European Judaism

The International Jewish-Christian Bible Week, now entering its 59th year, remains a unique opportunity for professional and lay people to share study of the Hebrew Bible in the light of Jewish and Christian traditions, academic scholarship and in relationship to contemporary issues. In 2021, because of Covid, a truncated programme was held online, while studying the first twenty-seven chapters of the Book of Job. The normal style of the conference was resumed on site at Haus Ohrbeck, Osnabrück, in 2022, covering the remaining chapters, 28–42. The Editor, a co-founder of the Week, has regularly offered short talks on the opening evening to suggest possible themes to explore during the conference, collected here as ‘Introductions’. At the end of the Week, during the Shabbat morning service, he delivers a short ‘derasha’, a commentary on the themes of the studies, which are included in this issue under the title ‘Epilogues’.

This issue contains papers presented on the Book of Job, delivered over two sessions of the annual International Jewish-Christian Bible Week held at Haus Ohrbeck, in Osnabrück, Germany. Each year during the opening evening the Editor usually delivers a ten-minute introduction to the Book we are about to study. Because of Covid, the 2021 conference was held on Zoom, studying Job 1–27, while for the 2022 session we were back at Haus Ohrbeck. I include here the two introductions. At the end of the Week is a Shabbat morning service and the Editor delivered the ‘derasha’ on each occasion, included in this issue under the title of Epilogues.

Understanding the hidden regularity of biblical poetry means understanding its content and structure. This is especially true for the Book of Job, consisting of roughly forty poems spoken by the main character, Job, his friends and eventually God himself. In approach to biblical poetry, counting syllables, cola, verses, strophes, stanzas is the core business. The present article gives, with a view to different examples from the psalms, a brief introduction on the standard measures of biblical poetry, normative figures and holy numbers. Looking at the Book of Job, the numerical perfection of the entire book can be highlighted as well as the outstanding quality of essential poems as Job's lament in chapter 3, the meditation on wisdom in chapter 28, and Job's unique defence of himself, supported by numerical perfection on all levels, in chapter 31. Finally, the article deals with the mistreatment of Job's last verse, 42:6, by traditional and current translations.

The understanding of the Book of Job and its main character depends on the translation of Job 42:6. Tradition, based on the Vulgate translation as well as a negatively coloured image of human beings, lets Job withdraw and repent his words after his encounter with God in the whirlwind. Considering the ancient Syriac translation, among other things, J.P. Fokkelman, former lecturer in Semitic languages at Leiden University, The Netherlands, offers a translation of Job 42:6 that points in another direction of understanding. Based on Fokkelman's translation, theoretical insights of the Dutch dogmatic theologian Edward Schillebeeckx on the nature of disclosure experience, and in dialogue with literature and film, the present article aims to show that Job's encounter with God leads to a disclosure experience in connection with a change of perspective. Eventually Job is able to see his suffering in the perspective of being part of God's creation.

The Books of Ruth and Job share an uncanny resemblance in their narrative framework, dealing with grief and loss, having gentile protagonists, and ending with recovery of both progeny and material wealth. And yet, they are antithetical in the way they conceptualise loss, both ethically and poetically. I shall demonstrate how the poetics of the two books underlie divergent ethical views, by employing different chronotopes and highly disparate degrees of defamiliarisation. These differences can explain why Job gives rise to a wide range of later literary references, compared to the paucity of Ruth references. I will also suggest that the author of Ruth was aware of Job, and sensitive to this ethical-poetic difference. I will conclude by suggesting that the apocryphal Testament of Job is a specific remaking of the Joban narrative, adapted to the sensibilities of the Hellenistic novel, giving rise to yet another ethical view.

The key contribution of this article is to highlight how comedy helps audiences to recognise the lack of empathy in the advice given to Job by his friends, and to show the problematic nature of their retribution-centred advice. This is an important and instructive pedagogical tool for audiences: through the swift changes between what is deeply tragic and what is comedic, the audience's emotional engagement and openness to learning with Job is increased. Through watching the friends’ lack of empathy, the audience have the pedagogical space to call into question their own attitudes and values when faced with the pain of others. This opens up space for the audience's subjectivity and for attunement towards recognising the pain of others.

In this article I discuss questions that the Book of Job and the figure of Job posed for early Jewish readers: is the Book of Job there to be read? In translation, for example? When did Job live? Was he a Gentile? Was he pious, righteous, patient? The answers to these questions contributed to the creation of a multifaceted Jewish Job in the Jewish-Hellenistic and rabbinic literatures and would set the course for the further Jewish reception of Job. The early Jewish reception would also impact on the Christian interpretation of Job, not only in Bible commentary or retellings of Job, but also in other literary genres. This I demonstrate by bringing the Jewish-Hellenistic and rabbinic narrative and exegetical retellings of Job in an intertextual dialogue with a famous travelogue and a hagiographical tradition.

In its discussion of the men of Sodom, who have no share in the world to come, the Babylonian Talmud (bSan. 109a–b) frequently cites the Book of Job. The context for these citations is presented and the possible reasons for their inclusion are discussed. Two reasons in particular are suggested. The first is that both the story of Sodom and the Book of Job are major foci for the issue of theodicy (literally, ‘judging God’; more generally, questioning God's actions). The second is that Sodom presents a subtle critique of Job. This relates to the question of what true justice is and how it should be administered. I conclude that Job failed to administer justice in a spirit of understanding the poor and that in being forced to suffer their fate, he is being punished for this.

This issue contains papers presented on the Book of Job, delivered over two sessions of the annual International Jewish-Christian Bible Week held at Haus Ohrbeck, in Osnabrück, Germany. Each year during the opening evening the Editor has delivered a ten-minute introduction to the Book we are about to study. Because of Covid, the 2021 conference was held on Zoom, studying Job 1–27, while for the 2022 session we were back at Haus Ohrbeck. Earlier in this issue I include the two brief introductions to the theme of the Week as part of the opening session. At the end of the Week is a Shabbat morning service and the Editor delivered the ‘derasha’ on each occasion, which is included here under the title of Epilogues.

The mythic text of Genesis 28:10–22 can be approached using literary and psychological perspectives. The text – which contains Jacob's dream – lends itself to being treated as a ‘dream’ in which free association and close reading allows the reader into its inner dimensions. The verses of the dream hold a tension between inner and outer reality: the ladder is a symbol of interconnectedness between heaven and earth, the human and the divine, consciousness and the unconscious.

Is interfaith dialogue desirable or even possible from a Jewish point of view? In the 1960s, several Jewish positions were set out. At one extreme were those opposed to interfaith dialogue as being impossible in theory and unwelcome in practice. At the other extreme were those who supported interfaith dialogue as a religious duty that was stimulating and enjoyable. In the following years, attitudes shifted and interfaith dialogue is now seen in a positive light by a large spectrum of the Jewish community. Meaningful interfaith dialogue has been taking place, and reasons for this change are suggested. This article focuses on the area of interfaith pastoral care and counselling. It describes how counselling and care initiatives that began within one or another particular faith tradition have expanded their horizons and now include interfaith and intercultural aspects in a helpful and healing way.

Navigating pastoral care as a congregational rabbi is complex. Requiring deep self-reflection, intention, an understanding of the power dynamics inherent in the role and the multi-dimensional character of each person encountered, the pastoral role is a significant responsibility. Using the rabbinic model of PaRDeS, I return to an essay written as a student rabbi, before I stepped into congregational practice, imagining the work ahead and the aims and objectives of pastoral care. After years in the role, I reflect upon my initial article to see whether my imaginings still apply and how the challenges of congregational work affect pastoral encounters. Through this reflective dialogue, pastoral care can be seen as not only interconnected moments of compassion between two individuals and a connection to something greater than ourselves, but vital justice work in an unjust world.

This article examines a number of legends from rabbinic literature in which rabbis reduce their critics to ‘a pile of bones’ with their eyes. I introduce the idea that mocking the words of the rabbis is presented as a form of heresy. I then show how the (over-)sensitive reaction of the rabbis concerned is not the only way in which rabbis might have reacted to being mocked. By contrasting these accounts of challenges to the words of the rabbis, we begin to see how the ‘pile of bones’ trope might be a means by which to offer criticism of the rabbinic power on display. I consider the possibility that the ‘pile of bones’ trope is in fact a comic device, which is used by the redactors of rabbinic literature in order to offer a subtle self-critique of the power of the rabbis.

This piece is a meditation on why one relatively unobservant Jewish individual maintains the yearly liturgy of abstinence at Yom Kippur in spite of the demands and vicissitudes of secular life. Is it habit, redemption, fear or something else which propels and compels the author to perform this rite of deprivation in the face of so many reasons not to?

How do you write an appreciation for somebody who was the king of eulogies? Rodney just had that knack to capture the essence of people he knew, and for those he didn't he would interview friends and family so that he didn't speak in generalities and could draw a picture in words which would encapsulate the person he was honouring. He was always honest in his portrayals, he never made people better than they were and wasn't frightened of speaking the truth, but in his own inimitable way, always accompanied by humour.

Rabbi Mark Washofsky, Reading Reform Responsa: Jewish Tradition, Reform Rabbis, and Today's Issues, CCAR Press, 2024.