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The article concerns the meaning and functions of genealogy in Jewish tradition within the compass of nearly three thousand years. Having discussed the key notions (especially toldot and jichus), the author presents the following problems: genealogical texts of various functions (from ideological in character constructions to censuses) which appear in the Bible; preserving the purity of the lineage by Levi’s descendants, especially priests, and continuation of this tradition until the present; accepting new values in the post biblical period – learnedness and merits of the ancestors – treated as advantages in the lineage; formation of elite families in European diaspora starting from the 14th century and their tendency to demonstrate that they have outstanding ancestors, which corresponded with an abundant production of lineages, often unreal, dating back to king David and other biblical characters; religious Jewish historiography and its connections with genealogy in the period from the beginning of the 19th century to the holocaust; elements used in traditional inscriptions of personal data and examples inscriptions including extensive lists of ancestors; the character of genealogical investigations after the Second World War, especially an increase in interests, documentation and editorial activity.
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This essay presents a Kabbalistic interpretation of Derrida’s writings. The focus is on Isaac Luria’s Tzimtzum, a process in which God surrenders his sovereignty to the created world. In the act of Tzimtzum the Creator withdraws from being, which is then ruled by its own laws. And yet – in contrast to radical deism – God does not disappear completely. His trace remains in the form of his parting smile – a smiling a-dieu. So it is only on the surface that Derrida’s spectre, which ‘haunts the living,’ is a ghost that must be feared. Derrida has no interest in maintaining a threatening divine sovereignty, even as a trace. The Derridean spirit that haunts the world has nothing of the primordial tremens et fascinans of the pagan sacrum about it. It is an entirely different spirit, one that haunts with laughter: the yes-laugh [oui-rire] from Derrida’s hauntological article ‘Ulysses Gramophone: Hear Say Yes in Joyce’.
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The author tries to reveal Biblical sources of the image of “One Like a Son of Man” in Dan. 7:13–14, including the “Old Greek Translation” of this passage, as well as to reveal certain parallels to this figure in Jewish literature of the Hellenistic period and in the New Testament. At this, special attention is given to the interpretation of Psalm 110. Considering Jewish texts of the epoch of Hellenism, the author dwells specially on the analysis of the Apocryphon of Daniel (4Q246=4Q psDand), the Qumran “Self-Glorification Hymn” (4Q491c, fr. 1), and the fragment of the ᾽Exagōgḗ, 68–82 by Ezekiel the Tragedian.
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In the Hebrew language, notions such as the issue of temporality and a well-established sociocultural view have been conceptualised and internalised in a distinctive manner, making full use of the language’s particularities. A cultural frame of reference with regards to Hebrew has not been the main focus of the linguistic community in several decades, with most recent studies typically centring instead on a psychological or morphological viewpoint, if not on the traditional topic of Biblical Hebrew itself. Consequently, this approach to Hebrew’s linguistic individuality will address existing research in the field of cultural linguistics, as well as the expansive repositories of Rabbinic wisdom (the exegetical commentaries of the Talmud and the Jewish esoteric theosophy of the Kabbalah and Gematria). The approach to the Jewish occult is made necessary by its direct connection with the spiritual, which provided this language’s cryogenic state of existence for nearly two millennia of Jewish diaspora.
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The circumstances of the appearance of The Words of the Lord collections still remain mysterious, and the consequence of this fact is uncertainty as to their credibility and problems with placing Frank’s speeches in the appropriate historical and doctrinal context. We will not discuss here the history of schism in the Frankist camp. The thing important for us is that at the beginning of 1760 only several dozen messianic neophytes with their families stayed with Frank, of about one thousand whom he led to baptism. This group Frank calls “company”. The company stayed in the more or less the same number until 1784. In this year in January after the “big reconciliation” begins the history of publication of The Words of the Lord begins 1784. It was then, that in Brno Frank dramatically finished with the hitherto strictly observed in his environment traditions of sect esotericism, which forbade recording the doctrine and details of the sect’s internal life in writing. In the perspective of the upcoming salvation he probably did not consider the issue of multi-generational perception of these notes. He felt forced to do it and he stuck to this decision – his words were written down until his death, clearly at his own request. Up till now historians assumed that Frank’s speeches were addressed to his closest circle, first of all to the old comrades who stood by him in the messianic good times and bad times. But the vast majority of jottings, like the one cited above, is addressed to those who had not followed Frank and only now accepted his messianic calling. Frank ordered each supporter to appear at his place three times a year, but in the circumstances in Brno, with the police watching them, visits of the crowds of neophytes were not possible. Besides, Frank was not a tribune or a preacher. He taught “at the table”, and only a few could find places at the messiah’s table, and they had to fulfill the task of strengthening Frank’s authority and messianic doctrine among the remaining neophytes. The effects of writing down The Words of the Lord helped to integrate the sect. Nevertheless, in a long run, the writing down had very negative effects. When excerpts of the first written down jottings left Frank’s court, the opportunity of presenting Frank as the founder of a durable formation was lost. It was hard to create a positive image of spiritual leader based on these jottings. It was not possible to destroy all excerpts, and even the very intent to do so would disqualify both the originators and the Messiah, whose image they would attempt to protect in this way. The most serious problem in the perception of The Words of the Lord was Frank himself. The figure of messiah, which is shown in the jottings, was difficult to accept for subsequent generations of neophytes, who were brought up in a different environment and culture.
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This piece deals with Christian maidservants working in Jewish Households in Polish lands in the early 20th century. The matter is virtually absent from historical writings and whatever infrequent publications raise this topic, they point to the lack of broader in-depth studies. The article is based on deepened interviews conducted by the author in the years 2008-2015 with Polish Catholics and Jews born before 1930. It focuses on the encounters between Christian and Jewish religiousness in the intimate home space (cooking, prayer, home rites, etc.). It analyses, on the one hand, the scope of insight and participation of each party in the ritual and spiritual world of the other, while also looking at the ways in which this was perceived and reported by the sources of such information. The author also seeks to demonstrate the scale of the phenomenon consisting in the employment of Christian servants in Jewish households. Servanthood was one of the more popular occupations among employed women in urban areas, typically involving residence in the employer’s home. The proportion of Jewish households employing non-Jewish servants was considerable and, according to the author, could exceed 25% in the larger cities. This discloses the immense and as yet unresearched scope of Christian-Jewish contact, one of a continuous, long-term and intimate nature, a contact that must have exerted a impact on the evolution of the attitudes, distances and mutual perceptions of Poles and Jews; it also engendered a social practice that maintained ongoing dialogue with Christian and Jewish standards, testing them and forcing the adoption of compromises.
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The following article presents and discusses the issue of a Jewish self-image emerging from the writings of two sons of the Chosen People – an ancient historian, Joseph Flavius, and a contemporary novelist, Philip Roth. The juxtaposed authors represent two different methods of approaching the idea of their nationhood; while Flavius is full of appraisal for it, Roth does not restrain from heavy criticism and attack on the Jewish tradition and the community’s values. Nevertheless, the authors of the article would like to argue that several similarities between these two writers and their works might be observed. Both Flavius and Roth are outlanders, living in the time of a clash between two worlds’ orders and cultures – one of their homeland, and the other alien. Both authors find themselves in a system that has little in common with the world and values they were raised in, which creates psychological tension then translated into their narratives. Though worlds and centuries apart, Flavius and Roth seem to represent two variations of the same struggle with the obstacles ever present in a Jewish life, no matter when and where it is set.
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This essay explores from a new perspective the intricate ways in which Jews have encountered and engaged with Germany and Poland after the Holocaust. It looks at the emotions expressed by Jews who travelled to both countries from roughly the late 1940s to the present moment in an attempt to build a textual montage of the juxtaposing feelings that Jews have had towards the region. In so doing, it attempts to show that Germany and Poland have represented for Jews not only a “ruined landscape” of death, but an emotionally complex space in which a wide range of emotional reactions have intersected.
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The idea of dialogue in philosophical and theological anthropology emphasizes the dignity proper to each human being as a person, and also the human social nature. In the 20th century many humanists rediscovered the idea of interpersonal dialogue. In the philosophical thought this idea is present in the works of Jewish thinkers: Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig and Emmanuel Levinas.But the notion of dialogue can also be useful in Christian theological language.The article looks at the notion of dialogue in the definition of the relationship between God and human beings from the perspective of Christian Personalism. A “dialogically oriented theology”shows the relationship between God and man as a dialogue based on divine grace. The dignity of every human person is rooted in the vocation to dialogue with the persons of the Holy Trinity. This dialogue with God defines human beings in their relation to the world. The dialogue goes far beyond everyday life and finds its fulfilhnent in eternal dialogue with God and with the connnunity of the redeemed.
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“nyone comparing a number of translations and commentaries on a given passage in the Hebrew Bible soon discovers that the delimitation of clauses, verses, and larger sense units is a major source of disagreement between scholars”.L Generally, the pericope delimitation is based on literary features,H but the high level of rhetoric sometimes renders it impossible. However, if text division is understood as part of a rhetorical strategy, used by an author who is interested in presenting his own ideas about where to pause, then divisions for liturgical readings reveal the strategies employed for presenting the sacred writings to believing communities. Using the liturgical division of the Torah for text analysis is connected to an acceptance of the sacred nature of this canon and the need to search for hermeneutics that would recognise the active role of the believing community in creating such a text. Interpretations in agreement with Jewish traditions should point to the theological concepts and ideologies of rabbinic Judaism, but they might also be useful for any reader that wants to understand the message hidden behind reach rhetorics. If this division is logical and non-accidental, then it is worthwhile to recognise the idea behind it. This would contribute to an understanding of the Pentateuch’s theological features. nother profit stemming from understanding this system might be a contribution to the delimitation of a pericope in a synchronic reading of the Bible.
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Jewish apocalyptic literature appeared on the period between the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and the outbreak of the Bar Kokhba Revolt and bears the marks of the difficult times of the Roman occupation, and the persecution which the chosen people suffered at this time.
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Mordekhai David Brandstetter (1844−1928) was one of the prominent creators of Hebrew Haskalah literature in its latest phase. His most celebrated contribution is connected with HaShahar, the leading periodical of late Haskalah literature, edited by Peretz Smolenskin between 1869−1884. Most of the readings of Brandstetter’s writings have focused so far on the dozen short stories and novellas he published in HaShahar. Much less attention has been devoted to the later stage of his literary work that outstretched far beyond that era. This study focuses on those late works, some twelve stories that were written after the publication of Brandstetter’s collected writings in 1891. These stories are still rooted in Galician Jewish life, but they reflect the ambition to adhere to new materials and poetics, following the radical changes in Hebrew literature from the 1880’s onward towards realism, modernism and Zionism.
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The interface between politics and theology in the discourse of Zionism and Jewish nationalism has occupied writers, historians and literary critics since the end of the nineteenth century, and has received renewed attention recently. This paper analyzes David Frishman’s critique of Hayim Nahman Bialik’s literary work, highlighting Frishman’s anti-Zionist and anti-messianic stance. It then uses Frishman’s critique as a basis for critically examining the contemporary debate over the secularization of modern Hebrew literature.
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This paper presents the tasks and aims that Nahum Sokolow believed Hebrew literature should have in Jewish life and in the Jewish national movement. Before his official joining the Zionist movement, Sokolow believed that the contribution of Hebrew literature to the formation of Jewish nationalism was more significant than the return of the Jews to their historical territory. This position did not change significantly after his joining the Zionist movement in 1897. In addition the paper evaluates Sokolow’s significant input to the development of the Jewish literary center in Warsaw and a new Hebrew literary style.
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The article gives a general overview of Hebrew literary life in Warsaw, and provides new perspectives on Hebrew fiction written in and about the city in the period of 1880−1920. The study results from the need to understand Hebrew literature within the inherently multilingual, transnational nature of the Jewish literary activity in the city and is based on a large corpus of Hebrew fictional texts that scholars did not consider earlier. It describes Hebrew literary life in Warsaw, as well as the different ways in which Warsaw’s cityscape and the urban experience are represented in Hebrew stories and novels written between 1880 and 1920.
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The article scrutinises various aspects of cultural activities in Hebrew literary centers in interwar Poland (1919–1939). The research is based on Hebrew literary periodicals published in the cities of Warsaw, Krakow, Vilnius and Lviv.Taking into consideration the common practice of scholars to neglect or ignore both the historical importance and the literary value of the output of diasporic centers, the main goal of the study was to show the internal dynamic of the Polish center. By describing literary initiatives undertaken in various cities, the author demonstrated the spectrum of cultural and literary activities, along with differences between the centers and mutual relations of their representatives.
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The article discusses the image of Poland in the works of two Hebrew poets, Uri Zvi Greenberg and Avot Yeshurun, whose biographies are closely connected with Poland. Both of them expressed their complex and often contradictory feelings towards their European past but each of them did it in his own way. Greenberg in his main works created a national and political narrative. Even when he referred to personal memories, they were usually combined with a social diagnosis. In contrast, Yeshurun in his poetry expressed, above all, personal feelings of devotion to the abandoned town and family as well as longing and sense of guilt.
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According to a 450-year-old tradition, the Brest Bible is regarded as the first translation of the whole Holy Scripture from the original languages into Polish. The present article deals mainly with the relation between the Brest Bible and Hebrew and Aramaic versions. Even a cursory analysis reveals that the Brest translators generally followed hebraica veritas. Yet, they took advantage of Stephanus’s Bible (Geneva 1556/57), which besides the Vulgate contained a literal translation of the Hebrew Bible into Latin, accomplished by Santes Pagnini. This version made it possible to convey hebraica veritas without resorting to the Hebrew text. In places where there are significant differences between the printed editions of the Hebrew Bible of the 16th century and Pagnini’s version (e.g. Ruth 2:23; 3:15; 4:1), the Brest Bible follows Pagnini. The Brest translators followed Pagnini’s text in Stephanus’s edition verse by verse, adapting the division into chapters and verses to the Polish text. The analysis of onomastics and the system of transcription in the Brest Bible leads to the conclusion that the translators followed the previously accepted principles of proper names translation as well as left some Hebrew and Aramaic terms untranslated. The influence of the Vulgate might have been the result of mistakes which emerged as a result of taking advantage of two Latin versions simultaneously, printed alongside by Stephanus (see 1 Chr 4:2). There are reasons to doubt if the Brest translators were translating directly from the original version. Chances are they translated directly from Pagnini’s version printed by Robert Stephanus. In order to confirm this with all certainty and without a shadow of a doubt, strenuous and tedious research, comprising larger parts of the text, conducted verse by verse, is absolutely crucial.
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Dorothea Schalit, a Jewish girl, and Heinz Hampel, a Protestant, met in Sopot (Zoppot), then a town incorporated into the Free City of Gdańsk (Danzig), in the 1920s. They got married and were active in the leftist and democratic circles. After 1933, when the municipal authorities became dominated by the Nazis, the Hampels did not leave the Free City. Despite the increasing pressures and insults from the NSDAP members, Heinz Hampel refused to divorce Dorothea. Owing to their courage and the aid from few friends, the couple managed to survive in Sopot and in March 1945 saw the Red Army enter the town. They lived there until 1950 when they decided to emigrate to Israel. Till their death they stayed in Jerusalem. The presented text consists of a historical introduction written by Grzegorz Berendt and the report of the Hampels on their life in Sopot prior to the entry of the Russian army into the city. The said report was incorporated into the collections of Yad Vashem Institute, the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority.
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