Polemical and Exegetical Polarities in Medieval Jewish Cultures
in Honour of Daniel J. Lasker
Edited by: Ehud Krinis, Nabih Bashir, Sara Offenberg and Shalom Sadik
De Gruyter, 2021
Table of Contens:
Frontmatter I
Acknowledgement VII
Contents IX
I ON DANIEL J. LASKER AND HIS SCHOLARSHIP
Prof. Daniel J. Lasker – Scholar, Teacher, and Friend
Howard Kreisel 1
Daniel J. Lasker and His Treatment of Jewish Polemics
Shalom Sadik 9
List of Publications
Daniel J. Lasker 19
II JEWISH POLEMICS AND EXEGESIS IN THE ISLAMICATE WORLD
Polemical Logic: Al-Muqammaṣ’s Refutation of Christianity
Sarah Stroumsa 37
The Role of Gog in Daniel al-Qūmisī’s Eschatology
Barry Dov Walfish and Meira Polliack 59
Theological Consideration of the Gift of the Land and the Radical Treatment of the “Seven Nations” in Medieval Judeo-Arabic Exegesis
Haggai Ben-Shammai 77
Epistemology in the Service of Polemic: Yūsuf al-Baṣīr’s Kitāb al-Istiʿānah: Text and Translation
David Sklare 97
Maimonides on the Status of Judaism
Matanel Bareli and Menachem Kellner 135
Abraham Maimonides on Reclaiming Judaism’s Lost “Perfection” from the “Imperfection” of Islam
Mordechai Akiva Friedman 165
III JEWISH AND ANTI-JEWISH POLEMIC AND EXEGESIS IN THE CHRISTIAN WORLD
Abraham bar Ḥiyya (d. ca. 1136) on “The Pure Soul”
Ehud Krinis 201
Asmakhtaʾ and Abraham ibn Ezra’s Exegesis
Martin Lockshin 229
The Finding of the “True Cross” in Judah Hadassi’s Eškol ha-Kofer and the Polemical Parody Toledot Yešu
Miriam Goldstein 251
The Book of Nestor the Priest and the Toledot Yešu in the Polemics of Abner of Burgos/Alfonso of Valladolid
Ryan Szpiech 269
Rashi on Isaiah 53: Exegetical Judgment or Response to the Crusade?
David Berger 301
“The Best of Snakes. . .”: A Polemical Midrash in the Rashi Supercommentary Tradition
Eric Lawee 317
The Discussion of the Messiah in Crescas’s Refutation
Warren Zev Harvey 347
Joshua Ha-Lorki on the Meaning of Emunah: Between Religion and Faith
Yosi Yisraeli 363
Jewish Anti-Semites: The Case of Medieval Apostates
Shalom Sadik 383
Daniel in the Lions’ Den: Jewish-Christian Polemics in Medieval Text and Image
Sara Offenberg 413
IV JEWISH-JEWISH AND JEWISH-CHRISTIAN RELATIONS
Understanding the Uneven Reception of Rabbenu Tam’s Taqqanot
Ephraim Kanarfogel 437
Ritual Imagery Gone Wrong: A Fifteenth-Century Siddur in a Christian Workshop
Katrin Kogman-Appel 467
Transliteration Charts 507
Index of Names 509
