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Papers by Shari Lowin
Journal of the International Qur'anic Studies Association, 2017
Journal of Qur'anic Studies , 2019
In Q. 5:64, the Qur'an accuses the Jews of describing God as a deity with a chained (maghlūla) ha... more In Q. 5:64, the Qur'an accuses the Jews of describing God as a deity with a chained (maghlūla) hand, a charge the Qur'an understands as indicating divine miserliness. However, a foray into Jewish teachings reveals that no such statement of God's niggardliness can be found in the Jewish tradition. While scholars have suggested Psalms 72:11
and Lamentations 2:3 as possible sources, in both the image is of a deity withdrawing His military might, not His financial bounty. Insistence on these as the inspiration behind the Qur'an's words ignores the substance of the Qur'an's claim.
This article argues instead that Q. 5:64 is reacting to a midrashic motif embedded in a liturgical poem (piyyut) recited on the Ninth of Av, the day commemorating the destruction of the First and Second Temples. Here God chains His own hand in empathy with the exiled and traumatised captives, a move also understood as guaranteeing Israel's eventual
redemption. Additionally, I argue that the Qur'anic transmutation of this image into one that concerns finances is intentional. In turning the midrashic declaration of God's continued relationship with Israel into a blasphemous accusation of parsimoniousness, the Qur'an argues against the continued Jewish understanding of themselves as
God's favoured.
The Journal of Religion, 2006
Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 2007
... by Victor H. Matthews. ... These cover major figures like David, Ezekiel, Moses, and Muhammad... more ... by Victor H. Matthews. ... These cover major figures like David, Ezekiel, Moses, and Muhammad, general articles on asceticism, divination, prophet, and temple, as well as methodological entries on form and textual criticism and on speech act theory. ...
Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 2007
Jewish and Muslim exegetical narratives on the shared forefathers (known as midrash aggadah and t... more Jewish and Muslim exegetical narratives on the shared forefathers (known as midrash aggadah and tafs ır ⁄ h : adīth=qis : as : al-anbiy a ' ⁄ isr a'iliyy at) have long been recognized as a meeting point of Judaism and Islam. Early studies of the forefathers, Abraham in particular, strove to 'prove' that much of what appeared in the Islamic exegetical materials derived from the traditions that predated Islam, mainly Judaism. More recent scholarship has abandoned such a reductionist approach for a more moderated view. Studies of the Jewish and Muslim exegetical material on Abraham show that while scholars continue to trace the historical development of the Muslim exegetical narratives, they also look to uncover the inner meaning of the narratives themselves. This article traces the shift from the purely reductionist treatment of the Muslim and Jewish exegetical narratives to the more nuanced approach, especially as it applies to Abraham. Four categories of Abrahamic motifs are singled out here: Abraham and his sacrifice of his son, Abraham and his relationship with Sarah, Abraham and his later visit to Ishmael, and narratives relating to Abraham's birth and early life.
Books by Shari Lowin
by Josef (Yousef) Meri, S. Boustani, Aomar Boum, Umar Ryad, Judith Frishman, Shari Lowin, Ben Gidley, Ivan Kalmar, Edwin Seroussi, Matthew Wilkinson, Akbar Ahmed, Judith L. Goldstein, David Waines, Peter Wien, and Daniel Schroeter
Edited by Josef Meri The Routledge Handbook of Muslim-Jewish Relations invites readers to deepen... more Edited by Josef Meri
The Routledge Handbook of Muslim-Jewish Relations invites readers to deepen their understanding of the historical, social, cultural, and political themes that impact modern-day perceptions of interfaith dialogue. The volume is designed to illuminate positive encounters between Muslims and Jews as well as points of conflict within a historical framework. Among other goals, the volume seeks to correct common misperceptions about the history of Muslim-Jewish relations by complicating familiar political narratives to include dynamics such as the cross-influence of literary and intellectual traditions. Reflecting unique and original collaborations between internationally renowned contributors, the book is intended to spark further collaborative and constructive conversation and scholarship in the academy and beyond.
This comparative analysis examines the Islamic and Jewish exegetical narratives [ḥadīth/qiṣaṣ al-... more This comparative analysis examines the Islamic and Jewish exegetical narratives [ḥadīth/qiṣaṣ al-anbiyā’ and midrash aggadah] on the early life of the forefather Abraham. It reveals how the traditions utilized one another’s materials in creating and re-creating the patriarch in their own image.
Each chapter examines a particular motif in Abraham’s development, from the prophecy surrounding his birth to his discovery of God and polemics with pagans to his salvation in the fiery furnace of Chaldea. Indexes of the more salient rabbinic or Islamic texts follow at the end of each chapter.
The work is particularly valuable for scholars of rabbinics and Islamicists alike; it challenges earlier scholarship by revealing that the Islamic and Jewish exegetical traditions were not entirely distinct traditions but were intertextually related, mutually giving and receiving ideas
This work presents a study of an overlooked category of Arabic and Hebrew poetry produced in Musl... more This work presents a study of an overlooked category of Arabic and Hebrew poetry produced in Muslim Spain: poems of desire produced by Muslim and Jewish religious scholars, in which the lover’s sensual experience of the beloved is compared to Scriptural characters and storylines. The book moves away from previous scholarship which states that both the sexual tropes and the biblical allusions in Andalusian secular poetry serve as poetic “ornamentation” only. This book approaches the materials from a new angle, examining not only the existence of the Scriptural referents but, more significantly, the ways in which the poets used the sacred accounts and characters . In doing this, the work reads the poems against two different, not commonly linked bodies of materials. On the first level, Sex and God compares the poems and their Scriptural referents to the Andalusian tropes of poetry common in the day. The analysis then moves to examining the referents in light of both classical and contemporary exegesis. This brings into relief the ways in which the religious poets resembled or deviated from the accepted interpretation of their traditions.
This new and unique investigation into the poems and into Scripture shows that the Muslim and Jewish religious scholar-poets used their religious traditions as far more than just literary embellishment. Namely, the book shows that the Arabic poems drew parallels between their lovers and the Muslim scriptural and exegetical corpus in order to sanctify earthly, profane, love. The Jewish scholar-poets used their poetry and scriptural/exegetical corpus to an opposite end; the Hebrew poems surveyed here embedded in their love poetry subtle and subversive Biblical exegesis.
"Arabic and Hebrew Love Poems of Al-Andalus" thus expands the traditional understanding of the Muslim and Jewish attitudes toward the presumed borders between the secular and religious realms of literary productions. Additionally, in recognizing that the scholar-poets served as religious authorities while simultaneously acting as literary rebels against religion, we gain a deeper vision of the flexibility of each culture’s self-conception, of what was deemed “acceptable” pious behavior. In fact, this project calls into question the very notion of a required religious division between a “passion for pleasures” and a passion for God.
HUC Press - New Publications by Shari Lowin
Hebrew Union College Annual, 2019
Contents ix A Note from the Editors of the Hebrew Union College Annual 1 Ezekiel 20: A New Reda... more Contents
ix A Note from the Editors of the Hebrew Union College Annual
1 Ezekiel 20: A New Redaction-Critical Analysis David Frankel, Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies
27 Authorship, Attribution, and Authority: Jeremiah, Baruch, and the Rabbinic Interpretation of Lamentations Jason Kalman, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion; University of the Free State, South Africa
89 Haredi Jewish Boys Choirs and the Performance of a Secure Future Gordon Dale, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
113 Introduction to “The Making of Moses” Mark Leuchter and Zev Farber
121 Moses the Transjordanian Prophet Zev Farber, Project TABS – TheTorah.com; The Shalom Hartman Institute, Jerusalem
141 Moses like David: Prototypes in the Deuteronomistic History Alison L. Joseph, The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization
163 Moses Between the Pentateuch and the Book of the Twelve Mark Leuchter, Temple University
185 The Apocalyptic Moses of Second Temple Judaism Alexandria Frisch, Ursinus College
209 “A King and a Scribe like Moses”: The Reception of Deuteronomy 34:10 and a Rabbinic Theory of Collective Biblical Authorship Rebecca Scharbach Wollenberg, University of Michigan
227 “A Prophet Like Moses”? What Can We Know About the Early Jewish Responses to Muḥammad’s Claims of Mosesness? Shari L. Lowin, Stonehill College
257 The End of Moses Rachel Havrelock, University of Illinois at Chicago
Journal of the International Qur'anic Studies Association, 2017
Journal of Qur'anic Studies , 2019
In Q. 5:64, the Qur'an accuses the Jews of describing God as a deity with a chained (maghlūla) ha... more In Q. 5:64, the Qur'an accuses the Jews of describing God as a deity with a chained (maghlūla) hand, a charge the Qur'an understands as indicating divine miserliness. However, a foray into Jewish teachings reveals that no such statement of God's niggardliness can be found in the Jewish tradition. While scholars have suggested Psalms 72:11
and Lamentations 2:3 as possible sources, in both the image is of a deity withdrawing His military might, not His financial bounty. Insistence on these as the inspiration behind the Qur'an's words ignores the substance of the Qur'an's claim.
This article argues instead that Q. 5:64 is reacting to a midrashic motif embedded in a liturgical poem (piyyut) recited on the Ninth of Av, the day commemorating the destruction of the First and Second Temples. Here God chains His own hand in empathy with the exiled and traumatised captives, a move also understood as guaranteeing Israel's eventual
redemption. Additionally, I argue that the Qur'anic transmutation of this image into one that concerns finances is intentional. In turning the midrashic declaration of God's continued relationship with Israel into a blasphemous accusation of parsimoniousness, the Qur'an argues against the continued Jewish understanding of themselves as
God's favoured.
The Journal of Religion, 2006
Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 2007
... by Victor H. Matthews. ... These cover major figures like David, Ezekiel, Moses, and Muhammad... more ... by Victor H. Matthews. ... These cover major figures like David, Ezekiel, Moses, and Muhammad, general articles on asceticism, divination, prophet, and temple, as well as methodological entries on form and textual criticism and on speech act theory. ...
Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 2007
Jewish and Muslim exegetical narratives on the shared forefathers (known as midrash aggadah and t... more Jewish and Muslim exegetical narratives on the shared forefathers (known as midrash aggadah and tafs ır ⁄ h : adīth=qis : as : al-anbiy a ' ⁄ isr a'iliyy at) have long been recognized as a meeting point of Judaism and Islam. Early studies of the forefathers, Abraham in particular, strove to 'prove' that much of what appeared in the Islamic exegetical materials derived from the traditions that predated Islam, mainly Judaism. More recent scholarship has abandoned such a reductionist approach for a more moderated view. Studies of the Jewish and Muslim exegetical material on Abraham show that while scholars continue to trace the historical development of the Muslim exegetical narratives, they also look to uncover the inner meaning of the narratives themselves. This article traces the shift from the purely reductionist treatment of the Muslim and Jewish exegetical narratives to the more nuanced approach, especially as it applies to Abraham. Four categories of Abrahamic motifs are singled out here: Abraham and his sacrifice of his son, Abraham and his relationship with Sarah, Abraham and his later visit to Ishmael, and narratives relating to Abraham's birth and early life.
by Josef (Yousef) Meri, S. Boustani, Aomar Boum, Umar Ryad, Judith Frishman, Shari Lowin, Ben Gidley, Ivan Kalmar, Edwin Seroussi, Matthew Wilkinson, Akbar Ahmed, Judith L. Goldstein, David Waines, Peter Wien, and Daniel Schroeter
Edited by Josef Meri The Routledge Handbook of Muslim-Jewish Relations invites readers to deepen... more Edited by Josef Meri
The Routledge Handbook of Muslim-Jewish Relations invites readers to deepen their understanding of the historical, social, cultural, and political themes that impact modern-day perceptions of interfaith dialogue. The volume is designed to illuminate positive encounters between Muslims and Jews as well as points of conflict within a historical framework. Among other goals, the volume seeks to correct common misperceptions about the history of Muslim-Jewish relations by complicating familiar political narratives to include dynamics such as the cross-influence of literary and intellectual traditions. Reflecting unique and original collaborations between internationally renowned contributors, the book is intended to spark further collaborative and constructive conversation and scholarship in the academy and beyond.
This comparative analysis examines the Islamic and Jewish exegetical narratives [ḥadīth/qiṣaṣ al-... more This comparative analysis examines the Islamic and Jewish exegetical narratives [ḥadīth/qiṣaṣ al-anbiyā’ and midrash aggadah] on the early life of the forefather Abraham. It reveals how the traditions utilized one another’s materials in creating and re-creating the patriarch in their own image.
Each chapter examines a particular motif in Abraham’s development, from the prophecy surrounding his birth to his discovery of God and polemics with pagans to his salvation in the fiery furnace of Chaldea. Indexes of the more salient rabbinic or Islamic texts follow at the end of each chapter.
The work is particularly valuable for scholars of rabbinics and Islamicists alike; it challenges earlier scholarship by revealing that the Islamic and Jewish exegetical traditions were not entirely distinct traditions but were intertextually related, mutually giving and receiving ideas
This work presents a study of an overlooked category of Arabic and Hebrew poetry produced in Musl... more This work presents a study of an overlooked category of Arabic and Hebrew poetry produced in Muslim Spain: poems of desire produced by Muslim and Jewish religious scholars, in which the lover’s sensual experience of the beloved is compared to Scriptural characters and storylines. The book moves away from previous scholarship which states that both the sexual tropes and the biblical allusions in Andalusian secular poetry serve as poetic “ornamentation” only. This book approaches the materials from a new angle, examining not only the existence of the Scriptural referents but, more significantly, the ways in which the poets used the sacred accounts and characters . In doing this, the work reads the poems against two different, not commonly linked bodies of materials. On the first level, Sex and God compares the poems and their Scriptural referents to the Andalusian tropes of poetry common in the day. The analysis then moves to examining the referents in light of both classical and contemporary exegesis. This brings into relief the ways in which the religious poets resembled or deviated from the accepted interpretation of their traditions.
This new and unique investigation into the poems and into Scripture shows that the Muslim and Jewish religious scholar-poets used their religious traditions as far more than just literary embellishment. Namely, the book shows that the Arabic poems drew parallels between their lovers and the Muslim scriptural and exegetical corpus in order to sanctify earthly, profane, love. The Jewish scholar-poets used their poetry and scriptural/exegetical corpus to an opposite end; the Hebrew poems surveyed here embedded in their love poetry subtle and subversive Biblical exegesis.
"Arabic and Hebrew Love Poems of Al-Andalus" thus expands the traditional understanding of the Muslim and Jewish attitudes toward the presumed borders between the secular and religious realms of literary productions. Additionally, in recognizing that the scholar-poets served as religious authorities while simultaneously acting as literary rebels against religion, we gain a deeper vision of the flexibility of each culture’s self-conception, of what was deemed “acceptable” pious behavior. In fact, this project calls into question the very notion of a required religious division between a “passion for pleasures” and a passion for God.
Hebrew Union College Annual, 2019
Contents ix A Note from the Editors of the Hebrew Union College Annual 1 Ezekiel 20: A New Reda... more Contents
ix A Note from the Editors of the Hebrew Union College Annual
1 Ezekiel 20: A New Redaction-Critical Analysis David Frankel, Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies
27 Authorship, Attribution, and Authority: Jeremiah, Baruch, and the Rabbinic Interpretation of Lamentations Jason Kalman, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion; University of the Free State, South Africa
89 Haredi Jewish Boys Choirs and the Performance of a Secure Future Gordon Dale, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
113 Introduction to “The Making of Moses” Mark Leuchter and Zev Farber
121 Moses the Transjordanian Prophet Zev Farber, Project TABS – TheTorah.com; The Shalom Hartman Institute, Jerusalem
141 Moses like David: Prototypes in the Deuteronomistic History Alison L. Joseph, The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization
163 Moses Between the Pentateuch and the Book of the Twelve Mark Leuchter, Temple University
185 The Apocalyptic Moses of Second Temple Judaism Alexandria Frisch, Ursinus College
209 “A King and a Scribe like Moses”: The Reception of Deuteronomy 34:10 and a Rabbinic Theory of Collective Biblical Authorship Rebecca Scharbach Wollenberg, University of Michigan
227 “A Prophet Like Moses”? What Can We Know About the Early Jewish Responses to Muḥammad’s Claims of Mosesness? Shari L. Lowin, Stonehill College
257 The End of Moses Rachel Havrelock, University of Illinois at Chicago