Softcover

ISBN 10: 0761843329 ISBN 13: 9780761843320

Publisher: UPA, 2008

This book is a reprint of the first publication of the complete manuscript of Pesiqta Rabbati, Volumes I-III (1997-2002), a major rabbinic work from the Land of Israel from the 5th-6th century. Based upon the annual cycle of Biblical passages for the Jewish Holy Days and special Sabbaths, the text demonstrates the artful form of the rabbinic homily and the midrash method of scriptural exegesis.

All extant Hebrew manuscripts as well as the 17th century editio princeps are presented here in a synoptic edition, allowing the reader to view the texts in adjacent columns without emendation. This edition contains English introductions and an index of Greek and Latin expressions, scriptural passages, exegetical terms, subjects, place names, personal names, names of Biblical figures, angels and historical figures, rabbinic authorities, as well as meshalim and ma'asim, emendations, addenda and corrigenda.

About the Author:

Rivka Ulmer received her PhD in Judaic Studies from Goethe Universität in Frankfurt am Main with a dissertation in midrash. Ulmer teaches at Bucknell University. She was the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Chair in Jewish Studies from 2002-2007 and is now Associate Professor of Jewish Studies. Ulmer's research focuses upon midrashic literature; she is founder and co-chair of the Midrash Section of the Society of Biblical Literature.

Review:

Dr. Ulmer has accurately transcribed and concisely annotated her definitive work. No discussion of Pesiqta Rabbati can by-pass her monumental contribution to scholarship which has rescued long forgotten and indispensable manuscripts. (Professor Herbert W. Basser, Queen's University, Canada)

The author of this book probably knows more about the Pesiqta Rabbati than any other scholar living today. The work belongs on the bookshelves of any serious student of Rabbinic midrash. (Professor John T. Townsend, Professor Emeritus of New Testament, Judaism, and Biblical Languages at the Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, MA, and Lectur)

These excellent volumes on Pesiqta Rabbati doubtless will serve the rabbinic scholarly world for many generations. (Professor Isaac Kalimi, National Endowment for the Humanities Senior Fellow, W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, Jerusalem, Israel)

The great value of these editions is to provide scholars with the text of all the witnesses, eventually leaving scholars the responsibility of reconstructing or critically choosing the 'best reading'. I thank the editor for this splendid synopsis. In the future all the works on PR will be based on this edition, both translation?and critical studies. If future scholars try to establish the history of a single homily or if they try to design the whole process of accretion in the homiletical canon or if they try to uncover the intention of different 'editions' in the same process, all the basic material is supplied in this edition for theee (Professor Miguel Pérez Fernández Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian Hellenistic and Roman Period)

The great value of these editions is to provide scholars with the text of all the witnesses, eventually leaving scholars the responsibility of reconstructing or critically choosing the 'best reading'. I thank the editor for this splendid synopsis.In the future all the works on PR will be based on this edition, both translation...and critical studies. If future scholars try to establish the history of a single homily or if they try to design the whole process of accretion in the homiletical canon or if they try to uncover the intention of different 'editions' in the same process, all the basic material is supplied in this edition for the (Professor Miguel Pérez Fernández Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian Hellenistic and Roman Period)