Medieval Testimonia to the Palestinian Talmud (Testimonia Mediaevalia zum Talmud Yerushalmi)

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Andreas Lehnardt
• Subject Area: Religious Studies and Jewish Studies
• Term: from 2010 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 170396629

The Palestinian Talmud (henceforth: PT) is one of the central works of ancient Palestinian rabbinic literature, yet it is also one of the most problematic: its text is often corrupt, and numerous aspects of its reception and transmissional history are obscure. However, there are various tools which can shed considerable light on these difficulties, one of the most significant being the thousands (!) of medieval testimonia to PT’s text. However, in order to properly utilize this material, various obstacles must be overcome. These testimonia must be culled from a wide variety of books written by hundreds of authors over several centuries. Moreover, the accuracy and provenance of each testimonium and its relationship to parallel testimonia must be scrutinized before this material can be used to help establish a correct text of the Talmud and to investigate the nature and scope of PT’s reception during medieval times. The proposed research project accordingly seeks to generate a computerized, openly accessible database of all extant medieval testimonia to PT, accompanied by textual and chronological analysis of the sort described above. Such a project will be of great benefit both to talmudic scholars, by helping to establish a correct text of PT, and to scholars of medieval Jewish cultural history, by contributing to our understanding of PT’s use and influence during the Middle Ages.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Israel
• Participating Institution: Bar Ilan University ; Department of Talmud
• Participating Persons: Professor Dr. Leib Moscovitz; Professor Dr. Yaakov Sussmann