Concept-Outline

The sessions within this sub-section explored Jewish approaches to medicine and adjacent scientific fields (astrology/astronomy; physiognomy; zoology/biology etc.) in their respective historical and cultural contexts. The panel, thus, addressed knowledge of medicine, illness and the body, and its complex entanglement with other scientific and religious discourses (various scientific fields as well as cosmology, theology and medical approaches in Jewish mysticism and Kabbalah, or philosophy) throughout pre-modern Jewish history.

The research project about “Talmudic medicine” (Prof. Mark Geller, Dr. Lennart Lehmhaus) based at the Free University Berlin focuses on the engagement with these matters in rabbinic and Talmudic traditions against the foil of their literary and socio-cultural background(s). This section, however, deliberately broadened the scope to include presentations on earlier biblical and post-biblical (Second Temple) traditions as well as studies on later, medieval and early modern periods. This structure should help to shed light on various ways of transmission, transfer, or appropriation of scientific knowledge within a variety of Jewish cultures and on different routes. Contributions were encouraged to explore comparative perspectives and to contextualize their material from different methodological angles. This allowed for inquiries into trans-cultural trajectories, appropriations and (ex)changes that occur on the synchronic or diachronic level in and between neighboring cultures. Such a perspective helped assessing Jewish approaches to medicine and scientific knowledge within the broader history of knowledge and the sciences, while also addressing their particular Jewishness and epistemological characteristics. Where applicable, contributors interrogated the interplay between medical, religious, political, ethical and ritual discourses as well as the literary or discursive framing, and other practical, performative, or material aspects. Moreover, the papers and discussions helped to clarify methodological and theoretical questions, which are of crucial importance for a broader and more thorough understanding of medicine and scientific knowledge in pre-modern Jewish cultures. A publication of articles based on this panel together with further invited contributions in a peer-reviewed volume is planned for the near future.

    

Program/Schedule

Congress Section 6.01

6.01.III/IV. Jewish Roots and Routes of Knowledge – Approaches to Medicine, Sciences and Knowledge in Pre-Modern Jewish Cultures

Monday, 16 July, 14.30 – 16.00/ Pedagogical University of Cracow, Ingardena 4, room 416

Chair: Lennart Lehmhaus (Free University of Berlin, Germany)

Ezra Blaustein (University of Chicago, USA), The Shifting Halakhic Approach to Physicians and the Practice of Medicine in Medieval Europe.

Elisha Russ-Fishbane (New York University, USA), Caring for the Aging Body: Maimonides and the Tradition of Geriatric Medicine.

Carsten Schliwski (University of Cologne, Germany), Medicine Between Greek, Arabic and Jewish Traditions – The Maimonidean Commentary on the Aphorisms of Hippocrates.

 

6.01.I/IV. Jewish Roots and Routes of Knowledge – Approaches to Medicine, Sciences and Knowledge in Pre-Modern Jewish Cultures

Monday, 16 July, 17.00 – 18.30/ JU Faculty of Law and Administration, Krupnicza 33a, room 103

Chair: Giuseppe Veltri (University of Hamburg, Germany)

Aviad Recht (Tel Aviv University, Israel), ‘U-le-tzayyreih ba- ḥalala’ de-bei tzav’ar be-nira barqa’: The Appearance of Medical Practices from Cuneiform Inscriptions in the Babylonian Talmud.

Monika Amsler (University of Zurich, Switzerland), The Relationship Between Human and Veterinary Medicine in the Babylonian Talmud: Raising the Issue.

Lennart Lehmhaus (Free University of Berlin, Germany), Recipes, Therapeutic Advice and Case-Stories-Looking for “Epistemic Genres” in Talmudic Discourse on Illness and Healing.

 

6.01.IV/IV. Jewish Roots and Routes of Knowledge – Approaches to Medicine, Sciences and Knowledge in Pre-Modern Jewish Cultures

Wednesday, 18 July, 17.00 – 19.00/ Pedagogical University of Cracow, Ingardena 4, room 401N

Chair: Yossi Chajes (University of Haifa, Israel)

Federico Dal Bo (University Barcelona, Spain), The Mysterious Disease Ishkara in Its Medieval Reception. Some Insight from the 1242 Latin Translation of the Talmud.

Nimrod Zinger (Achva Academic College, Israel), “Changing Bodies”: Nature, Practical Kabbalah and the New Medicine in the Early Modern Period.

Kenneth Collins (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel), Mordechai Gumpel (Gumpertz) Schnaber Levisohn (1741 – 1797)-The London Years.

Magdalena Janosikova (Queen Mary University of London, UK), Books and Their Medical Practitioners: What Can the Hebrew and Yiddish Medical Manuscripts Teach Us About Sixteenth-Century Physicians in ‘Ashkenaz’?

 

6.01.II/IV. Jewish Roots and Routes of Knowledge – Approaches to Medicine, Sciences and Knowledge in Pre-Modern Jewish Cultures

Thursday, 19 July, 11.30 – 13.00/ Pedagogical University of Cracow, Ingardena 4, room 401N

Chair: Assaf Tamari (The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, Israel)

Tamas Visi (Palacky University Olomouc, Czech Republic), Sefer Asaf and the Greek-to-Hebrew Translations of Shabbatai Donnolo and His Circle.

Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim (Goldsmiths University of London, UK), Asian Lore in the Hebrew Book of Asaf.

Carmen Caballero Navas (University of Granada, Spain), The Circulation of Ibn Sīnā’s Discussion on Genital Disorders Amongst Medieval Jews.

 

This panel section is generously supported by the Collaborative Research Center – SFB 980 ‘Episteme in Motion’ at Freie Universität Berlin and the German Research Foundation/Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). The panel could have been realized only through the great efforts and mindful assistance of the Congress Organising Committee of the EAJS meeting in Kraków, especially by Prof. Edward Dąbrowa and Krzysztof Niweliński.