The Gift and Its Wages
The Land of Israel and the Jewish People in the Spiritual Life of Medieval Russia
By (author) Joel Raba
Respect for the Old Testament and its heritage was an integral feature of Russian medieval culture and played a major role in determining Old Russia’s value system and its attitude toward past and contemporary events. Jerusalem and the Holy Land were ideals, and the Chosen People and Old Testament heroes were role models and standards for both the past and the present. Yet, in its ongoing effort to be recognized as the ‘New Chosen People’ within the family of nations, Old Russia rejected ‘the Other’, that is the descendants of the ‘Old Chosen People’. The almost total absence of Jews in Russia throughout the ancient period, along with the central role played by Jewish tradition in the development of its culture, are a contradiction. This book presents the story of this dichotomy during the Old Russian millennium, from its inception to the late seventeenth century. The material is organized chronologically, beginning with the creation of the Kievan state in the far reaches of the Khazar polity in the ninth century, and ending with the great transformation, the reforms of Peter the Great. This is preceded by a survey of two sources that shaped the image of the land and people of Israel in the erudite world of ancient Russia: a description of the Holy Land by Abbot Daniel in the early twelfth century, and the ancient Slavic translation of Josephus’s Wars of the Jews.
- By (author) Joel Raba
Other Titles in this Series
The Karaite Mourners of Zion and the Qumran Scrolls
On the History of an Alternative to Rabbinic Judaism
Volume 3
Similar Books
«Solazoxa festa, stradolze e stracomplia»
Festschrift für Raymund Wilhelm zum 65. Geburtstag mit Beiträgen zu Diskurstraditionen und mittelalterlicher Philologie
Volume 249
A Collaborative Tapestry in Honour of Shirley Ann Brown / Une fresque brodée en l’honneur de Shirley Ann Brown
The Bayeux Tapestry Seen by her Colleagues and Friends / La Tapisserie de Bayeux vue par ses collègues et amis
Ars Prophetica
Theology in the Poetry of Twentieth-Century Hebrew Poets Avraham Halfi, Shin Shalom, Amir Gilboa, and T. Carmi
As Messianism Turns to Heresy
The Regenstein Chair Lectures On Lurianic Kabbalah and Shabbatai Tzevi at Hebrew Union College - Cincinnati
Behind the Scenes of Medieval Roofs
An Overview of the Roofing Systems of Italian Churches
Volume 90
Cahiers de recherches médiévales et humanistes – Journal of Medieval and Humanistic Studies
Volume 51
Extracanonical Traditions and the Holy Land
Texts, Rituals, and Material Culture in Late Antique Palestine
Innovation and Medieval Communities
The Circulation of Ideas and Practices in and out of the Town (1200-1500)
Volume 63
John Dunstaple Reading Boethius
John Dunstaple’s Annotations to Boethius’s “De institutione musica” in the Manuscript Oxford, Corpus Christi College Library, MS 118
Lobbying for Equality
Jacques Godard and the Struggle for Jewish Equality during the French Revolution
Medieval Debates on Foreknowledge: Future Contingents, Prophecy, and Divination
Acts of the XXVII Annual Colloquium of the SIEPM, Trento 12-15 September 2023
Volume 31
Medieval Yeghegis, Armenia
History, Archaeology, Society. Local Multiplicities and Global Connections of a Rural Centre on the Silk Road(s)
