Jewish/Israeli Studies

Although the literature does not provide much information on the membership of Eli Cohen in, the Order of Freemasons, it is clear from the findings in the article that his membership in the Order and Learning his principles constituted an important factor in his life.

In the following article we will examine at length some of the dynamics by which R. Yosef Hayyim of Baghdad—the renowned Ben Ish Hai (1834–1909) - integrated Kabbalah into daily life, and the complex way that he combined the teachings of the Rashash with simplified, esoteric practices meant for the general public. Needless to say, the relationship between the Kabbalists of Jerusalem and R. Yosef Hayyim illuminates a fascinating chapter in the history of Kabbalah in the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century.

http://mj.oxfordjournals.org/content/33/2/148.short?rss=1

Thesis submitted for the degree of
“Doctor of Philosophy”
by
Shlomo Tikochinski
Submitted to the Senate of the Hebrew University
December 2009

ישנם שינויים בין עבודת הדוקטור לבין הספר 'למדנות מוסר ואליטיזם'. ולטובת הדוקטורט - הממכיל עוד כמה דברים מעניינים על קלם, על ר' אברהם גרודזינסקי ועוד

Megaleh Temirin (Revealer of Secrets), first published in Vienna in 1819, is one of the sharpest and wittiest pieces of Jewish literature written in the first half of the nineteenth century, and is perhaps the most important piece of Hebrew prose composed before the stories of Mendele Mocher Seforim. A sly and complex story deriding Hasidism and Hasidim, it is told through the correspondence between the beadles of Hasidic courts and contemporary rabbis, and it presents a dark picture of  avaricious frauds and swindlers whose main concern was control over territory and the souls of believers, a goal achieved by beguiling the authorities and attacking all opponents. Perl lends his book a ‘Hasidic’ feel both in its physical design and in its language, presenting a Maskilic version of In Praise of the Ba’al Shem Tov that lays Hasidism bare so that no reader will ever be able to look at that, or any other Hasidic book, in the same way again. In addition to the book’s satiric sting, which would have been enough to bring its readers a dual pleasure, Perl’s hints at contemporary people and places, hidden within anagrams and numerological tricks. With the unraveling of these clues, which also include the use of actual Hasidic sources, the book is a valuable, contemporary view of historical reality. A meticulous reading of the book may therefore open a window on the hidden worlds of Hasidism and the Haskalah at the start of the nineteenth century.

The first volume (Imagined Hasidism) serves as an introduction to the complex satirical writings of Josef Perl of Tarnopol (1773-1839). At the center of the book stands an analysis of the satires, Megaleh Temirin (1819) and Bochen Tzadik (1838), including a systematic treatment of the ‘characters’ in the central works and a discussion of the dozens of manuscripts to be found in the Perl Archive in Jerusalem. Perl’s writings are analyzed here in the fuller context of Hebrew and Yiddish literature in general and Maskilic and Hasidic literature in particular, as well as other polemical writings and governmental records critical of Hasidism. The study thus presents a complex and nuanced picture of the relationship between literature and history, between the anti-Hasidic reports and the more complicated historical reality, and lays the groundwork for further research into the genre of nineteenth-century Maskilic satire.

The second and third volumes (Megaleh Temirin) present for the first time an annotated edition of Megaleh Temirin. It is based on the first edition and the scattered manuscripts and it includes a comparison to its Yiddish translation. The book is accompanied by appendices on its origins and contents, including fundamental treatments of several passages: an explication of the encoded names, the Hasidic sources used by the author, and the variants found in the manuscripts and in the only edition of the book in Yiddish.

The editor of the book, Professor Jonatan Meir, teaches in the Goldstein-Goren Department of Jewish Thought at Ben-Gurion University. He has published several articles on the Haskalah of Eastern Europe, Hasidism, and a number of varied topics in twentieth-century Kabbalah.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Contents


Introduction                                                                                     
Scholarship on the anti-Hasidic writings of Josef Perl • Hasidic hagiography and the emergence of satire • Two-fold reading of Perl’s writings and the gematriyot • Satire, literature, and history • ‘Holy Books’ and subversive books

Chapter 1: Josef Perl, Rabbi Nathan of Nemirov, and the ‘Holy Books’
Prayer of the fall of Hasidism and the expungement of their books • Sefer Shivhe ha-Besht and the critique of hagiography • Sefer Sipurey Ma‘asiyot and the parodic response to it • Rabbi Nathan of Nemirov, ‘heretical books’ and the ‘Holy Books’ • In praise of the true Tsaddikim • ‘Laughter of the heretics’: testimonies about the polemics against Sefer Shivhe ha-Besht • ‘Holy Books’, ‘sacredness of hagiography’, and parodies of hagiography • Appendix: Parodic manuscript about an opponent of the ‘Holy Books’ who was reborn as a horse

Chapter 2: Speaking Names in Sefer Megale Temirin                             
Time of the composition of Megale Temirin, censorship, and a note on the Buch • Hasidic books and the emergence of parody • Structure of Sefer Megale Temirin • The Introduction to Sefer Megale Temirin • Main Hasidic courts • The court in Żołyń (Łożne) and the peregrinations of the Buch • The court of Dishpal (Międzyboż), moneyboxes of the Besht, the holy relics • The court in Aklo (Olika) and the ritualized reading of Sefer Shivhe ha-Besht • Function of the footnotes and the parodic hagiography • History of the rabbis – clandestine opponents of Hasidism • The Besht in Tarnopol • Rabbi Meir Jacob of Zasław and the letters from Galicja  • Zaddikim in Galicja • Ciphered stories • ‘Holy Places’: reincarnations of a praise from Sefer Shivhe ha-Besht • The revelation of the Buch and the death of the secretary • ‘Gang of criminals’: another death and an escape to the Land of Israel • The End: Ovadia Ben Petahia and the rabbi of Opatów

Chapter 3: Joseph Perl, Hirsh of Zydaczów, and the Polemics of Gematriyot
Reb Zevi Hirsh of Zydaczów and Hasidism in Galicja • Maskilic opposition to the Zydaczówer • Letters concealed in Sefer Megale Temirin • A manuscript about the misdeeds of the Hasidim • Books, education, and a note on Reb Nathan of Nemirov • Zydaczówer’s ban on the Maskilim and the first Gematria • Parodic letter of Perl and the second Gematria • About the parodic letter and the jumble of gematriyot • Denunciation and expulsions of R Zevi Hirsh • ‘Father of impurity’: Joseph Perl and the writings of the rabbi of Komarno • Final note • Appendix: Parodic letter against the Zydaczówer

Chapter 4: Speaking Names in the Book of Sefer Bohen Zaddik               
The manuscript of Sefer Bohen Zaddik and the difficulties with its publication • Structure of the book • In search for the true Zaddik and the rabbi of Opatów • Travels of Ovadia Ben Petahia between the towns of Galicja • Kromcza Ruska (Zaleszczyki) or the entrance to Galicja • ‘Briks’ (Tarnopol): Rabbi Jehoshua Heschel Babad and the school • ‘Bicik’ (Lemberg) Rabbi Jacob Orenstein and a ban on the Maskilim • ‘Abdera’ (Brody) Rabbi Ephraim Zalman Margaliot and Sefer ha-Zoref • The explanation of the names of the rabbis • Utopia and dystopia • The hidden butcher and his kabbalistic writings • The discovery of the colonies • The image of the disciples of the Gaon and the ‘true Hasid’ • ‘The solution for the East’ or heterotopia •  The will to flee and the emissary

Chapter 5: The Imaginary Influence of Sefer Megale Temirin                     
The myth about the success of the book • Pamphlet Megale Sod • The manuscript about the misdeeds of the Hasidim • Dialogues about Sefer Megale Temirin • For whom Sefer Megale Temirin was intended and who read it • Note concerning Sefer Megale Temirin in Yiddish • Influence real and imagined • Was Sefer Shivhe ha-Besht written by a parodist? • Temerl Bergson and Sefer Megale Temirin • Writ of defense of Hasidism • Sefer Megale Temirin and the Hebrew literature • Appendix: writ of defense of Joseph Judah Lob Sossnitz

Afterword: Note on the Anti-Hasidic Outlook                                       

Bibliographic Abbreviations   

Reviews:
(1) Dan Meron, 2013, ‘Megaleh Temirin’, Kivunim Hadashim 29, 55 pages (Hebrew)
(2) David Assaf, 2014, ‘Hasidim will not Read it but Tear it’, Haaretz, Tarbut ve-Sifrut, p .6 (Hebrew) http://onegshabbat.blogspot.co.il/2014/04/blog-post_18.html
(3) Eliezer Brodt, 2014, 'New book Announcement- Megale Temirin', The Seforim Blog http://seforim.blogspot.co.il/2014/01/new-book-announcement-megale-temirin.html
(4) Matan Hermoni, 2014,  הסבתא המופקרת של הספרות העבריתHaaretz, Sfarim (Hebrew) http://www.haaretz.co.il/.premium-1.2382365
(5) Shinichi Yamamoto, 2015, 山本　伸一, "ヨナタン・メイール編著『想像のハシディズム』", ユダヤ・イスラエル研究　第28号  http://www.waseda.jp/assoc-jsjs/jistudies.html
(6) David Biale and David Assaf,, 2015, 'Revealer Revealed', Jewish Review of Books, pp. 17-21  http://jewishreviewofbooks.com/articles/1454/revealer-revealed/
(7) Hillel Halkin, 2015, "Sex, Magic, Bigotry, Corruption- and the First Hebrew Novel', Mosaic Magazine,  http://mosaicmagazine.com/observation/2015/05/sex-magic-bigotry-corruption-and-the-first-hebrew-novel/
(8) Tomer Persico, 2015, "Interview", Lula'at haEl http://tomerpersico.com/2015/08/10/meir_perl/
(9) Ariel Evan Mayse, 'Review', Jewish History (2015)ת  http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10835-015-9245-2
(10) Review - Gal-Ed

The article drives from the Israeli colonial
archives and seeks to crack their structure, foundations
and imagination. It wishes to establish a counter
postcolonial/decolonial archive, based on colonial
sources, while taking into consideration the specific
condition of the Israeli colonialism and settler colonialism,
and mainly the repressive administration of
the colonial archives. While colonial bodies and
archives erase the indigenous history and past, the
counter archive aims to return them to their original
population and to the pubic-sphere, calling for
democratization processes. It will be established on
the ruins of the Israeli colonial archive, will tell the
story of the Palestinian villages that their population
was uprooted and exiled (before and after exile), the
story of the Palestinian population who remained in
Palestine under military regime, strangers in the
house; the erasure and attempt to control Palestinian
historiography and culture to support official Israeli
narrative. The decolonial archive will also gather
indigenous materials in colonial archives, point out the
physical and interpretative forces exerted on them,
cleanse them of their biased interpretation and focus
on structuring a reading that differs from the original
colonial designation. It will restore them to indigenous
history, enabling the construction of an alternative
multi- layered database, different from the one-sided
characteristic of colonial archives. The proposal then is
to turn the Israeli colonial archive–corrupt, oppressive
and destructive, into a more autonomous site–not only
the materials themselves but also the way they are
contextualized, read and interpreted.

Rav Shmuel Rozovsky was born in the Eastern Europe of 1913, but his name remains on the lips of virtually every yeshiva student in 2021. His seforim are essentials, his insights the foundation of so many of today’s popular shiurim. He was one of the prime pillars of the postwar rejuvenation of the yeshiva world, a product of Europe’s finest yeshivos who helped transform a tiny group of undervalued yeshiva bochurim into Bnei Brak’s mighty Torah bastion.

More than four decades after his passing, students, assistants, and the American hosts of “everyone’s rosh yeshiva” share their personal memories of Rav Shmuel Rozovsky

published without the knowledge of the author - . not proofread by the author. an updated and corrected version of the article will appear in my book - Wrestling with the Esoteric (2017)

הדברים נדפסו שלא בידיעתי וללא הגהה מצידי. אין אחריות המחבר על טיב התרגום ודיוקו. נוסח מעודכן, עם תיקונים רבים, יראה אור בספרי  - נפתולי סוד, 2017


Йо н а т а н Ме и р
Михаэль Лайтман и группа «Бней-Барух»
(фрагмент статьи «О последователях рабби
Й.-Л. Ашлага, полемике с ними и о распространении
еврейской каббалистической литературы»)

This is an excerpt from a much bigger article devoted to
several followers of Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag’s agenda who
are trying to disseminate Kabbalistic ideas and practices
outside of the borders of Judaism. This very excerpt analyzes
teachings of Michael Laitman, a Russian-speaking student of
Rabbi Baruch Ashlag, and his movement “Bnei Baruch”,which
try to present Kabbalah as science and lead it out of Orthodox
Judaism. Author considers Laitman’s methodology, his ideas
on correction of the world and salvation from anti-Semitism
through Kabbalah studies, his social ideal. In this excerpt one
can also find analysis of the social context of the movement,
Laitman’s competition with another representative of New Age
Kabbalah Shraga Feivel (Philip) Berg, strategies of gaining
popularity and complicated relations with Jewish Orthodoxy.

Contents

Preface pp. ix-xii

Introduction: The Imagined Decline of Kabbalah pp. 1-17

Chapter One: The Kabbalistic Yeshivot of Jerusalem  pp. 19-73

Chapter Two: Searching for the Lost Tribes  pp. 74-108

Chapter Three: The Renaissance of Print  pp. 109-140

Chapter Four: Prayers and Ritual Literature pp. 141-166

Chapter Five: Critique, Parody and Controversy pp. 167-175

Concluding Remarks p. 176

Appendix: List of Proclamations pp. 177-184

Bibliography pp. 185-230

Index pp. 231-243


"Reviews:
(1) Tomer Persiko, 2012, הרחובות ממריאים ‘The streets of Kabbalah’, Beit Avichai Journal, (Hebrew)
(2) Tomer Persiko, 2012, הרחובות ממריאים ‘The streets of Kabbalah’, Lula’at ha-El: The Varieties of Religious Experience, Blog (Hebrew)
(3) Avishai Elboim, 2011, חיפוש עשרת השבטים ‘Searching for the lost Tribes’, Shabat be-Shabato, no. 1405, p. 6 (Hebrew)
(4) Yaniv Mezuman, 2012, רחובות הנהר ‘Rehovot ha-Nahar’, Makor Rishon, Shabat, pp. 12-13 (Hebrew)
(5) Yehudah Mirsky, 2012, ‘Gershom Scholem, 30 Years On’, Jewish Ideas Daily.
(6) Eliezer Baumgarten, 2013,נהר שלום  ‘Nahar Shalom’, Pa'amim 133-134, 7 pages (Hebrew) http://www.ybz.org.il/_Uploads/dbsAttachedFiles/Pea133_134eyunim.pdf


1) Evening book at the Ben Tsvi Jerusalem, with the guests: Moshe Idel, Ronit Maroz, Yoram Bilu Hanan Gafni, Zeev Griss, 10 March 2012
http://www.ybz.org.il/?CategoryID=141&ArticleID=849

2) Evening book at the Ben Gurion University of the Negev, with the guests: Haim Beer, Elhanan Reiner, Zeev Griss, Boaz Huss 12 June 2012
http://in.bgu.ac.il/Pages/events/Streets-of-the-river.aspx





"""

S. Y. Agnon (1888–1970), winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1966, is well
known in Israel and beyond as the national author of the early Israeli nation. His
work has been perceived as magical realist as well as Gothic and neo-Gothic. This
paper explores a dual generic reading of Agnon’s work as both Gothic and magical
realist. Specifically, the analysis focuses on two of his stories, “Avi Hashor” [“The
Ox’s Father”] (1945), which has been mostly neglected by critics, and “Tehila”
(1950), which has been subjected to numerous readings from various perspectives,
yet not in comparison to the earlier text under consideration in this paper. The
following examination of the location of these narrative moments in both generic
rubrics allows for a more productive exploration of personal and national identities
in these texts. The possibility of the movement from the imperialistically engaged
Gothic into (post-)colonial magical realism and back again reflects the unsettled
essence of the Jewish-Israeli identity. The manifestation of this generic hybridity of
the Gothic and magical realism in Agnon’s work echoes the tensions within Jewish-
Israeli identity, which attempts to (re)construct itself upon the land of Palestine-
Israel, within the new Israeli nation-state.

This study asks whether we are the same citizens as we were before the civil awakening that spilled over from tyrannical Arab states to core cities of the global economy and beyond. To address this question it offers an historical account of the role of New Social Movements, civil society, and deliberative and radical democracy as the three epistemic frameworks that have shaped the figure of the rights-bearing citizen, and which have conceived the neoliberal citizen as a choice driven individual. Taking the neoliberal shift in Israel of the 1980s as its point of departure, it then places the 2011 Tents’ Protest in the broader context of acts of resistance to the entrenchment of neoliberalism. This is followed by a thorough exploration of two post-2011 Israeli activist groups in Jewish and Arab-Palestinian societies respectively, allowing voices and new conceptions of citizenship that had arisen from the margins of the 2011 protest to come to the fore. In the final analysis, this exploration traces how the shift away from the conception of the citizen as a rights-bearing individual challenges neoliberal governmentality. It thus enables us to configure the image of a post-neoliberal citizen, one whose political subjectivity is grounded not in the discourse of rights, but rather in a new discourse of representation.

Jonatan Meir, 'Major Trends in 20th Century Kabbalah', trans. by Shinichi Yamamoto, Studies on Jewish Life and Culture 30 (2016), Japan Society for Jewish Studies, pp. 27-39.
ヨナタン・メイール、「20世紀におけるカバラーの主潮流」（山本伸一訳）、『ユダヤ・イスラエル研究」第30号、日本ユダヤ学会、27-39ページ。

Essa pesquisa examina múltiplas identidades de um grupo de jovens homens israelenses que romperam com a altamente estruturada sociedade ultraortodoxa (Haredi em hebraico) em Israel e imigraram para os EUA. Explorando seus modelos de transformação coletiva e individual, eu emprego o conceito de translocalidade, o qual Greiner e Sakdapolrak (2013) introduziram para descrever formas de simultaneidade e formação identitária que transcendem fronteiras. Eu examino a pluralidade de suas identidades focando em quatro categorias principais: seus laços de parentesco, suas vidas profissionais pós-migração, suas formas de espiritualidade substituta e seu repertório linguístico. Eu relato suas histórias por meio da reconstrução de suas biografias narrativas. Creio que histórias de vida e uma abordagem biográfica são particularmente úteis quando se explora a intersecção entre identidade, migração, religião e aquisição de novo idioma. Histórias de vida nos transmitem como os locutores entendem o mundo à sua volta e racionalizam suas condutas e papéis. Nessa perspectiva, histórias compartilhadas conectam as dimensões individuais e coletivas e constituem e refletem a realidade.

Between 1984 and 1996, public health authorities in Israel maintained a secret policy of discarding blood donations made by Ethiopian-Israeli citizens and immigrants. Officials later attempted to justify this policy on the grounds that immigrants from Ethiopia were subject to high rates of infectious disease (especially HIV). In 1996, this led to an explosive and violent confrontation between Ethiopian-Israeli protestors and agents of the state, including police and public health authorities. This essay explores the cultural and political context of that confrontation, including the discourse of political violence which it occasioned. The conflict between Ethiopian-Israelis and the state was located within a wider set of political contexts, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which was linked to it through a shared trope of “spilled blood” common to both. Cultural analyses which ignore this dynamic political context are in danger of seriously misrepresenting the meaning of the “Blood Affair” to its participants. At the same time, this essay also engages a critical analysis of the public health policies which led to the crisis. Public health and nationalist discourse reinforced one another at the expense of Ethiopian immigrants in general, and so-called “Feres Mura” Ethiopians in particular.

An entry that was published in the Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception.

לחומרים ומידע נוספים על המאמר - היכנסו לקישור:
https://marianna.ruahmidbar.com/h-new-age-judaism-encyclopedian-entry

For more materials and information on this item - go to the link:
https://marianna.ruahmidbar.com/en/e-new-age-judaism-encyclopedian-entry

הרצאתי על האתגרים במחקרי קהילות יהודיות רפורמיות וקונסרטיביות בישראל.  לקבלת סרטון אודיו של ההרצאה ניתן לפנות אליי למייל:
einat.libel@gmail.com

Lecture on the challenges of studying Liberal (Reform and Conservative) Jewish congregations in Israel. For receiving receive an audio or video recording of the lecture, please email to einat.libel@gmail.com

The book is devoted to the analysis of German-Israel relations since the end of WWII till present. The author attempts to identify spe-cific features of the “special relationship” between the states in various fields. The research includes two thematic blocks. The first one is aimed at review of bilateral cooperation in the sphere of politics, econ-omy, defense industry, science, culture and sports. The second focuses on assessing the problems and prospects of multilateral cooperation in the frameworks of international organizations, as well as the possibili-ties of interaction between the parties to solve the problems of the Mid-dle East and Africa. In conclusion, the forecast of the development of German-Israeli relations is presented.
The research dwells upon East Germany’s experience in building relations with Israel. The author refutes the idea widespread in Russian science, according to which there was a unanimous opinion in the GDR regarding the possibility of establishing diplomatic relations with Israel and reparations issue. Israeli fears about German’s unification are also analyzed. More over the author examines the Jerusalem's attempts to normalize relations with the GDR, which could help strengthen East Germany’s positions in the international arena.
The book examines the impact of the division of Germany on the search for twin cities and as well as the peculiarities of perceiving the migration crisis on the territory of former West and East Germany. According to the author the urgency of this issue is increasing due to the activity of the “Alternative for Germany” party. Among key ideas for it are the fight against the migration crisis in Europe, which includes the thesis about the growth of anti-Semitism because of the massive influx of migrants from the East into the country, and the need to over-come the remaining socio-economic differences between the eastern and western Germans.
The author pays great attention to problems of the search for iden-tity of Jews in Germany. Among the factors that influenced this process, a special place is given to the mass influx of “Russian” Jews into the country, which allowed to restore jewish community life in Germany, but in a number of aspects changed its value orientations. The experience of repatriates from Germany in Israel is also studied. The author con-siders their interaction with the other groups of repatriates of various
297
aliyah waves, peculiarities of integration of one-and-a-half generation and modern attempts in Israel to preserve the legacy of lost German Jewish communities.
A separate section is devoted to the topic of civil-military relations in Germany and Israel. The author comes to conclusion that the army is one of the key examples demonstrating the evolution of relations, as well as the difference in worldviews in the states under consideration, which was partially a consequence of the outcome of WWII. Based on German sources that have not previously entered in the scientific circu-lation in Russia, the author studies the tragedy at the Olympics in Munich in 1972. The importance of this page of the joint history of Israel and Germany in terms of the evolution of the concept of German re-sponsibility is noted.
The research analyzes the approaches of the German political party foundations (Stiftungen) to the assessment of bilateral relations, including the activity of the recently created Desiderius-Erasmus-Stiftung. The author reveals their concern regarding the revision of Israeli legislation in the field of foreign financing of non-profit organiza-tions. They consider this factor dangerous not for their direct work in the Middle East, but from the point of view of the prospects for complicating cooperation with pro-Palestinian organizations, which often support BDS-movement.
The final chapter addresses to the development of the Middle East and Africa. The author notes the positive impact of the Joint African Initiative on all its participants as well as the opportunity to use gained experience in the Palestinian territories in order to encourage benefi-ciaries of economic assistance to be more accountable. The author reveals common features in the approaches of Israel and Germany in connection with Turkish activity against the Kurds in Syria. Domestic issues are also important for determining the position of Germany in regard to the Middle East. It is no coincidence that many of the initia-tives presented by the AfG are not supported in the Bundestag. At the same time, the pro-Israeli activity of the party is not the basis for its rapprochement with the Israeli government, since the latter sees in the party risks for the basic principles of special German-Israeli relations.

Almost Thirteen years after her appeal to historians to shift their focus from a "herstory" of the Yishuv during the British mandate and in Israel, to a history of gender (Zion 62 [1997), Billie Melman takes stock of recent and long-term developments in the field.The article surveys Israeli  women's and gender history between 1980 and 2009 and relates it to world-wide transformations in the study of history , as well as to specific changes in Israel-within the academy and outside it.

Judaism: Religion, Nationality, Ethnicity?  From Complex Origins to Complex Realities.  (In Swedish in Tord Fornberg and Göran Larsson (eds.), Förskjutningar - Avgörande skiften i relationen mellan judar och kristna (Decisive Shifts in the Relationship between Jews and Christians) Norma, 2022.
This essay explores the origins and development of the terms "Jew" and "Judaism" from late antiquity through the contemporary era.
ISBN 9789172171350