פרופ' אריק לווי

Books

Authored

2019 Rashi’s Commentary on the Torah: Canonization and Resistance in the Reception of a Jewish Classic, New York: Oxford University Press. Winner: National Jewish Book Award 2019, in the category of Scholarship; Finalist, Jordan Schnitzer Book Award

Judges' Remarks and Reviews: https://biu.academia.edu/ericLawee

2001 Isaac Abarbanel’s Stance Toward Tradition: Defense, Dissent, and Dialogue. Albany: SUNY Press.

Edited

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

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

 

Research Articles

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

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

. 1997 “Isaac Abarbanel’s ‘Stance Toward Tradition’: The Case of ‘Aṭeret Zeqenim.” AJS Review　22:165-98.

. 1997 “The Path to Felicity: Teachings and Tensions in ’Even Shetiyyah of Abraham Ben Judah, Disciple of Hasdai Crescas.” Mediaeval Studies　59:183-223.

. 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. Pp.　213-47. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

. 2001 “Changing Jewish Attitudes Towards Christian Society: The Case of Spain in the Late Middle Ages.” Ed. Michael Brown. York University Centre for Jewish Studies Annual　3:1-15.

. 2003 “Introducing Scripture: The Accessus Ad Auctores in Medieval Hebrew Exegetical Literature from the 13th to 15th Centuries.” In With Reverence for the Word: Medieval Scriptural Interpretation in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Ed. Jane Dammen McAuliffe, Joseph Goering and Barry Walfish. Pp.　159-179. New York: Oxford University Press.

. 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. Ed. Jay Harris. Pp.　119-60. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

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

. 2006 “Graven Images, Astromagical Cherubs, Mosaic Miracles: A Fifteenth-Century Curial-Rabbinic Exchange.” Speculum　81:754-795.

. 2006 “Sefardic Encounters with Rashi: The Case of the Torah Commentary.” Ed. Sara R. Horowitz. York University Centre for Jewish Studies Annual　6:3-11.

. 2007 “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. Ed. Magne Sזbo. in co-operation with Michael Fishbane and Jean Louis Ska. Pp.　190-214. Gצttingen: Vanderhoeck and Ruprecht.

. 2007 “Maimonides in the Eastern Mediterranean: The Case of Rashi’s Resisting Readers.” In Maimonides After 800 Years: Essays on Maimonides and His Influence. Ed. Jay M. Harris. Pp.　183-206. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Center for Jewish Studies.

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

. 2008 “Ha-rambam be-mizraḥ ha-tikhon: qore’av ha-mistayyegim shel rashi.” In Ha-rambam - shamranut, meqoriyut, mehafkhanut. Ed. Aviezer Ravitsky. 2 vols. 2::595-618. Jerusalem: Zalman Shazar.

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

. 2009 “Biyografiyah ‘inṭeleqṭu’alit shel Yiṣḥaq ’Abarbanel le-‘or ketavav ha-porṭugaliyim. In Yahadut portugal be-moked: meḥqarim ‘al yehudim vi-yehudim be-seter. Ed. Yom-Tov Assis and Moises Orfali. Pp.　103-126. Jerusalem: Magnes.

. 2010 “Embarrassment and Re-Embracement of a Midrash on Genesis 2.” In Vixens Disturbing Vineyards: The Embarrassment and Embracement of Scriptures (A Festschrift Honoring Harry Fox Le’Veit Yoreh). Ed. Aubrey Glazer. Pp.　192-207. Boston: Academic Studies Press.

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

. 2010 “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 Thought, Literature and Exegesis. Ed. Ephraim Kanarfogel and Moshe Sokolow. Pp.　401-430. Jersey City, NJ: Ktav.

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

. 2012 “Aaron Aboulrabi: Maverick Exegete from Aragonese Sicily.” Hispania Judaica Bulletin 9:131-161. 

2013

 'אֶפִּיגוֹן נועז:  ר' אלעזר אשכנזי בן ר' נתן הבבלי ופירושו לתורה "צפנת פענח"', בתוך: אסופה ליוסף: קובץ מחקרים שי ליוסף הקר, בעריכת י. בן-נאה ואחרים, ירושלים תשע"ד, עמ' 170 – 186.

 

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.

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

          "Biblical Scholarship in Late Medieval Ashkenaz: The Turn to Rashi Supercommentary." Hebrew Union College Annual  86:  265-303.

2016

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

2017

"Ethical Themes in Medieval Jewish Biblical Commentaries: An Opportunity in the University Classroom.” Journal of Jewish Ethics 3 (2017): 28-62 (Response: Julia Watts Belser, Strange Texts and Unexpected Pairings: Reflections on Pedagogy in Conversation with Eric Lawee
in JJE 3 (2017): 63-67.

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

"A Genre Is Born: Genesis, Dynamics, and Role of Hebrew Exegetical Supercommentaries.” Revue des Études Juives 176 (2017), pp. 295–332.

2018

(עם דורון פורטי). "'ספר השגות' על פירוש רש"י לתורה המיוחס לראב"ד", קבץ על יד כו (תשע"ח), עמ' 77–134.

"'אומת אדום העדינה': גישות יהודיות משתנות לתרבות נוצרי בספרד בשלהי ימי הביניים", בתוך: Jewish Studies Internet Journal 14 (2018), pp. 1-21.

2020

LIMITATIONS OF A PROPHET: R. ISAAC ABARBANEL ON THE HUMAN ELEMENT IN THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH - BETWEEN MEDIEVALISM AND HUMANIST EXEGESIS (Hebrew), Shnaton: An Annual for Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies 26 (2020): 365-401 / שנתון לחקר המקרא והמזרח הקדום 

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

2021

“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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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. 39 typescript pages.

 

"'הגוזמות הספוריים הבלתי מדוקדקים': ר' אלעזר אשכנזי על אריכות הימים של הקדמונים", ספר יובל לכבוד עמוס פריש, רמת-גן, תשפ"ד. 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, 2024). In press.

 

Encyclopedias / Reference Works

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

. Abarbanel, Isaac -- 1:36-37.

Arama, Isaac -- 1:618-19.

Aboulrabi, Aaron -- 1:148-49.

Bestiality (Judaism) – 3:939-941

Eleazar Ashkenazi ben Natan Ha-Bavli - 7:608-609.

Hans Jonas - 14:602–603 (2017)

Nobles of the Children of Israel 21:699-701 (2023).

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

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

 

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.

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

 

Reviews

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

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

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

Abraham Gross, R. Yosef ben ’Avraham Hayyun: manhig qehilat lisbon vi-ysirato [Rabbi Joseph ben Abraham Hayyun: Leader of the Lisbon Community and his Literary Work]

Abraham Gross, Iberian Jewry from Twilight to Dawn: The World of Rabbi Abraham Saba. Journal of Jewish Studies 47 (1996): 171-75.

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

 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“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.

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

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.