Reuven Kiperwasser
Channel: Denis Dorum
Date: 04/11/2012

Open meeting of the Institute of Advanced Studies Research Group
"Cultural Archaeology of Jews and Slavs: Medieval and Early Modern Judeo-Slavic Interaction and Cross Fertilization"

co-sponsored by the 
Department of Russian and East European Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
"From Asmodeus to Kitovrasus: Metamorphosis of the tradition and reception of the source."

Reuven Kiperwasser received his PhD from the Talmud Department of Bar Ilan University on the topic: "Midrashim on Kohelet: Studies in their formation and redaction", and is currently working on critical editions of Midrashim on Kohelet and the Exempla of the Rabbis. His work also includes studies on Rabbinic Literature, Iranian mythological knowledge in Babylonian Talmud and cultural and anthropological patterns of Rabbinic Thought.
Abstract: In this lecture I wish to discuss the aggadic tradition of the account of Solomon and Asmodeus found in Tractate Gittin of the Babylonian Talmud, and to reconstruct its hypothetical sources. The analysis of the sources will show us that this story belongs to the latest editorial stratum of the Talmud. I also intend to show that this late Aramaic version of the narrative was the source for the story in the Palea, but apparently it is not a product of translation of the Aramaic source, neither in its abridged version nor in its slightly annotated retelling. I would like to propose an explanation of how the story was received by the author of the Palea and how it reflects the spread of the legends of Solomon in the environment where this Slavic version was created.