Polemical and Exegetical Polarities in Medieval Jewish Cultures: Studies in Honour of Daniel J. Lasker

520 Pages·2021·7.405 MB·English

by  Ehud Krinis, Nabih Bashir, Sara Offenberg, Shalom Sadik

Polemical and Exegetical Polarities in Medieval Jewish Cultures
Studia Judaica
Forschungen zur Wissenschaft des Judentums
Begründet von
Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich
Herausgegeben von
Günter Stemberger, Charlotte Fonrobert,
Elisabeth Hollender, Alexander Samely
und Irene Zwiep
Band 113
Polemical and
Exegetical Polarities
in Medieval Jewish
Cultures
Studies in Honour of Daniel J. Lasker
Edited by
Ehud Krinis, Nabih Bashir, Sara Offenberg, and
Shalom Sadik
ISBN 978-3-11-070062-6
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-070226-2
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-070232-3
ISSN 0585-5306
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021938818
Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
Detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Typesetting: Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd.
Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck
www.degruyter.com

Acknowledgement
We would like to express our gratitude to our benefactors from the Ben-Gurion
University of the Negev for their valuable assistance in financing the publication
of this volume: the University’s Rector, the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and
Social Sciences and the Center for the Study of Conversion and Inter- Religious
Encounters (CSoC). Our thanks go to Katharine Handel for her meticulous and
overall excellent editing work and to Yoav Meyrav for generously taking upon
himself the task of reviewing the Hebrew and Arabic transliterations. We thank
Asher Binyamin and The Goldstein-Goren International Center for Jewish Thought
for providing helpful administrative assistance. Finally, we are truly and deeply
grateful to each and every contributor for willingly accepting our invitation to
participate in this volume.
Ehud Krinis, Nabih Bashir, Sara Offenberg and Shalom Sadik
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110702262-202

Contents
Acknowledgement   VII
I On Daniel J. Lasker and his Scholarship
Howard Kreisel
Prof. Daniel J. Lasker – Scholar, Teacher, and Friend   3
Shalom Sadik
Daniel J. Lasker and His Treatment of Jewish Polemics   9
Daniel J. Lasker
List of Publications   19
II Jewish Polemics and Exegesis in the Islamicate World
Sarah Stroumsa
Polemical Logic: Al-Muqammaṣ’s Refutation of Christianity   37
Barry Dov Walfish and Meira Polliack
The Role of Gog in Daniel al-Qūmisī’s Eschatology   59
Haggai Ben-Shammai
Theological Consideration of the Gift of the Land and the Radical Treatment of
the “Seven Nations” in Medieval Judeo-Arabic Exegesis   77
David Sklare
Epistemology in the Service of Polemic: Yūsuf al-Baṣīr’s Kitāb al-Istiʿānah:
Text and Translation   97
Matanel Bareli and Menachem Kellner
Maimonides on the Status of Judaism   135
Mordechai Akiva Friedman
Abraham Maimonides on Reclaiming Judaism’s Lost “Perfection” from the
“Imperfection” of Islam   165
X   Contents
III Jewish and Anti-Jewish Polemic and Exegesis in the Christian
World
Ehud Krinis
Abraham bar Ḥiyya (d. ca. 1136) on “The Pure Soul”   201
Martin Lockshin
Asmakhtaʾ and Abraham ibn Ezra’s Exegesis   229
Miriam Goldstein
The Finding of the “True Cross” in Judah Hadassi’s Eškol ha-Kofer and the
Polemical Parody Toledot Yešu   251
Ryan Szpiech
The Book of Nestor the Priest and the Toledot Yešu in the Polemics of Abner of
Burgos/Alfonso of Valladolid   269
David Berger
Rashi on Isaiah 53: Exegetical Judgment or Response to the Crusade?   301
Eric Lawee
“The Best of Snakes. . .”: A Polemical Midrash in the Rashi Supercommentary
Tradition   317
Warren Zev Harvey
The Discussion of the Messiah in Crescas’s Refutation   347
Yosi Yisraeli
Joshua Ha-Lorki on the Meaning of Emunah: Between Religion and Faith   363
Shalom Sadik
Jewish Anti-Semites: The Case of Medieval Apostates   383
Sara Offenberg
Daniel in the Lions’ Den: Jewish-Christian Polemics in
Medieval Text and Image   413