Uncensored: Recovering Anti-Christian Animosity in Contemporary Rabbinic Literature

This article focuses on the recovery of censored Jewish texts in contemporary Orthodox rabbinic literature. I show that contemporary Orthodox scholars make use of critical methods which are close to those of the historical, philological, and biblical sciences, in order to reconstruct those portions...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Harvard theological review
Main Author: Ben Yoḥanan, Karmah (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Cambridge Univ. Press 2021
In: Harvard theological review
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Orthodox Judaism / Rabbinic literature / Censorship / Christianity
RelBib Classification:AX Inter-religious relations
BH Judaism
CA Christianity
Further subjects:B Religious Polemics
B Judaic Studies
B Orthodox Judaism
B Traditionalism
B Censorship
B Jewish-Christian relations
B Rabbinic Literature
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Summary:This article focuses on the recovery of censored Jewish texts in contemporary Orthodox rabbinic literature. I show that contemporary Orthodox scholars make use of critical methods which are close to those of the historical, philological, and biblical sciences, in order to reconstruct those portions of the Jewish tradition which were omitted or transformed in the early-modern period by Christian censorship or by Jews with an "eye" to the censor. As the censored texts were mostly omitted or changed because they were recognized as offensive to Christian sensitivities, their current recovery entails also a renewed discussion of Judaism's attitude to Christianity. I argue that the "uncensoring" of Jewish traditions is closely connected with expressions of animosity towards Christianity. The combination of this animosity with the use of modern scientific methods brings the common cultural assumptions which relate resistance to inter-faith rapprochement with "traditionalism," and a reactionary approach to modernism, into question.
ISSN:1475-4517
Contains:Enthalten in: Harvard theological review
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1017/S0017816021000250