"The War at the Gates" by Shelomo ben Aharon of Poswol
Issues of Text Reading and Interpretation
Sebastian Kubicki
Uniwersytet Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu , Polskahttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-8655-6864
Abstrakt
The article presents—using the Karaite work “The War at the Gates” by Shelomo ben Aharon (17th/18th century; a polemic with rabbinic Judaism)—three common issues related to the analysis of Hebrew manuscripts written before the 19th century. These issues include: (1) determining the fundamental meaning of individual parts of the work; (2) analyzing the argumentative structure of the work’s narrative in relation to its biblical interpretation, which seeks to justify specific religious laws established within the religious community of the tradition/author; (3) verifying certain commonly accepted scholarly assumptions. I demonstrate how I addressed these challenges while working on the aforementioned treatise and attempt to draw generalized, practical conclusions.
Słowa kluczowe:
studies in Karaite literature (Hebrew texts), Karaite religious law (halakha), Shelomo ben Aharon, methodological challengesBibliografia
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Uniwersytet Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
Sebastian Kubicki, PhD – an assistant professor at Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Department of Hebrew, Aramaic and Karaite Studies (teaching: a Modern Hebrew, translation studies; research: Hebrew intellectual output of Polish-Lithuanian Karaites, with a focus on Karaite halakha and biblical exegesis).
Publications:
- „Pierwszy i ostatni dzień liczenia omeru – uwagi na marginesie lektury karaimskiego dialogu Szełomo syna Aharona Wojna u bram.” Przegląd Religioznawczy 3 (185):161-170.
- „Wojna u bram Szełomo ben Aharona z Poswola (polski przekład Wstępu).” Jewish History Quarterly 3 (259):711-733.
- „Szełomo ben Aharon.” Studia Azjatystyczne 2 (2):77-87.
- “Review of Yehuda ben David Kukizov, History of Karaite Scholars. Events from generation to generation from Adam to 1890.” Karaite Archives 4:187-190.
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