Research Group

av

Ora Limor

FELLOW
The Open University of Israel

Ora is a professor in the Department of History at the Open University of Israel. Her research interests are: Jewish-Christian polemics and dialogue; cultural encounters in the Middle Ages; sacred tradition and scared space in the Holy Land; pilgrimage: Christian Jewish-Moslem.

av

Tamar Katriel

FELLOW
University of Haifa
Tamar is a professor in the Department of Communication and Education at the University of Haifa. Her research interests are: cultural patterns in communication; the interplay of verbal and material culture; the poetics and politics of museum representation and interpretation.
men

Arnon Levy

FELLOW
The Van Leer Institute
Arnon is a professor at the Van Leer Institute, Jerusalem. His research interests are philisophy of science and philosophy of biology.

Occult Powers and Officiants in Non-official Cults within Near Eastern Cultures

[RG #104] Occult Powers and Officiants in Non-official Cults within Near Eastern Cultures

March 1 - August 31, 2006
Organizers:

Gideon Bohak (Tel Aviv University)
Yuval Harari (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)
Shaul Shaked (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

Read More
Magic is a notoriously ambiguous term to define and set apart, but magical texts seem to display a remarkable degree of similarlity in different cultures, languages and historical periods. If the study of Babylonian, Greek, Jewish and Muslim magical texts raises many recurrent problems, the solutions offered in one discipline can often prove worthwhile in other disciplines as well. By focusing on cultures that are geographically related, and between which there existed some channels of cross-cultural transmission, we can trace not only phenomenological similaries, but also geographical and historical continuities and transformations over long periods of time.

One thing shared by all the cultures covered by members of our group is the assumption that there are many occult powers out there (be they demonds, angels, gods, natural forces etc.)|, and that some men and women are better equipped than others to approach these forces and use them for their own aims. Moreover, members of all these cultures took it for granted that there is a body of knowledge (of special rituals, powerful incantations and so on) that can be mastered by competent individuals and that enable them to use these occult forces more effectively. This body of knowledge, and the social tensions involved in using it, are the main focus of all the group's members and the basis of our comparative efforts.

 

Read Less
men

Andrew Plaks

FELLOW
Princeton University
Andrew is a professor in the Department of East Asian Studies at Princeton University. His research interests are: classical Chinese literature; Chinese narrative theory; comparative literature; early Chinese thought; Japanese literature.
men

Emmanuel Sivan

FELLOW
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Emmanuel is a professor in the Department of History at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research interests are Islamic radicalism and the nation state.
Gad Freudenthal

Gad Freudenthal

FELLOW
CNRS

Gad Freudenthal is Senior Research Fellow Emeritus with the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Paris. He has written on the reception of science and philosophy in Jewish cultures, mainly in the Middle Ages and in the eighteenth century, and has focused his research on Greek philosophies of matter.

Read More
He is the editor of the journal Aleph: Historical Studies in Science and Judaism.

2018-2019 Fellow: The Reception and Impact of Aristotelian Logic in Medieval Jewish Culture

Read more about Dr. Freudenthal here

Read Less