Abarbanel

Financier and courtier to the kings of Portugal, Spain, and Italy and Spanish Jewry's foremost representative at court at the time of its 1492 expulsion, Isaac Abarbanel was also Judaism's leading scholar at the turn of the sixteenth century. His work has had a profound influence on both his contemporaries and later thinkers, Jewish and Christian. Isaac Abarbanel's Stance Toward Tradition is the first full-length study of Abarbanel in half a century. The book considers a wide range of Abarbanel's writings, focusing for the first time on the dominant exegetical side of his intellectual achievements as reflected in biblical commentaries and messianic writings. Author Eric Lawee approaches Abarbanel's work from the perspective of his negotiations with texts and teachings bequeathed to him from the Jewish past. The work provides insight into the important spiritual and intellectual developments in late medieval and early modern Judaism while offering a portrait of a complex scholar whose stance before tradition combined conservatism with creativity and reverence with daring.

"This exceedingly rich and well-written book offers students of Jewish intellectual history and historians of scriptural exegesis, for the first time, a study of Abarbanel as biblical commentator. Lawee argues convincingly for Abarbanel's merit as a 'harvester' and a 'builder'--harvesting the fruits of his predecessors and building his own edifice upon their efforts. This book is bound to become the definitive study of medieval Jewry's last great biblical parshan (commentator)." -- Charles H. Manekin, coeditor of The Jewish Philosophy Reader

"Lawee's nuanced analysis results in a more accurate understanding of Abarbanel's legacy in the context of Renaissance humanism. Abarbanel emerges as a deeply learned Jewish intellectual, who defended Judaism against its detractors by entering a creative dialogue with ancient, medieval, and contemporary authors." -- Hava Tirosh-Samuelson, Arizona State University

This article addresses the discrepancies within Biblical sources concerning the parentage of Queen Athaliah of Judah whether she is a daughter of Omri, king of Israel or Ahab, king of Israel. The article also discusses the three marriages recorded in Biblical and rabbinic texts between the royalty of the Kingdom of Judah and the Kingdom of Israel as well as answers questions regarding the apparent incestual nature of one of those marriages.

Quando estudamos a Bíblia no judaísmo progressista, temos que ler o texto com três olhos: buscar o que o texto significou historicamente, buscar o que o texto significa hoje em dia para nós, e buscar como o texto foi interpretado na tradição judaica. Temos grandes comentaristas bíblicos judeus clássicos: Rashi do Norte da França, Kimchi do sul da França, Ibn Ezra e Nachmanides da Espanha, Sforno da Itália. Mas será que existe também uma tradição portuguesa da explicação judaica da Bíblia? – Existe. ... Ler o artigo ► http://hehaver-oheljacob.org/?p=5437

The Haggadah has the following anecdote:  "It is told of Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Joshua, Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah, Rabbi Akiba and Rabbi Tarfon, that they were one reclining around their Passover table at Bnei Brak…." Bnei Brak is a place already mentioned in Joshua 19:45 and in an Akkadian text about conquests of King Sancherib in 701 BCE and should therefore not be problematic to translate. However, Kurdish Jews would traditionally translate  " reclining at Bnei Brak " as " reclining on silk cushions " ! They follow the 15th-century Portuguese Jewish statesman, philosopher, and Bible commentator Don Yitzchak Abarbanel who explains the term " Bnei Brak " as " silk cushions ". It is interesting to see if Abarbanel's opinion had made its way into other translations. Therefore, I decided to see if I could find silk cushions in any of the English translations of the Haggadah which I am researching. Along the way I found zionistic trends in the translations.

This paper traces various interpretations for the reason of the Biblical shunning of the nations Ammon and Moab. The Torah in the Book of Deuteronomy seems to condemn them for not offering the Israelites food and water in their desert sojourns, but more analysis reveals more.

This is is the first essay of my series, "Rethinking Orthodoxy and Biblical Criticism".  In it I lay out why both rabbinic and reigning source critical methodologies fail to adequately account for the discrepancies between Deuteronomy and the other books of the Pentateuch.