Maximilian de Molière of the Moses Zacuto Project is presenting a poster on the different technologies used for creating the hybrid edition of Zacuto's correspondence at the World Congress of Jewish Studies 2022 in Jerusalem, Israel. A poster session will be held on 10 August 2022, 13:30-15:00, at Liwerant-Fomento Mexico Hall at the Mt Scopus Campus of the Hebrew University. The poster is accessible here:

The keynote by Daniel Abrams on Why Editions? And Other Uncomfortable Questions for Kabbalah Scholarship is now available for streaming at https://kabbalaheditions.org/keynote_abrams.html.

The Seminary for Jewish Studies and the Institute of Computer Science, both at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg/Germany, will hold the online conference Editing Kabbalistic Texts: New Philological and Digital Approaches on February 14-15, 2022 (CET).

Eminent Kabbalah scholar, Professor Daniel Abrams (Bar-Ilan University Ramat Gan/Israel) will deliver his keynote lecture Why Editions? And Other Uncomfortable Questions for Kabbalah Scholarship.

Scholars of Kabbalah and Computer Science including Emma Abate (Università di Bologna/Italy), Avishai Bar-Asher (Hebrew University Jerusalem/Israel), Na'ama Ben-Shachar (The Open University of Israel Ra'anana/Israel), Giulio Busi (Free University Berlin/Germany), Elke Morlok (Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg/Germany), Gerold Necker (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg/Germany), Agata Paluch (Free University Berlin/Germany), Marcus Pöckelmann (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg/Germany), Bill Rebiger (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg/Germany), Jörg Ritter (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg/Germany), and Tzahi Weiss (The Open University of Israel Ra'anana/Israel) will present their papers on early kabbalistic texts, methods of editing kabbalistic texts, as well as digital tools and platforms.

Full program here: editing_kabbalistic_texts.pdf.

Please register by sending an e-mail to registration@kabbalaheditions.org not later than February 11, 2022, to receive a link to the online conference in the days before the event.

The researchers working on the Moses Zacuto Project conducted by the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the University of Halle, which is sponsored by the German Research Foundation (grant no. NE 1724/5-1), attended a conference with a focus on magic in Leipzig (Germany), titled “Magic & Language – Jewish and Christian Magic in Early Modern Europe.” The conference was organized by Professors Gerold Necker (University of Halle) and Marco Frenschkowski (University of Leipzig).

The international panel of scholars discussed language as a central component of Christian and Jewish magic. Another major topic was the role of images in magical texts, which can be found, for example, in manuscripts of magic and prognostication as well as on talismans intended to protect newborn children from the reach of the demoness Lilith.

The experts were given a first look at the exhibition of magical manuscripts at Leipzig University Library, which will be open to the public from November 2019 to February 2020. The library holds the largest collection of magical manuscripts and prints in Europe. The attendees were guided through the exhibition by its curator Marco Frenschkowski (University of Leipzig).

The Moses Zacuto Project team also had its moment to shine. The project’s newest findings were also presented at the conference by Uri Safrai, Eliezer Baumgarten, and Maximilian de Molière.

Researchers from the Moses Zacuto Project attended the 7th Biennial Conference of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE), which was held from July 2 to July 4 at the University of Amsterdam. Prof. Gerold Necker (University of Halle), Prof. Yuval Harari (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev), Dr. Vladislav Slepoy (University of Halle), and Maximilian de Molière (University of Halle) held a panel that was chaired by Prof. Boaz Huss (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) in order to give their European colleagues a small sample of the ongoing research about R. Moses Zacuto’s writings about practical Kabbalah, halakhic works, and correspondence.

The two teams of the Moses Zacuto Project, a joint project between the universities of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev/Beer Sheva (Israel) and Halle (Germany), came together in Israel for a series of debates and lectures.

To kick off the visit, the joint team met at the Museum of Italian Jewry in order to engage with presentations on early modern Jewish culture in Italy given by leading experts in the field: Judith Weiss, Peter Lehnardt, and Avriel Bar Levav.

The next day, the Israeli and German project partners met for discussions on the current state of their sub-projects. While the Israeli team members work Moses Zacuto’s magical recipe books, the German side is analyzing his halakhic works as well as preparing a new edition of his correspondence.

At the National Library of Israel, project members Uri Safrai and Eliezer Baumgarten shared their findings of manuscripts and printed books that belonged to Moses Zacuto.

On the morning of the last day, the project members visited the Israeli kabbalists in their studios in order to learn about their respective approaches towards magical practices. The afternoon was spent visiting the Bill Gross Collection: one of the major libraries of magical and kabbalistic texts in private hands.

We look forward to our next meeting, which is scheduled for November in Germany!

The Moses Zacuto Project held its first workshop on January 30, 2019, in Halle (Saale). In attendance were notable experts on Jewish magic. The full program can be found here: