This collection studies Jewish involvement in seafaring from Biblical, through Greco-Roman, Medieval and Early Modern periods to the present. This broad historical perspective allows a closer look at various attitudes of Jews to maritime activities, especially as shipowners and traders in the Mediterranean regions.

The late Raphael Patai recreates the fascinating world of Jewish seafaring, from Noah's voyage through the Diaspora of late antiquity. Patai weaves together Biblical stories, Talmudic lore, and Midrash literature to bring alive the world of these ancient mariners. Illustrations.

The sea and maritime spaces have long been neglected in the field of Jewish studies despite their relevance in the context of Jewish religious texts and historical narratives. The images of Noah’s arche, king Salomon’s maritime activities or the miracle of the parting of the Red Sea immediately come into mind, however, only illustrate a few aspects of Jewish maritime activities. Consequently, the relations of Jews and the sea has to be seen in a much broader spatial and temporal framework in order to understand the overall importance of maritime spaces in Jewish history and culture. Almost sixty years after Samuel Tolkowsky’s pivotal study on maritime Jewish history and culture and the publication of his book “They Took to the Sea” in 1964, this volume of PaRDeS seeks to follow these ideas, revisit Jewish history and culture from different maritime perspectives and shed new light on current research in the field, which brings together Jewish and maritime studies. The articles in this volume therefore reflect a wide range of topics and illustrate how maritime perspectives can enrich our understanding of Jewish history and culture and its entanglement with the sea – especially in modern times. They study different spaces and examine their embedded narratives and functions. They follow in one way or another the discussions which evolved in the last decades, focused on the importance of spatial dimensions and opened up possibilities for studying the production and construction of spaces, their influences on cultural practices and ideas, as well as structures and changes of social processes. By taking these debates into account, the articles offer new insights into Jewish history and culture by taking us out to “sea” and inviting us to revisit Jewish history and culture from different maritime perspectives.

This book provides the first comprehensive study of Jewish travel and mobility in Hellenistic and Roman times, based on a critical analysis of Jewish, Graeco-Roman, and early Christian literary, epigraphic, and archaeological sources and a social-historical evaluation of the material. Catherine Hezser shows that certain segments of ancient Jewish society were quite mobile. Mobility seems to have increased in the later Roman period, when an extensive road system facilitated travel within the province of Syria-Palestine and the neighbouring Middle Eastern regions. Second Temple Judaism was centralized, with Jerusalem as its central space and seat of priestly authority. In post-70 rabbinic Judaism, on the other hand, connections between rabbis could be established through mutual visits and second- and third-degree contacts only. Mobility formed the basis of the establishment of a decentralized rabbinic network in Palestine and Babylonia in late antiquity. Numerous narrative and halakhic traditions indicate the importance of mobility for communication and the exchange of knowledge amongst rabbis. It is argued that the rabbis who were most mobile sat at the nodal points of the rabbinic network and elicited the largest amount of influence. They would have combined business travel with scholarly exchange. Scholars' journeys between Palestine and Babylonia are viewed within the wider context of Rome and Persia's economic and cultural exchange in which Jews, just like Christians, may have played the role of intermediaries.

Here the late Raphael Patai (1910-1996) recreates the fascinating world of Jewish seafaring from Noah's voyage through the Diaspora of late antiquity. In a work of pioneering scholarship, Patai weaves together Biblical stories, Talmudic lore, and Midrash literature to bring alive the world of these ancient mariners. As he did in his highly acclaimed book The Jewish Alchemists, Patai explores a subject that has never before been investigated by scholars. Based on nearly sixty years of research, beginning with study he undertook for his doctoral dissertation, The Children of Noah is literally Patai's first book and his last. It is a work of unsurpassed scholarship, but it is accessible to general readers as well as scholars. An abundance of evidence demonstrates the importance of the sea in the lives of Jews throughout early recorded history. Jews built ships, sailed them, fought wars in them, battled storms in them, and lost their lives to the sea. Patai begins with the story of the deluge that is found in Genesis and profiles Noah, the father of all shipbuilders and seafarers. The sea, according to Patai's interpretation, can be seen as an image of the manifestation of God's power, and he reflects on its role in legends and tales of early times. The practical importance of the sea also led to the development of practical institutions, and Patai shows how Jewish seafaring had its own culture and how it influenced the cultures of Mediterranean life as well. Of course, Jewish sailors were subject to the same rabbinical laws as Jews who never set sail, and Patai describes how they went to extreme lengths to remain in adherence, even getting special emendations of laws to allow them to tie knots and adjust rigging on the Sabbath. The Children of Noah is a capstone to an extraordinary career. Patai was both a careful scholar and a gifted storyteller, and this work is at once a vivid history of a neglected aspect of Jewish culture and a treasure trove of sources for further study. It is a stimulating and delightful book.

As every growth of seed from seed is followed by destruction, so every birth of living flesh is followed by its death, and all that decays is regenerated by the measured courses of the gods circling in the heavens. -Hermetica: Libellus III, 4 Spiritual practices are founded upon a liturgy that articulates their cosmology, philosophy, and metaphysical goals. The spiritual tradition of Egypt provides us with hundreds of examples of prayers, invocations, and litanies that were carefully recorded to be used in the Temple and tomb. In addition to these writings, the rubrics (instructions or rules) also explain how the liturgy should be used. In the extended history of ancient Egypt, liturgical programs rarely changed. They were honored for their veracity, correctness, and power, as the ceremonial acts performed in temples and tombs were said to date back to antiquity. According to this belief, the walls of each temple record the liturgies, the daily, and seasonal festivals, and the historical antecedents or founding events of each individual Neter's sanctuary. At Edfu, the legendary Imhotep, a sage and healer in Dynasty 3, presided over the founding ceremony of the Temple. A morning litany is also inscribed in the hall of appearances, sung by the kheneru each day to open the Temple. Holy days are recorded on calendars at Karnak, Esna, and Abydos to be observed. Overall, the timing, location, and acts responsible for spiritually maintaining the Temple determined its activity throughout the ages. Using the solar calendar in conjunction with the following liturgy can create an annual cycle of twelve ceremonies (lru). The monthly observances are based on an orderly solar cosmogony of Heliopolis. Each Neter comprises twelve different rites (Khesu) that reflect the ancient Temple's proper protocol. Consequently, they contribute to developing a conscious, vital interface among the human, divine, and natural realms. Each of the Iru ceremonies includes the standard Khesu rites. In addition, each ceremony includes a festival to honor the specific powers of the Neter of the season (Hebu). Depending on the time and resources available to the modern Temple, these observances may be tailored to fit the occasion. Indeed, It is possible to elaborate on the Iru ceremonies if they occur in conjunction with several cosmic events, for example a New Moon that coincides with the Sun's entry into a new zodiac sign. In addition to the regular offerings and activities for the temple family, special observances may include the production of temple oil and amulets or a communal meal instead of the reversion of offerings.

This book deals with the intricate, and often uneasy relationship which developed between Jews and Venetians, as they struggled to cope with the changing realities of the sixteenth-century Mediterranean world. The fruit of many years of research in the Venetian archives, this volume explores undiscovered aspects of Mediterranean history regarding the involvement of Venetians and Jews in the international maritime trade, Venetian attitudes towards Jews, the impact of Venetian-Ottoman contention on the relationship between Jews and Venetians, and more. The unfolding of this relationship reveals new perspectives on the history of sixteenth-century Venice, on the social and economic history of the Jews, and on the history of the Ottoman Empire in its prime.