Lost Jewish Books: Judaism Unbound Episode 473 - Eva Mroczek
People sometimes call Jews "people of the book." And when they say that, they tend to be referring to the Bible, or the Torah (first five books of the Bible). But Eva Mroczek, the Simon and Riva Spatz Chair in Jewish Studies at Dalhousie University, thinks that Jews may actually have a relationship to far more books than we've realized -- including many "lost books," and even many "imagined books" that likely never existed. She joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about lost Jewish books, and about her upcoming class in the UnYeshiva entitled Lost Bibles, Fake Apocrypha: The Hidden History of Jewish Books.
[1] Learn more about Eva Mroczek's upcoming course in the UnYeshiva (and register for it!) here -- financial aid is available for anyone who needs it, via this link. For info about other courses in the UnYeshiva that are currently open for registration, head to JudaismUnbound.com/classes.
[2] Check out Mroczek’s first book, The Literary Imagination in Jewish Antiquity, here. For info about her upcoming book, Tales from the Cave: Losing and Finding the Biblical Past, head to this link.
[3] For a list of many “imaginary” or “lost” books referenced in the text of the Bible itself, click here.
[4] Mroczek references the book of Jubilees. For the full text of the book in English, click here — and see 45:16 for a verse she mentioned in particular, about “preserving” and “renewing” books “until today.”
[5] For the text of the Testament of Job, including the pieces Mroczek mentioned around Job’s daughters, see this link.
[6] Mroczek shouted out a past guest on Judaism Unbound, and teacher in the UnYeshiva, named Andrew Tobolowsky. Explore his book The Myth of the 12 Tribes of Israel here, and listen to his appearance on Judaism Unbound via Episode 327: The Myth of the Twelve Tribes of Israel.
[7] Lex and Mroczek each mentioned the Zohar — for a previous Judaism Unbound episode exploring that text in depth, see Episode 161: The Zohar - Daniel Matt.
[8] Dive deeper into books of the apocrypha, including the book of Judith (referenced toward the end of this episode), via Judaism Unbound’s ApocryFest initative.
[9] Two other books were referenced in this episode. Check out Countertraditions in the Bible: A Feminist Approach by Ilana Pardes via this link, and Seconding Sinai: The Development of Mosaic Discourse in Second Temple Judaism by Hindy Najman via this link.
