Description
Book SynopsisIn the year 921/2, the Jewish leaders of Palestine and Babylonia disagreed on how to calculate the calendar. This led the Jews of the entire Near East to celebrate Passover and the other festivals, through two years, on different dates. The controversy was major, but it became forgotten until its late 19th-century rediscovery in the Cairo Genizah. Faulty editions of the texts, in the following decades, led to much misunderstanding about the nature, leadership, and aftermath of the controversy. In this book, Sacha Stern re-edits the texts completely, discovers many new Genizah sources, and challenges the historical consensus. This book sheds light on early medieval Rabbanite leadership and controversies, and on the processes that eventually led to the standardization of the medieval Jewish calendar.
Trade Review"This volume, both readable and handsomely produced, includes a detailed historical treatment of the controversy, as well as a critical edition based on five manuscripts and diplomatic editions of each reconstructed manuscript, letters and other polemical writings that circulated during 921–922, and later sources from the following centuries. (...) This new treatment of the controversy is long overdue and very welcome." - Melonie Schmierer-Lee, in: Genizah Fragments, October 2019
Table of ContentsPreface Abbreviations Editorial Policies; List of Manuscripts and Sigla Part 1 Introduction 1 The Controversy Revisited 2 Palestinians and Babylonians in Conflict 3 Discovery and Early Scholarship 4 Manuscripts, Texts, History: A New Approach 5 The Jewish Calendar: The Controversy Explained Part 2 The Book of the Calendar Controversy 6 Introduction 7 Critical Edition 8 Diplomatic Editions Part 3 Letters and Polemics, c. 922 CE 9 Ben Meir’s First Letter 10 Saadya’s Letters 11 Letters Miscellany 12 Babylonian Letter 1 13 Babylonian Letter 2 14 Discourse on the Midday Limit 15 Palestinian Polemic Part 4 Later Sources 16 Short References and Narratives (Sahl b. Maṣliaḥ, Hayye Gaon, Elias of Nisibis, and Various Genizah Sources) 17 Palestinian Calendar Manuals Conclusion Glossary References Index of Manuscripts General Index Plates
