Elchanan Reiner

Tel Aviv University, Jewish History, Faculty Member

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Professor Elchanan Reiner is Emeritus Professor of Jewish History at Tel Aviv University.

[This page is curated by Mr. Menachem Butler on behalf of Professor Elchanan Reiner.]
Address: Jerusalem, Israel

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Efrata Teachers College

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Bar-Ilan University

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University of Haifa

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Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion

Chamutal Meerovitch

Tel Aviv University

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University of Haifa

Eli Yassif

Tel Aviv University

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Books by Elchanan Reiner

Elchanan Reiner, *On the Path to Meron: Reflections on Sacred Space in the Visual Art of The Pre-State Land of Israel* (Jerusalem, 2021; Hebrew)

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*Maharal: Biography, Doctrine, Influence*, ed. Elchanan Reiner (Jerusalem: Shazar, 2015; Hebrew)

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*Jewish Culture in Early Modern Europe: Essays in Honor of David B. Ruderman*, eds. Adam Shear, Richard I. Cohen, Elchanan Reiner, and Natalie B. Dohrmann (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2014)

Le Don Quichotte d'Antônio José Da Silva, les Marionnettes du Bairro Alto et les Prisons de L'Inq... more

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*Pilgrimage: Jews, Christians, Moslems*, eds. Ora Limor, Elchanan Reiner, and Miriam Frenkel (Raanana: Open University Press, 2014; Hebrew)

David Amit, *Carved in Stone: Collected Essays*, eds. Guy Stiebel and Elchanan Reiner (Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute, 2013; Hebrew)

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*Ta Shma: Studies in Judaica in Memory of Israel M. Ta-Shma*, eds. Avraham (Rami) Reiner, Joseph R. Hacker, Moshe Halbertal, Moshe Idel, Ephraim Kanarfogel, and Elchanan Reiner (Alon Shvut: Tevunot Press, 2011), two vols.

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Hillel Zeitlin, *Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav: World Weariness and Longing for the Messiah, Two Essays*, ed. Elchanan Reiner, Gidon Ofrat, and Israel Ta-Shma (Jerusalem: Arna Hass, 2006; Hebrew)

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*Pilgrimage: Jews, Christians, Muslims – Collected Essays*, eds. Ora Limor and Elchanan Reiner (Raanana: Open University Press, 2005; Hebrew)

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Elchanan Reiner, *All Rivers Flow to the Sea: The Pilgrimage to Jerusalem After the Destruction* (Privately Published, 2005)

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*Ve-Zot le-Yehuda – Studies in the History of Eretz Yisrael: Presented to Yehuda Ben Porat*, eds. Yehoshua Ben-Arieh, Elchanan Reiner, and Yossi Ben-Arzi (Jerusalem: Ben Zvi Institute, 2003; Hebrew)

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Nadav Na’aman, *The Past that Shapes the Present: The Creation of Biblical Historiography in the Late First Temple Period and After the Downfall*, eds. Elchanan Reiner, Israel Ta-Shma, Gidon Ofrat (Jerusalem: Arna Hass, 2002; Hebrew)

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*Streams to the Sea: Studies in Jewish Culture and Its Context – Dedicated to Felix Posen*, eds. Rachel Livneh-Freudenthal and Elchanan Reiner (Tel Aviv: Alma College, 2001)

larK D'ni on n-'?s 0'?^ on 01? D'DVn O'^nanÂ ll streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never f... more

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Moshe Halbertal, *Concealment and Revelation: The Secret and its Boundaries in Medieval Jewish Tradition*, ed. Elchanan Reiner, Israel Ta-Shma, Gidon Ofrat (Jerusalem: Arna Hass, 2001; Hebrew)

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Eliezer Raphael Malachi, *Mi-Neged Tireh, View from a Distance: Selected Articles on Eretz-Israel*, eds. Elchanan Reiner and Haggai Ben-Shammai (Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute, 2001; Hebrew)

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*Kroke—Kazimierz—Cracow – Studies in the History of Cracow Jewry*, ed. Elchanan Reiner (Tel-Aviv: Tel-Aviv University, 2001; Hebrew)

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Uriel Simon, *The Place of the Bible in Israeli Society: From National Midrash to Existential Peshat*, eds. Elchanan Reiner, Israel Ta-Shma, Gidon Ofrat (Jerusalem: Arna Hass, 1999; Hebrew)

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*Studies in Geography and History in Honour of Yehoshua Ben-Arieh*, eds. Yossi Ben-Artzi, Israel Bartal, and Elchanan Reiner (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1999; Hebrew)

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*Within Hasidic Circles: Studies in Hasidism in Memory of Mordecai L. Wilensky*, eds. Immanuel Etkes, David Assaf, Israel Bartal, and Elchanan Reiner (Jerusalem: Bialik, 1999; Hebrew)

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Elchanan Reiner, “Pilgrims and Pilgrimage to Eretz Yisrael, 1099-1517,” (PhD Dissertation, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1988; Hebrew)

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Elchanan Reiner, *Historic Sites in the Jewish Quarter* (Jerusalem: Ministry of Religious Affairs, 1977)

Elchanan Reiner, *On the Path to Meron: Reflections on Sacred Space in the Visual Art of The Pre-State Land of Israel* (Jerusalem, 2021; Hebrew)

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*Maharal: Biography, Doctrine, Influence*, ed. Elchanan Reiner (Jerusalem: Shazar, 2015; Hebrew)

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Le Don Quichotte d'Antônio José Da Silva, les Marionnettes du Bairro Alto et les Prisons de L'Inq... more

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*Pilgrimage: Jews, Christians, Moslems*, eds. Ora Limor, Elchanan Reiner, and Miriam Frenkel (Raanana: Open University Press, 2014; Hebrew)

David Amit, *Carved in Stone: Collected Essays*, eds. Guy Stiebel and Elchanan Reiner (Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute, 2013; Hebrew)

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Hillel Zeitlin, *Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav: World Weariness and Longing for the Messiah, Two Essays*, ed. Elchanan Reiner, Gidon Ofrat, and Israel Ta-Shma (Jerusalem: Arna Hass, 2006; Hebrew)

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*Pilgrimage: Jews, Christians, Muslims – Collected Essays*, eds. Ora Limor and Elchanan Reiner (Raanana: Open University Press, 2005; Hebrew)

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Elchanan Reiner, *All Rivers Flow to the Sea: The Pilgrimage to Jerusalem After the Destruction* (Privately Published, 2005)

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*Streams to the Sea: Studies in Jewish Culture and Its Context – Dedicated to Felix Posen*, eds. Rachel Livneh-Freudenthal and Elchanan Reiner (Tel Aviv: Alma College, 2001)

larK D'ni on n-'?s 0'?^ on 01? D'DVn O'^nanÂ ll streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never f... more

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Moshe Halbertal, *Concealment and Revelation: The Secret and its Boundaries in Medieval Jewish Tradition*, ed. Elchanan Reiner, Israel Ta-Shma, Gidon Ofrat (Jerusalem: Arna Hass, 2001; Hebrew)

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Eliezer Raphael Malachi, *Mi-Neged Tireh, View from a Distance: Selected Articles on Eretz-Israel*, eds. Elchanan Reiner and Haggai Ben-Shammai (Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute, 2001; Hebrew)

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*Kroke—Kazimierz—Cracow – Studies in the History of Cracow Jewry*, ed. Elchanan Reiner (Tel-Aviv: Tel-Aviv University, 2001; Hebrew)

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Uriel Simon, *The Place of the Bible in Israeli Society: From National Midrash to Existential Peshat*, eds. Elchanan Reiner, Israel Ta-Shma, Gidon Ofrat (Jerusalem: Arna Hass, 1999; Hebrew)

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*Studies in Geography and History in Honour of Yehoshua Ben-Arieh*, eds. Yossi Ben-Artzi, Israel Bartal, and Elchanan Reiner (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1999; Hebrew)

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*Within Hasidic Circles: Studies in Hasidism in Memory of Mordecai L. Wilensky*, eds. Immanuel Etkes, David Assaf, Israel Bartal, and Elchanan Reiner (Jerusalem: Bialik, 1999; Hebrew)

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Elchanan Reiner, “Pilgrims and Pilgrimage to Eretz Yisrael, 1099-1517,” (PhD Dissertation, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1988; Hebrew)

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Elchanan Reiner, *Historic Sites in the Jewish Quarter* (Jerusalem: Ministry of Religious Affairs, 1977)

Elchanan Reiner, “‘For He is the Tenth Generation to Ezra and His Suffering is Comparable to His’: Something About Lineage, Priesthood, and the Yeshiva of the Land of Israel,” in Studies... Festschrift on the Seventieth Birthday of Menahem Ben-Sasson (Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi, 2023), 490-515 (Hebrew)

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Elchanan Reiner, “The Battle of Qedesh on the Plain of Hatsor: On the Hasmonean Roots of the Galilean Foundational Myth,” in Charlotte Elisheva Fonrobert, et al., eds., Talmudic Transgressions: Essays in Conversation with Daniel Boyarin (Brill: Leiden, 2017), 495-506

Commenting on the enigmatic Genesis Rabbah 81:4, Ḥanokh Albeck, the editor of the critical editio... more Commenting on the enigmatic Genesis Rabbah 81:4, Ḥanokh Albeck, the editor of the critical edition of the Midrash, writes: "None of the interpretations and explications of commentators have succeeded in clarifying this midrash." It goes as follows: And [they] journeyed; and [a terror of God] was upon [the cities] etc. Said R. Shimon bar Naḥman: In three places did the nations of the world gather to make war with the Sons of Jacob and the Holy One Blessed Be He did not allow them: 1. And [they] journeyed; and [a terror of God] was upon [the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob] (Gen. 35:5); 2. [And there was a trembling in the camp in the field, and among all the people; the garrison, and the spoilers, they also trembled;] and the earth quaked; so it grew into a terror from God (I Sam. 14:15); 3. [For the battle was there spread over the face of all the country] and the forest devoured more people that day [than the sword devoured]. (II Sam. 18:8) Said R. Lazar: "They sought to pursue but the Holy One Blessed Be He Did not allow them." And where did they gather? In Ḥatsor. That is "But as for the cities that stood [on their mounds, Israel burned none of them, save Ḥatsor onlythat did Joshua burn]." (Josh. 11:13) R. Yuda said: "It was handed down [from heaven] to burn it: The Holy One Blessed Be He told Moses and Moses told Joshua."1

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Elchanan Reiner, “Menachem Ha-Hevroni and his Travelogue,” Zemanim, no. 133-134 (2016): 32-46 (Hebrew)

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Elchanan Reiner, “Patriotic League,” Yediʼop, vol. 6 (September 2016): 50-51 (Hebrew)

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Elchanan Reiner, “True Events Unfold on the Journey to Meron, Rather Than at the Destination Itself,” Haaretz Literary Supplement (20 May 2016): 1 (Hebrew)

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Elchanan Reiner, “Lineage (Yihus) and Libel: Maharal, the Bezalel Family, and the Nadler Affair,” in Elchanan Reiner, ed., Maharal: Biography, Doctrine, Influence (Jerusalem: Shazar, 2015), 101-126 (Hebrew)

* zegiy lr wi'v'v cec dynl ,xn`nd zaizk jldna icia eriiqy ixagl al axwn dcez ,ald znkge dxfr lr b... more * zegiy lr wi'v'v cec dynl ,xn`nd zaizk jldna icia eriiqy ixagl al axwn dcez ,ald znkge dxfr lr bxapfii`lfxn dxnzl ,dnewna xkfizy dxfr lr aixi dix`l ,zenikgn .l`wfgile ,l"nw ycewd oeyl ,oeyld lr odk miigl ,oeirxe dgiy ,d`ixw lr xhky ccerl 1 yecig`iand ,cxetqwe`zhiqxaipe`n bxapiiee dp`e'b ly dxn`n !ycg df d`x z`f lkae e`x l"xdn ixtq zqtcd lr .xtqd`eana dxvwa x`eznde ,l"xdn iiga ietv izlae oprxn .df jxka aelcei wgvi ly exn`n zencw`:l"xdn drtyd ß dpyn ß miig iwxt jxer xpiix opglì cedid mrd zeclez xwgl xfy onlf fkxn milyexi MAHARAL Overtures

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Elchanan Reiner, “Preface,” in Elchanan Reiner, ed., Maharal: Biography, Doctrine, Influence (Jerusalem: Shazar, 2015), 7-13 (Hebrew)

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Elchanan Reiner, “Jewish Pilgrimage to Jerusalem in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages,” in Ora Limor, Elchanan Reiner, and Miriam Frenkel, eds., Pilgrimage: Jews, Christians, Moslems (Raanana: Open University Press, 2014), 45-146 (Hebrew)

Adam Shear, Richard I. Cohen, Elchanan Reiner, Natalie B. Dohrmann, “Introduction: From Venice to Philadelphia – Revisiting the Early Modern,” in Jewish Culture in Early Modern Europe: Essays in Honor of David B. Ruderman (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2014), xi-xxvi

IN his introduction to Early Modern Jewry, David Ruderman reveals something of his intellectual a... more IN his introduction to Early Modern Jewry, David Ruderman reveals something of his intellectual autobiography by relating to three seventeenth-century figures who inspired him in his scholarly path and had a significant impact on how he conceives of the Early Modern as a distinct era in Jewish history. Each figure is connected in some way to the Italian port of Venice. Though they differ considerably from one another, in their distinctive hybridity Leon Modena, Simone Luzzatto, and Joseph Shlomo Delmedigo were each paradigmatic of the age. Modena, the enigmatic rabbinic figure, was full of internal contradictions. A man of great learning-restless and creative with no bounds, critical and sharp like a knife, courageous and questioning-he delved into the new and traditional worlds of knowledge that engaged Jewish culture in his day. Modena, as a man of many worlds and interests, a dabbler and an intellectual, holds in his person the vicissitudes and internal conflicts of the early modern intellectual experience. The second, Simone Luzzatto, while also a Venetian rabbi like Modena, was dramatically different from Modena. Standing in between the Jewish community and the Italian surrounding, Luzzatto sought to lower the walls of the ghetto. His 1638 Discorso circa il stato de gl'hebrei et in particolar dimoranti nell'inclita città di Venetia (A discourse on the state of the Jews, particularly those dwelling in the illustrious city of Venice) fused notions of Italian civic thought with emerging concepts of raison xii  Adam Shear, Richard I. Cohen, Elchanan Reiner, and Natalie B. Dohrmann d'état. This stirring apologetic for the Jews of Venice forcefully argued that their petty trading, their overall usefulness and, especially, their loyalty to the Republic combined to make a significant contribution to the welfare of the city. In a work that is cited repeatedly in modern discussions on the emancipation of the Jews, Luzzatto enunciated a new political vision for the Jews, one in which they would be integrated more fully, even if not seamlessly, into seventeenth-century society. The third figure, Delmedigo, charted a course for Jews toward the new sciences of the early modern period. Born in Crete, and of very distant Ashkenazic origin, Delmedigo's identity was no less imbued with Sephardic and Mediterranean roots. He studied medicine in Padua, where he learned astronomy with Galileo, and spent a year in Venice where he encountered both Modena and Luzzatto. Delmedigo was clearly not the sedentary type. He traveled to the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and later to Central Europe, taking with him his conflicting identities and interests, inter alia, science and Kabbalah, rabbinism and Karaism, East and West, new books and old manuscripts. Even more than the other two, Delmedigo reflects in his person the cultural image of the period to which this book is dedicated. Despite the fact that these three were individuals on the margins (or perhaps because of it), their restlessness, curiosity, and lust to travel were symptomatic of an age of changing boundaries and kaleidescopic new vistas. The Talmud tells of a stone in Jerusalem, the so-called stone of claims (even to'im). From atop this stone, in this highest city at the navel of the world, a person would announce what they had found, ask one's great questions, and stake one's claims. Ruderman's stone of claims-his intellectual touchstone-has always been Venice. Venice was not just the incidental meeting place of these enigmatic men; it is the metropolis that best emblemizes the Italian world that sparked the intellect and curiosity of David Ruderman. Writing in the late 1980s, he described this Italian Jewish world in the following words: In absorbing diverse Jewish and non-Jewish cultural forms and creatively molding them into constantly novel configurations, in patiently tolerating diversity and discord, in channeling ideas and values from one place to another as an entrepôt and clearing house of merchandise, and in allowing individuality to blossom within a framework of communal consensus, Italian Jewry was expressing its own vitality, its own creativity. Perhaps the function of mediating and correlating, of translating one universe of discourse into another, is not so passive, not so unspectacular an achievement… From the perspective of the postmodern world in which we live, one of diverse cultural lifestyles and values where no single ideology reigns supreme but where bitter acrimony and extremism hold sway, the image of Italian Jewry seems refreshingly appealing. Perhaps in its quiet sanity and dignified restraint, in its mutual respect and tolerance for competing and dissenting parties, and in its harmonizing and integrative capacities, can be located not only the essential legacy of Italian Jewish civilization but also its enduring significance for contemporary culture. 1

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Elchanan Reiner, “The Billboards that Disfigure Jerusalem,” Haaretz Literary Supplement (15 September 2013) (Hebrew)

Elchanan Reiner, “An Itinerant Preacher Publishes His Books: An Untold Chapter in the Cultural History of European Jewry in the Seventeenth-Century,” in A Touch of Grace: Studies in Ashkenazi Culture, ... – Presented to Chava Turniansky (Jerusalem: Shazar, 2013), 123-156 (Hebrew)

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Guy Stiebel and Elchanan Reiner, “Preface,” in David Amit, Carved in Stone: Collected Essays, eds. Guy Stiebel and Elchanan Reiner (Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute, 2013), 9-11 (Hebrew)

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Elchanan Reiner and David Amit, “Samson Follows the Sun to Galilee,” Haaretz Literary Supplement (6 October 2012) (English)

Elchanan Reiner and David Amit, “Samson Follows the Sun to Galilee,” Haaretz Literary Supplement (5 October 2012): 1,4 (Hebrew)

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Elchanan Reiner, “Joshua is Rashbi, Hatzor is Meron: On the Typology of a Galilean Foundation Myth,” Tarbiz, vol. 80, no. 2 (January – March 2012): 179-218 (Hebrew

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Elchanan Reiner, “From Joshua through Jesus to Simeon bar Yohai: Towards a Typology of Galilean Heroes,” in Neta Stahl, ed., Jesus Among the Jews: Representation and Thought (London: Routledge, 2012), 106-117

In an appendix to his book Sha'ar Ha-Gilgulim (Gate of Reincarnations), R. Hayyim Vital, a discip... more In an appendix to his book Sha'ar Ha-Gilgulim (Gate of Reincarnations), R. Hayyim Vital, a disciple of R. Yitzhak Luria (known as Ha-Ari) and the editor of Luria's teachings at the end of the sixteenth century, provides a list of holy places that he attributed to his teacher. One of the entries is surprising and seemingly incomprehensible: "North of Safed… as you go from Safed to the north, on the way to the village 'Ein Zeitun', via a carob tree, Jesus of Nazareth is buried." 1 This is the most recent reference we have to the many aspects and incarnations of Joshua, both the name and the figure, in popular Jewish culture in the Galilee. Joshua first makes an appearance in the Galilee in very early times, before the Common Era. Mentions of him multiply during the first centuries of the Common Era, and a subsidiary string of references concerns another Galilean Joshua-Jesus of Nazareth. The tradition fades gradually at the end of the Byzantine period until it nearly vanishes, leaving only traces that allow us to chronicle the progression of this forgotten belief. 2 According to the Bible, Joshua was buried "at Timnath-Serah in the hill country of Ephraim" (Joshua 24: 30). The accepted tradition to this day, in accordance with the biblical description, is that the tomb lies in Kefr Hares, a village south of Shekehm (Nablus). 3 However, this tradition based on biblical geography is opposed by another one, which appears in texts from the twelfth century. This alternative tradition places the tombs of Joshua and Caleb, the two heroes of the epic of the Israelite conquest of Canaan, in the lower Galilee, near Tiberias. So writes the Ashkenazi traveler Petahiah of Regensberg, circa 1180: And Mount Gaash is very high […] And far way from it is Nitai the Arbelite at Arbel […] And the mountain is fashioned with steps for ascending. Halfway up Joshua ben Nun is buried, and beside him Caleb ben Yefuneh. Near them a spring of good water gushes from the mountain, and there are pleasant shrines built by the tombs […] Near one shrine one can discern a single footprint, like that of a man walking in the snow, so it appears; it was here that the angel stood and the Land of Israel was agitated after the death of Joshua. 4 In contradiction of what the Bible mandates, Petahiah places the graves of Joshua and Caleb in the Lower Galilee in the Arbel Valley. This Galilean tradition 6 From Joshua through Jesus to Simeon bar Yohai Towards a typology of Galilean heroes Elchanan Reiner

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Elchanan Reiner, “No Jew should learn anything but the Talmud Alone: A Dispute over Books and Forbidden Books in Sixteenth-Century Ashkenaz,” in Ta Shma: Studies in Judaica in Memory of Israel M. Ta-Shma, vol. 2 (Alon Shvut: Tevunot Press, 2011), 705-746 (Hebrew)

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Elchanan Reiner in Haaretz Literary Supplement (2 July 2010) (Hebrew)

Elchanan Reiner, “The Courtyard of the Ashkenazim in Jerusalem: Early Days,” in Reuven Gafni, et al., eds., The Hurvah: Six Hundred Years of Jewish Settlement in Jerusalem (Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute, 2010), 11-44 (Hebrew)

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Elchanan Reiner, “Uncovering the Golem Legend,” Makor Rishon (4 September 2009): (Hebrew)

Elchanan Reiner

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Books by Elchanan Reiner

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