[The following post is a revision of two posts from six years ago.] Followers of Daf Yomi recently read one of the most important Talmudic sources that addresses the question of a Shabbes Goy, i.e. a non-Jew who performs an act on behalf of a Jew that is prohibited for a Jew to do. On [...]
The important scholar of Ancient Judaism, Christianity, and the Dead Sea Scrolls, Geza Vermes (1924-2013) has passed away. Besides his important scholarly output, Vermes has an incredible personal story. He was born to Jewish parents in Hungary, and when he was seven years-old he and his parents converted to Catholocism. His parents were then killed [...]
I want to congratulate my friend Jenny Labendz on the publication of her book Socratic Torah: Non-Jews in Rabbinic Intellectual Culture. The relationship of the rabbis of Late Antique Palestine to their non-Jewish neighbors, rulers, and interlocutors was complex and often fraught. Jenny R. Labendz investigates the rabbis’ self-perception and their self-fashioning within this non-Jewish social [...]
When addressing the parameters of fasting on one of the minor fast days, we read in the Gemara on Rosh ha-Shannah 18b: אמר רב חנא בר ביזנא אמר רב שמעון חסידא: מאי דכתיב (זכריה ח) כה אמר ה’ צבאות צום הרביעי וצום החמישי וצום השביעי וצום העשירי יהיה לבית יהודה לששון ולשמחה. קרי להו צום, [...]
The blog of the Revel Graduate School at YU has a very interesting summary of a talk given by Prof. Meir Bar Asher on the relationship between Saadia Gaon, his commentary on the Torah, the Quran, and Quranic interpretation. It makes for a great read on how knowledge of other religious and exegetical traditions can [...]
H-Judaic has a review of Uriel I. Simonsohn’s A Common Justice: The Legal Allegiances of Christians and Jews under Early Islam. In the year 1030 CE, Shelomo ben Yehuda, the Palestinian gaon (medieval Jewish religious authority), wrote a letter lamenting the impossible position he and his fellow leaders were in. As someone charged with upholding [...]
Devorah Schoenfeld has published Isaac On Jewish and Christian Altars: Polemic and Exegesis in Rashi and the Glossa Ordinaria. Devorah Schoenfeld’s new work offers an in-depth examination of two of the most influential Christian and Jewish Bible commentaries of the High Middle Ages. The Glossa Ordinaria and Rashi’s commentary were standard texts for Bible study [...]
Yehezkel Cohen z”l, the found of Neemnei Torah va-Avodah, passed away yesterday and was buried in Jerusalem. Ne’emanei Torah Va’Avodah, a religious-Zionist movement that seeks to return Religious Zionism to its roots, works to create a thinking religious culture that is open and self-critical, and encourages a courageous halakhic discourse that deals with the challenges [...]
With the latest interest in some quarters about insulting religious figures, here is a link to a post of mine from a few years ago about a Jew who wanted to learn from the Muslims and punish those who insulted cohanim (priests). Also, see the end of this post by Marc Shapiro about an article [...]
Paola Tartakoff’s Between Christian and Jew: Conversion and Inquisition in the Crown of Aragon, 1250-1391 has just been published. In 1341 in Aragon, a Jewish convert to Christianity was sentenced to death, only to be pulled from the burning stake and into a formal religious interrogation. His confession was as astonishing to his inquisitors as [...]
You are currently browsing the archives for the Jewish-Gentile Relations category.
