Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies (BRGS): Faculty Publications

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Life against death in the Book of Ruth
(New York: Student Organization of Yeshiva Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, 1964) Berger, David
The commonly accepted view that Ruth is a pastoral idyll is one capable of blinding us to its central message. For underlying this simple and charming little tale is a cosmic struggle of profound and manifold implications - the struggle between life and death. There is, of course, no abstract treatment of this theme. It is expressed, rather, through the personal, national and religious experiences of people's lives, experiences which, to the author of Ruth, are quite inseparable. ¶ We would be justified, I believe, in dividing the characters of the book into two major camps, that of life and that of death: Ruth versus Orpah, Boaz versus Elimelech, Machlon and Kilyon, the land of Israel versus the field of Moab, and, most important, Naomi versus Marah. The crucial figure in Ruth To Naomi, for she is the center of its conflict. She moves from Israel to Moab to Israel, from life to death and back again, and the outcome of the struggle for life in the last three chapters depends upon! which aspect of Naomi emerges-does she remain Marah or does Naomi appear once more? ¶ As for the G-d of Israel, He is no doubt responsible for both life and death; trust in Him, however, yields fertility both to the land and to the individual. We shall see, in fact, that the redemption effected by Boaz is simply a manifestation of the work of the true Redeemer. In Ruth, then, G-d appears more frequently among the soldiers of life; it is this that assures their victory. (from Introduction)
Open Access
St. Peter Damian: His attitude toward the Jews and the Old Testament
(New York: Yavneh 1961-, 1965) Berger, David
A cursory examination of the career of St. Peter Damian (1007-1072) would probably yield the impression that his was a significant role in the development of anti-Semitism in the high middle ages. Damian was a powerful force in heightening medieval piety through his advocacy of semi-eremitic monasticism, his stressing the adoration of the Virgin, and his contribution to the tremendous upheaval in early medieval values that culminated in the Gregorian reform. There can be little doubt that a deeper and more widespread piety was a key factor in the tremendous upsurge of Judaeophobia that came with the crusades. Furthermore, Damian wrote the first full-scale anti-Jewish work produced on the continent of Europe in two centuries, and the preserved history of Italian polemics of this nature begins with him. The impression is clear. We must now determine whether or not it is accurate.... ¶ Before doing so, however, we must take cognizance of a most important fact. The attitude of a medieval Christian toward the Jews could be closely related to, and often reflected in, his attitude toward the Old Testament and its law. In Damian's case, there is special reason for interest, because his anti-Jewish works deal almost exclusively with the Old Testament and because he is associated with the replacement of "die judging, wrathful, distant God of the Old Testament . . . by the loving, self-abnegating Son of the New Testament, with his weeping and charitable Mother."1 How real was this dichotomy in Damian's own eyes, and what were his feelings toward that part of the Bible which he shared with the Jews? These are questions that we shall try to answer in the second pan of this paper. (from Introduction)
Open Access
Malbim’s secular knowledge and his relationship to the spirit of the Haskalah
(New York: Yavneh 1961-, 1966) Berger, David
Rabbi Meir Loeb ben Yehiel Michel (1809--1879); who became known by his initials as Malbim, was a fascinating and significant figure on the orthodox Jewish scene in the nineteenth century. Born in Volochisk, Volhynia and troubled by a stormy Rabbinical career in a half-dozen Jewish communities, Malbim wrote a large number of books, many of which had a powerful influence upon the intellectual life of those Jews who remained opposed to the Haskalah movement, even rejuvenating the much neglected study of the Bible to a considerable extent.1 The degree of his influence may be partially gauged by two quite divergent sources which yield the same impression - that the admiration for Malbim was almost boundless. Tzvi Hirschfeld, in an article in Zion 1841, which will be discussed more fully below, wrote of Malbim, "I know very well that the Jews who live in Eastern lands, upon whom the light of wisdom has not yet shone, have decided to raise him up and exalt him." Many years later, the famous Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac of Slonim said, "He is matchless in our generation and is as one of the great scholars of medieval times (Rishonim), and one page of his books is as beloved to me as any treasure and is dearer than pearls."2 ¶ Yet Malbim, the champion of orthodoxy, was imbued. with a very wide range of secular knowledge; indeed, as we shall see, he could never have exercised such influence without it. It is the purpose of this paper to examine Malbim's secular learning and to determine how he related it to his faith and to the religious, intellectual, and social developments of his time. We shall thus gain insight into the world view of a very influential rabbi who, while remaining within the orbit of the Strictest orthodoxy, grappled with the manifold problems of the age of Haskalah. (from Introduction)
Open Access
The attitude of St. Bernard of Clairvaux toward the Jews.
(American Academy for Jewish Research. Proceedings (American Academy for Jewish Research), 1972) Berger, David
St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) was a pivotal figure in the intellectual and political changes that shook Western Christendom in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Apostle of the Gregorian reformers, Bernard believed not merely in the primacy of religion but in its right to control all political and social phenomena. Consequently, he became the self-appointed conscience of Europe; he chastised kings, advised popes, and exercised an undeniable influence upon the most significant religious and secular decisions of his time. ¶ Bernard was, furthermore, in the forefront of the revolution in Christian piety that had begun in the eleventh century. He practically founded a new and more rigorous monastic order, contributed to the burgeoning Mary cult, and helped to strengthen popular piety. These intellectual and emotional changes certainly played some role in the broadening and intensification of anti-Jewish feeling in the second half of the Middle Ages. ¶ The question we shall try to answer in this paper is whether Bernard himself was impelled by these forces toward a more strongly anti-Jewish attitude than his predecessors. As we shall see, he presents a fascinating case study of the increasing tension between the standard theological rationale for tolerating Jews in its most liberal form and the growing hatred for Jews in twelfth century Europe. (from Introduction)
Open Access
A review of the Indo-European and Semitic languages by Saul Levin
(CUNY, 1972-04) Steiner, Richard
Book review.
Open Access
Review of ‘The Indo–European and Semitic Languages’, by Saul Levin.
(New York: CUNY, 1972-04) Steiner, Richard C
In this massive and well-edited volume, Levin investigates in minute detail the extent of the functional and formal similarities which he has discovered between certain grammatical morphemes of Hebrew and Greek or Sanskrit.
Open Access
Gilbert Crispin, Alan of Lille, and Jacob ben Reuben: A study in the transmission of medieval polemic
(University of Chicago Press, 1974) Berger, David
One of the most influential medieval polemics against the Jews was Gilbert Crispin's Disputatio ludaei et Christiani, which was written in the late eleventh century and may reflect a genuine discussion between Crispin and a Jewish disputant.1 However, the dependence of the third book of Alan of Lille's Contra Haereticos 2 upon Crispin's disputation has not been widely recognized. Blumenkranz, for example, in discussing the impact of Crispin's work in the twelfth century, noted the resemblance between the Disputatio and the Dialogus inter Christianum et ludeaum ascribed to William of Champeaux,3 but made no mention of the far closer relationship between Crispin and Alan. 4 Vasoli, in a special study of the Contra Haereticos, also overlooked the major source of book three. Even d' Alverny, who noted the relationship between the two works, did not give a precise indication of its extent. Alan, she writes, "was inspired in large measure by the Disputatio of Gilbert Crispin and reproduced entire passages of this work."6 In fact, just under forty percent of Alan's polemic is copied almost word for word from Crispin or a previous digest of Crispin. (from Introduction)
Open Access
On the origin of the Heder-Hadar alternation in Hebrew.
(Monographic Journals of the Near East / Afroasiatic Linguistics, 1974-03-25) Steiner, Richard C
The heder-hadar alternation is limited to nouns with final resonant, because resonants are particularly prone to acquisition of syllabicity, which, in turn, often leads to epenthesis. The construct forms of such nouns underwent epenthesis earlier than their absolute co-allomorphs -- early enough, in fact, to be affected by the well-known Hebrew stress-shift -- because they lost their case-endings earlier. The original epenthetic vowel was lowered to a by Philippi's law. The retention of e in havel is due to overlapping of Philippi's law and stress-shift.
Open Access
Christian heresy and Jewish polemic in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
(Cambridge UP, 1975-07) Berger, David
The suggestion that there was meaningful contact between Christian heretics and Jews during the middle ages is entirely plausible, quite significant, and generally unproved.' That the existence of heresy had some impact upon the status of medieval Jews is, of course, beyond question. Inquisitorial proceedings aimed at heretics affected not only crypto-Jews (whether real or alleged) but members of the established Jewish community as well. Jews were accused of harboring heretics, encouraging them, and even of leading orthodox Christians into heresy. On several important occasions, procedures usually directed against heretical works were turned against the Talmud, the works of Maimonides, and certain sections of the Jewish liturgy. By the end of the middle ages, Jews were very well a ware of the Church's lack of affection for heretics. 2 (from Introduction)
Open Access
Not just another contemporary Jewish problem a historical discussion of phylacteries
([New York] : Student Organization of Yeshiva, Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary,Yeshiva University, 1976) Kanarfogel, Ephraim; 0000-0002-7539-7802
"And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hands and they shall be for frontlets between thine eyes. "1 Maimonides writes that contained in these words of the Torah are the injunctions to wear the phylactery of the head and the phylactery of the arm.2 It would appear however, that as early as the Talmudic period, these precepts were the victims of circumstances which led to their incomplete or inferior performance by some portion of the Jewish population. The difficulties which prevented the complete fulfillment of these commandments by all were enlarged in the Gaonic period as well as in the time of the Rishonim. It is clearly not the author's purpose to cast aspersions on, or to judge the actions of the Jews of a particular period.3 Rather, the author wishes to present and analyze, from a historical viewpoint, a spectrum of sources that deal with this topic, in order to shed light on the intriguing circumstances and problems that surrounded the performance of these injunctions.3*
Open Access
The Case for Fricative-Laterals in Proto-Semitic.
(American Oriental Society, 1977) Steiner, Richard C
Open Access
Dina de-malkhuta dina: A review
(Tel Aviv University, Faculty Of Law, 1977) Schacter, Jacob J.
This essay is primarily a review of Shmuel Shilo, Dina de-Malkhuta Dina (Jerusalem: Academic Press, 1974), pp, 511.
Open Access
Trinitarian and multiplicity polemics in the biblical commentaries of Rashi, Rashbam, and Bekhor Shor.
(Student Organization of Yeshiva Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, Yeshiva University, 1979) Kanarfogel, Ephraim; 0000-0002-7539-7802
The Old Testament was the single most important source for proof-texts in Jewish-Christian polemics of the High Middle Ages. Christians attempted to show that doctrines such as the Trinity and virgin birth were implicit and sometimes even explicit in Biblical verses. Moreover, the Old Testament foretold the suffering to be endured by the Jews following their repudiation of Jesus, and the ultimate salvation that Jesus would bring to his followers. The use of the Old Testament in this manner was not an innovation of the Christian polemicists in the High Middle Ages. Since the days of the Church Fathers, leading Christians had adduced Old Testament verses as proofs for their doctrines and had even collected them in literary form.1
Open Access
From Proto-Hebrew to Mishnaic Hebrew: the history of "-akh" and "-ah".
(Hebrew Annual Review, 1979) Steiner, Richard C
Open Access
[On] Joshua Blau, "An adverbial construction in Hebrew and Arabic" (1977).
(Afroasiatic Linguistics, 1979) Steiner, Richard C
Open Access
Review of ‘An Adverbial Construction in Hebrew and Arabic: Sentence Adverbials in Frontal Position Separated from the Rest of the Sentence’, by Joshua Blau
(Udena, 1979-03) Steiner, Richard
This book deals with sentence adverbials in initial position which are joined to (or, in B's interpretation, separated from) the rest of the sentence by a conjuntion and/or presentative.
Open Access
Cum nimis absurdum and the conversion of the Jews
(U Pennsylvania, 1979-07) Berger, David
In a recent major study,1 Kenneth Stow has argued that the turn for the worse in papal policy toward the Jews inaugurated by the famous bull Cum Nimis Absurdum resulted not from the desire to segregate Jews but from the hope of converting them en masse. It is not merely that the papacy made intense efforts to convert Jews in the latter half of the sixteenth century; this, as Stow indicates, is nothing new. Rather, "conversion ...w as the core to which all Jewry policy" -including ghettoization and a variety of other new regulations-"was united." 2 We are dealing with much more than a mere "outgrowth of the repressive measures that typified" the Counter-Reformation;3 the new papal policy reflects a conscious decision to convert the Jews through a series of social and economic restrictions. (from Introduction)
Open Access
On the Book ‘Alilot Devarim.
(Bar-Ilan UP, 1980) Schacter, Jacob J.
במאמרו זה מגסה המחבר להוכיח, בשיטת ווייס ודכוותיה, וכנגד גרץ ודעימיה, שרק על רקע איטלקי אפשר להבין את מהותו של הספר. למרות שלאחרונה נתברר שההכללה הרחבה של ווייס בנוגע לחיבורנו, על דבר בערותה ופיגורה של השכלת יהודי אשכנז , היתה פשוטה ושטחית מדי 1, חושבני כי אכן צודקים המאתרים מקומו של ספר זה באיטליה דוקא.
Open Access
Yuqaṭṭil, Yaqaṭṭil, or Yiqaṭṭil: D-Stem Prefix-Vowels and a Constraint on Reduction in Hebrew and Aramaic.
(American Oriental Society, 1980-10) Steiner, Richard C
The prefix-vowel of the Proto-Hebrew (and perhaps also the Proto-Aramaic) D-stem imperfect is not u or a, as is generally believed, but i. Evidence is adduced from the Babylonian reading tradition, and (for Proto-Hebrew only) from Amarna transcriptions (inconclusive), transcriptions of Origen and Jerome, and relic forms in the Tiberian reading tradition. The evidence is limited to the first person singular (ʔeqaṭṭel instead of the standard Tiberian ʔāqaṭṭel), because the first person singular prefix is the only one which begins with ʔ, the consonant which, more than any other, has protected Hebrew vowels from the ravages of reduction.
Open Access
Kinah #10: Eichah Yashvah Havatzelet ha-Sharon
(YUTorah® Online, 1981) Schacter, Jacob J.
Why the Kohanim are worthy of their own kinah.