Dr. Avriel Bar-Levav

• Personal
• Education
• Academic Appointments
• Teaching Experience
• Administrative Activities
• Research Fields
• Scholarships and Awards
• Membership on Boards and Editorial Boards
• Membership in Professional Societies
• Supervision of Higher Degrees
• List of Publications
  • Articles and Chapters in Refereed Books
  • Articles in Refereed Journals
  • Edited Books
  • Book Reviews
  • Others
  • Translations
  • Newspaper articles
  • Lectures

Personal

Tel: 972-9-7781371

Fax: 972-9-778-1416

E-mail: avribar@openu.ac.il

Professional Education

1997	Ph.D., Jewish Thought, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Dissertation: The Concept of Death in the ‘Book of Life’ (Sefer ha-Hayyim) by Rabbi Shimon Frankfurt; Advisors: Profs. Zeev Gries, Moshe Idel, and Yosef Kaplan
1990	M.A. (summa cum laude), Jewish Thought, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Thesis: Death in the Thought of the Kabbalist Rabbi Naftali Hakohen Katz; Advisor:Prof. Zeev Gries
1985	B.A., Philosophy and Jewish Thought, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Academic Appointments

2007-	Head, Judaic Studies section, Department of History, Philosophy and Judaic Studies, The Open University of Israel
2005-2008	Head, Department of History, Philosophy and Judaic Studies, The Open University of Israel
2003-	Senior Lecturer, Department of History, Philosophy and Judaic Studies, The Open University of Israel
2001-2003	Candidate for Senior Academic Faculty, Department of History, Philosophy and Judaic Studies, The Open University of Israel
2000-2001	Research Fellow, Department of History, Ben-Gurion University
1998-2000	Teaching Fellow, Department of Jewish History, University of Haifa
1997-1998	Senior Fellow, Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard University
1988-1997	Instructor and Teaching Assistant, Department of Jewish Thought, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Teaching Experience

2005	Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Ben-Gurion University Course: Encounters with the Dead Jewish Culture
2000-2001	Lecturer, Ben-Gurion University. Courses: Death in Medieval Jewish Society: The Encounter between Thought and History
1998-2000	Lecturer, University of Haifa Courses: Readings in the Zohar; Religion and Society in the Thought of Hasidei Ashkenaz; Introduction to Jewish Mysticism; Death in Jewish Thought and Custom; The Messianic Idea in Judaism (with Prof. Kellner)
1996-1997, 2000	Lecturer, Technion: Department of Humanities Courses: Introduction to Kabbalah; Modern Jewish Thought
1999	Lecturer, School for Overseas Students, Ben-Gurion University Course: Introduction to Jewish Mysticism
1988–1998	Teaching Assistant, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Courses: Death in Thought and Custom; The Genre of Jewish Ethical Wills; Kabbalah, Practical Kabbalah, and Sabbatianism; Chapters in Philosophical Ethical Literature; The Treatise Shnei Luhot ha-Berit; Bibliographical Guidance in Jewish Thought; Exercise for Introduction to Jewish Thought; Sefer Hasidim, Hovot ha-Levavot, Emunot ve-De’ot (Reading course)
1999	Lecturer, Yezreel Valley College. Course: The Mystical Experience in Judaism, Christianity and Islam

Administrative Activities

1996-1997

Academic Coordinator, Twelfth World Congress of Jewish Studies; World Union of Jewish Studies

Research Fields

• Jewish mysticism
• Magic
• Jewish ethical literature
• Jewish attitudes toward death
• Cemeteries
• Jewish ritual
• History of the book

Scholarships and Awards

2003-2004	Research grant, The Ben-Zvi Institute, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
2000	Post-doctoral scholarship, The Board of Higher Education, Ben-Gurion University
1999	Warburg Prize, Hebrew University
1997	Fellowship, Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard University
1997	Scholarship, Institute for Jewish Studies, Hebrew University
1996	Abraham Isaac Katch Award to an outstanding doctoral student: Hebrew University
1995	Scholarship, Institute for Jewish Studies, Hebrew University
1995	Scholarship, Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture
1994	Yaniv Foundation Scholarship, Tel-Aviv University
1994	Niselevich Prize: Institute for Jewish Studies, Hebrew University
1993	Gerstenfeld Prize: The Center for the Study of Dutch Jewry, Hebrew University
1992-1995	Scholarship for outstanding doctoral students in the Humanities, The Council for Higher Education

Membership on Boards and Editorial Boards

2001-	Editor, Pe’amim: Studies in Oriental Jewry, Ben-Zvi Institute, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
2007-	Board member, The Israeli Historical Society
2008-	Board member, The Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People
1996-1997	Editorial Secretary, Jewish Studies, World Union for Jewish Studies
1986-1990	Editorial Secretary, Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Membership in Professional Societies

• Israeli Historical Society (Board Member)
• World Union for Jewish Studies
• American Association for Jewish Studies
• European Association for Jewish Studies
• American Academy of Religion

Supervision of Higher Degrees

2008-present	Nisim Hamawi, Tel-Aviv University (with Prof. Gidi Bohak) Ph.D. Thesis - Magic in the Writings of R. Abraham Hamoi
2005-present	Orit Ramon, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (with Prof. Israel Yuval) Ph.D. Thesis - The order of the world as reflected in ‘Or Hadash’ - Maharal’s commentary on the Book of Esther
2004	Sachi Ogimoto, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, School for Overseas Students M.A. Thesis - Sefer Or Zaru’a by R. David Ben Yehudah he-Hasid

List of Publications

Articles and Chapters in Refereed Books

1. Ausdrucksformen jüdischer Religiosität in Deutschland zu Beginn der Neuzeit. In Handbuch der Religionsgeschichte im deutschsprachigen Raum, Bd. IV, Beitrag Reformiertentum, ed. Kaspar von Greyerz, Paderborn: Schöningh, 2010 (forthcoming).
2. Between the World of the Texts and the World of the Readers. In Chava Turniansky Jubilee Volume, ed. Kaspar von Greyerz, Jerusalem: Zalman Shazar Center, 2010 (Hebrew, forthcoming).
3. A Living Citizen in a World of Dead Letters: Steinschneider Remembered. In Moritz Steinchneider, ed. Gad Freudenthal, Leiden: Brill 2010 (forthcoming).
4. a. Amsterdam and the Inception of the Jewish Republic of Letters. In Studies in Dutch Jewry, ed. Yosef Kaplan. Jerusalem: Center for Research on Dutch Jewry, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 200: 225-237.
   b. Between Library Awareness and the Jewish Republic of Letters (Hebrew). In Libraries and Book Collections, eds. Yosef Kaplan and Moshe Sluhovsky. Jerusalem: Zalman Sahzar Center for Jewish History, 2006: 201-224.
5. Cercles messianiques: les mouvements messianiques des Juifs d'Orient. In Le monde sépharade, ed. Shmuel Trigano. Paris: Le Seuil, 2006: 171-190.
6. Death and Mourning among Oriental Jewry (Hebrew). In Jewish Communities in the East in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: The Life Cycle, ed. Shalom Sabar, series ed. Haim Saadoun. Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute, 2006: 281-323.
7. Story, Ritual and Metaphor: Comprehending the day of Death as a Spiritual Exercise and the internal War in Jewish Ethical Literature (Hebrew). In Peace and War in Jewish Culture, ed. Avriel Bar-Levav. Jerusalem: Zalman Sahzar Center for Jewish History, 2006: 145-163.
8. Reading Grave Inscriptions and Looking at the Sky: Some Aspects of Magic and Memory in Jewish Culture. In Memoria: Wege jüdischen Erinnerns: Festschrift für Michael Brocke, eds. Birgit Klein and Christiane E. Müler, Berlin 2005: 41-52.
9. The Bridge to the Human: The Myth of Tantalus in the Story of the Marriage of a Man and Demon (Hebrew). In The Cradle of Creativity: Shlomo Giora Shoham Jubilee Volume, ed. Chemi Bin-Nun. Tel Aviv 2004: 199-206.
10. Leon Modena and the Invention of the Jewish Death Tradition. In The Lion Shall Roar: Leon Modena and His World, ed. David Malkiel. Jerusalem: Magnes, 2003: 85-102.
11. a. Jewish Ethical Wills as Egodocoments (Hebrew). In The Past and Beyond: Festschrift for Elazar Weinrib, eds. Amir Horowitz, Ora Limor, Ram Ben-Shalom and Avriel Bar-Levav. Raanana: The Open University, 2006: 263-282.
    b. 'When I was Alive': Jewish Ethical Wills as Egodocoments. In Egodocuments and History: Autobiographical Writing in its Social Context since the Middle Ages, ed. Rudolf Dekker, Rotterdam: Erasmus University Rotterdam and Hilversum Verloren, 2002: 45-59.
12. Ritualization of Death and Life: The Ethical Will of Rabbi Naphtali Ha-Kohen Katz. In Judaism in Practice, ed. Lawrence Fine. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001: 155-167.
13. Pinchas Hakohen Peli: A Biography (Hebrew). In Rabbi Professor Peli Memorial Volume, ed. Aviv Melzer. Beer-Sheva: Ben-Gurion University Press, 1998: 157-165.
14. Bibliography of Pinchas Hakohen Peli. In Rabbi Professor Peli Memorial Volume, ed. Aviv Melzer. Beer-Sheva: Ben-Gurion University Press, 1998: 166-214.

Articles in Refereed Journals

1. On the Absence of a Book from a Library: Gershom Scholem and the Shulhan Arukh. Zutot: Perspectives on Jewish Culture 6 (2009): 71-73.
2. Magic in Jewish Ethical Literature (Hebrew). Tarbiz 72 (2003): 389-414
3. a. Another Place: The Cemetery in Jewish Culture (Hebrew). Pe'amim 98-99 (2003): 5-38. b. We Are Where We Are Not: The Cemetery in Jewish Culture. Jewish Studies 41 (2002):15-46.
4. Ritualisation of Jewish Life and Death in the Early Modern Period. Leo Baeck Institute Year Book 47 (2002): 69-82.
5. Death and the (Blurred) Boundaries of Magic: Strategies of Coexistence. Kabbalah: Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts 7 (2002): 51-64.
6. Dying by the Book: Jewish Books for the Sick and the Dying, and the Ritualization of Death in the Early Modern Period (Hebrew). Zmanim 73 (2000): 71-78.
7. Games of Death in Jewish Books for the Sick and the Dying. Kabbalah: Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts 5 (2000): 11-34.
8. Books for the Sick and the Dying in Jewish Conduct Literature (Hebrew). Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought 14 (1998): 341-391.
9. Rabbi Aaron Berakhiah of Modena and Rabbi Naftali Hakohen Katz: Founding Fathers of Books for the Sick and the Dying (Hebrew). Asufot 9 (1995): 189-233.

Edited Books

1. Peace and War in Jewish Culture (Hebrew). Jerusalem: Zalman Sahzar Center, 2006.
2. The Past and Beyond: Festschrift for Elazar Weinrib (with A. Horowitz, O. Limor, and R. Ben-Shalom). Raanana: The Open University, 2006.
3. A Detailed Index of The Wisdom of the Zohar by Isaiah Tishby and Y. F. Lachower (Hebrew). Jerusalem: Mosad Bialik, forthcoming.

Book Reviews

Review of "The Library of Gershom Scholem on Jewish Mysticism: Catalogue" (Hebrew). Jewish Studies, 39 (1999), 201-209.

Others

1. Der Name Gottes und seine Zhal. Kalonymos: Beiträge zur deutsch-jüdischen Geschichte aus dem Salomon Ludwig Steinheim-Institute, 7 (2004), 7.
2. Jewish rituals for the sick and dying. Sh’ma, 34/603 (September 2003), 11.
3. The Sabbath and the other (2001). In M. Gerzy & B. Zimmerman (eds.), The Seventh Day: Israeli Scholars and Artists write about their Sabbath. Tel- Aviv: Miskal, 2001, 149-161 (Hebrew).

Translations

1. Translation from English into Hebrew of David Halivni (1996). The Book and the Sword: a Life of Learning in the Shadow of Death. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. Hebrew translation published by Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1999.
2. Translation from English into Hebrew: Moshe Idel (1993). Kabbalah: New Perspectives. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988. Hebrew translation published by Schocken, 1993.

Newspaper articles (selected)

1. Prince Charming of Hebrew in Print: a Review of Zeev Gries’s The Book as an Agent of Change 1700-1900, Haaretz Books, 11 September 2002; English translation: Haaretz English Edition, 15 September 2002.
2. Accepting Demons. Haaretz: Literary Supplement, 1 October 2001 (Hebrew).
3. A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Breslov Hasidism: on David Assaf’s Book. (Hebrew). Haaretz: Literary Supplement, 31 March 2000 (Hebrew). English translation: Haaretz English Edition, 24 March 2000.
4. The Strength of Quiet Knowledge: on the Occasion of Shmuel Werses’ Eighty-fifth Birthday. Haaretz: Literary Supplement, 19 May 2000 (Hebrew).
5. The Cry of the Library: on the Catalogue of the Gershom Scholem Library. Haaretz: Literary Supplement, 25 September 1999 (Hebrew).
6. The Nation and its Library. Haaretz: Literary Supplement, 3 March 1996 (Hebrew).

Lectures (selected)

• Invisible Libraries in Jewish Culture. Magnificent Books and Impressive Texts: Prolegomena to a Jewish Book History, Colloquium, University of Amsterdam, 2009
• Putting Jewish Book in Order. Reading across Cultures: the Jewish Book and Its Readers in the Early Modern Period, Workshop, Harvard University, 2009
• Paratexts in the Works of Maharal. Maharal of Prague: Four Hundred Years since his Death, International Conference, Van Lear Jerusalem Institute, 2009
• Library Awareness in the National Library: Bibliography, Ideology, and Zionism. The 15th World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, 2009
• Between the Living and the Dead. The Jewish Cemetery in Yeghegis and Armenian Hebrew inscriptions, International symposium, Armenia, 2009
• The Aura of Books in Jewish Culture. 2 lectures at the Centre d'Études Juives, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) and Centre de Recherches Historiques (CRH), Paris, 2009
• The Antwerp Moment (Concluding Panel). The Jewish Book in a Christian World, International Conference, University of Antwerp, 2008
• The Wisdom of the Zohar. Kabbalah and Modernity, International conference, University of Amsterdam, 2008
• Steinschneider and Modern Hebrew. Bibliographie und Kulturtransfer, International conference, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, 2007
• From Ethical Wills to Blogs (Hebrew, with Yoav Yair). Conference of the Chase Center, The Open University of Israel, 2007
• Jewish Libraries of Memory. The Concept of Memory in Jewish and East Asian Cultures, University of Haifa, 2007
• Charity and Death. Charity and Piety in the Middle East in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages: Continuity and Transformation. International Conference, Institute for Advanced Studies, Hebrew University, 2007
• Doing Things in the Right Time in Hebrew Nineteenth Century Autobiographies. Controlling Time and Shaping the Self: The Rise of Autobiographical Writing since 1750, International Conference, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, 2006
• When a Rabbi Writes an Autobiography: Portrayal of the Self in the work of Rabbi Bension Avraham Koenka. Portrayal of the Self, International Conference , University of Groningen, 2005
• Death, People and Books. North American Hevra Kadisha Conference, New York, 2005
• Death of Moses (Hebrew). Moses in Jewish Culture, Bar-Ilan University, 2005
• Amsterdam and the Inception of the Jewish Republic of Letters. 10th International Symposium on the History of the Jews in the Netherlands, The Hebrew University, 2004
• Death and Culture (Hebrew). Haim Schwartzbaum Memorial Lecture in Jewish and Arabic Folklore, Ben-Gurion University, 2004
• Expressions of Jewish Religiosity: The Case of Germany in the Early Modern Period (Hebrew). Interuniversity Conference of the Depts. of Jewish Thought, Ben-Gurion Univ., 2003
• Magic and Memory in Jewish Culture (Hebrew). 22nd Interuniversity Conference on the Study of Folklore, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 2003
• Rabbi Moshe Frankfurt: Printer-Scholar in Amsterdam, and the Inception of the Hebrew Republic of Letters. European Association for Jewish Studies VII Congress, Amsterdam, 2002
• Internalizing the Impossible to Grasp: Remembering the Day of Death (Hebrew). 13th World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, 2001
• The Intercultural Encounter in the Jewish Cemetery (Hebrew). 20th University Conference on Folklore, Ben-Gurion University
• Dialogues in the Jewish Cemetery. Art in Dialogue Colloquium, Witten-Herdeke Universität, Germany, 2001
• The Cemetery in Medieval Jewish Thought. Jüdische Sepulkrakultur und Grabsteinepigraphik, Steinheim Institute für Deutsche-Jüdische Geschichte Kolloquium, Universität Duisberg, 2000
• The Power of Words: Rabbi Naftali Hakohen Katz of Frankfurt: Between Halakha and Magic. Fach Jüdische Studien, Gerhard Mercator Universität, Duisberg, 2000
• Jewish Ethical Wills as Egodocuments. Egodocuments, Identity and History, International Conference, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, 2000
• Daily Death of European Jews in the Early Modern Period. International Conference, Ben-Gurion University, 2000
• The Bookshelf of a Jewish Printer in the Early Modern Period: Rabbi Moshe Frankfurt and the Works He Chose to Print (Hebrew). Libraries and Book Collections, Annual Conference of the Israel Historical Society, Jerusalem, 2000
• In Search for the Prince of the Torah; Magic, Knowledge, and Memory (Hebrew). Secret Knowledge, Secret Forces: Magic, Demonology, and the Occult in Jewish Thought and Life, International Conference, Ben-Gurion University, Tel-Aviv University, and Shazar Institute, Jerusalem, 2000
• Whom Do the Demons Represent? (Hebrew). Conference of the Wolfson Chair for Jewish Thought, University of Haifa, 1999
• Magic and the Shaping of the Religious Personality in Jewish Ethical Literature (Hebrew), Amulets: On the Place of Magic in Jewish Culture and Society, Zalman Shazar Institute, 1999
• The Methodology of the Study of Jewish Attitudes towards Death. Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, Orlando, Florida, 1998
• Healing the Soul before Dying: The Case of Jewish Death Rituals in the Early Modern Period. Annual Meetings of the American Academy of Religion, Orlando, Florida, 1998
• Love, Fear, and Death in Jewish Tradition. The Historicity of Emotions, International Conference, Institute for Advanced Studies, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 1998
• The Concept of Death in Sefer Hasidim. 29th Annual Conference of the American Association for Jewish Studies, Boston, 1997
• Formation and Transformation of Jewish Rituals in the Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Center for Jewish Studies, 1997
• Death and Magical Practices. Magic and Magic in Judaism, International Conference, Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv University, 1995
• The Wills of the Horwitz Family (Hebrew). 11th World Congress of Jewish Studies, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 1993
• Rabbi Naftali Hakohen Katz and the Hayyun Polemic (Hebrew). Interuniversity Conference of the Departments of Jewish Thought, Open University, Tel-Aviv, 1989