Michael L. Satlow

Then and Now

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Conference Announcement: Jewish Attitudes Toward Wealth and Poverty

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I am delighted to announce a conference that I am organizing on “Jewish Attitudes toward Wealth and Poverty.”  We are now in the “call for proposals” phase; please consider submitting a proposal and spread the word.  A short description is below and more information can be found here.

The Program in Judaic Studies at Brown University will host a conference entitled “Jewish Attitudes toward Wealth and Poverty” on November 1-3, 2015.

Traditional Jewish texts present different approaches to wealth, poverty, and money. The purpose of this conference is both to identify these texts and to explore the diversity of their ideas. Accordingly, the conference will be organized around particular texts dealing with specific issues. Conference time will be spent primarily in study of and conversation about these texts. Our ultimate goal is to produce a volume that includes the texts (in original translations) with short commentaries.

We invite proposals for presentations. Presenters will select a text (or short collection of texts) and provide an original translation prior to the conference. At the conference, presenters will very briefly introduce their texts and then lead discussions about them. The texts should be relatively short (no more than a few pages in most cases, except perhaps for literary passages) and drawn from almost any Jewish source from any time period. We particularly encourage submissions dealing with texts that have not been previously translated (e.g., responsa; commentaries; Hasidut).

We are particularly interested in proposals that deal with one of the following themes:

  • Ownership: Is there a concept of “private property,” or does all property ultimately belong to God and/or the community? What can acquire the status of “property”?
  • The Moral Value of Wealth and Poverty: Is being wealthy a sign of divine favor? Is poverty ultimately a “better” state in which to live?
  • The Acquisition of Wealth: Are there better or worse ways to acquire wealth? Can one make money off the labor of others? How is the biblical prohibition against charging interest treated, and what are its ramifications?
  • Spending: What are good and bad ways of disposing of wealth? Do the poor have rights to the wealth of others?

New PDFs

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It is that time of year: CV updating, annual reports, and general housekeeping.  Toward that end I just added two new PDF articles to my Research page.  One is an article entitled “Jew or Judaean,” and the other, “What Does Love Have to Do With It?  Sibling Relationships among Judean Jews in the First-Third Centuries CE.”

American Historical Association

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I will be participating in a roundtable on “Jewish History/General History: Rethinking the Divide” at the Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, Monday, January 5, 11 AM – 1 PM.  In this paper I will reflect on historical turn in the study of Jews in antiquity from history to “rabbinics” (some thoughts about that category here) and its contemporary implications, particularly since the rise of the concept of “Late Antiquity.”  Mostly, though, I am looking forward to learning from the other members of the panel.

Inscriptions of Israel/Palestine Presentation

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This is an exciting time for the “Inscriptions of Israel/Palestine” project.  This online project seeks to collect and make accessible all of the published inscriptions from the region from the Persian period through the early seventh century CE.  We have been spending much time changing our data to make it “EpiDoc conformant” (a data standard used by many projects, especially in the EAGLE consortium), and in the next few weeks we will transition that new data – along with many new inscriptions – to the site.  Having just received a major grant from the Goldhirsh-Yellin Foundation, we have many great things in store.

I will be making an informal presentation on the project on Thursday, December 18, at 7:00 PM at the National Library of Israel at the Giva’at Ram campus of Hebrew University in Jerusalem.  The announcement of the event can be found here.  All are welcome!