Authors: David Stern (Editor), Mark Jay Mirsky
ISBN-13: 9780300074024, ISBN-10: 0300074026
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Yale University Press
Date Published: March 1998
Edition: 1st Edition
This remarkable anthology of sixteen narratives from ancient and medieval Hebrew texts opens a new window onto the Jewish imagination. Presenting the captivating world of rabbinic storytelling, it reveals facets of the Jewish experience and tradition that would otherwise have remained unknown and examines the surprisingly deep connection between the values of classical Judaism and the art of imaginative narrative writing.
Virtually all the narratives appear here in English for the first time. Sometimes pious, sometimes playful, and sometimes almost scandalous, they are each accompanied by an introduction and notes. The selections are framed by essays by David Stern and Mark Jay Mirsky that examine the various moods and forms in which the rabbinic imagination found expression and explore the impact that this unique form of narrative has had on modern fiction. The translations are by Norman Bronznick, Yaakov Elman, Michal Govrin, Arthur Green, Martha Himmelfarb, Ivan Marcus, Mark Jay Mirsky, Joel Rosenberg, David Ruderman, Raymond Scheindlin, David Stern, and Avi Weinstein.
Acknowledgments | ||
Introduction | 3 | |
A Note on the Selections and the Translations | 31 | |
1 | Rabbinic Parables | 35 |
2 | Two Narratives About God | 47 |
3 | Jonah and the Sailors from Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer | 59 |
4 | Sefer Zerubbabel | 67 |
5 | Midrash on the Ten Commandments | 91 |
6 | The Tale of the Jerusalemite | 121 |
7 | Midrash Eleh Ezkerah or The Legend of the Ten Martyrs | 143 |
8 | The Alphabet of Ben Sira | 167 |
9 | Parables from Sefer Ha-Bahir | 203 |
10 | Narrative Fantasies From Sefer Hasidim | 215 |
11 | Love in the Afterlife: A Selection from the Zohar | 239 |
12 | Asher in the Harem | 253 |
13 | The Misogynist | 269 |
14 | The Sorcerer from Meshal Ha-Kadmoni | 295 |
15 | Job's Novella from A Valley of Vision | 313 |
16 | The "Dream-Talks" of Nahman of Bratslav | 333 |
In a Turn of the Scroll: An Afterword | 349 |