Prof. Eric Lawee

Books

Author

Rashi’s Commentary on the Torah: Canonization and Resistance in the Reception of a Jewish Classic. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019. 478 pages.

Isaac Abarbanel’s Stance Toward Tradition: Defense, Dissent, and Dialogue. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001.  320 pages.

Editor

Section on “Biblical Commentary,” Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization. Vol. IV: 1200–1500 (ed. Jonathan S. Ray), (220 typescript pages). Forthcoming 2025.

Studies in Bible and Exegesis XI: Presented to Yaakov Kaduri (co-editors: M. Avioz and Y. Ofer). Ramat Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press, 2020.

Articles  

Forthcoming      

“A Devotee of Abraham ibn Ezra Reads Rashi: The Case of Moses ben Jacob ‘the Exile’ of Kiev,” European Journal of Jewish Studies. Accepted. 32 typescript pages.

“Imperfections of a Prophet and the Ketiv-Qere Conundrum: Jacob ben Hayyim ibn Adoniyahu versus Isaac Abarbanel, ‘Iyyunei miqra u-farshanut 1. Accepted. 39 typescript pages.

"'הגוזמות הספוריים הבלתי מדוקדקים': ר' אלעזר אשכנזי על אריכות הימים של הקדמונים", ספר יובל לכבוד עמוס פריש, רמת-גן, תשפ"ה. בדפוס.

“Hassagot: An Unstudied Genre and Its Place in Jewish Biblical Scholarship in Late Medieval Byzantium,” in Mezukak Shivatayim: Festschrift in Honor of Bernard Septimus. Ed. Edward Breuer, Adena Tanenbaum, Elisha Russ-Fishbane (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Center for Jewish Studies, 2025). In press.

Published

2024

“With Specious Contentions, He Cast Blemishes on His Holy Ones”: Abraham Ibn Ezra, Maimonides, and Nahmanides in Zecharyah ben Moshe’s Poetic Preface to Offering of Zeal,” Hebrew Union College Annual 95 (2024): 187–233.

2023

“How Would He Not Protest God’s Putting to Death the Righteous Child?”: Maimonides, His Interlocutors, and Eleazar Ashkenazi Read the Akedah. Review of Rabbinic Judaism 26 (2023): 233–262.

“Imprecise Hyperboles” and A “Noble Ruse”: Antediluvian Longevity and the Patriarchal Narratives of Moses in Eleazar Ashkenazi’s Revealer of Secrets.” AJS Review 47 (2023): 285–313.

2022

“Medieval Representations of Abraham: Mockery as a Vehicle of Rational Enlightenment in Eleazar Ashkenazi ben Natan Ha-Bavli’s Revealer of Secrets.” Jewish Quarterly Review 112 (2022): 697–730.

 “Manuscript Marginalia in a Fourteenth-Century Torah Commentary and the History of Jewish Reading: Ephraim ben Shabbetai on Eleazar Ashkenazi’s Revealer of Secrets.” Jewish History 36 (2022): 231–263.

"קשריו של אדם הראשון עם בעלי החיים: יסודות ימי ביניימים, תהודות מהעת החדשה", בתוך: זכרה לאהרן: קובץ מחקרים במקרא ובפרשנותו – ספר זיכרון לפרופ' אהרן מונדשיין, בעריכת מלכת שנוולד, חולון תשפ"ב, עמ' 222–239.

“Scholarship in the Last Three Decades on Jewish Religion and Thought from the Seventh to the Seventeenth Century: Changing Paradigms, New Perspectives, Future Prospects,” in Premodern Jewish Studies: A Handbook, ed. C. Ehrlich and S. Horowitz (Berlin: Walter De Gruyter, 2022): 275–92.

2021

 “Eleazar Ashkenazi on the Longevity of the Ancients,” Tradition 54 (2021): 1-12.

“Servant of Solomon”: Sensitivity to Language and Context in Moses Gabbai’s Supercommentary on Rashi’s Commentary on the Torah,” in Ve-'Ed Ya'aleh: Essays in Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies Presented to Edward L. Greenstein. Ed. P. Machinist et al. Leiden: Brill, 2021. Vol. 2, pp. 1047-1064.

“‘The Best of Snakes …’: A Polemical Midrash in the Rashi Supercommentary Tradition,” in Polemical and Exegetical Polarities in Medieval Jewish Culture: Studies in Honour of Daniel J. Lasker. Ed. Ehud Krinis, et al. De Gruyter: Berlin and Boston, 2021, pp. 317–46.

“Pregnant Contradictions: Inconsistencies in Rashi’s Account of Esau’s and Jacob’s Religious and Moral Development in the Rashi Supercommentary Tradition.” Reading the Bible in the Pre-Modern World: Interpretation, Performance and Image, ed. C. Goodblatt and H. Kreisel (Beer Sheva: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Press, 2021), 175–222.

2020

“Limitations of a Prophet: Isaac Abarbanel on the Human Element in the Prophecies of Jeremiah – Between Medievalism and Humanist Exegesis.” Shnaton: An Annual for Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern 26 (2020): 365–401 (Hebrew).

“Yaakov Kaduri: Teacher and Scholar” (with Hindy Najman and Ishay Rosen-Zvi). Studies in Bible and Exegesis 11 (2020): 11–17 (Hebrew).

2018

“‘The Refined People of Edom’: Evolving Jewish Attitudes Towards Christian Society in Late Medieval Spain” (Hebrew). Jewish Studies Internet Journal 14 (2018): 1–21 (Hebrew).

“‘Book of Strictures’ Ascribed to R. Abraham ben David on Rashi’s Torah Commentary: Introduction and Edition” (Hebrew; co-author Doron Forte). Kovetz al Yad 26 (2018): 77–134 (Hebrew).

2017

“A Genre Is Born: Genesis, Dynamics, and Role of Hebrew Exegetical Supercommentaries.” Revue des études juives 176 (2017): 295–332.

 “Exegesis and Appropriation: Reading Rashi in Late Medieval Spain.” Harvard Theological Review 110 (2017): 495–520.

“Ethical Themes in Medieval Jewish Biblical Commentaries: An Opportunity in the University Classroom.” Journal of Jewish Ethics 3 (2017): 28–62.

2016

“The Supercommentator As Thinker: Examples from the Ashkenazic Rashi Supercommentary Tradition.” Journal of Jewish Studies 67 (2016): 340–62.

2015

“Biblical Scholarship in Late Medieval Ashkenaz: The Turn to Rashi Supercommentary.” Hebrew Union College Annual 86 (2015): 265–303.

“Hans Jonas and Classical Jewish Texts: New Dimensions.” Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy 23 (2015): 75–125.

2014

“The Omnisignificant Imperative in Rashi Supercommentary in Late Medieval Spain.” Hispania Judaica Bulletin 10 (Between Edom and Kedar Studies in Memory of Yom Tov Assis) (2014): 169–92.

2013

“Aaron Aboulrabi: Maverick Exegete from Aragonese Sicily.” Hispania Judaica Bulletin 9 (2013): 131–161.

“Audacious Epigone: R. Eleazar Ashkenazi ben R. Natan Ha-bavli and His Torah Commentary ‘Sofnat Pane’ah’” (Hebrew), in ’Asufah le-Yosef: Koveṣ meḥqarim shai le-Yosef Hacker, 170–86. Ed. Yaron Ben-Na’eh et al. Jerusalem: Mercaz Zalman Shazar, 2013.

2012

“Sephardic Intellectuals:  Challenges and Creativity (1391 – 1492),” in The Jew in Medieval Iberia 1000-1500, 350–391. Ed. Jonathan Ray. Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2012. 

2010

“The Sins of the Fauna in Midrash, Rashi, and Their Medieval Interlocutors.” Jewish Studies Quarterly 17 (2010): 56–98. 

“Words Unfitly Spoken:  Late Medieval Criticism of the Role of Midrash in Rashi’s Commentary on the Torah,” in Between Rashi and Maimonides: Themes in Medieval Jewish Law, Thought and Culture, 401–430. Ed. Ephraim Kanarfogel and Moshe Sokolow. Garden City, NJ: Ktav, 2010.

“Embarrassment and Re-Embracement of a Midrash on Genesis 2,” Vixens Disturbing Vineyards: The Embarrassment and Embracement of Scriptures - A Festschrift Honoring Harry Fox Le’Veit Yoreh, 192–207. Ed. Tzemah Yoreh, et al. Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2010.

2009

“Abarbanel in Italy: The Critique of the Kabbalist Elijah Hayyim Genazzano.” Jewish History 23 (2009): 223–53. 

Isaac Abarbanel’s Intellectual Biography in Light of His Portuguese Writings” (Hebrew), in Yahadut portugal be-moked: mehqarim ‘al yehudim vi-yehudim be-seter (Portuguese Jewry at the Stake: Studies on Jews and Crypto-Jews), 103–26. Ed. Yom-Tov Assis and Moises Orfali. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 2009.

2008

“Maimonides in the Eastern Mediterranean: Rashi’s Resisting Readers” (Hebrew), in Ha-rambam – shamranut, meqoriyut, mehafkhanut (Maimonides: Conservatism, Originality, Revolution), 2:595–618.  Ed. Aveizer Ravitzky. Jerusalem:  Zalman Shazar, 2008.

“Isaac Abarbanel: From Medieval to Renaissance Jewish Biblical Scholarship,” in Hebrew Bible / Old Testament: The History of Its Interpretation. Vol. 2. From the Renaissance to the Enlightenment (1300 – 1800), 190–214. Ed. Magne Saebø.  Gottingen: Vanderhoeck and Ruprecht, 2008.

2007

“The Reception of Rashi’s Commentary on the Torah in Spain:  The Case of Adam’s Mating with the Animals.” Jewish Quarterly Review 97 (2007): 33–66. 

2006

 “From Sefarad to Ashkenaz:  A Case Study in the Rashi Supercommentary Tradition.” AJS Review 30 (2006): 393–425. 

 “Graven Images, Astromagical Cherubs, Mosaic Miracles: A Fifteenth-Century Curial-Rabbinic Exchange.”  Speculum 81 (2006): 754–95. 

2005

“‘The Good We Accept and the Bad We Do Not’:  Aspects of Isaac Abarbanel’s Stance towards Maimonides.”  In Be’erot Yitzhak: Studies in Memory of Isadore Twersky, 119–60. Ed. Jay M. Harris. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005.

2003

“Introducing Scripture:  The Accessus ad auctores in Hebrew Exegetical Literature from the Thirteenth through the Fifteenth Centuries.” In With Reverence for the Word:  Medieval Scriptural Interpretation in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, 157–79. Ed. Jane Dammen McAuliffe, Joseph Goering, and Barry Walfish. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

2001

“The Messianism of Isaac Abarbanel, ‘father of the [Jewish] messianic movements of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries’.”  In Millenarianism and Messianism in Early Modern European Culture: Jewish Messianism in the Early Modern World. Ed. Richard H. Popkin and Matthew Goldish, 1–39. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001.

2000

“Isaac Abarbanel’s Intellectual Achievement and Literary Legacy in Modern Scholarship:  A Retrospective and Opportunity.”  In Studies in Medieval Jewish History and Literature III. Ed. Isadore Twersky and Jay M. Harris, 213–47. Cambridge: Harvard University Center for Jewish Studies, 2000.

1997

“The Path to Felicity:  Teachings and Tensions in ‘Even shetiyyah of Abraham ben Judah, Disciple of Hasdai Crescas.” Mediaeval Studies 59 (1997): 183–223.

“Isaac Abarbanel’s ‘Stance Towards Tradition’:  the Case of ‘Ateret Zeqenim.” AJS Review 22 (1997): 165–98.

1996

“The ‘Ways of Midrash’ in the Biblical Commentaries of Isaac Abarbanel.” Hebrew Union College Annual 67 (1996): 107–42.

“Don Isaac Abarbanel:  Who Wrote the Books of the Bible?” Tradition 30 (1996): 65–73. 

1995

“‘Israel has No Messiah’ in Late Medieval Spain.” Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy 5 (1995): 245–79.

“On the Threshold of the Renaissance:  New Methods and Sensibilities in the Biblical Commentaries of Isaac Abarbanel.” Viator 26 (1995): 283–319.

Encyclopedias / Reference Works

Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2009 – )

1. Abarbanel, Isaac – 1, cols. 36–37 (2009).
2. Aboulrabi, Aaron – 1, cols. 148–49 (2009).
3. Arama, Isaac –  2, cols. 618–19 (2009).
4. Bestiality (Judaism) – 3, cols. 939–941 (2010).
5. Eleazar Ashkenazi ben Nathan Ha-Bavli – 7, cols. 608–9 (2013).

      6)   Jonas, Hans – 14, cols. 601–603

      7) Nobles of the Children of Israel – 21, cols. 699-701 (2023).

 “The Abravanel Family.”  Cambridge Dictionary of Judaism and Jewish Culture.  Ed. Judith Baskin.  New York:  Cambridge University Press, 2011.  P. 3. 

Encyclopaedia Judaica. 2nd edition. Volume 1. Detroit: Thomson-Gale, 2007.

• Abrabanel, Isaac. Pp. 276–79.
• Abraham ben Judah Leon. P. 304.
• Abulrabi, Aaron. Pp. 345–46. 

“Abravanel, Isaac,” in Reader’s Guide to Judaism. Ed. Michael Terry, 2–3. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2000.

“Abravanel, Isaac,” in Encyclopedia of the Renaissance. 6 vols. Ed. Paul F. Grendler, 1:1–2. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1999.

Reviews 

Mordechai Z. Cohen, Rashi, Biblical Interpretation, and Latin Learning in Medieval Europe: A New Perspective on an Exegetical Revolution. In Speculum 97 (2022): 1175-1176.

 A. Hughes and J. Robinson, eds., Medieval Jewish Philosophy and Its Literary Forms. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2019. Published on H-Judaic (March, 2020).

 “The Secrets of the Efod” (Review of The Secret Faith of Maestre Honoratus: Profayt Duran and Jewish Identity in Late Medieval Iberia by Maud Kozodoy), The Jewish Review of Books, Summer 2016, pp. 17–18.

 David Berger, Cultures in Collision and Conversation: Essays in the Intellectual History of the Jews.  Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 12 (2013):550–52. 

Naomi Grunhaus, The Challenge of Received Tradition: Dilemmas of Interpretation in Radak's Biblical Commentaries. Hebrew Studies 54 (2013): 431–33.

Cedric Cohen Skalli, Isaac Abravanel: Letters. AJS Review 33 (2009): 176–78.

Mark Meyerson, A Fifteenth Century Renaissance in Spain. AJS Review 30 (2006): 201–3.

David B. Ruderman and Giuseppe Veltri, eds., Cultural Intermediaries: Jewish Intellectuals in Early Modern Europe.  Renaissance Quarterly 58 (2005): 215–16.

Alfredo Borodowski, Isaac Abravanel on Miracles, Creation, Prophecy, and Evil. Renaissance Quarterly 57 (2004): 650–51.

Menachem Kellner, Commentary on the Song of Songs of Levi ben Gershom (Gersonides). Hebrew Studies 40 (1999): 339–43.

                                                  

Elias Lipiner, Two Portuguese Exiles in Castile. Zion 64 (1999): 109–12 (in Hebrew). 

Menachem Cohen, ed., Miqra’ot gedolot ha-keter:  sefer yehoshua’ - sefer shofetim [Mikra’ot Gedolot ‘Haketer’:  Joshua – Judges]. Journal of Jewish Studies 48 (1997): 148–49.

Roland Goetschel, Isaac Abravanel:  conseiller des princes et philosophe. Journal of Jewish Studies 48 (1997): 170–71.

Abraham Gross, R. Yosef ben ’Avraham Hayyun:  manhig qehilat lisbon vi-ysirato [Rabbi Joseph ben Abraham Hayyun:  Leader of the Lisbon Community and his Literary Work] and idem, Iberian Jewry from Twilight to Dawn:  The World of Rabbi Abraham Saba. Journal of Jewish Studies 47 (1996): 171–75.

Jean-Christophe Attias, Isaac Abravanel:  La mémoire et l’espérance. Journal of Jewish Studies 47 (1996): 175–77.

Barry Walfish, ed., The Frank Talmage Memorial Volume. Journal of Jewish Studies 46 (1995): 314–15.

 

Popular Scholarship

“The Times an Life of Isaac Abarbanel: Leader of Spanish Jewry During the 1492 Expulsion.”  The Sephardi Report 4 (2010; printed in 2012): 15–18.

 

“Isaac Abarbanel: 500 Years of Memories,” Canadian Jewish News, March 6, 2008, A9.

 

Rashi in Spain: The Case of the Torah Commentary,” Canadian Jewish News, December 22, 2005, B12–B14.

 

“Maimonides and His Islamic World.”  Canadian Jewish News, September 15, 2004, B13–B17.