Sabbatai Zevi: Testimonies to a Fallen Messiah - David J. Halperin

Résumé :
A landmark episode in seventeenth-century Jewish history is here presented, for the first time, through contemporary documents in vivid translation.

Biographie:
David J. Halperin is Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He trained in Semitic languages at Cornell University, in Near Eastern Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, and in rabbinics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He received his Ph.D. from Berkeley in 1977. From 1976 through 2000 he taught the history of Judaism in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where he was repeatedly recognized for excellence in undergraduate teaching. He is the author of The Merkabah in Rabbinic Literature (1980), The Faces of the Chariot: Early Jewish Responses to Ezekiel's Vision (1988), Seeking Ezekiel: Text and Psychology (1993), and Abraham Miguel Cardozo: Selected Writings (2001).

Sommaire:
Note on Transliteration and Conventions Used in the Text Introduction First Testimony: Baruch of Arezzo, Memorial to the Children of Israel Second Testimony: The Letters of Joseph Halevi Third Testimony: The Najara Chronicle Fourth Testimony: The Biography of Abraham Cuenque Fifth Testimony: From the Reminiscences of Abraham Cardozo Appendices 1. Textual Notes to Baruch of Arezzo's Memorial 2. Sabbatai Zevi's Circular Letter (Nisan 1676) 3. '30 Iyar' 4. Notes on MS Rostock 36 Bibliography Index

Critique:
'The translation is throughout felicitous, and the author's style engaging, with frequent touches of irony.' Norman Solomon, Jewish Journal of Sociology 'Halperin's detailed introduction and his numerous philological, theological, and historical annotations permit the reader to gain a thorough understanding of each text. In addition, he offers a short general introduction in which he contests Scholem's conviction that Lurianic Kabbalah constituted the normative theology of seventeenth-century Judaism.' Federica dal Bo, Journal of Jewish Studies 'The aim of David Halperin for this book is to permit the reader to experience [Sabbatai Zevi's] life through the eyes of contemporaries, some rabidly supportive and some not so. This book certainly has met thus challenge ... Halperin does an excellent job in permitting us into a world that would not be accessible to most of us in a work that has taken years to produce. He uses his pedagogic skills well. We are products of the paths of so many that came before us, and he helps us understand a bit better from where we come.' Bob Nussenblatt, La Lettre Sepharade