Ram Ben-Shalom

https://books.google.co.il/books?id=gPAGEQAAQBAJ&pg=PA5&hl=iw&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=1#v=onepage&q&f=false
This exhaustive history of Provençal Jewry examines the key aspects of Jewish life in Provence—cultural, religious, political, economic, and literary—over some 1,500 years. The Jewish response to the Albigensian Crusade, the annexation of Languedoc by the Kingdom of France, and other historical events was an unprecedented cultural florescence that was to have far-reaching and enduring consequences. Crucially, it was in Provence that philosophical and scientific works were first translated from Arabic to Hebrew, allowing the Jews of Christian Europe to absorb and assimilate the achievements of the Jews of Muslim Spain. The emergence in Provence of the Maimonidean-Aristotelian philosophical school sent spiritual shock waves throughout the Jewish world, and it was also in Provence that the first esoteric teachings of kabbalah emerged. But cultural innovations went beyond the religious and philosophical: secular Hebrew poetry written by Jewish troubadors offered a glimpse of Jewish merrymaking, romanticism, and eroticism that drew criticism from the rabbis, and even allowed women’s voices to be assertively raised in the public sphere. First published in Hebrew in 2017 to scholarly acclaim, this is a seminal examination of the crucial role of the Jews of Provence in shaping medieval Jewish culture in the Mediterranean basin.

ספר זה, המוקדש לישראל יעקב יובל, מאגד מאמרים שכתבו עמיתיו וידידיו מתוך דיאלוג עם חיבוריו ועם רעיונותיו המרכזיים הנוגעים ליחסים בין הדתות, ובמיוחד בין יהודים לנוצרים, לאורך הדורות. הם מתכתבים עם גישתו הדיאלוגית וראייתו את היהדות והנצרות כדתות אחיות החיות במחיצה אחת, מודעות כל העת זו לקיומה של זו ומגיבות כל העת זו על הדימויים והסמלים של זו. אחדים מן המאמרים מפנים מבט גם אל הדת האחות השלישית – האסלאם. המאמרים בספר עוסקים ביחסי הדתות לאורך תקופה ארוכה, למן המאה השנייה ועד המאה השמונה עשרה. הם נוגעים בתחומי מחקר שונים – היסטוריה, ספרות, תולדות האמנות וארכיאולוגיה, והם מתפרשים על שטחים גיאוגרפיים נרחבים. לצד מגוון גדול זה מנחה את כולם תפיסת ההדדיות שבין הדתות, ואפשר לומר שיש בהם משום דו־שיח עם גישת הדו־שיח, הפתיחות וההשפעה ההדדית שהנחיל ישראל יובל במחקריו.

"Ram Ben-Shalom offers a detailed analysis of the extent of Jews' exposure to the history of those with whom they lived, and of how they expressed their historical consciousness in encountering them in different contexts. He shows that the Jews in these southern European lands experienced a relatively open society that was sensitive to and knowledgeable about voices from other cultures, and that this had significant consequences for shaping Jewish historical consciousness.

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The historical consciousness of medieval Jewry has engendered lively debate in the scholarly world. The focus in this book is on the historical consciousness of the Jews of Spain and southern France in the late Middle Ages, and specifically on their perceptions of Christianity and Christian history and culture. Ram Ben-Shalom offers a detailed analysis of the extent of Jews' exposure to the history of those with whom they lived, and of how they expressed their historical consciousness in encountering them in different contexts. He shows that the Jews in these southern European lands experienced a relatively open society that was sensitive to and knowledgeable about voices from other cultures, and that this had significant consequences for shaping Jewish historical consciousness.

Five historical subjects receive special attention. What did Jews know of the significance of Rome; of Jesus and the early days of Christianity; of Church history; and of the history of the Iberian monarchies? By reviewing Jewish knowledge in each of these areas, Ben-Shalom demonstrates that despite the negative stereotypes of Jews and Jewry prevalent in Christian literature and despite increasing Jewish familiarity with that literature, Jews were less influenced by Christian thought and theology than by their interactions with Christian society at the local level, and there was no single stereotype that dominated Jewish thought. In numerous instances, in fact, the strict division between the cultures as separate and independent systems seems to have dissolved.

Ram Ben-Shalom contributes to medieval Jewish intellectual history on several levels. First, he demonstrates that in Spain and Southern France, Jews of the later Middle Ages evinced a genuine interest in history, including the history of non-Jews, and that in some cases they were deeply familiar with Christian and sometimes classical historiography. He provides a comprehensive survey of the multiple contexts in which historiographical material was embedded and the many uses to which it was put. In sum, his work enriches our understanding of medieval historiography, polemic, Jewish-Christian relations writ large, the breadth of interests characterizing Provencal and Spanish Jewish communities, and more.

This fascinating and learned study will appeal not only to scholars of Jewish studies and of medieval history and literature, but also to those interested in Christian history and historiography and in the long saga of Jewish-Christian relations."

The literature against the Jews (contra Iudeos) was crucially influential in the shaping of Christianity during the centuries following the crucifixion, particularly during the period when Christianity remained outside official Roman toleration. And yet, this phenomenon did not decline in the Middle Ages when Christianity emerged as the supreme power in the western world and Judaism could no longer threaten it in any way. The Jewish response to this literary practice did not arise for some time, yet from the twelfth century onwards the effort to counter Christian ideological attacks became a central intellectual activity and a pressing concern on the part of Jewish scholars in the West. Although both Latin and Hebrew polemics were often intended, first and foremost, for local audiences in order to satisfy local needs and intellectual demands, they also engaged each other, and raised urgent theological and cultural questions in doing so. This cultural discourse did not just find expression in polemical literature (Nizahon and Adversus Iudaeos) but also in a variety of other representations and daily practices. This collection of studies is devoted to an examination of the significance of this phenomenon as a longue durée process, and pursues its concerns from a variety of innovative perspectives that join together authoritative scholars from the field of Jewish-Christian relations.

When Rabbi Mose Arragel finally agreed to the request of the Duke of Calatrava, Luis de Gúzman, to translate the Hebrew Bible into Castilian, incorporating both ecclesiastical dogma and Jewish, rabbinical exegesis, and to supervise the artwork and production of the 515-page manuscript known today as the Alba Bible, was he aware of the intended readership of this monumental and unique work? Scholars have offered various comprehensive explanations of the historical context and the creation of this symbolic artefact of medieval Spanish convivencia (executed between 1422 and 1433). This paper suggests a further explanation—that the work was in fact intended by Arragel primarily for a converso readership, based on the premise that Arragel’s syncretistic Castilian project, which integrates pictures (miniatures) and texts (glosses) into a Jewish-Christian theology, was part of a new catechistic agenda aimed at the group of forced converts and conversos, following an initial program developed by Profayt Duran in Aragon.

This article offers a new approach to Profayt Duran's Reproach of the Gentiles (Kelimat ha-goyim), emphasizing the particular place accorded to Paul in this work and reading it against the background of converso Paulinism. This article integrates the idea of Paul the Jew in Reproach of the Gentiles with the broader ideology that Duran developed regarding the forced converts (ʾanusim) in his other writings. To some extent, based on the ambivalence in his views and his divided personality, Paul could serve as a model for those conversos now required to develop, like him, a divided identity and ambivalent positions. Thus, Profayt Duran should be considered a forerunner of converso Paulinism.

Study and edition of a letter written in rhymed prose contained in the epistolographic formulary by Yom Tov Ben annah, scribe to the Jewish community of Montalbán, in the Kingdom of Aragon. Written a few years after 1391 by the scribe on behalf of the local aljama, the letter was sent to the trustees of the Jewish community of Daroca, and its purpose was to collect money from Yosef Caro, a Jewish smith who had fled from Montalbán to there, following a dispute with another elderly smith who was an apostate. A reading of the Hebrew text shows that the conflict goes beyond a simple dispute between crafts-men, and involves a clash between Jews and their former brethren. This new phenomenon of mass conversion is also corroborated by a Hebrew poem of the Montalbán's Jewish scribe that is edited and translated in addition. The analysis of the text reflects the tension between Jews and converts in the aftermath of the 1391 riots.