olam ha-zeh v’olam ha-ba: This World and the World to Come in Jewish Belief and Practice

234 Pages·2017·4.745 MB·English

by  Leonard J. Greenspoon (Editor)

olam ha-zeh v’olam ha-ba:
This World and the World to
Come in Jewish Belief and Practice
Studies in Jewish Civilization
Volume 28
Proceedings of the Twenty-Eighth Annual
Symposium of the Klutznick Chair
in Jewish Civilization,
the Harris Center for Judaic Studies,
and the Schwalb Center
for Israel and Jewish Studies
October 25–26, 2015
Other volumes in the
Studies in Jewish Civilization Series
Distributed by the Purdue University Press
2010 – Rites of Passage:
How Today’s Jews Celebrate, Commemorate, and Commiserate
2011 – Jews and Humor
2012 – Jews in the Gym:
Judaism, Sports, and Athletics
2013 – Fashioning Jews:
Clothing, Culture, and Commerce
2014 – Who Is a Jew?
Reflections on History, Religion, and Culture
2015 – Wealth and Poverty in Jewish Tradition
2016 – Mishpachah:
The Jewish Family in Tradition and in Transition
olam ha-zeh v’olam ha-ba:
This World and the World to
Come in Jewish Belief and Practice
Other volumes in the
Studies in Jewish Civilization Series
Distributed by the Purdue University Press
Studies in Jewish Civilization
2010 – Rites of Passage: Volume 28
How Today’s Jews Celebrate, Commemorate, and Commiserate
2011 – Jews and Humor
Editor:
2012 – Jews in the Gym:
Judaism, Sports, and Athletics Leonard J. Greenspoon
2013 – Fashioning Jews:
Clothing, Culture, and Commerce
2014 – Who Is a Jew?
Reflections on History, Religion, and Culture The Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization
2015 – Wealth and Poverty in Jewish Tradition
2016 – Mishpachah:
The Jewish Family in Tradition and in Transition

Purdue University Press
West Lafayette, Indiana
Copyright © 2017 by Creighton University
Published by Purdue University Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Greenspoon, Leonard J. (Leonard Jay), editor.
Title: olam ha-zeh v’olam ha-ba : this world and the world to come in Jewish belief
and practice / edited by Leonard Greenspoon.
Description: West Lafayette, Indiana : Purdue University Press, [2017] | Series:
Studies in Jewish Civilization | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017031449 | ISBN 9781557537928 (pbk. : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781612495132 (epdf) | ISBN 9781612495149 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Future life—Judaism—History of doctrines. | Eschatology,
Jewish—History of doctrines. | Immortality—Judaism—History of doctrines. |
Resurrection (Jewish theology)—History of doctrines.
Classification: LCC BM635 .O43 2017 | DDC 296.3/3—dc23 LC record available
at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017031449
No part of Studies in Jewish Civilization (ISSN 1070-8510) volume 28 may be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quota-
tions embodied in critical articles and reviews.
In Memory of
Moshe Gershovitz
With deep affection and warm memories, we dedicate this volume
to our colleague Moshe Gershovitz, who directed the Schwalb Center
at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. His death earlier this year
saddened us all. May his life inspire us to be and to do the very best we can.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments..................................................ix
Editor’s Introduction................................................xi
Contributors.....................................................xix
“The End of the World and the World to Come”: What
Apocalyptic Literature Says about the Time After the End-Time ..............1
Dereck Daschke
Warriors, Wives, and Wisdom: This World and
the World to Come in the (So-Called) Apocrypha ........................17
Nicolae Roddy
The Afterlife in the Septuagint .......................................29
Leonard Greenspoon
Rabbi Akiva, Other Martyrs, and Socrates: On Life, Death,
and Life After Life.................................................49
Naftali Rothenberg
Heaven on Earth: The World to Come and Its (Dis)locations................69
Christine Hayes
Olam Ha-ba in Rabbinic Literature: A Functional Reading..................91
Dov Weiss
Dining In(to) the World to Come....................................105
Jordan D. Rosenblum
What’s for Dinner in Olam Ha-ba? Why Do We Care
in Olam Ha-zeh?: Medieval Jewish Ideas about Meals in the World
to Come in R. Bahya ben Asher’s Shulhan Shel Arba......................115
Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus
The Dybbuk: The Origins and History of a Concept.....................135
Morris M. Faierstein
Tasting Heaven: Wine and the World
to Come from the Talmud to Safed...................................151
Vadim Putzu
Worlds to Come Between East and West: Immortality
and the Rise of Modern Jewish Thought...............................171
Elias Sacks
Emmanuel Levinas’s Messianism and the World to Come:
A Gnostic-Philosophical Reading of Tractate Sanhedrin 96b–99a............197
Federico Dal Bo
Acknowledgments
The 28th Annual Symposium on Jewish Civilization took place on October
25 and October 26, 2015, in Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska. The title of the
symposium, from which this volume also takes its name, is “olam ha-zeh v’olam
ha-ba: This World and the World to Come in Jewish Belief and Practice.”
Anyone who reads carefully and has a phenomenal memory (that sounds
a lot like me!) will observe that the symposium has formally changed its name
yet once again. Rather than take its name from the expanding list of academic
sponsors, the symposium now proclaims in its title what it does—and has
always done: provide an opportunity for the exchange and interchange of
information about a different aspect of Jewish civilization each year.
Thankfully, our major sponsors remain: the Klutznick Chair in Jewish
Civilization at Creighton University; the Kripke Center for the Study of Society
and Religion, also at Creighton; the Harris Center for Judaic Studies at Uni-
versity of Nebraska-Lincoln; the Schwalb Center for Israel and Jewish Studies
at the University of Nebraska at Omaha; and the Jewish Federation of Omaha.
As in past years, much of the success of this symposium is due to the
unwavering support of colleagues: Dr. Ronald Simkins, of the Kripke Center;
Drs. Jean Cahan and Sidnie White Crawford, of the Harris Center; and Drs.
Moshe Gershovitz and Curtis Hutt, of the Schwalb Center. Colleen Hastings,
administrative assistant for the Klutznick Chair and the Kripke Center, con-
tinues her invaluable contributions at all stages in the planning and implemen-
tation of the symposium and in preparing this volume for publication. I also
offer warm thanks to Kasey De Goey, staff assistant for the Schwalb Center,
who ensures, among many other things, that the Sunday morning symposium
session at University of Nebraska at Omaha runs smoothly. Equally efficient
and dependable is Mary Sue Grossman, who is affiliated with the Jewish Fed-
eration of Omaha.
With this volume, we are completing eight years in our ongoing relation-
ship with the Purdue University Press. Its staff, under the previous director
Charles Watkinson and his successor Peter Froehlich, continues to make us
feel welcome in every possible way. We look forward to many more years of
collaboration with the press.
Additional generous support is provided by:
Creighton University Lectures, Films and Concerts
The Creighton College of Arts and Sciences
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