Avigail Manekin-Bamberger
Biographic Data
| ID | 2354892 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Avigail Manekin-Bamberger |
| GIVEN NAMES | Avigail |
| FAMILY NAME | Manekin-Bamberger |
| SIGNATURE | MANEKIN-BAMBERGER A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Hebrew University of Jerusalem |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3286-1847 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 9 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 2 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 9 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
The Riddles of the Sasanian-Athenian Elders
A Talmudic narrative describes a competition that took place between R. Yehoshua b. Ḥananiah and the “elders of atuna,” often translated as the elders of Athens. The competition consisted of a series of riddles and tests, which led to R. Yehoshua outwitting the elders and ultimately defeating them. Scholars have attempted to understand the context and purpose of this debate, frequently ascribing historical, philosophical, and religious significan…
The Magic of Law
In the study of late antique Judaism, law and magic are often treated as distinct domains, with law regarded as elite and magic as popular. This paper challenges that dichotomy by exploring the overlap between legal and magical practices in both rabbinic texts and magical artifacts. I argue that ancient Jewish sources do not clearly separate the two, suggesting that following these modern scholarly distinctions may obscure aspects of late antique…
Magic Formulae and Women's History
Aramaic incantation bowls dated to the fifth to seventh centuries C.E. contain valuable details about the daily lives, hardships, and fears of named individuals. Despite the bowls' potential to provide novel insights, previous studies on the women of the bowls have primarily focused on the possibility of female authorship. These studies often disregarded the poetic structure of the incantation bowls, which consist of fixed textual units that recu…
A Jewish Magical Handbook in the Babylonian Talmud
Among the medical and magical discussions in the sixth chapter of BT Shabbat, there is a distinct unit of four curative spells intended for combatting demons or disease. This spell unit has a unified structure that resembles the literary style of late antique Jewish magical handbooks and is replete with parallels to the contemporary Jewish Aramaic incantation bowls. This article analyzes the talmudic spell unit and argues that it is well situated…
Babylonian Jewish Society
Since their discovery, the Jewish Babylonian Aramaic incantation bowls have typically been understood to represent “popular” Jewish religious practice that stood in marked contrast with the scholastic rabbinic elite. As a result of this characterization, the usefulness of the bowls for understanding Babylonian Jewish society and the position of the rabbis within it has remained largely unexplored. With the continued publication and study of the b…
Who were the Jewish 'magicians' behind the Aramaic incantation bowls
This article focuses on the social and professional contexts of the producers of Jewish Aramaic incantation bowls. Based on the vast amount of legal terminology deployed in the bowls, as well as a reference to bowl writers as 'writers of books' in bowl AMB6, I argue that bowl scribes were part of a professional guild of scribes ( soferim ) that engaged in a variety of forms of Jewish writing. Furthermore, I suggest that the scribal context of the…
The Vow-Curse in Ancient Jewish Texts
Uttering a vow was an important and popular religious practice in ancient Judaism. It is mentioned frequently in biblical literature, and an entire rabbinic tractate, Nedarim , is devoted to this subject. In this article, I argue that starting from the Second Temple period, alongside the regular use of the vow, vows were also used as an aggressive binding mechanism in interpersonal situations. This practice became so popular that in certain conte…
Toledot Yeshu: The Life Story of Jesus
The Book of the Life of Jesus (in Hebrew Sefer Toledot Yeshu ) presents a »biography« of Jesus from an anti-Christian perspective. It ascribes to Jesus an illegitimate birth, a theft of the Ineffable Name, heretical activities, and finally a disgraceful death. Perhaps for centuries, Toledot Yeshu circulated orally until it coalesced into various literary forms. Although the dates of these written compositions remain obscure, some early hints of a…
An Akkadian Demon in the Talmud
This article examines the resemblance between the Talmudic privy demon (“Shed Bet ha-Kise”) and Šulak, a well-known Akkadian demon. There are four considerations that point to identifying the privy demon of the Talmud with the Babylonian demon Šulak: (1) They both dwell in the privy; (2) they both are demons that cause epilepsy, strokes, or sudden falls; (3) they both seem to have the form of a lion; and (4) their names (“Šulak” and “Bar Širiqa”)…
Who were the Jewish 'magicians' behind the Aramaic incantation bowls
This article focuses on the social and professional contexts of the producers of Jewish Aramaic incantation bowls. Based on the vast amount of legal terminology deployed in the bowls, as well as a reference to bowl writers as 'writers of books' in bowl AMB6, I argue that bowl scribes were part of a professional guild of scribes ( soferim ) that engaged in a variety of forms of Jewish writing. Furthermore, I suggest that the scribal context of the…
An Akkadian Demon in the Talmud
This article examines the resemblance between the Talmudic privy demon (“Shed Bet ha-Kise”) and Šulak, a well-known Akkadian demon. There are four considerations that point to identifying the privy demon of the Talmud with the Babylonian demon Šulak: (1) They both dwell in the privy; (2) they both are demons that cause epilepsy, strokes, or sudden falls; (3) they both seem to have the form of a lion; and (4) their names (“Šulak” and “Bar Širiqa”)…
An Akkadian Demon in the Talmud
This article examines the resemblance between the Talmudic privy demon (“Shed Bet ha-Kise”) and Šulak, a well-known Akkadian demon. There are four considerations that point to identifying the privy demon of the Talmud with the Babylonian demon Šulak: (1) They both dwell in the privy; (2) they both are demons that cause epilepsy, strokes, or sudden falls; (3) they both seem to have the form of a lion; and (4) their names (“Šulak” and “Bar Širiqa”)…
Toledot Yeshu: The Life Story of Jesus
The Book of the Life of Jesus (in Hebrew Sefer Toledot Yeshu ) presents a »biography« of Jesus from an anti-Christian perspective. It ascribes to Jesus an illegitimate birth, a theft of the Ineffable Name, heretical activities, and finally a disgraceful death. Perhaps for centuries, Toledot Yeshu circulated orally until it coalesced into various literary forms. Although the dates of these written compositions remain obscure, some early hints of a…
The Vow-Curse in Ancient Jewish Texts
Uttering a vow was an important and popular religious practice in ancient Judaism. It is mentioned frequently in biblical literature, and an entire rabbinic tractate, Nedarim , is devoted to this subject. In this article, I argue that starting from the Second Temple period, alongside the regular use of the vow, vows were also used as an aggressive binding mechanism in interpersonal situations. This practice became so popular that in certain conte…
Who were the Jewish 'magicians' behind the Aramaic incantation bowls
This article focuses on the social and professional contexts of the producers of Jewish Aramaic incantation bowls. Based on the vast amount of legal terminology deployed in the bowls, as well as a reference to bowl writers as 'writers of books' in bowl AMB6, I argue that bowl scribes were part of a professional guild of scribes ( soferim ) that engaged in a variety of forms of Jewish writing. Furthermore, I suggest that the scribal context of the…
A Jewish Magical Handbook in the Babylonian Talmud
Among the medical and magical discussions in the sixth chapter of BT Shabbat, there is a distinct unit of four curative spells intended for combatting demons or disease. This spell unit has a unified structure that resembles the literary style of late antique Jewish magical handbooks and is replete with parallels to the contemporary Jewish Aramaic incantation bowls. This article analyzes the talmudic spell unit and argues that it is well situated…
Babylonian Jewish Society
Since their discovery, the Jewish Babylonian Aramaic incantation bowls have typically been understood to represent “popular” Jewish religious practice that stood in marked contrast with the scholastic rabbinic elite. As a result of this characterization, the usefulness of the bowls for understanding Babylonian Jewish society and the position of the rabbis within it has remained largely unexplored. With the continued publication and study of the b…
The Magic of Law
In the study of late antique Judaism, law and magic are often treated as distinct domains, with law regarded as elite and magic as popular. This paper challenges that dichotomy by exploring the overlap between legal and magical practices in both rabbinic texts and magical artifacts. I argue that ancient Jewish sources do not clearly separate the two, suggesting that following these modern scholarly distinctions may obscure aspects of late antique…
Magic Formulae and Women's History
Aramaic incantation bowls dated to the fifth to seventh centuries C.E. contain valuable details about the daily lives, hardships, and fears of named individuals. Despite the bowls' potential to provide novel insights, previous studies on the women of the bowls have primarily focused on the possibility of female authorship. These studies often disregarded the poetic structure of the incantation bowls, which consist of fixed textual units that recu…
The Riddles of the Sasanian-Athenian Elders
A Talmudic narrative describes a competition that took place between R. Yehoshua b. Ḥananiah and the “elders of atuna,” often translated as the elders of Athens. The competition consisted of a series of riddles and tests, which led to R. Yehoshua outwitting the elders and ultimately defeating them. Scholars have attempted to understand the context and purpose of this debate, frequently ascribing historical, philosophical, and religious significan…
Archaeology and Historical Studies (6 works) · Art (6 works) · Biblical Studies and Interpretation (6 works) · History (6 works) · Judaism (6 works) · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies (5 works) · Incantation (5 works) · Literature (4 works) · Ancient history (3 works) · Ancient Near East History (3 works)