Unveiling the Hidden--Anticipating the Future

Divinatory Practices Among Jews Between Qumran and the Modern Period
Erscheinungsjahr 2021
ISBN: 978-90-04-44506-2
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 5, 412 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 236 mm, Gewicht: 726 g

Reihe: Prognostication in History

In Unveiling the Hidden—Anticipating the Future: Divinatory Practices Among Jews Between Qumran and the Modern Period, Josefina Rodríguez-Arribas and Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum collect ten studies based on primary sources ranging from Qumran to the modern period and covering Europe and the Mediterranean basin. The studies show Jews practising divination (astrology, bibliomancy, physiognomy, dream requests, astral magic, etc.) and implementing the study and practice of the prognostic arts in ways that allowed Jews to make them "Jewish," by avoiding any conflict with Jewish law or halakhah. These studies focus on the Jewish components of this divination, providing specific firsthand details about the practices and their practitioners within their cultural and intellectual contexts—as well as their fears, wishes, and anxieties—using ancient scrolls and medieval manuscripts in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Judaeo-Arabic.

Contributors are Michael D. Swartz, Helen R. Jacobus, Alessia Bellusci, Blanca Villuendas Sabaté, Shraga Bar-On, Josefina Rodríguez-Arribas, Amos Geula, Dov Schwartz, Joseph Ziegler, and Charles Burnett.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Weitere Mitwirkende

Rodríguez-Arribas, Josefina

Greenbaum, Dorian Gieseler

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturgeschichte und Literaturkritik
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Naher & Mittlerer Osten
• Geisteswissenschaften Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien: Leben & Praxis, Soziale Aspekte
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Soziologie des Brauchtums und der Traditionen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments

List of Figures and Tables

Table for the Transliteration of the Hebrew Characters

Table for the Transliteration of the Arabic Characters

Notes on the Contributors

Introductory Essay: Divination in Jewish Cultures—Some Reflections on the Subject of This Book

Josefina Rodríguez-Arribas

1 Divination as Transaction: Rhetorical and Social Dimensions of Ancient Jewish Divination Texts

Michael D. Swartz

2 Aramaic Calendars and the Question of Divination in Late Second Temple Judaism

Helen R. Jacobus

3 Jewish Oneiric Divination: From Daniel’s Prayer to the Genizah Še?elat ?alom

Alessia Bellusci

4 Dream Interpretation Reinterpreted in the Light of Judaeo-Arabic Fragments Attributed to ?ai Gaon

Blanca Villuendas Sabaté

5 If You Seek to Take Advice from the Torah, It Will Be Given—Jewish Bibliomancy through the Generations

Shraga Bar-On

6 Judah bar Barzillai and His Role in Abraham bar ?iyya’s Letter on Astrology

Josefina Rodríguez-Arribas

7 Abraham bar ?iyya’s Letter to Judah bar Barzillai—Translation

Josefina Rodríguez-Arribas and Amos Geula

8 Maimonides on Magic, Astral Magic and Experimental Science

Dov Schwartz

9 On the Various Faces of Hebrew Physiognomy as a Prognostic Art in the Middle Ages

Joseph Ziegler

10 Inscriptio characterum: Solomonic Magic and Palaeography. With an Appendix on the Making of the Grimoire by Nicholas Pickwoad

Charles Burnett

Bibliography

Index of Names (People, Places, and Texts)

Index of Quotations and Citations of Biblical, Pseudepigrapha, Qumran, and Rabbinic Texts

Index of Subjects

Über Autor(innen)

Josefina Rodríguez-Arribas (Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität, Münster) has written articles and chapters on medieval astronomy and divination. She is the author of El cielo de Sefarad: los judíos y los astros (El Almendro 2011) and co-editor of Astrolabes in Medieval Cultures (Brill 2017 and 2019).

Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum (University of Wales Trinity Saint David) is the author of The Daimon in Hellenistic Astrology: Origins and Influence (Brill 2016) and has written numerous articles on the history, theory and practice of astrology, divination, and ancient medicine.