Research and Publications

The Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies takes great pride in both the quality and quantity of our faculty and student publications. Faculty members, in addition to their commitment to training men and women as effective teachers and researchers in Jewish studies, are deeply involved in research and scholarship.

Beyond Expulsion by Debra Kaplan

In her new book Prof. Elisheva Carlebach focuses on the role manuscript and printed calendars (sifre evronot) played in the life of pre-modern and early modern European Jews. She notes in her introduction that the schedule of workdays and holidays was “as powerful a sign of cultural influence as any badge, language or physical marker.”   Jewish calendars delineated this schedule and differentiated it from that of the surrounding non-Jewish society.

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Opening the Gates by Mordechai Cohen

Prof. Mordechai Cohen's study of Maimonides' method of biblical interpretation has at its heart an exacting analysis of each passage in Maimonides' Book of the Commandments in which the term peshuto shel mikra appears. According to Prof. Cohen, Maimonides developed a systematic theory relating law and biblical interpretation, in which a mitzvah cannot be counted as one of the 613 biblical commandments without an anchor in peshuto shel mikra.
 

 

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A Biblical Translation by Richard Steiner

R. Saadia Gaon (882-942), one of the greatest Jewish sages of the Middle Ages, composed a translation of the Torah into Arabic, which forms the subject of Prof. Steiner’s new book.  Prof. Steiner notes in his introduction that, in addition to providing a translation much needed by the Jewish public, R. Saadia specifically aimed it “to defend Rabbinic Judaism against two young, aggressive rivals: Islam and Karaism.  A translation ‘that would not be refuted by speculative knowledge’ would undermine the claim of Muslim polemicists.

 

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Palaces of Time by Elisheva Carlebach

In her new book Prof. Elisheva Carlebach focuses on the role manuscript and printed calendars (sifre evronot) played in the life of pre-modern and early modern European Jews. She notes in her introduction that the schedule of workdays and holidays was “as powerful a sign of cultural influence as any badge, language or physical marker.”   Jewish calendars delineated this schedule and differentiated it from that of the surrounding non-Jewish society.

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