A Mirror of Rabbinic Hermeneutics

Nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg hat Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich (19212007) herausragende israelische Gelehrte in englisch- und deutschsprachigen Veröffentlichungen in Europa und Nordamerika bekannt gemacht. Die zu diesem Zweck von ihm begründete Reihe Studia Judaica bietet heute ein Forum für wissenschaftliche Studien und Editionen aus allen Epochen der jüdischen Religionsgeschichte.

Rabbinic hermeneutics in ancient Judaism reflects this multifaceted world of the text and of reality, seen as a world of reference worth commentary. As a mirror, it includes this world but perhaps also falsifies reality, adapting it to one's own aims and necessities. It consists of four parts:Part I, considered as introduction, is the description of the "Rabbinic Workshop" (Officina Rabbinica), the rabbinic world where the student plays a role and a reformation of a reformation always takes place, the world where the mirror was created and manufactured. Part II deals with the historical environment, the world of reference of rabbinic Judaism in Palestine and in the Hellenistic Diaspora (Reflecting Roman Religion); Part III focuses on magic and the sciences, as ancient (political and empirical) activities of influence in the double meaning of receiving and adopting something and of attempt to produce an effect on persons and objects (Performing the Craft of Sciences and Magic). Part IV addresses the rabbinic concern with texts (Reflecting on Languages and Texts) as the main area of "influence" of the rabbinic academy in a space between the texts of the past and the real world of the present.

Auteur

Giuseppe Veltri, University of Hamburg, Germany.

Résumé
"Der überaus lesenswerte Sammelband enthält gründliche Analysen und mass-gebliche Interpretationen zu wichtigen Aspekten der Religion und Literatur des antiken und mittelalterlichen Judentums und unterstreicht insbesondere die Not-wendigkeit einer umfassenden wissenschaftlichen Beschäftigung mit Phänomenen und Gegenständen des jüdischen Alltagslebens."
Michael Tilly in: Judaica 4/2015