Isaac’s Fear: An Early Modern Encyclopedia of Judaism

David Malkiel

Published by Academic Studies Press 2021

Isaac’s Fear

An Early Modern Encyclopedia of Judaism

David Malkiel

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781644697368

Overview
Contents

About this book

Isaac’s Fear is a study of a Hebrew encyclopedia of Judaism from eighteenth-century Ferrara. The encylopedia synthesizes science and religion. Its entries illuminate the society and culture of early modern Italy, its Jewish community and the intellectual life of the author and his contemporaries.

Author / Editor information

Malkiel David :

David Malkiel is Full Professor in the Department of Jewish History of Bar-Ilan University, in Israel. He has published widely on Jewish life in medieval and early modern Europe. On the Jews of Italy, a primary field of interest, he has published four books, most recently Stones Speak (2014), an interdisciplinary study of the Hebrew tombstones of Padua.

David Malkiel is Full Professor in the Department of Jewish History of Bar-Ilan University, in Israel. He has published widely on Jewish life in medieval and early modern Europe. On the Jews of Italy, a primary field of interest, he has published four books, most recently Stones Speak (2014), an interdisciplinary study of the Hebrew tombstones of Padua.

Reviews

“Isaac’s Fear (Pachad Yitzhak) was the first multi-volume encyclopedia of Jewish law, edited by Isaac Lampronti (1679-1756), a rabbi and physician from Ferrara. David Malkiel… explores the religious, cultural, and intellectual life of eighteenth-century Italian Jews through a detailed scholarly study of the encyclopedia. … This title is highly recommended for an academic library.”

— Harvey Sukenic, Hebrew College Library, AJL News and Reviews

“In this work of meticulous scholarship, David Malkiel has produced a detailed portrait of the paradoxical relationship between science and religion in early modern Italy. The main focus of this learned study is Isaac’s Fear, an encyclopedia of Jewish law written by Isaac

Lampronti, a rabbi and university-trained physician who aimed to lead readers though the bewildering maze of ritual traditions in an enlightened age. Malkiel demonstrates painstakingly how Lampronti’s searching mind, thirst for knowledge, and empiricist leanings were in tension with his profound reverence for received tradition, which he upheld as a repository of truths that eluded scientific investigation. The strength of this fine book is its sensitive portrayal of Lampronti’s struggle to meet the demands of competing intellectual traditions—a struggle he shared with his Christian counterparts.”

—Jay R. Berkovitz, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies, University of Massachusetts Amherst; Professor, Rothberg International School, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
PART ONE
1. Empiricism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2. Palazzo Tè Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	21
3. The Past Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	51
4. Traditional Society Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	88
PART TWO
5. The Sambation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	129
6. Intercessory Prayer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	152
7. Pollution Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	179
8. Christian Hebraism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	206
General Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	229
Index of Sources Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	237

Language: English
Publisher: Academic Studies Press
Audience: College/higher education;Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 268
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 9
Keywords: History; Science; early modern Europe; Italy; Judaism; culture; philosophy; Jewish thought; religious observance; modernity; secularism; Sephardim; Spinoza; Isaac Lampronti; Azariah De Rossi; nature

eBook

Published: February 22, 2022
ISBN: 9781644697368