The lecture will present and analyze the concept of "textual intimacy" in Jewish culture. Textual intimacy is the notion that the relationship between the reader or learner and the text is intimate and mutual: texts protect their learner and benefit him or her in various ways. This close and relationship between the reader and the texts is expressed in Jewish cultural history in several ways.

Prof. Avriel Bar-Levav is head of Judaic Studies at the Department of History, Philosophy and Judaic Studies at the Open University of Israel, and co-editor of Zutot: Perspectives in Jewish Culture, published by Brill. He studies Jewish libraries, history of the book Jewish broadsheets,Jewish attitudes towards death, personal writings and Jewish magic.

Lately he has co-edited and contributed to The Way of the Book: A tribute to Zeev Gries (Carmel, 2021); Textual Transmission in Contemporary Jewish Cultures (Studies in Contemporary Jewry, 31, Oxford 2020); Paths to Modernity: A Tribute to Yosef Kaplan (Merkaz Shazar, 2019).

Monday, 3 January, 8 pm Israel / 7 pm CET / 6 pm UK / 1 pm EST

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The lecture will present and analyze the concept of "textual intimacy" in Jewish culture. Textual intimacy is the notion that the relationship between the reader or learner and the text is intimate and mutual: texts protect their learner and benefit him or her in various ways. This close and relationship between the reader and the texts is expressed in Jewish cultural history in several ways.

Prof. Avriel Bar-Levav is head of Judaic Studies at the Department of History, Philosophy and Judaic Studies at the Open University of Israel, and co-editor of Zutot: Perspectives in Jewish Culture, published by Brill. He studies Jewish libraries, history of the book Jewish broadsheets,Jewish attitudes towards death, personal writings and Jewish magic.

Lately he has co-edited and contributed to The Way of the Book: A tribute to Zeev Gries (Carmel, 2021); Textual Transmission in Contemporary Jewish Cultures (Studies in Contemporary Jewry, 31, Oxford 2020); Paths to Modernity: A Tribute to Yosef Kaplan (Merkaz Shazar, 2019).

Monday, 3 January, 8 pm Israel / 7 pm CET / 6 pm UK / 1 pm EST

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