HIGHLIGHTS: PUBLICATIONS SUPPORTED BY THE
MEMORIAL FOUNDATION
IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2002-2003
The two volumes which I will be highlighting in this report
reflect the highest level of Jewish scholarship. Remarkably,
both were written by women, and deal with rabbinical studies
and mysticism, areas of hard-core Judaica. What I should like
to emphasize here is the growing role of Jewish women scholars
in serious scholarly research, and the role of the Foundation
in supporting these women scholars. When I came to the Foundation
several decades ago, few women were recipients of Foundation
grants. Today about half the grantees in our doctoral and special
doctoral fellowship programs are women.
Megillat Ta'anit: Versions, Interpretations, History,
by Dr. Vered Noam is based on her doctorate, which she received
with distinction from Hebrew University. Prof. Noam is at the
beginning of her academic career and currently serves as professor
of Talmud at Tel Aviv University. Dr. Noam was awarded a Memorial
Foundation Ephraim Urbach postdoctoral fellowship to help publish
this new critical edition of Megillat Ta'anit.
Megillat Ta'anit is a fascinating and esoteric work
in Aramaic from the Second Temple period. The historical importance
of the text, often cited in the Talmud, is because it is the
only extant manuscript from the Pharisaic period of the Second
Temple, with the exception of the Qumran works.
The title "Megillat Ta'anit" ("Scroll
of Fasting") is misleading. It is not a list of fasts,
but of days when fasting was forbidden, compiled by the sages
at the end of the Second Temple period.
The historical events recorded here are scattered broadly over
500 years, from the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, the builders
of the walls of Jerusalem in the fifty century B.C.E., to the
destruction of the Temple. Many of the historical events alluded
to in Megillat Ta'anit are shrouded in mist. Some are
enigmatic and indecipherable; others are the source of scholarly
debate. Gaps in our historical knowledge, the use of Aramaic
and the terse style — all these
contribute to the mystery.
In the book, Prof. Noam brings all the versions and variations
of the text itself and the scholium (rabbinic commentary appended
to the text). Prof. Noam's work, especially her efforts to untangle
the mystery of the dates, is solidly grounded in the relevant
literature — rabbinic lore, writings
from the Second Temple period and later, academic scholarship
and more.
Prof. Noam has helped to rescue Megillat Ta'anit from
oblivion. Not that people have not known about it or studied
it. But like other such works, parts of the text have become
garbled over the centuries. There is no longer a clear line
between the composition as it was originally handed down, and
material added in the course of transcription.
According to a scholarly reviewer in Haaretz, "
Those who sit down and give this stunning volume its due will
see how successful she has been."
(May I note that Prof. Noam is also the mother of six children.)
The second book, Temple and Chariot, Priests and Angels,
Sanctuary and Heavenly Sanctuaries in Early Jewish Mysticism,
was authored by Rachel Elior, the John and Golda Cohen Prof.
of Jewish Philosophy at Hebrew University. Prof. Elior received
several fellowships from the Foundation, one of which was for
the preparation of this book, as well as two doctoral scholarships
to assist her in completing her doctoral studies at Hebrew University.
Prof. Elior, a prolific scholar and author, has published a
whole series of works on Jewish mysticism, including most recently
Heikalot Literature and Merkavah Tradition: Ancient Jewish
Mysticism and its Sources; The Three Temples: On the Emergence
of Jewish Mysticism; and Studies in the Mystical Foundations
of Hasidism.
The central idea in Elior's work is her perception of the early
history of Jewish mysticism. Professor Gershom Shalom's studies
of Shabtai Zvi and his movement and its source in Kabbalah played
a historic role in introducing mysticism into the field of Jewish
history. Since his pioneering work, it has been difficult to
separate the history of Kabbalah from the history of the Jewish
as a whole. Mysticism has become one of the dominant elements
of historical research.
Until now, however, the study of ancient Jewish mysticism has
been conducted separately from the historical reality of the
Jewish people. Elior's work challenges that premise and links
early Jewish mysticism to the history of the sects in Israel
and the relations between the priests and the Pharisees.
Her work is also devoted to contrasting two varieties of religious
experience, one that relies on direct Divine revelation, which
is dominant in Second Temple literature, and the religious outlook
that relies on the study and discussion of the Written and Oral
Law, represented in the Mishna and in the traditions of the
Sages, the pillars of Judaism as it has been known since then.
Best wishes for a joyous Purim.
Sincerely yours,
Dr. Jerry Hochbaum
Executive Vice President
