The Israel Science Foundation
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
The Goldstein-Goren International Center for Jewish Thought
Research Workshop on
Reading the Bible in the Pre-Modern World:
Interpretation, Performance and Image
24-26 June 2019
Monday 24 June Rotem Conference Room. Zlotowski Student Administration Building
9:45-10:15 Gathering and Opening Reception
10:15-10:45 Opening Session. Greetings
Haim Kreisel, Director
The Goldstein-Goren International Center for Jewish Thought
Chanitta Goodblatt, Workshop Convener
11:00-13:00 Session 1: Wisdom Literature
Chair/Respondent: Yitzhak Hen, Hebrew University
Tova Forti, Ben-Gurion University
A Consideration of Hermeneutic Perspectives on the Book of Ecclesiastes
Chanita Goodblatt, Ben-Gurion University
The Parable of the Ewe Lamb: Dimensions of Judgement and Interpretation
14:30-17:00 Session 2: Mysticism, Self and Allegory
Chair/Respondent: Elliott Simon, University of Haifa
Piero Capelli, Ca' Foscari University of Venice
Individuating God: The Biblical Motif of God’s Wrath in the Midrash and the Zohar
Oded Yisraeli, Ben-Gurion University
The Story of Rachel and Leah, and their Images in the Zohar
Nancy Rosenfeld, Max Stern College of Jezreel Valley
“Blessed Joseph! I would thou hadst more fellows”: John Bunyan’s Joseph
17:30-19:00 Session 3: The Bible in Rhythm and Sound
Rafi Ziv. Dancer and Choreographer
Tuesday 25 June Rotem Conference Room. Zlotowski Student Administration Building
10:00-10:30 Greetings. Prof. Amit Schejter. Dean. Faculty of Humanities & Social Science
10:30-12:30 Session 4: Wisdom Literature
Chair/Respondent: Ayelet Langer, University of Haifa
Hannibal Hamlin, Ohio State University
The Book of Job and its Renaissance Readers
Noam Flinker, University of Haifa
Psalm 51: Between Christian Silencing and Judaic Messianism in 17th-Century England
14:00—16:00 Session 5: Genesis and Exodus
Chair/Respondent: Jonathan Stavsky, Tel Aviv University
Monika Fludernik, Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg
From Adam and Eve to the Golden Calf: The Pentateuch/Torah in Middle English Mystery Plays
Sharon Aronson-Lehavi, Tel Aviv University
Performing Hebrew/Jewish Biblical Characters in Late Medieval Religious Theater
Coffee Break
16:30-18:30 Session 6: Genesis and Exodus
Chair/Respondent: Jonathan Yogev, Ben-Gurion University
Sara Offenberg, Ben-Gurion University
Illuminating the Creation in Medieval Hebrew Bibles from Ashkenaz
Martin Lockshin, York University
Peshat (Plain Meaning) and Polemics in Medieval Jewish Commentaries on Genesis and Exodus
Wednesday 26 June Room -136 Senate Building
9:30-11:30 Session 7: The Biblical Family
Chair/Respondent: Michal Bar-Asher Siegal, Ben-Gurion University
Lori Anne Ferrell, Claremont Graduate University
The End of the Tudors: Comparing Unhappy Families in 2 Samuel
and Hamlet
Sanford Budick, Hebrew University
The Grafting of “All the Families of the Earth” onto the Biblical Family:
Genesis 12:3 in Midrash, Epistle to the Romans and Shakespeare
12:00-14:00 Session 8: Representing Biblical Characters
Chair/Respondent: Ephraim Shoham-Steiner, Ben-Gurion University
Tammi J. Schneider, Claremont Graduate University
The Gang Rape in Judges 19: Saul, Sodom, Isaac and the Power of
Translation
Oren Roman, Ben-Gurion University
Retelling the Binding of Isaac: Hebrew and Yiddish Literatures of Medieval
and Early Modern Europe
15:30-17:30 Session 9: The Book of Esther
Chair/Respondent: Nirit Ben-Aryeh Debby, Ben-Gurion University
Tovi Bibring, Bar-Ilan University
From a Matrimonial Quarrel to Edifying Drama: Jewish and Christian
Conceptions of Vashti in Medieval and Renaissance France
Ornat Lever, Ben-Gurion University
The Painter and the Queen: Two Women, One Canvas: Artemisia and Esther
17:00-18:00 Concluding Remarks