bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Divine Omniscience
Authors: Feldman Seymour
Published: February 2021

This chapter focuses on the literature that concerns whether or not God has knowledge of everything. It talks about the dilemma stated by one of the most important teachers of the Mishnah, Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Akiva expressed that “All is foreseen; yet freedom is given.” The second clause seems to be an emphatic response to the objection that if God knows everything, how is human choice possible? Rabbi Akiva explicitly asserts that there is no problem in believing in both divine omniscience and the possibility of choice, that although God knows everything, people can still decide on their own. The chapter provides an insight on what motivated Rabi Akiva to enunciate the puzzling and intriguing dilemma.
Divine Omnipotence
Authors: Feldman Seymour
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses the question, “Is Anything Impossible for the Lord?” It points out that the very first sentence of the Bible seems to give a definitive answer to the question: God created the entire universe, which absolutely counts as greater proof of His omnipotence. The Bible records many divine acts that explicitly testify to His overwhelming power, especially to alter the natural behaviour of things. Every miracle is proof of divine power, as well as of divine providence. The very occurrence of miracles could have been used by Gersonides as evidence of individual providence. The chapter describes two particular miraculous events that formulate the general principle of divine omnipotence: Sarah's birth to a child in Genesis 18:14 and Job's confession of his ignorance in the face of God's power in Job 42:2.
Sociability and Acculturation in German Spas
Authors: Naimark-Goldberg Natalie
Published: February 2021

This chapter assesses an unexamined aspect of the process by which enlightened Jewish women became integrated into non-Jewish European culture and society: the practice of visiting spas. Their letters reveal that these women often chose to spend the summer months at one of the spa centres of central Europe. The spas offered many advantages alongside their original function as places of healing and recuperation: the semi-urban way of life which developed in these resorts over the course of the eighteenth century offered visitors a wide array of pastimes and enjoyments, such as musical and theatrical performances, parties, and walks along the main boulevards and in more rural surroundings. For Jewish women in particular, the unique, liberated atmosphere of the spas offered a space in which they could widen their circle of acquaintances, integrate themselves into non-Jewish society, and take an active part in discussions on cultural and other issues. Thus, the annual visit to one or more spas, which became a notable feature of bourgeois life, constituted an important component in the acculturation of the modernizing Jewish women discussed in this book.
Female Emancipation
Authors: Naimark-Goldberg Natalie
Published: February 2021

This chapter addresses the female emancipatory activity of enlightened Jewish women. At the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth, the main efforts to challenge male hegemony and improve women's position in society were not channelled towards achieving political equality. Women with a feminist awareness chose to act in areas where more practical and immediate achievements could be envisaged, and this was the approach adopted by enlightened Jewish women. Like many other contemporary women with feminist concerns, they saw the broadening of their educational horizons in emancipatory terms, as a precondition for improving their overall position, and they made determined attempts to extend their knowledge, at the same time as criticizing attempts to exclude them from intellectual life. Another area in which these Jewish women struggled for emancipation, having experienced personally the full force of male privilege and domination, was their private life. Equipped with the critical spirit of the Enlightenment, they turned their gaze on the patriarchal institution of marriage as a prominent focus of inequality and grappled with questions related to marriage, divorce, and independence.
Assimilation and Cultural Exchange in Modern Jewish History
Authors: Mandel Maud
Published: February 2021

This chapter considers that the term 'assimilation' requires nuanced appreciation among those who have condemned the secularizing acculturation and integration of Jews into Western societies. It describes the Jewish cultural creativity that modern Jewish civilization has fostered. It also confirms whether cultural assimilation and the political emancipation that it sought to facilitate proved good or bad for the Jews. Through particular attention to the research on the Jews of modern France, the chapter considers how the reconceptualization of assimilation has penetrated present-day scholarly discourse. It invokes the work of Yuri Slezkine and Andrew Heinze to advocate subsuming assimilation within a model of cultural exchange that highlights the contributions of modern Jews to the very aspects of European cultures.
Syrian Jewry in Transition, 1840-1880
Authors: Harel Yaron
Published: February 2021

The Ottoman reforms of the mid-nineteenth century accelerated the process of opening up Syria to European travellers and traders, and gave Syria's Jews access to European Jewish communities. The resulting influx of Western ideas led to a decline in the traditional economy. It also allowed for the introduction of Western education, influenced the structure and the administration of Jewish society in Syria, and changed the balance of the relationship between Muslims, Christians, and Jews. Initially Syria's Jewish communities flourished in these new circumstances, but there was a developing recognition that their future lay overseas. After the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, the bankruptcy of the Ottoman Empire in 1875, and the suspension of the Ottoman constitution in 1878, this feeling intensified. A process of decline set in that ultimately culminated in large-scale Jewish emigration. Thereon, the future for Syrian Jews lay in the West, not the East. This book covers Jewish community life, the legal status of Jews in Syria, their relationship with their Muslim and Christian neighbours, and their links with the West. It draws on a range of archival material in six languages, including Jewish, Christian Arab, and Muslim Arab sources, Ottoman and European documents, consular reports, travel accounts, and reports from the contemporary press and by emissaries to Syria of the Alliance Israélite Universelle. Rabbinic sources are particularly important in opening a window onto Syrian Jewish life and concerns. Together these sources bring to light an enormous amount of material and provide a broad, multifaceted perspective on the Syrian Jewish community.
Isaac Ibn Gi’ At
Authors: Goldstein David
Published: February 2021

This chapter explores the poetry of Isaac Ibn Gi’at, who was born in Lucena. Under his spiritual leadership and authority, the city became the leading light of Jewish scholarship throughout the western Mediterranean. He was deeply attached to the family of Samuel ha-Nagid, and when the latter’s son was killed in 1066, he welcomed his family who had fled from Granada into his own home. Isaac was a prolific writer of Talmudic and Biblical commentaries. His poetic fame rests mainly on his liturgical work, in which he displayed familiarity not only with traditional modes of thought, but also with philosophy and the physical sciences. Moses Ibn Ezra was numbered among his pupils. The chapter then looks at Isaac’s poem The Greatness of God.
Midrash and the Meaning of Scripture
Authors: Fishbane Michael
Published: February 2021

This chapter opens with an essay on Midrash. It takes up the subject of Midrash from a wide-ranging perspective, and considers basic phenomenological, stylistic, and exegetical features of the subject. The chapter also aims to set the stage for the fundamental importance of Midrash in Jewish literature and culture. For rabbinic interpreters, a major moment is the closure of the scriptural canon, which establishes the principal authoritative textual source for all subsequent developments. The closure established a fixed source, so that all interpretation was to unfold through an examination of its topics and contents, a correlation of its verbal and literary features, and a filling in of legal, theological, and narrative gaps.
The Hand upon the Lord's Throne
Authors: Hayward Robert
Published: February 2021

This chapter explains the simultaneous translation of scriptural lections that are recited in the synagogue into the Aramaic vernacular. It discusses scriptures that are variously infused by midrashic sources or legal and theological traditions that enter its warp and woof. From the notable variety of translations, the play of Midrash can be witnessed in different settings, and its oral mediation and diverse emphases. The chapter also describes the comparison of scriptures with the classical genres of midrashic material, which provides a striking glimpse into how the Midrash was filtered and re-presented in the synagogue. It illustrates the transformation which Scripture undergoes in midrashic operations, which is different from its targumic transformations.
Unwashed Hands
Authors: Boxel Piet Van
Published: February 2021

This chapter talks about the reception of materials on Midrash and Targum. It discusses the rhetorical uses of the materials beyond the synagogue that are a matter of much cultural and historical significance. Accounts of the infiltration and penetration of midrashic forms and content into a host of New Testament texts attest to the ongoing and conditioning power of Midrash, as well as its capacity to undergird transformed legal and theological content. The chapter looks at fascinating instances where the recognition of midrashic argumentation and practice clarifies the New Testament source itself and even provides a witness to rabbinic topics before their midrashic redaction. It reviews the essence of Midrash and its all-inclusive definition that midrash springs from Scripture and is re-anchored in Scripture.
The Toledot Yeshu as Midrash
Authors: Horbury William
Published: February 2021

This chapter describes the narrative of the Toledot yeshu, which retells the story of Jesus and the rise of Christianity. Lively and memorable in its fabulous elements, the Toledot yeshu offers alternatives to Christian claims about the birth, way of life, and miracles of Jesus, his resurrection, and the subsequent apostolic preaching. It analyzes how the Toledot yeshu circulated in Hebrew, Aramaic, and other languages of the medieval and later Jewish community. The Toledot yeshu is sometimes aligned with New Testament apocrypha, as a hostile counterpart of the Acts of Pilate or the Narration of Joseph of Arimathaea. This chapter also mentions J. D. Eisenstein who published treasuries of both Midrash and controversy, and presented texts from the Toledot yeshu in both.
Zoharic Literature and Midrashic Temporality
Authors: Wolfson Elliot
Published: February 2021

This chapter assesses how the conception of time that informed the midrashic mindset reaches a crescendo in the homilies that were eventually included in what may be called the zoharic literature. In spite of the complexity of the history of the text, one can assert with relative confidence that the decisive redactional strategy was to organize the exegetical sermons as a commentary on the Pentateuch. Here it is apposite to recall Scholem's observation that the literary composition of the Zohar ‘outwardly imitates the form of the Midrash’. Not only did the zoharic authors draw freely from rabbinic midrashim, but structurally and rhetorically, the Zohar is essentially midrashic, and this extends from the earliest stratum. Rather than simply repeating the rabbinic dicta, the medieval kabbalists fabricated a more coherent narrative laid atop the biblical account, one that reflects a distinctive metaphysical scheme that renders the scriptural idiom symbolically based on the identification of the Torah and God.
Rabbi Judah Loew of Prague and his Attitude to the Aggadah
Authors: Elbaum Jacob
Published: February 2021

This chapter studies Rabbi Judah Loew of Prague and his attitude to the aggadah. The literary works of Rabbi Judah Loew, known as Maharal of Prague, include books which are defined as ‘expositions of the aggadot’, where the author dealt with aggadot in the order of their appearance in the Talmud; and also works which were devoted to specific topics. An examination of both types, however, reveals that the approach to the aggadot and the method employed are essentially identical in both classes of works, the order of the source material alone being different in each instance. In the thematic works, the sources are presented in conformity with specific topics, as the subject requires; while in the books of ḥidushim (novel interpretations), Rabbi Loew takes up the aggadot in order of their appearance in the Talmud. Even though the aggadot he deals with vary considerably in their nature, there can be no doubt that he devotes his attention to those which, as a whole or in their individual details, lend support to his principal concepts. The chapter then looks at his works Ḥidushei agadot and Be'er hagolah, the latter having as its purpose the defence of the Torah, in the sense of the midrashim and the halakhic and aggadic dicta of the rabbis of the Talmud.
Hasidism and Politics
Authors: Wodzinski Marcin
Published: February 2021

Analysing the political relations between the Kingdom of Poland and the hasidic movement, this book examines plans formulated by the government and by groups close to government circles regarding hasidim, and describes how a hasidic body politic developed in response. The book demonstrates that the rise of Hasidism was an important factor in shaping the Jewish policy of both central and provincial authorities and shows how the creation of socio-political conditions that were advantageous to the hasidic movement accelerated its growth. While concentrating on the dynamic that developed in the Kingdom of Poland, the discussion is informed by a consideration of the relationship between the state and the hasidic movement from its inception in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The novelty of this study lies in the fact that, whereas most analyses of political culture concentrate on states and societies with well-established electoral systems of representation, the book focuses on the under-researched area of political relations between a non-democratic state and a low-status community lacking authorized representation. Applying concepts more often associated with cultural history, the analysis draws a distinction between the terms of reference of high-level political debate and the actual implementation of policy middle- and low-level officials. Similarly, in analysing hasidic responses, the book differentiates between high-level hasidic representations in the state and the grassroots politics of the community. This combination enables a broad contextualization of the whole subject, integrating the social and cultural history of Polish Jewry with that of Polish society in general.
Origins: Controversies over Hasidic Shtiblekh
Authors: Wodziński Marcin
Published: February 2021

This chapter covers the prominence of the Jewish Question in the political debates of the last years of the Commonwealth, as well as in the later journalism of the Duchy of Warsaw and the Kingdom of Poland regarding interests in hasidim. It analyzes the cradle of Polish Hasidism, Podolia and Volhynia, the south-eastern borderlands of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, where from the 1740s to 1760 the putative creator of the group, Israel ben Eliezer, also known as the Besht was active. Though Hasidism appeared in the lands of central Poland as early as the mid-eighteenth century, the governments that controlled these territories between 1772 and 1830 did not become aware of it until nearly the end of that period that the existence of hasidic groups became an issue in Jewish politics. It explains how the lack of official interest in Hasidism was caused by the very complicated general history of the states of central and eastern Europe at the start of the nineteenth century. The growing wave of interventions in issues related to Hasidism and the fact that the question of the legality of Hasidism became tied up with the issue of religious fraternities.
Communal Dimensions of Hasidic Politics
Authors: Wodziński Marcin
Published: February 2021

This chapter analyzes communal hasidic politics, and the relationship between the hasidic elite and the hasidic masses, shifting its focus from the state level to communal politics and the relations between “elite” and “ethnic,” or popular, political participation. It portrays hasidic politics as being chiefly engaged in problems at the macro level, particularly Raphael Mahler's evocative narration of the hasidic leadership of the passive resistance of the Jewish masses. The chapter also include the martyrological historiography of the Lubavitch dynasty, which focuses on the sufferings of the holy men of the Schneersohn family at the hands of the central government. Since the Kingdom of Poland was a highly bureaucratic and centralized state, no political undertakings could be classified as purely local or even provincial. Every intervention in a local matter required universal state-level competencies and triggered administrative procedures reaching the level of ministries or even the central government.
Community School versus School as Community
Authors: Goldstein Yossi J.
Published: February 2021

This chapter presents two different views of the relationship between the Jewish day school and the Jewish community. It focuses on one case — that of the Bet El community in Buenos Aires, Argentina, founded in 1962 by Rabbi Marshall T. Meyer. A study of the Bet El Conservative School sheds light on the emergence of Jewish community schools that has become, since the 1970s, the leading trend in Jewish education in Argentina. Bet El, an institution regarded as the flagship school of the Conservative movement in Argentina, was founded as a kindergarten in 1967, some five years after Rabbi Meyer's establishment of the Bet El community as a nucleus for the development of the Conservative movement in Latin America. The elementary school began operating in 1974, at the same time as an application was made to establish a Conservative high school — an application that was approved by the public authorities but not taken further owing to the need to consolidate and strengthen the elementary school.
Raphael Solomon Laniado and the Struggle in Aleppo against the Inheritance of the Rabbinate
Authors: Harel Yaron
Published: February 2021

This chapter examines the conflict within Aleppo's Jewish community that ostensibly revolved around the issue of inheritance of rabbinic office but was actually about the authority of the chief rabbi. Since earliest times, it had been customary in Aleppo for the community leadership to be passed from father to son. In 1787, after thirty-seven years of service to the community as chief rabbi, Rabbi Raphael Solomon Laniado attempted to appoint his only son, Ephraim, as his successor during his own lifetime. The opponents of Rabbi Ephraim Laniado's appointment were led by Rabbi Elijah Dweck Hakohen, of whom Rabbi Raphael Solomon Laniado spoke extremely harshly, to the extent of insulting and even cursing him. The hostility between the two was exacerbated by the fact that Rabbi Dweck Hakohen had been among the leading opponents of Rabbi Laniado in the great controversy that had agitated the Aleppo community some years previously concerning the subjugation to, or immunity from, the community's laws and regulations of the Francos, the Italian Jews who had settled in Aleppo since the end of the seventeenth century. The chapter then focuses on the Francos and their anomalous position in the Aleppo community. It also considers the emergence of a new middle class which, over the following decades, became dominant in the Aleppo community.
The Baghdad Community Torn between Rabbis Samoha and Dangoor
Authors: Harel Yaron
Published: February 2021

This chapter investigates the chaos that ensued in the Baghdad community for more than a decade in the wake of the struggle between the supporters of Rabbi Sason Elijah Halevi (Samoha) and those of Rabbi Elisha Dangoor. Rabbi Samoha was the first ḥakham bashi of Baghdad to have been born and brought up in the city. Samoha, who initially drew his authority both from the Ottoman government and from the Jewish community, was a forceful leader, who did not hesitate to confront its wealthy members when he judged their behaviour improper. This dictatorial attitude created enemies within the moneyed elite, who had become accustomed to running things themselves during the twenty-five years that Rabbi Obadiah Halevi, an outsider and a weak leader, had served as ḥakham bashi. These wealthy men soon came to regret Rabbi Samoha's appointment and to look for a propitious moment to get rid of him and to appoint another rabbi in his place. The chapter then looks at the involvement of the ḥakham bashi in Istanbul, as well as that of Rabbi Joseph Hayim, in the deposition of Rabbi Samoha. Ultimately, the removal of Rabbi Samoha markedly lowered the status of the chief rabbinate in Baghdad.
Yitshak Abulafia’s Troubled Path to Rabbinic Office in Damascus
Authors: Harel Yaron
Published: February 2021

This chapter focuses on Rabbi Yitshak Abulafia's struggle against the extended family of Rabbi Shalom Moses Hai Gagin of Jerusalem and the gevir Shemaiah Angel of Damascus. Rabbi Ephraim Mercado Alkalai's abandonment of Damascus paved the way for Rabbi Abulafia's ascent to the office of ḥakham bashi. Despite his being a man of exceptional Torah learning and the scion of a distinguished rabbinic family, his appointment to this office, to which he was eminently suited, had been delayed for more than ten years, owing to disputes with his own relatives, his family connections with Rabbi Shalom Gagin, and the wealthy laymen Shemaiah and Eleazar Angel. However, in 1883, he had no rivals for the office in Damascus, while his enemies in the Angel family had temporarily left the city for Istanbul. While divisions in the community persisted, at this point, the position of Abulafia's supporters was stronger than that of his opponents and he was appointed, in addition to his existing position as head of the religious court, to the office of ḥakham bashi of Damascus.
Jacob Danon’s Appointment as Chief Rabbi of Damascus and its Consequences
Authors: Harel Yaron
Published: February 2021

This chapter addresses the appointment of Jacob Danon as chief rabbi of Damascus and his response to the new situation that confronted him in the community in the wake of the revolution of the Young Turks in 1908. Rabbi Danon's official appointment as ḥakham bashi transformed Damascus from an isolated community to one that enjoyed ties with the wider Jewish world. For the first time, after centuries during which its closest links had been with Tiberias and Jerusalem, it was now connected primarily to the centre of Ottoman rule in Istanbul. The chapter then looks at Rabbi Danon's campaign against Jewish prostitution, which encountered numerous obstacles, notwithstanding the governor's support. One of the main problems lay in the relations established over the years between the prostitutes and members of the city police, many of whom enjoyed the women's favours in exchange for turning a blind eye to their activities. Muslim policemen and Jewish prostitutes thus joined forces against those who sought to remove the sex trade from the streets of the Jewish quarter. In addition, Rabbi Danon needed to rebuild the institutional framework of the community, which had collapsed years before his arrival in Damascus. The chapter also considers the parliamentary elections of April of 1912, which were the only ones in the history of Damascus under Ottoman rule in which Jews played a significant role, both ceremonial and practical.
Hezekiah Shabetai’s Struggle against Deposition in Aleppo
Authors: Harel Yaron
Published: February 2021

This chapter describes the attempts of the Francos in Aleppo to reassert their separateness from the community in order to exert pressure for the removal of Rabbi Hezekiah Shabetai from his position as ḥakham bashi. Right from the time they began to settle in Aleppo, the Francos had firmly and consistently resisted any attempt to bring them under the authority of the local chief rabbi. In 1895, at the time of the controversy that led to the deposition of the ḥakham bashi Abraham Dweck Hakohen, the Francos declared that they did not belong to the community and did not have any part in its institutions or its leadership — and yet they openly supported the deposition of the rabbi and were involved in bringing it about. After this incident, the Francos became increasingly involved in the community's affairs and in its institutions — an involvement that over time would lead to the assimilation they had long resisted. The chapter then recounts the appointment of Rabbi Shabetai, replacing Rabbi Jacob Saul Dweck Hakohen, and his engagement in the struggle for Jewish legal rights and in the issue of taxation.
Sa'adyah Gaon
Authors: Brody Robert
Published: February 2021

Sa'adyah Gaon was an outstanding tenth-century Jewish thinker — a prominent rabbi, philosopher, and exegete. He was a pioneer in the fields in which he toiled, and was an inspiration and basis for later Jewish writing in all these areas. The last major English-language study of his work was published in 1921, long before Genizah research changed the understanding of the time in which he lived. This work, covering Sa'adyah's biography and his main areas of creativity in an accessible way, is a reassessment of an outstanding figure. The opening chapter, on the geonic period that formed the background to Sa'adyah's life, is followed by an overview that brings out the revolutionary aspects of his work and the characteristic features of his writings. Subsequent chapters consider his philosophical works; his Bible commentaries; his pioneering linguistic work; his poetry; his halakhic activity; and his activity as a polemicist, notably against the Karaites. An epilogue sums up his importance in medieval Jewish culture. Particularly valuable features of the book are the copious quotations from Sa'adyah's works, which facilitate familiarity with his style as well as his ideas; the clarity in presenting complex and difficult concepts; the constant assessment of his relationship to his predecessors in his various fields of study and his own unique contributions to each field; and the contextualization of his contribution within the political, cultural, and religious climate of his times so that both revolutionary and conservative elements in his thought can be identified and evaluated.
Sa’adyah Gaon, Revolutionary Champion of Tradition
Authors: Brody Robert
Published: February 2021

This chapter describes Sa'adyah Gaon as a remarkable figure of the geonic era that styled the chief discourser everywhere by Abraham ibn Ezra. It looks at many documents with a bearing on different aspects of Sa'adyah's life and works that have come to light since the early days of Genizah research. It also explains why Sa'adyah Gaon is a more attainable subject for a biography than any other Jewish figure of the first millennium. The chapter provides an overview of Sa'adyah 'the Fayyumite', who was born in 882 in the Egyptian district of Fayyum to a family originating from the area of Dilas. It reviews Sa'adya's family background, which claims that he was the descendant of local non-Jews who had converted to Judaism, or the scion of church sextons.
Commentaries on the Later Books of the Hebrew Bible
Authors: Grossman Avraham
Published: February 2021

This chapter assesses Rashi's commentaries on the later books of the Hebrew Bible. In his commentaries on the later books of the Hebrew Bible (the Prophets and the Writings, collectively referred to by the Hebrew acronym Nakh), Rashi made extensive use of rabbinic material, though to a lesser degree than in his commentary on the Torah. About a quarter of the commentary on the Torah is original material; in the commentaries on Nakh, the figure is about two-thirds, the amount varying with the nature of each book and its commentary. Rashi makes less use of midrashic language, and the commentaries differ somewhat in character too. In addition, he gives more consideration to historical background, to literary devices, and, especially, to anti-Christian polemic. The chapter then looks at how questions of language and grammar, as well as references to daily life, receive considerable attention in Rashi's commentaries.
The Uniqueness of the Jewish People
Authors: Grossman Avraham
Published: February 2021

This chapter reflects on Rashi's view on the uniqueness of the Jewish people. In his view, Israel was chosen as God's cherished possession for three reasons: the merit of the patriarchs; Israel's agreement to accept the Torah and fulfil its commandments; and the mutual love between God and his people. Israel's agreement to accept the Torah and observe its commandments had a powerful effect on all of human history; only after Israel accepted the Torah did the world attain stability. Rashi also believes that there was distinctive value to fulfilling the commandments in the Land of Israel. The chapter then looks at Rashi's teachings on miracles, exile and redemption, and the nations of the world.
Medieval Jews and the Christian Past
Authors: Ben-Shalom Ram
Published: February 2021

The focus in this book is on the historical consciousness of the Jews of Spain and southern France in the late Middle Ages, and specifically on their perceptions of Christianity and Christian history and culture. The book shows that in these southern European lands Jews experienced a relatively open society that was sensitive to and knowledgeable about voices from other cultures, and that this had significant consequences for shaping Jewish historical consciousness. Among the topics discussed are what Jews knew of the significance of Rome, of Jesus and the early days of Christianity, of Church history, and of the history of the Iberian monarchies. The book demonstrates that, despite the negative stereotypes of Jewry prevalent in Christian literature, they were more influenced by their interactions with Christian society at the local level. Consequently, there was no single stereotype that dominated Jewish thought, and frequently little awareness of the two societies as representing distinct cultures. The book demonstrates that in Spain and southern France, Jews of the later Middle Ages evinced a genuine interest in history, including the history of non-Jews, and that in some cases they were deeply familiar with Christian and sometimes also classical historiography. The book enriches our understanding of medieval historiography, polemic, Jewish–Christian relations, and the breadth of interests characterizing Provencal and Spanish Jewish communities.
Zohar: Reception and Impact
Authors: Huss Boaz
Published: February 2021

From its first appearance, the Zohar has been one of the most sacred, authoritative, and influential books in Jewish culture. Many scholarly works have been dedicated to its mystical content, its literary style, and the question of its authorship. This book focuses on different issues: it examines the various ways in which the Zohar has been received by its readers and the impact it has had on Jewish culture, including the fluctuations in its status and value and the various cultural practices linked to these changes. This dynamic and multi-layered history throws important new light on many aspects of Jewish cultural history over the last seven centuries. The book examines the reception and canonization of the Zohar as well as its criticism and rejection from its inception to the present day. The underlying assumption is that the different values attributed to the Zohar are not inherent qualities of the zoharic texts, but rather represent the way it has been perceived by its readers in different cultural contexts. The book considers not only the attribution of different qualities to the Zohar through time but also the people who were engaged in attributing such qualities and the social and cultural functions associated with their creation, re-creation, and rejection. For each historical period from the beginning of Zohar scholarship to the present, the book considers the social conditions that stimulated the veneration of the Zohar as well as the factors that contributed to its rejection, alongside the cultural functions and consequences of each approach.
Narrative
Authors: Jones Tanya
Published: February 2021

This chapter focuses on narrative as the exploration of how a story is structured and organised in order to create meaning and generate a particular response from the audience. It explains how a film can be broken down into specific sections that contain particular events and have particular functions. It also discusses the narrative theory formulated by Tzvetan Todorov in his literary and cultural criticism, which defined three basic stages of a narrative's structure. The chapter describes Pan's Labyrinth's narrative structure that can be read as retrospective due to its opening scene of an image of a dead child. It explains that the retrospective narrative provides a retelling of what brings Ofelia to this tragic position.
The Fall of Hammer
Authors: Walden Victoria Grace
Published: February 2021

This chapter describes how Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) set a new precedent for horror which eventually posed a serious threat to Hammer Films. It was set in modern times and featured a human killer. While a spate of companies created Hammer imitations, fantasy horror was gradually to be replaced by a gritty, modern variation. Hammer tried several strategies to compete with the emerging modern horror style, but sadly failed as they gradually lost American backing. These techniques can be seen in The Devil Rides Out (1968), which gives horror a human face with an occult setting in the 1920s; Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972) set in contemporary London and Hammer's first (and only) film to focus on a group of modern teenagers; and finally The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, a transnational production which hybridises the then-popular kung fu craze with classic Hammer horror.
Hammer Rises from the Grave
Authors: Walden Victoria Grace
Published: February 2021

This chapter explores how a Hammer film looks like in the twenty-first century. In an article in Empire magazine, new Hammer CEO Simon Oakes states that Let Me In (2010) is the first new Hammer release. However, the film, a US-set remake of the Swedish film Let the Right One In (2008), was not Hammer's first twenty-first century production. In 2008, the studio released the web series Beyond the Rave via MySpace in a conscious attempt to reach the new internet-savvy youth market. The project was somewhat experimental, and released long before online distributors such as Netflix and Amazon began producing material exclusively for their streaming platforms. The production seems to have been airbrushed from history — a search for it on the official Hammer website produces no results. The chapter then looks at James Watkins's The Woman in Black (2012).
Psychoanalysis
Authors: Hughes Emily
Published: February 2021

This chapter analyses Pedro Almodóvar's Talk to Her (2002) using psychoanalytic film theory. Early psychoanalytic film theory invited the spectator to decode the unconscious of the film-maker, seeing film as a projection or expression of the film-maker's unconscious. For Almodóvar, this approach could be fruitful, as several people have claimed that Talk to Her is somewhat autobiographical. The second branch of psychoanalytic film theory focuses on characters and the audience's challenge and desire to analyse their unconscious motivations. Whilst this approach has been criticised, as arguably characters, by their very nature, are not real and thus have no unconscious, it can prove fruitful in an analysis of Talk to Her, particularly through the explicit references to psychiatry and Benigno's past. The third branch of psychoanalytic film theory is audience-centred, which sees characters' behaviours as being interpreted as explorations of the spectator's own unconscious. This approach is similarly interesting to consider due to the interesting position in which it places the spectator in relation to Benigno and the rape and forces the spectator to ask difficult questions.
Audience and Critical Response
Authors: Hughes Emily
Published: February 2021

This chapter looks at the audience and critical response to Pedro Almodóvar's Talk to Her (2002). The film can be thought to appeal to fans of Almodóvar and in this sense, whilst Hollywood often uses star marketing, the distributors of Almodóvar's films often position him as the star. Indeed, the campaign focused around Almodóvar as a cult figure. In his early career, Almodóvar had 'consciously cultivated the image of a celebrity auteur'. Moreover, regardless of gender or sexual orientation, Talk to Her is most likely to appeal to people with liberal attitudes and, in particular, liberal attitudes towards gender and sexuality in its continual rejection and renegotiation of traditional gender roles. Overall, the film received resoundingly positive critical acclaim. Even those who found Almodóvar's message troubling tended to be impressed by his technical expertise.
Summary
Authors: Hughes Emily
Published: February 2021

This chapter summarises the study of Pedro Almodóvar's Talk to Her (2002). Talk to Her is a film that reflects the social and historical context of Spain and demonstrates many of Almodóvar's auteur characteristics. Its award-winning screenplay defies traditional conventions in genre and narrative structure whilst still creating something that is aesthetically pleasing and accessible to view. The interpretations cited in this book are not the only interpretations. This is a film which becomes richer through discussion and analysis and by approaching it from different critical approaches such as: auteur, genre, narrative, gender, and psychoanalytic film theory. Indeed, the film leaves the viewer with many interesting questions to consider. Ultimately, it is important to look at the film within the body of Almodóvar's work, particularly through exploring his depictions of rape.
Let the Right One In
Authors: Billson Anne
Published: February 2021

These days it takes a very special vampire movie to stand out. Like Twilight, the Swedish film Let the Right One In is a love story between a human and a vampire but there the resemblance ends. Let the Right One In is not a romantic fantasy but combines the supernatural with social realism. Set on a housing estate in the suburbs of Stockholm in the early 1980s, it's the story of Oskar, a lonely, bullied child, who makes friends with Eli, the girl in the next apartment. 'Oskar, I'm not a girl,' she tells him and she's not kidding. They forge a relationship which is oddly innocent yet disturbing, two outsiders against the rest of the world. But one of these outsiders is, effectively, a serial killer. While Let the Right One In is startlingly original, it nevertheless couldn't have existed without the near century of vampire cinema that preceded it. This book looks at how it has drawn from, and wrung new twists on, such classics as Nosferatu (1922), how vampire cinema has already flirted with social realism in films like Near Dark (1987) and how vampire mythology adapts itself to the modern world.
Introduction
Authors: Ramey Mark
Published: February 2021

This introductory chapter discusses the importance of studying David Fincher's Fight Club (1999). Studying Fight Club is a response to a number of issues. Firstly, the film has, since 2009, been an optional examined text in the WJEC's A2 Film Studies course in the UK. Secondly, the film's director, David Fincher, and the key cast of Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter remain powerful Hollywood voices, whose work range from the mainstream to the art house. Fincher in particular is now widely regarded as a contemporary auteur with the facility to explore the zeitgeist in a stylish and substantial way. Finally, there is the need to revisit Fight Club in terms of its broad cultural impact and continuing relevance. The film still packs a powerful punch, with its perceived machismo remaining its most frequently explored aspect and indeed gender identity and post-millennial male anxiety are certainly important critical angles. This book pushes the analysis of the film beyond gender, exploring it in terms of its attack on postmodern culture via a proper understanding of Friedrich Nietzsche: a philosopher who is often negatively attributed to Fight Club's philosophy.
SAW
Authors: Poole Ben
Published: February 2021

Like all game changers within the horror genre, SAW was an independent success, a low-budget champion that flourished without the patronage of a big studio. Not bad for the most successful horror franchise ever, which has spawned subsidiary media and masses of merchandise, including a theme park rollercoaster ride. What is it about SAW that attracted such a following? This book considers the SAW phenomenon from all aspects of film and media studies — from its generic pedigree in both literature and film, to the visceral audience pleasures (“what would I do?”) of the text, to the contrasting representations of men and women and the film's implicit criticism of masculinity.
Textual Analysis
Authors: Poole Benjamin
Published: February 2021

This chapter presents a textual analysis of SAW (2004). The look of the SAW film is grimily distinctive; in contrast to the gloss that commercial horror often employs, SAW appears grotty and rancid. The glowing textures and the grimy mise-en-scène create a world that is hyper-real, yet visually compelling. The roots of the film's look would seem to lie within the gorgeous cinematography of 1980s Italian horror. SAW's day-glo chiaroscuro is expressive of the characters' broken subconscious; tenebrous psychological shadows that suggest shady misdeeds and guilt. Meanwhile, SAW's score is composed of incessant white noise; urgent metal throbs, scraping crescendos, empty rises. It is a soundscape that compliments the threatening atmospheres and urban backstages of the SAW universe. The main musical theme of SAW is the incidental score, 'Hello Zepp', a semi-classical piece that uses swelling strings and peaking synths to intense effect. 'Hello Zepp' is used within all of the subsequent SAW films to communicate the final victories of Jigsaw's creed, and also as part of the marketing campaign. With its iconography of harsh reverberations, the theme locates the film within the horror genre, while its swells and strings empower the narrative, adding grandeur to the film's squalor.
Themes and Issues Arising
Authors: Poole Benjamin
Published: February 2021

This chapter focuses on the themes and issues arising from SAW (2004). It is impossible to extricate SAW from its post-9/11 context. Along with the recurrent images of the torture of impotent victims, the film depicts Americans who are at the mercy of an invasive, resourceful, and merciless force, one with its own belief system, a credo that is violently contrary to western decadence and indulgence. The pain and suffering within SAW is a savage bricolage of Iraq war atrocity; the torture chambers Jigsaw constructs echo the sadistic extremities of Guantanamo Bay. Significantly shifting from its dank torture chambers and subterranean lairs midway through the narrative, SAW makes a point of depicting terror bleeding into the ostensibly safe environment of the American home, and shattering the illusion of familial and domestic security therein. The chapter then considers control and freedom in SAW, looking at the character of Jigsaw.
The Uncanny
Authors: Rose James
Published: February 2021

This chapter studies the concept of ‘the uncanny’ in relation to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). Throughout The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, elements of the Gothic have made themselves clearly manifest: the haunted house, the monster, and sustained persecution. These tropes have provided contexts with which to address the film's content and have exposed potential readings of the text which, in the final analysis, concentrically draw themselves towards a greater concept — the uncanny. The concept and occurrences of the uncanny not only forms the background to the Gothic genre but functions as the very modus operandi of many Gothic texts. With such a concept dominating the Gothic, its application to The Texas Chain Saw can be used to not only consolidate the proposition that the film is itself a Gothic text but, more, to draw the prior readings together and unify them in an effort to formalise a clear reading of Tobe Hooper's film.
Making Horror Respectable
Authors: Forshaw Barry
Published: February 2021

This chapter assesses how Jonathan Demme's adaptation brought about a seismic change in the horror film genre of the 1990s; it performed a similar function for the crime narrative. The acclaim that the film enjoyed, both critically and commercially, was unprecedented. Particularly noteworthy was the recognition from the staid, conservative members of AMPASS, the industry body whose membership is responsible for bestowing the Academy Awards. It would be easy to say that these wins were exclusively due to the exemplary film-making on display in the film, but not quite accurate — such an impressive use of the medium as was evident would not alone have seduced the conservative Academy members, given the disreputable nature of the horror medium. One factor dictating this sea change in terms of Oscar recognition was the contribution of the actor Anthony Hopkins. Ultimately, what elevates The Silence of the Lambs above its cinematic predecessor is the balancing of the two principal (interlocking) plots: the pursuit and capture of the serial killer Buffalo Bill, and the growing uneasy relationship between the monk-like Hannibal Lecter and his novice ‘pupil’ Clarice Starling.
Neo-realist Aesthetics
Authors: Ahmed Omar
Published: February 2021

This chapter examines the neo-realist masterpiece Do Bigha Zamin (Two Acres of Land, 1953) directed by Bengali film-maker Bimal Roy. Prior to the emergence of a distinctive art cinema led by Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak, the aesthetics and ideologies of neo-realism as a distinctive cinematic approach were reflected sporadically in the socialist agenda of films such as Do Bigha Zamin. While Ghatak was busy filming his first film, Nagarik (The Citizen, 1952), and Ray was still struggling with the first part of The Apu Trilogy, it was Bimal Roy, a film-maker now considered part of populist cinema, who made the earliest attempt to integrate neo-realist aesthetics into the framework of a mainstream project. The chapter considers the state of Indian cinema before the emergence of neo-realism; the influence of the IPTA (Indian People's Theatre Association); Bimal Roy as a film-maker; and the wider context including the Bengal famine of 1943–44. It also looks at Balraj Sahni's status as one of Indian cinema's first method actors; the links to Italian neo-realist classics such as Bicycle Thieves (1948); and, finally, the various Marxist ideologies that underpin such a despairing narrative.
Reality of the Dispossessed
Authors: Ahmed Omar
Published: February 2021

This chapter describes how addressing the issue of poverty has been a continuous feature of Indian cinema. Mira Nair's award-winning directorial debut Salaam Bombay! (1988), depicting the lives of Bombay's impoverished street children, is one of the most moving Indian films of the 1980s. It was also one of the few Indian films to find an international, largely arthouse, audience while launching the career of diaspora film-maker Mira Nair, who resides in America. The chapter deals with Indian diaspora cinema and Mira Nair as a female director. It also examines the production history of the shoot; the iconography of the urban slum in Indian cinema; representations of family, poverty, and power in the city of Bombay; and the film's criticisms of the state.