How did books once excluded from the Jewish bookshelf make their way back in? This seminar explores the surprising afterlife of Second Temple literature—such as Tobit, Judith, and Ben Sira—within medieval Jewish manuscripts. We will examine the forms in which these texts reemerged and ask why they were reabsorbed centuries after being marginalized by Rabbinic authorities. Dr. Moshe Lavee argues that these textual returns were not spontaneous but often linked to Jewish–Christian intellectual encounters. The lecture concludes with an open reflection on the creative and defensive roles of literary boundaries—then and now.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Moshe Lavee is a scholar of Jewish literature, specializing in Midrash and the cultural history of late antiquity and the Middle Ages. He is a senior lecturer at the University of Haifa and the founder of the eLijah-Lab, where digital methods meet ancient texts. Alongside his academic research, Dr. Lavee is deeply engaged in interfaith dialogue, leading programs that foster conversation between Jewish, Christian, and Muslim students in Israel and abroad. His work bridges rigorous textual scholarship with contemporary questions of cultural contact and religious identity.