The King-Maker: Jewish Adaptations of Christian Legends (original) (raw)
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Medieval Encounters 28/4 , 2022
Among a unique collection of stories in Hebrew manuscript copied in the sixteenth century and found at the National Library of Israel (NLI) are twenty-seven hagiographic tales about the prominent Jewish pietist of Medieval Germany, Rabbi Judah the Pious (d. 1217) and his father Rabbi Shmuel ben Kalonymus. Scholars have suggested that the entire original collection dates back to ca. 1300 and echoes the lives, concerns, and ideals of thirteenth-century Ashkenazi Jews. However, some of the hagiographic tales found in the collection seem to have been written later, appropriating the figure of the mystical Rabbi Judah and using it in stories from the fifteenth century that were set in his city, Regensburg. Told by the Jews of this city, the tales of Rabbi Judah and his magical abilities seem to have fulfilled the needs and concerns of the community in the turbulent late fifteenth century. The paper analyzes three of these stories, demonstrating how they correspond with the realities of this time and suggesting the possible roles the tales of Rabbi Judah and his miracles played for Regensburg Jewry as they contended with the hardships of daily life and the shadow of expulsion that loomed large over the community in this period.
Encyclopedia of JewishFolklore and Tradition: 'The Jewis Pope'; 'Ma'aseh Bukh'
The story about a pope of Jewish origins came from a narrative cycle that circulated among the medieval Donau and Rhine communities. According to this tradition, Elh³anan, the son of Rabbi Simeon the Great of Mainz, was kidnapped from his father's house by his Christian nurse, was raised by gentiles, and on account of his erudition became a pope, and as such he was widely known for his great wisdom. One day, he wanted to trace back his family roots so as to finde out the source of his wisdom. When his entourage told him that he had been stolen from the Jews, he demanded that Rabbi Simeon the Great be brought before him. According to earlier versions, the father recognized his son by certain marks on his body, while according to later versions (from the Mayse Bukh [Story Book] onward), the son's identity was revealed to his father in the course of a chess game they played together.
The story of the death of R. Eliezer in bSanhedrin 68a is much less well-known than the story of which it may be seen as the sequel, the story of tanur shel 'akhnai. 1 The more famous story ends with the tragic aftermath, both to R. Eliezer and to the rabbinic community, of the excommunication of R. Eliezer, and this less-famous story picks up, an undetermined length of time later, the narrative of the sage who has been expelled from his community. In this article, I will offer some thoughts on this story, focusing in particular on the obscure halakhic discussion in which R. Eliezer's colleagues engage the dying sage. I will discuss possible ways in which elements of this discussion might have resonated for the story's audience within the intertextual field of significances of rabbinic literature.
Folklore in Rabbinic Literature
The main cultural activity during the rabbinic period took place in the academy (Beit ha-Midrash) and in the synagogue. Learned activity took place in the former, a kind of academy and legislature in one, wherein the principal compositions of the period were produced -the Talmud and the Midrash. The synagogue served as a spiritual center for the various strata of society, including women and children, and was by its very nature more "popular". 1 The Babylonian Talmud has preserved evidence of this: "R. Ishmael b. Eleazar said: On account of two sins 'amme ha-arez ["the simple,
When Rabbi Eliezer was Arrested for Heresy
2012
Introduction: A Shared History This study is part of a larger project the ultimate im of which is to write a shared, twin or intertwined history of Jews and Christians in the first and second centuries CE. The first stage of the project will be to select relevant sources, to describe their liter ary and historical characteristics, and to read and reread them in vie w of their significance vis-à-vis other sources. The second st age will encompass the writing of a historical synthesis of the shared history. We stress the shared aspect of the history because Judaism and Christianity in the ancient world are usually studi ed separately, as though involving not just two distinct histories, b ut also two separate sets of sources, two frameworks of interpretation a nd reflection, two programs of academic teaching, research, and writin g, a d two canons of judgment and review. While Jewish and Christian history can be considered separately in the Middle Ages and later, including modern time...
The Medieval Saint: R. Judah the Pious
2005
The contribution of Joseph Dan to the study of Jewish hagiography, and in particular to the study R. Judah he-Hasid legends is seminal. The following observations should be considered as footnotes to his contribution to this field. R. Judah the Pious was a remarkable individual, and his creative energy comprised many areas of the spiritual life of the Middle Ages. However, from the perspective of the student of literature and folklore, R. Judah was unique. It is well known that the dichotomy of high culture vs. popular culture cuts across the narrative dimension: Jewish scholars, philosophers, and mystics alike considered storytelling a waste of time. The use of narrative is how the unlearned and rustic could be recognized. 1 Apart from a very few religious writers such as R. Nissim of Kairuan, who composed in the 11th century the collection of tales known as An Elegant Composition Concerning Relief after Adversity, and Rashi, who included tales in his commentary on the Babylonian Talmud, Jewish scholars of the Middle-Ages had little interest in stories. 2 This scholarly-elitist attitude can be typified by a statement of R. Eleazar ben Asher ha-Levi, author of Sefer ha-Zikhronot (The Book of Memories), from the beginning of the 14th century. R. Eleazar collected in his book narrative compo-1 Studies of this question in the Christian culture are: Manfred Günter Scholz, Hören und Lesen: Studien zur primären Rezeption der Literatur im 12. und 13.
The Elisha Stories as Saint’s Legends
The Journal of Hebrew Scriptures, 2008
Articles in JHS are being indexed in the ATLA Religion Database, RAMBI, and BiBIL. Their abstracts appear in Religious and Theological Abstracts. The journal is archived by Library and Archives Canada and is accessible for consultation and research at the Electronic Collection site maintained by Library and Archives Canada (for a direct link, click here).
This volume is based on papers presented at a conference held at New York University on 4-5 June 2018 and organized by the editor of the volume in order to stimulate scholarship on rabbinic narratives and provide a venue for its publication. The volume is marked as the first, probably suggesting that the initiative will be continued. The eleven papers presented in the conference and published in the volume are preluded with an introduction written by Jeffrey Rubenstein, who has already on different occasions provided us with helpful state-of-the-art reviews on research into rabbinic narrative and has now authored an overview of developments in the interpretation of rabbinic stories over the last fifty years. Since most of the attention is devoted to the last decades of American scholarship, the work of all his colleagues and their students is highlighted. Among other methodological notes, Rubenstein noticed something that particularly caught my attention and has been useful in composing this review:
Encyclopedia of the Bible Online, 2013