Using Technology to Piece Together Ancient Lost Jewish Text
Using Technology to Piece Together Ancient Lost Jewish Text
December 22, 2021
Israel Studies, Culture & Jewish Thought
Haaretz — For centuries, a foundational text of Jewish culture had been considered lost forever. Quotes from it surfaced over the years, but they were interspersed with later texts, making it impossible to discern which sections were the original.
The book in question is Mekhilta le-Sefer Devarim, a midrash, or interpretation and commentary, on the Book of Deuteronomy. It is attributed to a group of scholars that formed around Rabbi Yishmael, who was one of the most famous of the rabbis known as the Tannaim, in the land of Israel in the first and second century C.E., a period in which Jewish culture and the tradition of the Jewish sages crystalized.
Now, with the help of advanced technology, researchers have managed to once again track down the text. “I have been working for many years on the literature of the classical rabbinical sages (Hazal)”, says BGU Prof. Michal Bar-Asher Siegal, a scholar of rabbinic Judaism. “But I have a feeling that if I go down in history, it will be for this research.”
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