Rotenstreich Scholarship

Supervisor: Prof. Elhanan Yakira, Dr. Tatiana Karachentseva

Abstract: The work analyses the notion of rationality presented in Hermann Cohen's "System der Philosophie" (1902-1912). In contrast to the customary view, I show that his rationalism is grounded in an intensional theory of conceptuality, taken in the Leibnizian sense. Such a theory comprehends the concept as an expression of the intelligibility of an individual being, an expression of its being a rational possibility, rather than a general-formal relation. The work demonstrates that a reading of Cohen's "logic of origin"  on the base of the principles of a Leibnizian intensional theory of concepts clarifies the internal logic of Cohen's arguments and provides means for evaluating the problematics of rationality placed at the core of the system. I show that Cohen's system attempts to present an intensional rationalism without the (dogmatic) presupposition of the compete rationality of the actual. In that, it represents a unique and philosophically valuable notion of rationality.  

I am interested in rationalism (both as a philosophical tradition and as a philosophical stance), Kant, German Idealism and Neo-Kantianism. My research so far has dealt with Cohen's system, with the notion of rationality it embodies, and with the manner in which this notion influences Cohen's ethical, cultural, theological, and political views.   

Publications:

Amir, Roy. Messianism and the Possibility of knowledge in Cohen and Benjamin, Paradigmi. Rivista di critica filosofica (2017:1), pp. 61-78. 

Rotenstreich Scholarship 2015/2016

Presidential Stipend 2013/2014

Supervisor: Prof. Yochanan Breuer

Abstract: Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (Moses Maimonides), born in Cordoba, Spain under Islamic rule (1138 CE) and later the leader of the Jewish community in Egypt and the physician of the Egyptian royal courtuntil his death (in 1204 CE), is well known for his philosophical work, The Guide to the Perplexed, and for his Halakhic work, Mishneh Torah . In the latter, Maimonides compiled all Halakhic statements in Rabbinic literature, sorting them by topics. He settled all of the disputes that remained in the Halachic literature and translated into Hebrew all the Aramaic citations from external sources . This text is a masterpiece, characterized by uniform structure and linguistic clarity.
 
The proposed research focuses on two major areas of language: vocabulary and syntax, and aims to discuss them systematically, comparing Mishneh Torah to Mishnaic Hebrew, on the one hand, Maimonides' declared language of choice in this text, and therefore his 'default mode', and on the other hand comparing it to Biblical Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic to account for the evident differences between the language of Mishneh Torah and Mishnaic Hebrew.

Publications:
1.    חנן אריאל ואלכסיי יודיצקי, "שלוש קריאות חדשות בתעודות מדבר יהודה", לשוננו עב (תש"ע), עמ' 337–341
2.    חנן אריאל, "הגעיה וקביעת סוג הקמץ – מחלוקת מדקדקי ספרד", ישראל: מחקרים בלשון לזכרו של ישראל ייבין (בעריכת רפאל יצחק זר ויוסף עופר), ירושלים תשע"א, עמ' 21–43
3.    חנן אריאל ואלכסיי יודיצקי, "אל תמחול את היונה: עיון במגילה ארמית מקומראן", אקדם 49 (מרחשוון תשע"ד), עמ' 6–7 (לגרסה אנגלית מורחבת ראו פרסום 15 להלן)
4.    חנן אריאל ואלכסיי יודיצקי, "בע"ר ובע"י בעברית ובארמית", מגילות י (תשע"ד), עמ 149–162
5.    חנן אריאל, "המקור הנטוי המשמש כפועל חיווי במגילות קומראן", נטעי אילן: מחקרים בלשון העברית ובאחיותיה מוגשים לאילן אלדר, בעריכת מ' בר-אשר וע' מאיר, ירושלים תשע"ד (2014), עמ' 29–50
6.    חנן אריאל, "על ארבע סתומות במגילות מדבר יהודה", לשוננו עו (תשע"ד), עמ' 9–26
7.    חנן אריאל, אלכסיי יודיצקי ואלישע קימרון, "פשר על הקצים א –ב ( 4Q180ו־4Q181): ההדרה , לשון ופרשנות", מגילות יא–יב (תשע"ד-תשע"ה [הכרך יצא לאור בשבט תשע"ו]),  עמ' 3–39
8.    חנן אריאל ואלכסיי (אליהו) יודיצקי, "יברך – עדות על תצורת הפועל בימי הבית הראשון", לשוננו עח,ג (תשע"ו), עמ' 239246–
9.    חנן אריאל, "מתמוטטים, כושלים, נידחים ושבויים: עיוני סמנטיקה ופרשנות במגילות קומראן", מגילות יג (תשע"ז) (בדפוס)
10.    Chanan Ariel, “Dual: Pre-Modern Hebrew”, Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics, (ed. G. Khan et. al.), Brill: Leiden and Boston 2013, vol. 1, pp. 775–776
11.    Chanan Ariel, “Orthography: Biblical Hebrew”, Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics, (ed. G. Khan et. al.), Brill: Leiden and Boston 2013, vol. 2, pp. 940–948
12.    Chanan Ariel, “Usage of Biblical Vocabulary in Mishneh Torah (The Code of Maimonides”, Iberia Judaica 7 (2015), pp. 127–140 
13.    Chanan Ariel, “The Expression of Material Constitution in Revival Hebrew”, Journal of Jewish Languages 3  (2015), pp. 231–244
14.    Chanan Ariel and Alexey (Eliyahu) Yuditsky, "Remarks on the Languge of the Pesher Scrolls", Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah 114  (2015), pp. 1–6
15.    Alexey (Eliyahu) Yuditsky1 and Chanan Ariel, “ואל תמחולהי ביד שחפא: ‪4Q541, Frag. 24 Again”, Dead Sea Discoveries, 23, 2 (2016), pp. 221–232‬‬‬‬
16.    Chanan Ariel, “Deviations from the Mishnaic Hebrew Syntax in Mishneh Torah Due to the Influence of Arabic – Subordination or Intentional Usage?”, Bar-Asher Siegal, Elitzur A. and Aaron Koller (editors), Studies in Mishnaic Hebrew and Related Fields: Proceedings of the Yale Symposium on Mishnaic Hebrew, May 2014, New Haven-Jerusalem: The Academy of the Hebrew Language Press (in press)
17.    Chanan Ariel, "Why Did the Future Form of the Verb Displace the Imperative Form in the Informal Register of Modern Hebrew?", (final draft under review for publication of the papers from the Language Contact, Continuity and Change in the Emergence of Modern Hebrew conference, Jerusalem July 2016)

18.    חנן אריאל, "על סימון הקמצים, השוואים וההטעמה בסידור קורן", אתר הוצאת קורן במרשתת https://www.korenpub.com/koren_he_ils/shitat_hanikud (גרסה ללא ההערות נדפסה בסוף סידור קורן  נוסח אשכנז ונוסח ספרד, בעריכת הרב דוד פוקס, ירושלים תשע"א 2011)

Rotensreich Stipend 2015/16

Supervisor: Prof. Leona Toker

Abstract: This dissertation studies the revisions made by William Wordsworth to Salisbury Plain, The Borderers and The Ruined Cottage, the works whose early versions are, to a large extent, his response to the social and political upheaval of the French Revolution. The revisions made by the poet to these three works in the course of his life, during which his ideological, moral, political and poetical principles underwent changes, are sometimes radical. This study demonstrates how his evolving worldview is reflected in his textual changes. The revisions also show how Wordsworth’s experience of the French Revolution influenced not only his early political inclinations and poetic vocation but also many of his responses to political events in his conservative years and thus his later poetry. Hence, among other things, my research supports the position of those literary critics who deny that Wordsworth’s poetry elides its political moment: his early works do respond to the political and historical events of the time of their composition.  
    Pace New Criticism, which marginalizes the author’s intention or rather seeks to separate the artist and his works in accordance with the critique of the intentional fallacy, I argue that in order to understand what stimulated the composition of Salisbury Plain, The Borderers and The Ruined Cottage, and what later motivated the revisions made to these poems, we may seek suggestions from Wordsworth’s life even at the risk of disturbing his image as an extraordinary being.
     The three works, initially composed in the 1790s, mark a turning point in Wordsworth’s poetic progress. It was only after his return to England from France in 1792, during cycles of his hope and despair, that his genuine voice emerged. None of the poems written prior to Salisbury Plain manifests the revolutionary power of his poetic genius. Salisbury Plain, The Borderers and The Ruined Cottage form the foundation of Wordsworth’s life-long defence of humanity in general and the people of the lower classes in particular. Moreover, it is through these works that the poet’s philosophical vision of the oneness of the human heart with nature ripens, in his attempts to come to terms with the human condition and place suffering in a framework which facilitates coping with it.
     Evidence in Wordsworth’s correspondence suggests that in 1798, while working on The Ruined Cottage, he was also thinking about Adventures on Salisbury Plain and The Borderers. Rather than finishing one poem, laying it aside and taking up another, he simultaneously worked on the three, which explains some of the similarities in their thematic concerns and style. Yet the move from Salisbury Plain to The Borderers attests to changes in Wordsworth’s attitude to such issues as motivation, intention, crime, punishment, political institutions and formal law. Furthermore, whereas after 1799 Wordsworth never attributed importance to either Adventures on Salisbury Plain or The Borderers till the decision was made to publish them in 1842, The Ruined Cottage preoccupied him for the rest of his life. 
     The study of the development of the early versions of the three works reveals the maturation of Wordsworth’s art and the evolution of some aspects of his political and philosophical stance. He gradually becomes a poet of the human psyche. Whereas the early version of Salisbury Plain shares some features with contemporary protest poems, in his revisions Wordsworth transcends the political and social focus of protest poetry in probing the inner lives of his suffering characters, with an emphasis on guilt and fear. Conveying tension between reason and emotions, he works out emotivist principles in the ethical positions that transpire from his works as well as in his literary theory, unifying his axiology. He also resolves his attitude to such issues as compassion, remorse, penitence and justice. The Wanderer, as The Ruined Cottage was titled in 1814, serves as a step towards a larger work which would grant completion to Wordsworth’s philosophical and ideological principles. The alterations made for the 1814 version facilitate its incorporation into the design of The Recluse, the poet’s planned philosophical work about man’s relation to nature and society. 
      Wordsworth endorsed a succession of political and philosophical identities, moving from liberal republicanism to Godwinian rationalism to the transcendental philosophy of the One Life and eventually to political and religious conservatism. His longevity as well as shifts in his socio-economic condition made axiological changes possible. By his seventies he had become a rather conservative financially secure family man in the government employ. In 1843, the poet who had once declared that he abhorred monarchy became Queen Victoria’s Poet Laureate. Wordsworth did not deny that he was changing. Time-induced changes constitute recurrent thematic concerns in many of his works. In 1801 he noted that his early poems represented opinions widely different from those that he held at present. In The Prelude the speaker repeatedly observes that youth played a significant role in his early judgments. The mainstream public opinion of Wordsworth changed as well. By the late 1830s, those attributes of his poetry which had once been scorned by many came to be identified as the sources of his strength. His poetry was constantly quoted, and his works were acknowledged as intellectual stimuli. This new status imposed new obligations. 
     My research examines the ways in which these biographical factors may have influenced the revisions of Wordsworth’s early works, revisions that affected the fashioning of his image for posterity. 
     The changes which some of Wordsworth’s principles underwent are evident in the revisions that he made to the poems that he had written in his twenties but published in his seventies. In 1842, when he published his earlier radical, pantheistic and revolutionary anti-war poetry, such as Salisbury Plain, in Poems, Chiefly of Early and Late Years, he omitted, added or rewrote complete verse paragraphs, as well as separate lines and words. Guilt and Sorrow; or Incidents upon Salisbury Plain and (to a smaller degree) The Borderers were so altered that they revealed little or nothing of Wordsworth’s erstwhile radicalism. This was followed by the 1845 publication of the likewise heavily revised version of The Excursion, of which the first book had started as The Ruined Cottage in 1797. By this time, in addition to other changes in his status, Wordsworth was also held in reverence as a conservative Christian poet. He now had to and probably wished to conform to what was required of him as a public figure. Drawing attention to his political past or reviving its spirit would have been counterproductive. The study of Wordsworth’s revisions suggests that he might have mitigated his earlier radicalism by self-censorship.  
      When the conformist elderly poet excised those cultural cues that anchored the poems in the historical context of the reactionary 1790s, he altered the portrayal of characters, their interactions, conversations and the nature of their relationships. Sometimes such changes cause inconsistencies and logical contradictions in the plot and the arguments made in the poems. Even when no drastic changes in thematic concerns are detected between two versions, changes in emphasis or word order indicate different attitudes or altered states of mind. The later version of The Borderers, for instance, seems to enhance the play’s philosophical concerns at the expense of the psychological ones. Although the revisions sometimes attest to major ideological changes, the earlier and later versions of the poems share thematic concerns, which points to a continuity in the poet’s preoccupations.
     Comparing the published versions with the earlier manuscript ones, this study considers whether the revisions serve to adapt Wordsworth’s early works, directly related to his moral crisis in France and suffused with republican opinions, to engagement with newly emerging social and political affairs, such as the contemporary debates concerning the Poor Laws and the abolition of the death penalty. The changes in the poet’s attitude explain how Salisbury Plain and The Borderers accrued different meanings when, as a political figure, he started serving different causes, some diametrically opposite to those of his early years. The new versions are not only geared up to the context of 1842 but also praise the selfsame institutions which Wordsworth had earlier abhorred.
     Wordsworth’s 1842 revisions also reflect changes in aesthetic preferences. In his later years he disavowed that principle on which his poetics was founded; namely, to write in ordinary language for ordinary people. Rather, he resorted to eloquent sometimes artificial language which suits élite expectations. Judging by his own criteria, with which some literary critics agree and some do not, the later versions have a greater aesthetic merit. This claim is examined in the dissertation.

Bio: I am interested in the Romantic period. I love excursions in nature. I have a husband, a son and a dog.

Rotenstreich Stipend 2016/17

Supervisor: Steven E. Fassberg

Abstract: The focus of my PhD thesis is the morpho-syntax of the Aramaic dialect used by the Jews of Palestine in the Byzantine period, as attested in writing. Following the Mishnaic period, i.e. from the 3rd century CE onward, we witness a shift from Hebrew to Aramaic in rabbinic literature reflecting, it would seem, a drastic decline in the use of Hebrew as a living language in the area. A distinct Aramaic dialect, referred to as Jewish Palestinian- or Galilean Aramaic, begins to appear in important rabbinic works from Byzantine Palestine: The Palestinian Talmud, Bible translations and Aggadic Midrash such as Genesis Rabbah. Morpho-syntax relates to the dependence of morphological forms on syntactic structure. The thesis will attempt to describe and explain the choice of morphological forms of categories such as the noun, verb, pronoun among others in connection with the syntactic structures they appear in. Understanding this aspect of linguistic function is essential to the general understanding of the language and has a bearing upon many areas. It will contribute to better understanding the texts themselves, and to characterizing texts of uncertain provenance, and will also aid in understanding linguistic development in Mishnaic Hebrew, contemporary Aramaic dialects and even the spoken Arabic dialects that replaced Aramaic.

Presidential Stipend 2013/14

Rotenstreich 2015/16

Subject: Everyday Life, Identity, and Communal Relations: A Comparison of Kehilot Shum and Aragon, c.1200 – 1347

Supervisor: Prof. Elisheva Baumgarten

Abstract: Using case studies, my research into medieval Jewish communal identity challenges contemporary academic use of the category of “community" as an analytical tool. Using Hebrew, Latin and vernacular sources, I explore how communal identity was built and developed through complex social processes and sets of interactions. By comparing and contrasting Jewish communities in the lands of the Crown of Aragon and in Ashkenaz, I hope to propose a new framework for how we can think of medieval Jewish communities in a theoretically nuanced way. 

Bio: Miri is writing her PhD in Medieval history, comparing and contrasting Jewish community life in the Crown of Aragon and Ashkenaz, 1100-1347. She uses social history and social theory to investigate the realities of Jewish communal life and investigate how communities were constituted by the everyday interactions and relationships. Miri holds a BA in history, and an MPhil in philosophy of religion, from the University of Cambridge. She was the Henry Fellow at Yale Graduate School 2011-12, and has spent two years learning in egalitarian yeshivot in New York and Jerusalem. She also edits academic texts in English. Under the supervision of Prof. Elisheva Baumgarten, her thesis is entitled “Everyday Life, Identity, and Communal Relations: A Comparison of Kehilot Shum and Aragon, 1100-1347.”

Publications:

“The Lives of the Dead in Medieval Ashkenaz,” in In, Out and In Between: Jewish Daily Life in medieval Europe, eds. Elisheva Baumgarten and Ido Noy (2021)

“Moving Bodies: Corpses and Communal Space in Medieval Ashkenaz,” Jewish Studies Quarterly (forthcoming, 2021).

“Absent Husbands and Lonely Wives”; Clearing Refuse in Medieval Cologne”; “Instructions to my Sons and Daughters: The Ethical Will of Eleazar, an 'Average Jew'”; “Piety Even in Death: Rabbeinu Bahya Commenting on Ashkenazi Custom”; R. Yom Tov’s Suicide”; “Remembering Pietism in Ashkenaz from Spain”; “The Attack on the Jews of York in 1190 Reported in Christian Sources”; “The Sweetness of Learning Torah”; “Using Your Wife’s Money to Pay Your Bills: Meir of Rothenburg Responsa,” in Jewish Daily Life in Medieval Northern Europe, 1000-1350: A Sourcebook (Medieval Institute, Michigan State University Press, forthcoming 2021)

Book Review, Javier Castaño, Talya Fishman, and Ephraim Kanarfogel, eds. Regional Identities and Cultures of Medieval Jews. Oxford: Liverpool University Press, 2018. 362 pp. Chiddushim, no. 21 (2019) [Hebrew].

“Hasdai Crescas, Grounds for assertions about God and the philosophical use of scripture,” Journal of Scriptural Reasoning 15 (2016).

“A dedicatory letter and its context: Beinecke MS 115,” Yale Law School Library Journal (2012).
 

Rotenstreich Stipend 2018/19

Supervisor: Professor Ronnie Ellenblum & Professor Iris Shagrir

Abstract: This dissertation aims to reconstruct different facets in the formation of the cityscape of Frankish Jerusalem, particularly during the first six decades of the twelfth century following its conquest by the Crusaders. The analysis is based on a spatially and chronologically organized database encompassing the widest possible array of documents from the examined period. This database allows tracing various patterns concerning different aspects in the urban development of Jerusalem that could not have been detected otherwise. The study analyzes the patterns of economic activity of the city’s major institutions, demonstrating their impact on the formation of urban space. This impact can be traced both in their involvement in urban endeavors as well as in their architectural expansion during the examined period. Other objectives include an analysis of urban social constructs, as well as an examination of Jerusalem in its wider socio-economic context, through its relationship with its rural hinterland.

Rotenstreich Stipend 2013/14