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Understanding the Trajectory of Medieval Jewish Studies in the PROCEEDINGS

Mon, December 17, 10:30am to 12:00pm, Seaport Hotel & World Trade Center, Harborview 2 Ballroom

Abstract

From the inception of the PROCEEDINGS in 1928 until publication ceased nearly seventy years later, a steady and often robust number of studies treat aspects of Jewish history, thought, and life in medieval Europe. Philosophy and rationalism are the overwhelmingly dominant areas during the first two decades, after which a (modest) pivot can be detected toward biblical exegesis and grammar (including Karaite studies), all of which are centered within the Spanish or Sefardic milieu. Jewish law is mentioned during this period in only one title; although Jewry law and Jewish monuments in Germany are more fully discussed, there is nary a word about Jewish creativity in northern Europe. In the late 1950’s, however, trends in Provencal talmudic scholarship are analyzed, along with the status of the Jews in southern France more broadly. In the ensuing decades, detailed studies appear about dream theory in SEFER @HASIDIM and aspects of the structure of this work and a related one; the formation of Tosafist literature; and the history of HALAKHAH and rabbinic theories of communal government in medieval Ashkenaz, to mention but a few. In addition, Jewish-Christian relations and tensions in northern Europe are studied against the full range of Jewish and Christian sources. And, for the first time, the geonic-Andalusian YESHIVOT and the rabbinic literature which they produced are also treated. This paper seeks to further delineate and account for these trends, in light of developments in both American and Israeli academia and research during the twentieth century.

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