Studies in Responsa Literature Megjelenés éve: 2011 Oldalszám: 181 Kötés: fűzött ISBN: 9789635086122 1. kiadás darab

Responsa literature (sheelot u-teshuvot in Hebrew, "questions and answers") is a traditional rabbinical genre, with a history of over 1,000 years. Responsa are decisions and rulings written by rabbis to specific questions addressed to them, on topics ranging from everyday practical matters of Jewish law to theoretical issues in philosophy, ethics, history, astronomy, business, etc. For the title of the present volume, we have deliberately reversed the order of the words of the Hebrew term to Teshuvot u-sheelot ("answers and questions") to express that the answers written by rabbis of all generations raise a number of questions for the modern reader, in fields such as history and historiography, linguistics and sociolinguistics, literature, and anthropology. The studies contained in this volume, written by scholars affiliated with the Center of Jewish Studies at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, attempt to analyze responsa literature from this perspective.