471) Tzafnat Paneach – a ‘counter Rashi’ commentary

Extract from a 1364 manuscript of Tzafnat Paneach by R. Eleazar Ashkenazi

Introduction

This article − based extensively on the research by Professor Eric Lawee[1] − is divided into three parts:

Part 1 is a brief presentation of how the early Rashi texts were surprisingly diverse, and only emerged in the ‘standard’ form as we know them today at around the sixteenth century.

Part 2 looks at the early rabbinic reception of the Rashi texts.

Part 3 discusses and examines extracts from a little-known fourteenth-century ‘counter commentary’ to Rashi’s commentary. This ‘counter commentary’ was authored by R. Eleazar Ashkenazi, a Maimonidean rationalist, and entitled Tzafnat Paneach (Revealer of Secrets). 

470) Nineteenth-century Jewish Messianism

 

Introduction 

In our lifetimes, we have experienced multiple events that have sparked the notion that there is something unique in the air and Mashiach is on the way. Many great leaders have indeed declared this to be the case and it has become rather commonplace in the minds of the masses − across the religious and even the secular spectrums − that we are living in messianic times. Some suggest that Mashiah is already here. While this may or may not be the case, this article looks at another period in Jewish history (and there have been very many similar periods) where the same sentiment had been expressed. We shall explore various approaches to messianism during the nineteenth century as articulated by some in rabbinic leadership positions. 

This article – based extensively on the research by Dr Arie Morgenstern[1] − examines some of the messianic statements emerging from rabbinic leadership in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. These statements were generally made in reaction to specific events of the Modern Period, which began around the French Revolution of 1789 and culminated with universal messianic expectations for the year 1840 − the year for the Messiah to appear according to predictions in the Talmud and Zohar.