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 2017, XII+317 p.

Author(s): Ilan Benattar / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

Język, reprezentacja i fetysze. Głód w „The Shawl” Cynthii Ozick

Author(s): Bartosz Sowiński / Language(s): Polish Issue: 40 (45)/2021

The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick is an extremely intriguing attempt at writing hunger, loss and the Holocaust. The novella transforms into a meditation on the possibility of depicting traumatic sensations, which easily defy symbolisation. As she casts suspicion on language and literature, and more broadly representation, Ozick adheres to the tradition of Jewish aniconism. However, she does so in an ostentatiously literary manner, verging on the idolatry of fiction. Ozick discards verisimilitude and hyperrealism in the representations of hunger and the Holocaust. In so doing, she suggests that the illusion of immediacy they produce is merely a fetish rather than the literary celebration of the body. Ozick’s ambitions may be more moderate, but they are certainly more honest. She explores the irreconcilable differences between the realms of the sensual and the literary. However, she also seems to say “literature in spite of all” (to misquote Georges Didi-Huberman’s dictum), thereby articulating her affirmation of the linguistic medium and literature despite all their shortcomings and deficiencies.

Brant Pitre, Isus și rădăcinile evreiești ale Mariei

Author(s): Lucian Farcaşiu / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2021

Review of: Brant Pitre, “Isus și rădăcinile evreiești ale Mariei” (Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary), traducere din engleză de Monica Broșteanu, Editura Humanitas, București, 2020, 227 pp.

MOSES ATTIKIDZON: ФИЛОСОФИЯ И РЕЛИГИОЗНАЯ ПОЛИТИКА В АНТИЧНОЙ АЛЕКСАНДРИИ

Author(s): Eugene Afonasin / Language(s): Russian Issue: 1/2022

The "biblical origin" of the basic ideas of Hellenic philosophy. This idea, perhaps strange to the modern reader, was almost universally accepted in the first centuries of CE and goes back at least to Aristobulus and Philo of Alexandria. Lately this concept, very useful indeed in justifying philosophy and the legitimacy of its inclusion in the Judeo-Christian worldview, became quite widespread. Clement (the first Christian author to refer openly to Philo) does not doubt the simple fact that the Greek sages either borrowed their teachings directly from Moses and the Jewish ministers themselves, or received them from above as a revelation of the true God, which must therefore be no different from the law given to Moses. The purpose of this publication is to illustrate this aspect of ancient intellectual history by a selection of relevant sources.

Calea spirituală spre simfonia celestă: RaMBaM, Abraham ben Moise ben Maimon, Moise ben Shem Tov de Leon, Abū sa‘īd al-Kharrāz

Author(s): Silviu Lupașcu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2021

Against the background of Moses Maimenide's philosophy about the overflowing of prophetic grace as attainment of human perfection, Abraham ben Moses ben Maimon's spiritual leadership built a limited proximity between the Judeo-Egyptian pietism and the mystical theology of medieval Sufism from the perspective of the human-theocratical ontology of the spiritual way and stations-levels susceptible to allow the access of the human soul towards the vision-presence of the Divine Being.

Židovska filozofija i kriza moderniteta

Author(s): Leo Strauss / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 1-2/2022

JOSEPH CROPSEY, predsjedavajući: Ovo je neobičan naslov, u isti se mah vidi da je na određeni način sužen i istodobno se doima smionim. Čini se da je sužen jer je očito upućen Židovi ma: »Zbog čega smo ostali Židovi.«

The Case of Joseph’s Coat: Giving Gifts to Children in the Hebrew Bible

Author(s): Kristine Henriksen Garroway / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2022

Joseph’s coat is one of the most recognizable garments in the Hebrew Bible. In The Gift, Marcel Mauss theorizes that a gift contains part of the giver’s social persona, thus requiring a counter-gift to be given. Drawing on Mauss’s work as a heuristic category, this study investigates the economy of gifts and counter-gifts in the Hebrew Bible using Joseph’s coat as a case study. Joseph’s age at the time he receives the gift and the seeming lack of a counter-gift form the two main questions that this study investigates. To answer these questions requires determining who made the coat, a question best answered through an archaeological analysis of how textiles were created in ancient Israel. The paper concludes that an ancient audience would have understood both Jacob and Rachel to be makers of the gift, and therefore the (expected) recipients of a counter gift. The end of the Joseph Novella suggests that this expectation was met after a period of delay, during which time Joseph grew into adulthood and rose to a position where he could properly return a gift on par with the special coat.

Hümanist Yahudiliğin Temel İlkeleri

Author(s): Hümeyra Çakar / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 2/2022

https://doi.org/10.55709/tetkikdergisi.2022.2.54Considered one of the Contemporary Jewish denominations by the North American Jewish Federations, Humanist Judaism was founded in the United States in 1963 under the leadership of Rabbi Sherwin Theodore Wine (d. 2007). Sherwin Wine passed through the education of Conservative Judaism in her childhood and Reformist Judaism in her youth. However, towards the end of his youth, there were some breaks in his vision of God. These breaks; The demonstrability of God has been realized as to whether a consistent definition of God can be made. Wine, who has a positivist thought, explained her views on this subject with the concept of ignostism. In Ignostic thinking, which first emerged with Wine, it is prioritized to make a consistent definition in a scientific framework by subjecting the arguments to the method of experimentation and observation in order for an argument to be sound. It is somewhat difficult to make such an examination in the conception of God, since it addresses the metaphysical realm. In this respect, it is unnecessary to talk about God, since, according to Humanist Judaism, a consistent definition of God that satisfies reason and logic cannot be made. “God exists.” or “There is no God.” Humanist Judaism, refraining from using such an expression, only says, "We don't know anything about God." enough to say. The idea of Godless Judaism, which parallels the gnostic thought, forms the basic doctrines of humanist Judaism. As a matter of fact, Humanist Jews think that Judaism is not based on a divine origin. Accordingly, elements such as common Jewish history, culture, consciousness and self are placed at the center of religion rather than religious sensitivities. The ignostic point of view, which manifests itself with the imagination of God in humanist Judaism, has an intense effect in both metaphysical, ontological and practical fields. As a matter of fact, Humanistic Judaism is located on a plane far from the line of Traditional Judaism on issues such as Jewish identity, prophecy, scripture, creation, and death. These views adopted by the sect have been criticized by various Jewish communities, and members of this sect are, atheists, agnostics, etc., has been accused. The study examined the doctrines adopted by Humanist Judaism and the reflections of these doctrines in the metaphysical field. In addition, to explore Humanist Judaism, which has emerged recently, from a closer perspective, after the necessary literature review, structures such as IISHJ, SHJ, HuJews, and Sunday Schools established within the sect, and the studies of these organizations are presented to the reader. The study examines the fundamental doctrines of Humanist Judaism and the thoughts and concepts that lay the groundwork for these doctrines from a closer perspective.

Sľuby v Biblii, s osobitnou pozornosťou ku Dt 12,2-3

Author(s): Pavel Prihatný / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 1/2023

It is impossible to find explicit treaties on the vows, in their meaning of evangelical counsels, in the Bible as such. But we do find some mentions in the contexts that are very important in their applications on the vows (evangelical counsels) in the sense of their right and fructuous living and observing. One such context is Deuteronomy 12, significant chapter in the Bible, which opens Deuteronomic Code (12 – 26). Especially verses 12,2-3 are of a particular contribution because of their position, the context already mentioned, and interesting poetic composition. Verses Dt 12,2-3 are composed in ten poetic lines, in which we may find very strong emphasise on pivotal presupposition, which enables good and fructuous living of evangelical counsels.

ȚAPUL – PROIECȚIE A DOUĂ FAȚETE ALE ARHETIPULUI RĂULUI: AZAZEL ȘI SATAN

Author(s): Petru Adrian Danciu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 13/2022

Considered an unclean animal in Jewish monotheism, the goat’s demonological history begins for the Jews with the establishment of the Yom Kippur holiday and ends with the Witches’ Sabbath, intentionally associated with the Jewish Sabbath. Beyond the Christian terrors projected as a shadow over the Jewish people, we are dealing with a continuity of an intention whose permanence had to be ensured. From a demonological point of view, evil had to survive by the constant imposition of an “inverted” monotheism, in what we might call the “understanding” of Good and Evil for this world. From the biblical verses: “Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats: one lot for the Lord and one lot for Azazel” (Leviticus, 16, 8), to the at least curious expression of Jesus: “Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s!” (Matthew 22, 21), it is only one step to ascertain the still active belief in monotheism, from the heart of Judaism of the first century. Thus, the presence of the impure in the goat of Azazel, will continue with the image of Caesar associated with the evil angel Samael or “God’s poison”, passing through the ages, in Christianity in the sabbatical rite of the witches. One constant remains: the constant antagonism against the Jewish people.

Mending a Frail Humankind : Remedial Hermeneutics and Messianic Anthropology in Joseph Soloveitchik

Author(s): Chiara Carmen Scordari / Language(s): English Issue: 11/2022

This essay focuses on Joseph Soloveitchik’s re-semantization and renewal of the Jewish concept of messianism. In his view, the idea of Messiah is personified and, at the same time, deferred, as an allegory for ceaseless and ever-changing transformations, both individual and communitarian. Biblical personae endowed with a messianic impulse, such as Abraham, Esther, Mordecai, Tamar, and Ruth, are seen by Soloveitchik as eschatological and metahistorical figures, co-redeemers and co-creators with God, and models with whom human beings may identify. In this framework, particular attention will be paid to Soloveitchik’s conception of midrashic hermeneutics, as an always open process of individual and collective self-knowledge and self-redemption; and to the dialectical opposition between “revealed world” and “hidden world” as the constitutive element of Soloveitchik’s vision of the humanity-to-come.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks: Religious Pluralism and the Partnership of Religion and Science

Author(s): Hava Tirosh-Samuelson / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

Rabbi and Lord Jonathan Sacks (1948-2020) was the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth from 1991 to 2013. Although he was recognized as the spiritual head of the United Synagogue, the largest synagogue body in the United Kingdom, his authority was not recognized by the Haredi Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, or by non-Orthodox Jewish congregations that belong to Masorti, Reform and Liberal Judaism. Although his authority was limited, Rabbi Sacks was a highly influential public intellectual of global renown and impact. Writing to Jewish and non-Jewish audiences, Rabbi Sacks articulated his views on a range of existential problems and challenges, including the breakdown of the family, religious violence, the loss meaning and the rise of despair, political polarization, and climate change. While speaking in a particularly Jewish idiom and from a Judaic perspective, Rabbi Sacks became a spiritual guide to millions of people worldwide who appreciated his wisdom and the wisdom of Judaism. His contribution to the spiritual dimension of human life was formally recognized in 2016 when he received the Templeton Prize for his life-long contribution to humanity. This essay explores the relationship between Rabbi Sacks’ approach to religious pluralism and his contribution to the dialogue of religion and science. The essay argues that Rabbi Sacks was a post-secular thinker who offered a distinctly Judaic approach to humanity’s current challenges. By “universalizing particularity,” as Rabbi Sacks defined his own project, Rabbi Sacks sought to prevent the clash of civilizations and to heal our divided world.

Chrześcijańskie ramy, żydowskie treści? Żydowskie kazania szkolne w Galicji

Author(s): Alicja Maślak-Maciejewska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 51/2023

The article is devoted to so-called “exhortations,” school sermons delivered to Jewish school youth in Galicia since the 1880s by Jewish teachers of religion. The author traces the roots of these sermons by analyzing the legal framework and the realms of Galician school that since the late 1860s became non-confessional. Sermons were part of religious education which in theory should have been provided to all children. The article shows that the Jewish exhortations, while retaining Jewish content, resembled Christian sermons in various ways (sources, length, language, typical features such as brevity, chronology of publication, even frequency of the words). Those affinities and relationship between both traditions are analyzed in the article.