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Ronen Reichman
Einführung in die Schwerpunktthematik dieses Bandes

Artikel zum Schwerpunkt:

Alexander Ruser
Die „Wirklichkeit“ von Traditionen. Eine soziologische Betrachtung zwischen Sozialkonstruktivismus und Sozialontologie

Social communities refer to and are constituted by tradition. Traditions create cultural identities and confer cultural significance to social contexts. Traditions constitute social groups and are crucial for drawing the boundaries between “us” and “them”. From a social-constructivists perspective traditions are the most interesting because they create and structure social realities. But how real are traditions? Can they be ascribed a (social) ontological status? Or should traditions be regarded as (mere) social constructions? Referring to concepts of collective and cultural memory not only allows for discussing the ontological status of traditions but also to thoroughly investigate their impact on identity formation.

Asher Mattern
Diskurse und Wahrheit: Zur Möglichkeit des Traditionswandels im Denken des Maharal von Prag

In a variety of ways the thought of the Maharal can easily be connected to the cultural, scientific, political and religious contexts. Nonetheless it is caracterized by an astounding singularity which finds its expression in its significantly late integration into main stream orthodox Judaism. Concentrating on the question of the innovational aspect in the thought of the Maharal of Prague, the question occurs concerning the condition of possibility for such a decisive innovative dimension. With reference to contemporary philosophical and sociological theories, the article analyses the dialetics of continuity and discontinuity in the Maharals thought and looks for an answer to the question how the Maharal himself could have interpreted the possibility of his singular position on the basis of his metaphysical and theological system.

Vladislav Slepoy
Sefer Maharil im Lichte der Rezeptionsästhetik

The present paper aims to scrutinize to what extent the concept of the reader-response theory (Rezeptionsästhetik) may be used as an explanatory model for the literary development of a medieval halakhic work. The study focuses on Sefer Maharil, written in the second half of the 15th century by R. Zalman of St. Goar on the basis of the teachings and religious customs of his master, R. Yaʿaḳov Molin (Maharil). In the course of his literary activity the author presented various versions of his book, six of which have survived as autographs. Sefer Maharil received a wide – positive and negative – reception during the life of its author. One of the book’s sharpest critics was R. Shimʿon, a son of Maharil, who left his remarks on the margins of one of the early versions of the book. These remarks are characterized by their rejection not only of single elements of the book but of the book as a whole. Such ultimate rejection may be considered as a typical reaction of a reader who was in doubt about the author’s trustworthiness as a mediator of the teachings of Maharil. The paper shows how the author – possibly – reacted on this criticism by taking into account the expectations of his future readers.

Johannes Heil
Lebenswelt, Diskurs und Traditionswandel. Anmerkungen zu Texten und Subtexten jüdischer Geschichtsschreibung von Benjamin Tudela bis Itzchak Baer

Based on a selection of exemplary sources from Jewish medieval history and modern historiography, this contribution deploys the theory debates of recent decades in history, literature, and sociology in order to generate new insights for Jewish historiography. At the same time, the article seeks to gain further impulses for general historiography based on a critical reading of Jewish history. In terms of more general theoretical debates, the article establishes a critical survey of different concepts of discourse, especially of those of Michel Foucault, Jürgen Habermas, Hayden White, Reinhart Koselleck and Gabrielle Spiegel. In terms of Jewish historiography, the contribution covers Yosef H. Yerushalmi und Amos Funkenstein. In order to understand Jewish patterns of historiographical self-perception in different times and in changing Lebenswelten, the article studies texts from the realm of Jewish history as a way to avoid any theory-driven reduction of the analysis and as means to emphasize the impact of rhetoric on history-as-historiography. The texts show that according to Jewish traditions, Lebenswelt-driven discourses reflect ongoing historical changes, especially with regard to the continuous instability of Jewish life. Relevant texts can be found in a comparatively broad spectrum of genres: Beyond historiographic sources, relevant documents include liturgic poetry (piyyutim), Halakhic responsa, and travel accounts. Among the different medieval authors, this article focuses especially on Benjamin von Tudela and his travel accout (Sivuv) from the later 12th century. Benjamin’s subtle counter-images to Christian concepts of Rome and Jerusalem are analysed as impressive examples for „hidden transcripts“ in the sense of James C. Scott, thereby demonstrating how one’s own Lebenswelt could be re-secured by using tools of discourse which had been designed by others. Among modern authors, special attention is given to Isaak Marcus Jost and Itzchak Baer. The overarching element which combines the various discourses can be found in the authors’ search for contingency of their Lebenswelt, by employing various rhetorical instruments and by reaching different outcomes.

Carsten Wilke
Private Antiquities: The Lifeworldly Aspects of the Talmud in Nineteenth Century Stereotypes and Scholarship

Ever since Rashi started searching for the French equivalents of countless Talmudic realia in the twelfth century, rabbinic scholars have endeavored to reimagine, reconstruct, and sometimes reenact the ancient lifeworld that stands in the background of ancient Jewish texts. This evocation of past life in its most concrete aspects is sometimes part of the process of deriving legal practice, as is the case with the Hadith in Islam. Generally speaking, however, the view of the past obtained from this process of reimagining is refracted through various historicizing and/or moralizing approaches. In this paper, I will seek out the epistemological, psychological, and social functions of the lifeworldly interest in the study of Jewish texts by focusing on the often polemical discussion on this phenomenon that came about during the nineteenth-century transition from yeshiva study to academic scholarship. Both traditions of learning pursued different aims, but they shared a common fascination with ancient realities. This observation invites us to transcend the simplistic assumption about cultural transformation in Judaism that religious discourse adapts progressively, albeit often reluctantly, to the modernization of the lifeworld. As I want to show, discourse production does not only reckon with contemporary social and intellectual conditions, but it also involves reconstructing the texture of past life. The construction of a virtual historical reality from the rabbinic texts has served as a way of mediating the opposition of discourse and lifeworld, and the emergence of this virtual historical reality is closely related to the peculiar social position of modern academic scholars.

Gerold Necker
Lebenswelten kabbalistischer Terminologie: Tiqqun in der Frühen Neuzeit

This article explores the philosophical dimension of kabbalistic terminology with the help of the Hebrew term tiqqun as well as the history of this concept. Hans Blumenberg’s understanding of “absolute metaphors” will be applied to the concept of tiqqun in early modern history. It will be shown how the Jewish lifeworld in Northern Italy changed under the influence of Lurianic Kabbalah, while newly founded confraternities introduced the ritual of tiqqun ḥasot. R. Moshe Zacuto, who was one of the leading kabbalists in Italy at that time, played a central role in this process. The main part of the article explains the Lurianic understanding of tikkun ḥasot and the related dynamics within the sefirotic world. The illustrations found in JTS Ms. 4599 fit in very well with these Lurianic descriptions, in particular fol. 344b. The last part of the article deals with Sabbatean versions of the ritual, Hasidic innovations of tiqqun (R. Naḥman of Bratzlaw), and the modern concept of tiqqun olam.

Sylvie Anne Goldberg
Sociology of Knowledge and Jewish Studies: How was Sa’adia Gaon’s Theory of Knowledge reframed?

Sa‘adia ben Yosef Ga’on was one of the most outstanding figures of the Geonic period, the leading character of the 10th century’s Judaism. Besides his extensive writings in almost every field of Jewish knowledge, one of Sa’adia’s most innovative contributions was his philosophical treatise, Kitab al-Amanat wa’l Ittiqàdàt, the first important philosophic book written in the Mu`tazilah school. In the 20th century the most prominent researchers in Jewish philosophy have tried to trace the sources of Sa’adia Gaon’s ideas and identify the grounds of his system of thought. This article deals with the conflicting interpretations of what has come to be called his “theory of knowledge,” notably by Israel Efros, Harry Austryn Wolfson, Abraham Joshua Heschel, and Georges Vajda. It concludes that just as these interpretations took up a theme which was debated in academia in their times, Sa’adia turned the current notion of ta’wil into a “perfect tool” for his intellectual purposes.

Außerhalb des Schwerpunkts:

Ronen Reichman / Alexander Dubrau
Frührabbinische Dialektik: Eine Studie zur Argumentationsfigurיכול ... ת"ל in der rabbinischen Literatur

A distinguishing feature of rabbinic halakhic discourse is its culture of argumentation. In the juridical traditions that have been passed down, topoi of argumentation exhibit peculiar literary structure and linguistic form.
The present study on the Jachol-pattern (יכול ... ת"ל) in Talmudic texts tries to give a systematic account of this argumentative structure through a philological and rhetorical analysis.

Neri Ariel
Towards an Identification Methodology for Genizah Fragments

Genizah Scholars dedicate tremendous efforts to documenting and interpreting fragments as objects for research. Constitutive steps have been made in researching dubious fragments; however, some of the identification processes lacked in the past scientific methodology for identification, and are therefore unreliable. The available diversity of theoretical options for identification, including digital processing which allow for more efficient use of analytical tools, relieves scholars of the need to rely solely on intuition, and obligates them to use a systematic method of analysis based on scientific, well-defined standards and criteria. In this article I suggest a primary methodology for identifying Genizah fragments, arguing for several steps and combinations of criteria which should be considered carefully before proposing an identification in cases of doubt.

Görge K. Hasselhoff
The Yerushalmi Quotations in Ramon Marti’s Pugio fidei

In the thirteenth century Raymundus Martini – or in Catalan: Ramon Martí – wrote his huge polemical treatise Pugio fidei (“Dagger of Faith”) directed against all enimies of Christianity, in particular against Muslims and Jews. Some years ago a manuscript kept in a Parisian library was identified as the Dominican friar’s autograph which contains many more texts than the seventeenth-century print editions. Also the texts employed are sometimes different from the printed editions. Most striking is the continuous vocalization of the Hebrew. This article introduces into Martí’s use of the Jerusalem Talmud. The fact that he could use that text is in itself remarkable because it means that at least one manuscript was circulated in medieval Catalonia. The texts which Ramon Martí had collected are presented in a new-established transcription from the autograph.

Kay Schweigmann-Greve
Nachruf auf Yitskhok Luden

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