Judaica Ukrainica

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https://ekmair.ukma.edu.ua/handle/123456789/15130

is a peer-reviewed trilingual annual journal which seeks to enhance Jewish Studies in Eastern Europe in general and in Ukraine in particular. JU accepts scholarly contributions - articles and documentary publications - in a variety of fields ranging from Jewish civilization broadly conceived to Jews, Jewish history and culture in Ukraine. JU also welcomes reviews and review essays of most recent publications in relevant subfields of Jewish Studies.

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Discourse Particles in Biblical Hebrew Directives
(2012) Lyavdansky, Alexey
Discourse particles in Biblical Hebrew are a relatively recent subject of study. It is yet to be determined, which linguistic expressions in Biblical Hebrew should be counted as discourse particles, or discourse markers. Moreover, the functions of already known discourse particles in Biblical Hebrew were not properly assessed. The present paper is focused on the functions of discourse particles in Biblical Hebrew directive utterances (requests, commands, suggestions, permissions). The study was carried out on the basis of the analysis of all directive utterances (directive turns in dialogue) within the biblical Book of Judges. Contrary to the previous studies of Biblical Hebrew discourse particles, the attention is drawn not only to the functioning of a certain particle (form-to-function approach), but the attempt is made to determine a slot, which may be filled with a particle or its synonym, or left unfilled (functionto-form approach). The functional slots for discourse particles are created by discourse structure of a turn in dialogue. Most of the directive utterances in dialogue are composed of the core discourse act(s), represented by imperative clause(s), and the supportive discourse act(s), usually represented by assertive clause(s). Discourse particles are put either before the core discourse act in the directive utterance, or before the supportive discourse act. The main part of the article is dedicated to the analysis of seven discourse particles used in Biblical Hebrew directive utterances: ki, ʔ aḥăre ʔ ăšär, (wǝ)ʕattå, nå, hinne, hălo, and raq. The result of the study shows, that some of these particles may be grouped together as synonyms, because they are used in the same positions: ki and ʔ aḥăre ʔ ăšär; (wǝ)ʕattå and nå; hinne and hălo. On the other hand, they are not absolute synonyms, which is exemplified by the contrastive analysis of ki and ʔ aḥăre ʔăšär. Since the particle raq is used rarely as a discourse marker, the examples in the Book of Judges are not sufficient to formulate even a preliminary conclusion. The status of nå as a discourse particle is not yet clear; the question needs further investigation. The results of this study are preliminary and will be tested in a future publication, based on a broader source material.
Discovering The Holy Land's Historic Landscapes through Art: Peter Gluzberg, a Graduate of the Kharkiv Institute of Art and Design, in Israel
(2014) Epstein, Alek D.
His paintings, free of useless details and often quite small in size, seem to open windows on the walls, and once you look out such a window you will see all those fields and gardens, the Mediterranean sea and boats on its violent waves, the sky with rare clouds and almost all the colors of nature. You look at these paintings, and they carry you away and bring up the memories of the places we have been to and make you dream of the places that are yet to be discovered. Gluzberg not only paints but also works with many students, sharing his gift with them. Nine solo exhibitions of his art have been organized in nine towns of Israel, not to mention his participation in multiple collective exhibitions in various museums and galleries in Israel, Germany, Norway, France and other countries. Gluzberg’s art opens a door to the unique world of beauty and harmony, and that is a solid guarantee that his art will be appreciated and admired for years to come.
Hasidic Pilgrimage as a Cultural Performance: The Case of Contemporary Ukraine
(2014) Marchenko, Alla
In this article, principal attention is paid to the study of the Hasidic pilgrimage in contemporary Ukraine using the examples of two settlements, Uman and Medzhybizh.
The Image of Jacob on the Throne of God and the Construction of Liturgical Space in Late Antiquity
(2015) Sivertsev, Alexei M.
The motif of Jacob’s face engraved on the Throne of Glory has been an object of continued scholarly attention for the past several decades and has been studied in a variety of literary contexts, from Second Temple and early Christian to medieval. More recently, two excellent contributions by Rachel Neis and Ra’anan Boustan have done a lot to situate this motif specifically within its eastern Roman context by mapping out the motif’s place within the broader Byzantine discourse on images and relics. In this article, I expand on Neis’s and Boustan’s work by analyzing the place of Jacob’s image within the semiotics of late Roman and early Byzantine liturgical performance.
Jewish National Communist Parties and the Comintern: A Non-Mutual Association
(2013) Hirik, Serhiy
In this paper, the author has attempted to trace the evolution of the politics of the Jewish national communist parties (the left wing of Bund / the Communist Bund, the Jewish Social-Democratic Workers Party (Poale Zion) and its successors: The Jewish Communist Party (Poale Zion) and the The Jewish Communist Workers Party (Poale Zion)) toward the Comintern. At the same time the author presents an analysis of changes in the politics of the Third International toward these parties. The dependence of the ultimate fate of all of these parties on their allegiance to their original program objectives is demonstrated. The author shows that the readiness of the organization to reject features of its ideology helped it to be absorbed by the ruling party of Bolsheviks. In contrast, the strict position on the base postulates provided to the entire isolation after which the enforced liquidation of such political organization was only a matter of time.
A Jewish Painter between Reform, Judaism, and Zionism: Wachtel’s Portrait of Abraham Kohn
(2015) Simferovska, Anastasiia
Abraham Kohn, the first Reform (Progressive) rabbi of Lemberg/Lviv, died at the age of forty-one in 1848 under unclear circumstances. His death triggered long-lasting speculations among various members of the Lemberg Jewish community. Was his death a murder and, if it was, than who was guilty? Discussions of that question have lasted until present day. Historians have advanced different answers trying to understand the realities of the Galician Jewish community in the 19th century and the religious life of Lemberg, the center of the eastern province of the Habsburg Austrian Empire, in which Abraham Kohn appeared so vibrantly and disappeared so suddenly...
Jewish Population Losses in the Course of the Khmelnytsky Uprising
(2015) Stampfer, Shaul
In 2003, I published a study on the population losses of the Jewish population of Ukrainian lands during the Khmelnytsky Uprising. Since that time, many additional sources relevant to the topic have been brought to my attention. To the best of my knowledge, none contradict my thesis and many strengthen my claims. I hope to systematically reexamine these sources in the future and to incorporate them into my thesis. In addition, a number of researchers have dealt with some of the issues I raised and some of their points should be discussed and responded to. In this essay, I would like to reformulate more clearly what I claimed in my original article while relying on the many sources that I used at that time. I also want to address some of the responses to my thesis...
Moses, Author of Job: Defending the Biblical God in the Roman East
(2013) Wogman, Michael
Interpretation of Job was existentially important for Late Antique Judaism, faced with the problem of useless suffering on the one side, and with Gnostic challenges on the other. Although most amoraic reactions to it underscore Job’s fault and God’s justice, it seems to be more motivated by anti-Christian polemics, rather than fundamental answer to the questions posed by Job. Still, the association of the book with the authority of Moses implies some other answer to Job, which can be reconstructed from midrashic depictions of Moses and Hellenistic traditions of Job as the mystical seer. Analyzing Job’s influence on both pre-tannaitic apocalyptism and the Talmudic portrait of Moses, we are able to grasp a reading of Job as a theophanic story about an intimate meeting with the Godhead. The rabbis who attributed Job to Moses implied by this ascription a new vision of the world, within which no positive theodicy was possible; instead, a personal relation with capricious and powerful Creator was to be sought by means of Judaic practice.
The Niphal of the Hebrew Verb נחם and Its Reception in Early Jewish Sources
(2015) Staalduine-Sulman, Eveline van
In one Biblical chapter, I Sam. 15, two contradictory things are said concerning God: He repents that He made Saul king over Israel (vv. II and 35) and He is no human being that He repents (v. 29). This contradiction is in itself worth investigating, but the thought that the Almighty God could feel remorse or have a change of mind is intriguing too. Can we state that God – with features such as omniscience, omnipotence, and immutability – can repent? Because this is a dogmatic question, we will not be able to answer it. But this article will provide elements for the discussion of such questions in systematic theology.
No Name Woman: Noah's Wife and Heterosexual Incestuous Relations in Genesis 9:18-29
(2012) Blackmer, Corinne
The terse story of Noah and Ham has puzzled scholars since antiquity. While most critics have argued that castration, homosexual paternal incest, or voyeurism explain why Noah pronounces the severe curse of permanent servitude on Ham’s son, Canaan, this article shows that the preponderance of evidence makes clear that Ham’s offense is heterosexual maternal incest. Ham has sex with his mother, Noah’s wife, after Noah loses consciousness from wine. Ham brags about what he has done to his brothers, because he has displaced his father, become the patriarch, and, ironically, fulfilled the injunction to “be fruitful and multiply”. Canaan is cursed because he is the product of this illicit union. Noah’s wife, who should have an individual name and identity that comports with her stature as the second mother of creation, is buried under indirect language of “the nakedness of the father” that at once disguises and draws attention to her unspeakable importance in this story.
Non-Self-Evident Memory: Post-Soviet Jewry and the Holocaust
(2013) Epstein, Alek D.; Khanin, Vladimir (Ze’ev)
Sociological surveys show that in the whole world, even on the American continent, so far away from places such as Babi Yar and Auschwitz, the memory of Holocaust plays a crucial role in the collective self-identity of the Jewish people, competing with the essential features of Judaism and solidarity with the State of Israel. Since the violation of the rights of a human being and indifference in the face of suffering jeopardize the very existence of human society, the Holocaust is the most extreme example of such violations, and the greatest moral failure mankind has ever experienced. Confronting the Holocaust, as well as genocide, may contribute to understanding the importance of humanistic and democratic values, and help construct tools for making moral judgments. That is why courses on the study of genocide and the Holocaust have become part of the curricula of educational institutions in the United States and elsewhere. The question as to how to educate the youth about the Holocaust - its historical context, and its reasons and consequences - concerns educators, researchers, and community workers from different and distinct countries.
Not Only in Hebrew: The Multilingual Mosaic of the Israeli Printing Press
(2015) Epstein, Alek D.
The sociology of language and the sociology of communication are well-established fields in Israeli social sciences. A number of meaningful books have been published on the history of the Israeli press, though no comprehensive research has focused on the language-choice dimension of the development of Israeli media. Though a few studies of the press in foreign and community languages such as Russian, Arabic, German, Yiddish, and Ladino have appeared, no systematic comparative research on the non-Hebrew Israeli media has been published so far.
The Pronunciation of the Sacred Tetragrammaton: an Overview of a Nomen Revelatus that Became a Nomen Absconditus
(2013) Vasileiadis, Pavlos D.
The Biblical name of God has a long history of use by the Israelites of Moses’ day that extends even back to the days of the patriarchs and, according to the biblical record, even to the early days of humanity. Although it was known by peoples in lands outside Israel - as in Egypt probably since the late 15th century BCE (list at the temple of Soleb at Nubia written during Amenhotep III) and the land of Moab since the 9th century BCE (Mesha Stele) - it seems that it became more widely known during the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Greek philosophical trends influenced decisively Jewish theology. The name of God was gradually silenced inside of Judaism. At the same time, the name proper was translated and diffused in new directions across Europe and America. Renaissance humanism and the development of Hebrew linguistics contributed to the use of the sacred name to an unprecented degree. Starting from the Second Temple period (200 BCE - 70 CE) down to the present time, this is an attempted overview of the thrilling story of the pronunciation of the Biblical name of the Supreme Being.
Rationalism in the Talmud: Taʻam and Middot
(2013) Dymerets, Rostyslav
This paper analyzes Talmudic rationalistic approaches (that include middot of R. Akiba and R. Ishmael) to interpretation of the meaning (ta‘am) of the Biblical text each of which actually presents a kind of application of the meaning of the text to different situations in reality. It is argued that these approaches are mutually complementary and designed for different kinds of situations, and that each has its limitations. However, each of them does present a system of interpretation based on concept of the existence of a connection between a pair of fundamental concepts which are those of inclusion - exclusion (in R. Akiba’s method) and more - less (in R. Ishmael’s method). Both these pairs of concepts are conceived as to direct the human mind to the state of full comprehension of the meaning of the Torah which must be expressed in its ability to derive laws for every possible situation on the basis of already existing laws obtained from God through His Revelation.
Traditionalism and Rationalism in Jewish Philosophy
(2012) Dymerets, Rostyslav
In this paper, an attempt is made to define characteristic features of philosophical traditionalism and rationalism as well as to analyze some characteristic examples of their paradigmatic appearance in certain pieces of Jewish philosophical thought, in particular, Talmud, Philo of Alexandria, and Saadia Gaon. The paper shows that the structure of Jewish philosophical thought is built up not on the basis of a derivation concept or that of predication of meanings to the subjects different from those the meanings were abstracted from, but on that of implementation of double-sided articulation of names: on the side of the Creator, in the revealed Scripture and in the world of things which designate and penetrate human existence. On the side of humans, this appears in their appealing to the Creator in their ritual-articulation actions to which each human expression is in a way related. Via such an expression a human gives back to God that part of what she or he was able to take from Him and, therefore, is able to return, designating each time this very ability of him or her by an adequate personal attitude towards Him to Whom she or he thus appeals. This structure is based not on sensible entities which pure rationalists would lay, as a priori elements, into the basis of a derivation system from which those entities afterwards, by applying methods of abstraction and generalization, can be reduced to the status of ontological entities, but on appealing to the higher source of all the creatures which can reach the source just by precise reconstruction of the structure of God’s creation represented by different symbolic articulations-events which revealing is comprehended in works of Jewish philosophy.
Transformation of Poetical Lines of the Song at the Sea (Exod. 15:1-18, 21) in the Targum Onkelos
(2014) Tsolin, Dmytro V.
The translation technique of biblical poetry in the Targums has a unique character: on the one hand, it exhibits a tendency to imitate the original verse structure patterns; on the other hand, it possesses elements of original, distinctive poetical forms which have some resemblance to other poetic traditions of the period of Late Antiquity (e.g., Jewish liturgical poems and early Christian poetry in Syriac). In connection with this specificity a question arises: how does the targumic poetic paraphrase differ from its Hebrew original?
Transforming Ethical Behavior: The Musar Movement and the Care of the Self
(2014) Blackmer, Corinne E.
R. Israel ben Ze’ev Wolf Lipkin, better known as Israel Salanter (1810-1883), was born in Zhogory, Lithuania. He studied under the ethicist R. Yosef Zundel, whose teacher had been the Vilna Gaon. As a young man, Salanter observed that many Jews were punctilious in ritual but not in ethical observance - that “tradition” had become inertia and habit, routine and indifference, and mechanical performance and unself-consciousness. Regarding the Torah as the source of virtuous human relationships, he believed all the mitzvot were equally important. He found inspiration in the humble and ethical behavior of Zundel and the Vilna Gaon, and modeled himself after them. He became the principal founder and architect of the Musar Movement, which radiated from Lithuania, Poland, and Russia in the 19th century to much of the Ashkenazi Jewish world in the 20th.
Winged Image of the Divine: A Comparative Note on Catholic, Orthodox, and Jewish Art in Early Modern Ukraine
(2014) Rodov, Ilia
The issue of divine providence and protection became topical in mid-17th-century Ukrainian lands. The Greek Orthodox Ruthenians living in the epicenter of the encounter between the Catholic West, Christian Orthodox East, Protestant North, and Muslim South, sought religious and political allies. The struggle of the Ukrainian Cossacks against the Catholics entailed aggression towards their Jewish neighbors as well. When contemplating divine intervention in their destiny, the Ukrainians and Jews similarly transmitted their ideas through a visual model that represented - symbolically or figuratively - the celestial patron as if physically protecting the people under his outstretched limbs. The iconography was not newly invented, but adopted from the art of the two empires flanking the Ukrainian lands: the Holy Roman Empire of the Habsburgs and the Muscovite Tsardom. Jews and Christians derived this metaphor from the same biblical sources: Exod. 19:4, which recounts God’s protection of the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, “I bear you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself,” and Deut. 32:11, which allegorizes God’s providence as an image of the eagle who “stirs up her nest, flutters over her young, spreads abroad her wings, takes them, bears them on her wings.” Yet, in a departure from biblical discourse, both Christian and Jewish artists rendered the symbolic eagle as double-headed. Occasionally, Ukrainian artists also applied the symbolic protective wings to other divine figures. A comparison of the genesis and message of that imagery is the subject of this paper.

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