Description
Book SynopsisThis volume of essays presents a compelling and comprehensive analysis of the intriguing issue of the gift of the land of Israel and the fate of the Canaanites as presented in diverse biblical sources. Jewish thought has long grappled with the moral and theological implications and challenges of this issue. Innovative interpretive strategies and philosophical reflections were offered, modified, and sometimes rejected over the centuries. Leading contemporary scholars follow these threads of interpretation offered by Jewish thinkers from antiquity to modern times.
Trade ReviewA comprehensive and deeply probing collection of essays by leading international scholars on the war against the Canaanites and its interpretations and influence on Jewish Thought and Western civilization. Excellent and Courageous Book. * Steven Kepnes, Finard Chair in Jewish Studies, Colgate University *
Table of ContentsContributors ; Abbreviations ; Introduction - Katell Berthelot, Joseph E. David and Marc Hirshman ; Dwelling in the Land: Theological and Ethical Issues ; 1. "Everything was fulfilled" versus "the Land that still remains": Contrasting Conceptions of the Fulfillment of the Promise in the Book of Joshua - Nili Wazana ; 2. Land Theology in Josephus: A Reappraisal - Michael Avioz ; 3. Idolatry and the Biblical Concept of Herem in Tannaitic Midrash - Ishay Rosen-Zvi ; 4. The Emergence of the Polemic Concerning the Fate of the Canaanites: Motives and Motifs - Menahem Kister ; 5. "God would not give the Land, but to the obedient": The Response of Mediaeval Karaite Exegetes to the Curse of Canaan in Genesis 9 - Meira Polliack and Marzena Zawanowska ; 6. And Yet, the Texts Remain: The Problem of the Command to Destroy the Canaanites - Menachem Kellner ; 7. Land, Territory and Divine Law: Nahmanides' Idea of the Lord's Land - Joseph E. David ; 8. The Relation between the Land of Canaan and the Land of Israel according to the Hasidic School of Gur - Yoram Jacobson ; 9. The Biblical Conquest of Canaan in the Eyes of German-Jewish Orthodoxy - Matthias Morgenstern ; The Changing Uses of the Category "Canaanites" ; 10. Where May Canaanites Be Found? Canaanites, Phoenicians and Others in Jewish Texts from the Hellenistic and Roman Period - Katell Berthelot ; 11. The Rabbinic Perception of the Presence of the Canaanites in the Land of Israel - Eyal Ben Elyahu ; 12. "Canaanites" in Medieval Jewish Households - Evyatar Marienberg ; 13. The Canaanites of Africa: The Origins of the Berbers according to Medieval Muslim and Jewish Authors - Paul Fenton ; 14. The Israeli Identity and the Canaanite Option - David Ohana ; The Gift of the Land and the Fate of the Canaanites in the Modern Context of the Construction of the State of Israel ; 15. The Conquest of Eretz Israel and the Seven Nations in Religious-Zionist Thought - Dov Schwartz ; 16. Rabbi Reines on the Conquest of Canaan and Zionism - Zeev Harvey ; 17. The Conquest of the Land of Israel and Associated Moral Questions in the Teachings of Rabbi Kook and His Disciples: Thoughts in Light of the Book Herev Pipiyot Be-Yadam - Avinoam Rosenak ; 18. R. Moshe Feinstein on Milhemet Mitzvah: Halakhah, Morality, and Exegesis - Baruch Alster ; 19. The Fate of the Canaanites and the State of Israel in the Philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas - Annabel Herzog ; Index of Sources
