Tzvi Novick
University of Notre Dame, Theology, Faculty Member
- Jewish Studies, Early Judaism (2nd Temple, Greco-Roman), Dead Sea Scrolls (Religion), Rabbinics, Jewish Law, Daniel Boyarin, and 29 moreJewish Liturgy, Rabbinics, New Testament, Ancient economy, Comparative Semitic Linguistics, Piyyut, Rabbinic Literature, Tobit, Book of Tobit, Hermeneutics, Ancient Hebrew, Pilgrimage and travel to the Holy Land, Theology, Early Christianity, New Testament, Second Temple Judaism, Eschatology and Apocalypticism, Qumran, History of Judaism In Antiquity, Talmud, Apocrypha/Pseudepigrapha, Second Temple Period, Midrash, Halacha, Tanach, History, Jewish Thought, Late Antiquity, Byzantine Studies, and Jewish Aramaicedit
Through a close study of one poem in a geshem ("rain") piyyut sequence by Qillir, I show that it is sometimes possible and fruitful to trace the compositional process by which a paytan selected and combined sources from rabbinic... more
Through a close study of one poem in a geshem ("rain") piyyut sequence by Qillir, I show that it is sometimes possible and fruitful to trace the compositional process by which a paytan selected and combined sources from rabbinic literature, and that a proper understanding of the compositional process can depend on attentiveness to the literary structure of the poem. Thus, by reading piyyut as literature ("reading piyyut," in the title) we learn how piyyut reads rabbinic literature ("piyyut reading").
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Now in print. Open access: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/harvard-theological-review/article/covenant-and-community-in-early-rabbinic-literature/C3BB4B85435D06E93B4CB724F5FFB14B
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This paper identifies a link between two biblical syntagms involving חסד and a rabbinic syntagm involving .חסד The additional information in the rabbinic syntagm allows us to appreciate that the biblical syntagms figure חסד as a... more
This paper identifies a link between two biblical syntagms involving חסד and a rabbinic syntagm involving .חסד The additional information in the rabbinic syntagm allows us to appreciate that the biblical syntagms figure חסד as a measuring line.
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(Submitted 2015)
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This paper is a near-final draft of the seventh chapter of my book, Midrash and Piyyut: Form, Genre, and History (JAJ Supp. 30; Vandenhoek and Ruprecht, 2019), now out.
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The attached is a draft of a sample chapter from my new Introduction to the Scriptures of Israel: History and Theology, now available for purchase:... more
The attached is a draft of a sample chapter from my new Introduction to the Scriptures of Israel: History and Theology, now available for purchase:
https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Scriptures-Israel-History-Theology/dp/0802875424/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1533311878&sr=8-1&keywords=introduction+scriptures+israel+novick
https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Scriptures-Israel-History-Theology/dp/0802875424/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1533311878&sr=8-1&keywords=introduction+scriptures+israel+novick
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(The article recently appeared in an edited volume, Mosebilder [Mohr Siebeck 2017]. The uploaded file is the final version in pre-proof form. I am happy to send a pdf offprint via email.)
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Rabbinic halakhah encompasses numerous areas wherein determination of the facts pertinent to the law appears to demand something like professional expertise. Cases of this sort introduce a dialectical dynamic of interest to the sociology... more
Rabbinic halakhah encompasses numerous areas wherein determination of the facts pertinent to the law appears to demand something like professional expertise. Cases of this sort introduce a dialectical dynamic of interest to the sociology of law. On the one hand, such cases can be construed as rabbinic assertions of authority over the relevant professional field. On the other hand, rabbis undermine their authority insofar as they expose themselves to dependence upon non-rabbinic experts, unless they can either produce experts from within their own ranks, or so frame the relevant laws as to somehow render complex determination of fact less necessary. In this article I take up the relationship between rabbis and butchers, or between rabbinic law and the production and sale of meat. The most significant intersections, real and conceptual, between rabbis and butchers in the classical rabbinic corpus occur around the law of the “torn” animal, the terefah. The article therefore focuses on it, but not to the exclusion of other relevant bodies of law. In part one, I attempt to explain the origins of the innovations in tannaitic terefah law that distinguish it from its biblical and Second Temple predecessors. I suggest that these innovations represent, at least in part, analogical extensions of the law of blemishes. One consequence of the elaboration of terefah law and related bodies of law is rabbinic dependence on a range of professional experts, first and foremost butchers, for determination of relevant facts, and even for clarification of obscure legal terms. Such dependence, and related features of terefah law that arise from the complexity of its factual basis, are the subject of part two. Dependence is one movement in the dynamic described above. The opposite movement is control, in this case over meat production. Whether or not a desire to extend rabbinic control motivated the expansion of terefah law—this question is impossible to answer—we do frequently find rabbis and butchers coming into conflict over terefah law and related areas of law. I offer some brief reflections on such conflicts in part three. An appendix takes up the case of the hunter and the fowler, who are to the domain of undomesticated animals what the butcher is to that of domestic animals.
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The article identifies a set of exegetical forms in tannaitic midrash wherein Scripture is represented as praising or critiquing the biblical characters on whom it reports. I contextualize these forms – the exegetical encomium and the... more
The article identifies a set of exegetical forms in tannaitic midrash wherein Scripture is represented as praising or critiquing the biblical characters on whom it reports. I contextualize these forms – the exegetical encomium and the exegetical invective – in relation to encomiastic forms in Second Temple literature and, more briefly, in relation to Greek exegesis of Homer. The article also uses these forms to trace the complex history of the homiletical material shared by the two schools of tannaitic midrash, the Akivan and the Ishmaelian.
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Scholars typically suppose that legal texts from Qumran do not distinguish between principle and practice. The law does not legitimate lenient accommodations to reality, nor does it explicitly implement stringencies merely as precautions.... more
Scholars typically suppose that legal texts from Qumran do not distinguish between principle and practice. The law does not legitimate lenient accommodations to reality, nor does it explicitly implement stringencies merely as precautions. While this view is no doubt largely correct, there are notable exceptions. This article collects and analyzes these exceptions, and weighs their significance.
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The article considers how Yannai, a liturgical poet of ca. 6th c. CE Byzantine Palestine, integrates legal material into his poems (edushta’ot). The first and longer part of the article focuses on Yannai’s use of rabbinic sources, and in... more
The article considers how Yannai, a liturgical poet of ca. 6th c. CE Byzantine Palestine, integrates legal material into his poems (edushta’ot). The first and longer part of the article focuses on Yannai’s use of rabbinic sources, and in particular, the ways in which he situates the Mishnah in relationship to Scripture. The second part of the article focuses on Yannai’s approaches to Pentateuchal readings that center on law.
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The article consists of two distinct parts, both of which concern scriptural aspects of column 5 of the Community Rule. The first part argues that the root פקד, in its occurrence in the description of priestly activity in this column,... more
The article consists of two distinct parts, both of which concern scriptural aspects of column 5 of the Community Rule. The first part argues that the root פקד, in its occurrence in the description of priestly activity in this column, carries the same sense as דרש, thus “to seek, expound.” Precedent for interchange between these roots is found in late Biblical Hebrew. The second part explains the puzzling use of Isa 2:22 later in the column as dependent on a distinctive interpretation of the word נשמה therein.
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Among the genres that make regular use of the first person in the Second Temple period, the testament and the apocalypse have received widespread attention. I isolate and analyze a different first-person narrative genre, the liturgical... more
Among the genres that make regular use of the first person in the Second Temple period, the testament and the apocalypse have received widespread attention. I isolate and analyze a different first-person narrative genre, the liturgical autobiography. In the liturgical autobiography, the speaker narrates an experience that he has undergone as a way of offering and attempting to elicit in his audience praise of God. I highlight the commonalities between the two best attested instances of the genre, the book of Tobit and Daniel 4, from their shifts in person to their use of Deuteronomy 32. Finally, I reflect on connections between the liturgical autobiography and novel elements in post-classical third-person narrative, especially the book of Ruth.
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The relationship between two 1st or 2nd c. CE Jewish apocalypses, 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch, is complex, and remains unresolved. It is well known that elements of both works occur, predicated of Jeremiah, in a singular rabbinic text, Pesiqta... more
The relationship between two 1st or 2nd c. CE Jewish apocalypses, 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch, is complex, and remains unresolved. It is well known that elements of both works occur, predicated of Jeremiah, in a singular rabbinic text, Pesiqta Rabbati 26. In this paper, I argue that analysis of the development of the traditions underlying 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch must take more serious account of two pararabbinic texts, a pair of laments by the 7th c. Byzantine poet Qillir. Putting these two works in conversation with Qillir illuminates the role of Hebron as a site of worship and pilgrimage in 1st or 2nd c. CE Palestine.
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On the National Library of Israel's October 7 commemoration project. For the formatted version see: https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/gaza-and-jewish-memory.
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I've been thinking a lot about the question of contextualizing the events of the day, which has been a source of much debate, especially in academic circles. I'm still thinking about it, but for now, here's my modest plea: No... more
I've been thinking a lot about the question of contextualizing the events of the day, which has been a source of much debate, especially in academic circles. I'm still thinking about it, but for now, here's my modest plea: No contextualization without explanation.
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A homily for Tisha b'Av and Shabbat Hazon
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See https://www.thelehrhaus.com/commentary/yatziv-pitgam-poetry-as-talmud-commentary/. Attached is the unformatted version in Word.
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This fundamental question lies at the heart of two stories: God suspending Mount Sinai over the Israelites to compel them to accept the Torah, and Joshua, with the Jordan River suspended over the Israelites, compelling them to accept... more
This fundamental question lies at the heart of two stories: God suspending Mount Sinai over the Israelites to compel them to accept the Torah, and Joshua, with the Jordan River suspended over the Israelites, compelling them to accept mutual responsibility for each other's private sins.
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Poems by Rahel and Leah Goldberg
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This seminar brings together scholars sharing an interest in an emerging subfield within rabbinic literature, in line with developments in adjacent disciplines. A growing number of projects and publications attest to an increasing... more
This seminar brings together scholars sharing an interest in an emerging subfield within rabbinic literature, in line with developments in adjacent disciplines. A growing number of projects and publications attest to an increasing awareness of new approaches (historical anthropology, cultural studies, critical science studies, gender studies) to the study of ancient sciences. Moreover, the diverse nature of ancient knowledge, its socio-historical contexts and varied ways of knowledge transfer have come more into focus.
Earlier studies typically assumed the idealized Graeco-Roman scientific thinking as the foil against which one retrieves parallels and influences, without paying attention to the plurality of cultural transfers and endemic developments in Late Antiquity. This seminar on rabbinic knowledge culture(s) from a comparative perspective engages a broader approach, asking how manifestations of different forms of ancient knowing impacted on the period under discussion, and in turn were shaped by larger socio-historical, cultural and religious formations. The contributions will inquire into different but interrelated fields of knowledge about nature and creatures (Watts Belser; Neis; Hayes), the body and medicine (Fonrobert, Lehmhaus), law, truth and philosophy (Hidary; Hayes), the senses and spatiality (Mandsager; Novick; Kalmin), and ethnography (Redfield). Special attention will be paid (e.g., by Kalmin; Hayes; Neis; Watts Belser; Fonrobert, Hoffmann Libson) to modes, practices, and concepts of knowing and reasoning (e.g., embodied knowledge; empiricism and theory; exegetical approaches) as well as to their epistemic dimensions (e.g., conceptualization of 'scientific' knowledge in ancient cultures and its embeddeness within other knowledge complexes; the "Jewishness" of knowledge in rabbinic texts). Papers will address rabbinic conceptions of knowledge transfer, acquisition or displacement with a focus on strategies of framing or representing expertise and experts in certain genres and discursive contexts (e.g., lists, de-/prescriptive narratives, Halakhic debates, compilational, encyclopaedic or epitomizing discourses).
The papers and discussions within this seminar shall help to increase the awareness for the topic within Jewish studies and beyond. Furthermore, the seminar will start a dialogue about methodological and theoretical issues at stake in such inquiries and it aims at fostering collaboration among the involved scholars and forging links between interested colleagues for future research on the topics at hand.
Earlier studies typically assumed the idealized Graeco-Roman scientific thinking as the foil against which one retrieves parallels and influences, without paying attention to the plurality of cultural transfers and endemic developments in Late Antiquity. This seminar on rabbinic knowledge culture(s) from a comparative perspective engages a broader approach, asking how manifestations of different forms of ancient knowing impacted on the period under discussion, and in turn were shaped by larger socio-historical, cultural and religious formations. The contributions will inquire into different but interrelated fields of knowledge about nature and creatures (Watts Belser; Neis; Hayes), the body and medicine (Fonrobert, Lehmhaus), law, truth and philosophy (Hidary; Hayes), the senses and spatiality (Mandsager; Novick; Kalmin), and ethnography (Redfield). Special attention will be paid (e.g., by Kalmin; Hayes; Neis; Watts Belser; Fonrobert, Hoffmann Libson) to modes, practices, and concepts of knowing and reasoning (e.g., embodied knowledge; empiricism and theory; exegetical approaches) as well as to their epistemic dimensions (e.g., conceptualization of 'scientific' knowledge in ancient cultures and its embeddeness within other knowledge complexes; the "Jewishness" of knowledge in rabbinic texts). Papers will address rabbinic conceptions of knowledge transfer, acquisition or displacement with a focus on strategies of framing or representing expertise and experts in certain genres and discursive contexts (e.g., lists, de-/prescriptive narratives, Halakhic debates, compilational, encyclopaedic or epitomizing discourses).
The papers and discussions within this seminar shall help to increase the awareness for the topic within Jewish studies and beyond. Furthermore, the seminar will start a dialogue about methodological and theoretical issues at stake in such inquiries and it aims at fostering collaboration among the involved scholars and forging links between interested colleagues for future research on the topics at hand.
Research Interests: History, Ancient History, Cultural Studies, Comparative Law, Gender Studies, and 14 moreEpistemology, Empiricism, Expertise, Ethnography, History of Science, Talmud, Culture, Late Antiquity, Ancient Near East, Rabbinic Literature, Philosophy of Nature, Encyclopedism, Greco-Roman World, and Science and Technology Studies
This paper examines the place of the saddiq (or tsaddik) in the normative structure of rabbinic thought. It argues that the saddiq plays an important role in briding the tension between the deontological and virtue-oriented normative... more
This paper examines the place of the saddiq (or tsaddik) in the normative structure of rabbinic thought. It argues that the saddiq plays an important role in briding the tension between the deontological and virtue-oriented normative frameworks of rabbinic normativity. The conference paper was first presented in 2021, and I have made some minor changes since. It is slated for appearance in a conference volume, which may be under contract soon.