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Zohar Workshops

Within the framework of the AHRC-funded project "Late Aramaic: The Literary and Linguistic Context of the Zohar", the department of Hebrew & Jewish Studies organizes a series of fifteen workshops to study the literary and linguistic context which may have helped shape the Zohar and early Qabbalah. Ten workshops, held between October 2004 and today, brought together Aramaists and Qabbalists from the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States and Israel to deliver lectures on Aramaic language and literature and the reception of early Jewish mysticism.

Late Aramaic: The Literary and Linguistic Context of the Zohar
Final Conference, November 9-11 2009 (click link above for full details)

Tuviah Kwasman (Martin Buber Institute, University of Cologne): Profiling the Zohar, ‘Gap Literature’and Late Literary Aramaic
Stephen A. Kaufman (Hebrew Union College), Late Jewish Literary Aramaic and the Language of the Zohar—Differences and Similarities
Edward M. Cook (Catholic University of America), Eastern Aramaic Vocabulary in the Pseudo-Jonathan Targum and the Zohar
Shifra Assulin (Ben Gurion University), Midrash Ha-Ne’elam Bereshit—Between Hebrew and Aramaic
Ronit Nikolsky (Groningen University), Trajectories of the Palestinian Midrash in the Zohar Pericope Balak
Elchanan Reiner (Tel Aviv University), From Joshua through Jesus to Simeon bar Yohai, Towards a Typology of Galilean Heroes
Rut Kara-Ivanov Kaniel (Hebrew University), Mothers of the Messiah and the Zoharic ‘Tiqla’
Ehud Benor (Dartmouth College/Edinburgh University), Who or What is Azazel?
Paul Fenton (Paris University 4), Arabisms in the Zohar
Ronit Meroz (Tel Aviv University), Notes on the History of Zohar Manuscripts and its Significance
Gidi Bohak (Tel Aviv University), Two Aramaic Fragments of Twitch Divination from the Cairo Genizah
Alinda Damsma (Cambridge University), Is the Zohar Written in Late Jewish Literary Aramaic? The Discovery of a Mystical Targumic Fragment from the Cairo Genizah
Leeor Gottlieb (Hebrew University), The Mixed Language of Targum Chronicles
Elitzur Bar-Asher Siegal (Yale University), Can the Grammar of Babylonian Aramaic Be Used in Evaluating the Language of the Zohar, and if so, How?
Daphne Freedman (UCL), The Use of Pseudepigraphy: History And Revelation in the Zohar and the Divine Comedy
Ariel Klein (UCL), The Poetry of the Sifra di-Tseni’uta
Geoffrey Khan (Cambridge University), North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic and its Historical Background
Jared Greenblatt (Tel Aviv University), The Aramaic of the Zohar—A Natural Language? Insights from Modern Aramaic Dialects
Boaz Huss (Ben Gurion University), Reopening the Canon: Post Canonical Zoharic Writings and their Cultural Significance

The following workshops were held:

First Workshop, 6-9 November 2004

Ada Rapoport-Albert, Why was the Zohar Written in Aramaic?; Is the Zohar a Book?
Tuvia Kwasman, The Language of the Zohar
Ronit Meroz, The Archaeology of the Zohar
Daphne Freedman, The Evolution of the Zohar Canon
Willem Smelik, Late Aramaic: Readings from Selected Late Targumim
Mark Geller, Readings from Selected Aramaic Magical Texts
Ada Rapoport-Albert, Readings from Selected Medieval Aramaic Demonological Texts
Daphne Freedman, Readings from the Zohar
Boaz Huss, Exegesis and Cultural Power: The Emergence of Zoharic Literature in the Late 13th and Early 14th Centuries

Second Workshop, 16-17 February 2005

Willem Smelik, A Geniza Acrostich in 'Garbage Aramaic'
Daphne Freedman, The Aramaic of the Zohar: Selected Readings
Alinda Damsma, A Linguistic and Literary Analysis of a Tosefta-Targum to Ezekiel 1:1
Daphne Freedman, The Periscope Shemot of the Zohar
Sabah Aldihisi, Mandaic Creation Stories
Daphne Freedman: Selected Readings from the Zohar

Third Workshop, 6 July 2005

Alinda Damsma, A Linguistic and Literary Analysis of a Tosefta-Targum to Ezekiel 1:1
Daphne Freedman, The Pericope Shemot of the Zohar
Sabah Aldihisi, Mandaic Creation Stories
Daphne Freedman, Selected Readings from the Zohar

Fourth Workshop, 11-12 December 2005

Eliazar Gutwirth, The Zohar's Nature: Towards a Context in Thirteenth Century Castille
Daphne Freedman, Readings from the Zohar (with manuscripts)
Elchanan Reiner, Oral Traditions in Written Texts: Hidden Topographies in Medieval Galilee
Willem Smelik, Angels Understand Aramaic
Philip ALexander, Readings from Targum Shir ha-Shirim
Alinda Damsma, The Enigmatic Linguistic Character of a Tosefta-Targum to Ezekiel 1:1
Daphne Freedman, Readings from the Zohar (with manuscripts).

Fifth Workshop, 14-15 February 2006

Sebastian Brock, The Historical Development of Syriac as a Literary Language
Geoffrey Khan, The Relationship between Judeo Arabic and Hebrew
Paul Flesher, Aramaic in the Galilee
Tuvia Kwasman, The Language of Havdalah de-Rabbi Akiva
Dahne Freedman, Observations on a Score of Zohar II 4a-b
Dan Levene, Aramaic Incantation Bowls
Willem Smelik, 'Cod Aramaic' Texts

Sixth Workshop, 5-6 June 2006

Tuvia Kwasman, A Methodological Approach to Dialect Questions I
Christa Müller-Kessler, A Methodological Approach to Dialect Questions II
Moshe Lavee, Reworking former Midrashic Material - Comparing the Zohar with late Midrashic Compilations
Ariel Klein, A linguistic analysis of Chapter 1 of the Sifra di-Tseni'uta
Alinda Damsma, The Language of the Targumic Toseftot to Ezekiel: JLA and/or LJLA?
Daphne Freedman, Zohar 'Neologisms'

Seventh Workshop, 20-21 December 2006

Matthew Morgenstern, The Spanish model of Aramaic 1: From early Eastern manuscripts to Spanish manuscripts of the Talmud
Alinda Damsma, A Tosefta-Targum to Ezek. 37:1-14
Moshe Lavee, An Early (?) Zohar Genizah fragment
Ronit Mikolsky, Reworking midrashic material into Parashat Balak in the Zohar
Gill Greenberg, Scribal freedom in Peshitta manuscripts
Daphne Freedman, A score of the matnitin section in Zohar II, 12a- 13b
Matthew Morgenstern, The Spanish model of Aramaic 2: The Zohar as a reflection of Spanish Aramaic

Eighth Workshop, 14-15 February 2007

Abraham Tal, In quest of Late Samaritan Aramaic
Matthew Morgenstern, Between redaction and transmission: secondary linguistic editing in Palestinian Aramaic texts
Ariel Klein, How can our understanding of the title Sifra di-Tsni'uta affect our understanding of the text?
Christa Müller-Kessler, Is it possible to classify a manuscript as Palestinian Aramaic?
Willem Smelik, The Aramaic Toledot Yeshu fragments
Lily Kahn, Was Maskilik Hebrew an independent language?
Daphne Freedman, Zohar neologism 'colpa'

Ninth workshop, 21 June 2007

Ariel Klein, A manuscript score of chapter 1 of the Sifra di-Tseni'uta
Daphne Freedman, A manuscript score of Zohar II 56a-b
Ada Rapoport-Albert, The Function of Aramaic
Margaretha Folmer, The Importance of syntactic studies in determining the dialectal affinity of Targum Onqelos, exemplified by the case of nota objecti
Sabah Aldihisi, The Mandean Creation story
Siam Bhayro, A planetary curse text from the Genizah

Tenth workshop, 6-7 November 2007

Alinda Damsma, A reading from mystical passages in the Tosefta - Targums to Ezekiel 1:1
Daphne Freedman, Readings from the Zohar to Exodus
Mark Geller and Tuviah Kwasman, An Aramaic magical bowl in cuneiform
Gidi Bohak, A magical Rotulus from the Cairo Genizah
Daphne Freedman, A reading from the Zohar to Exodus

Eleventh workshop, 11-12 February 2008

Nicholas de Lange, Jewish use of Greek in the Middle Ages
Jan-Wim Wesselius, Professional Language: The Background of Linguistic Variation in the Jewish Incantation Bowls and Parallels in Other Semitic Languages
Shai Heijmans, The Influence of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic on the Galilean Aramaic of the Palestinian Talmud
Holger Gzella, The Imperial Aramaic Heritage in Eastern Aramaic Varieties
Daphne Freedman, Neologisms in the Zohar

Twelfth workshop, 19-20 June 2008

Willem Smelik, Targum in Talmud
Alinda Damsma, Some final observations on language and mystical lore of Tg Ezekiel and its additional versions
Sabah Aldihisi, The Mandean Book of Kings
Ariel Klein, A diplomatic edition of the Sifra di-Tsni'uta
Daphne Freedman, The Structure of the Left Emanation in the Zohar

Thirteenth workshop, 17-18 February 2009

Tuviah Kwasman, Profiling the Zohar
Christa Muller-Kessler, The Particle "yat" and the Marking of the Direct Object in Aramaic
Israel Sandman, Ibn Ezra's Biblical Aramaic Lexicography in his Commentary on Daniel Chapter 2
Mark Geller, Late Aramaic Reworkings of Babylonian Astrology from the Cairo Genizah
Daphne Freedman, An Astrological Treatise in the Zohar
Willem Smelik, Aramaic Dialect Metamorphoses: A Close Reading of the "Toldot Yeshu"