‘Bringing the Dead Sea Scrolls to life’

     

I had a feeling the recent discovery of Dead Sea Scrolls fragments would inspire more Lawrence Schiffman lectures, and so it has.

Register here.

     

‘Dead Sea Scrolls online conference next week’

     

New York University will host “New Discoveries on the Dead Sea Scrolls,” an international online conference, starting Sunday. The four-day virtual event is open to the public, with free admission, but registration—for each day—is required, so click here.

From the publicity:

Dead Sea Scrolls

in Recent Scholarship

May 17-20

Registration for each day of the conference, organized by New York University’s Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies and with the Friends of the Israel Antiquities Authority, is required by visiting the department’s events page.

Sessions include the following:

• Canon and Authority
• Archaeology, Realia, and Science
• Interpreting Dead Sea Scrolls Texts
• Science, Technology, and the Scrolls
• Ideology and Theology
• Qumran and the Sect
• Hebrew Bible and its Interpretation
• Cave 11 and the Temple Scroll
• Law and Liturgy

The four-day event will include presentations from researchers at the following institutions: Israel Antiquities Authority, University of Haifa, Yeshiva University, University of Manchester, Hebrew University, Yale University, University of Nebraska, University of Groningen, Bar Ilan University, Brite Divinity School, Catholic University of America, University of Maryland, University of Birmingham, NYU, University of Vienna, McMaster University, University of North Carolina, University of Toronto, Oxford University, University of Notre Dame, Uppsala University, University of Kansas, and Universität Göttingen.

The conference is supported by the Friends of the Israel Antiquities Authority in collaboration with NYU, the Global Network for Advanced Research in Jewish Studies, and NYU’s Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies.

It was nearly 30 years ago when microfilm(!) images of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were hard to come by, were shared with NYU, an event I covered for the student newspaper. I’ll be glad to watch the findings today’s researchers will discuss next week—if I can understand and follow along.

     

‘Dead Sea Scrolls conference next month’

     

If you believe Qumran has something to do with your secret society, then you ought to attend educational conferences like this one to improve yourself. NYU does it again. (While a student there decades ago, I had the pleasure of interviewing Professor Schiffman, who was the lead researcher when the university obtained the Scrolls on microfilm in the first release of the treasures outside of Israel.) From the publicity:

The Rose-Marie Lewent Conference:

The Dead Sea Scrolls at 70

The NYU Center for Ancient Studies, in conjunction with the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, announces the Rose-Marie Lewent Conference:

The Dead Sea Scrolls at 70

November 16-17

Hemmerdinger Hall

Silver Center for Arts and Science

32 Waverly Place, Manhattan

Free and open to the public

Thursday, November 16

Session 1: The Community/Communities behind the Dead Sea Scrolls

9:15 a.m. Welcome
Matthew S. Santirocco, NYU

9:30 a.m. What Does Archaeology Tell Us about the Community/Communities behind the Dead Sea Scrolls?
Jodi Magness, University of North Carolina

10:15 a.m. Archaeology and Text: Khirbet Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls
Lawrence H. Schiffman, NYU

Session 2: Insiders and Outsiders in the Dead Sea Scrolls

11 a.m. Sectarians and Their Semantic Domain: How Best—or Least Badly—to Identify the People of the Dead Sea Scrolls
Maxine Grossman, University of Maryland

11:45 a.m. Isolated in the Judean Desert? The Qumran Sectarians in Imperial Contexts
Alexandria Frisch, Ursinus College

Session 3: The Projects of the Israel Antiquities Authority

2 p.m. The Conservation and Preservation of the Dead Sea Scrolls, 70 Years Later
Pnina Shor, Israel Antiquities Authority

Session 4: The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Mysterious

2:45 p.m. Magic and Demonology in the Dead Sea Scrolls: Retrospect and Prospect
Joseph Angel, Yeshiva University

3:30 p.m. Angelology, Exorcism, and Other Ancient Jewish Sciences: Before and After the Dead Sea Scrolls
Annette Yoshiko Reed, NYU

4:15 p.m. The Scope and Purpose of Encrypted Writing in the Dead Sea Scrolls
Jonathan Ben-Dov, University of Haifa

Session 5: Keynote Address
5:30 p.m. Introduction: The Dead Sea Scrolls at 70
Lawrence H. Schiffman, NYU

6 p.m. Violence and the Dead Sea Scrolls in Scholarship and Popular Media
Alex P. Jassen, NYU

7 p.m. Public Reception

Friday, November 17

Session 6: Sacred Texts and Their Interpretation

9 a.m. The Emergence of the Biblical Text and Canon in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls
Armin Lange, University of Vienna

9:45 a.m. How They Read the Genesis Apocryphon Then and How We Read It Now
Moshe J. Bernstein, Yeshiva University
Session 7: God and Humans

10:30 a.m. The Offering of Lips: What is Prayer in the Dead Sea Scrolls?
Daniel Falk, Pennsylvania State University

11:15 a.m. Some Thoughts about Prayer, the Divine, and the Human Self at Qumran
Angela Kim Harkins, Boston College

This event is generously supported and co-sponsored by the Salo W. and Jeannette M. Baron Foundation, the Israel Antiquities Authority, and the NYU Dean of the College of Arts and Science, the Dean for the Humanities, the Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Science, the Center for the Humanities, the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, and the Religious Studies Program.

This conference is free and open to the public. For more information, contact the Center for Ancient Studies here.
     

‘Dead Sea Scrolls at Yeshiva’

     
Professor Lawrence Schiffman, of Dead Sea Scrolls, Yeshiva University, and NYU fame, announces YU will host its Second Annual Dead Sea Scrolls Seminar next month.

This will take place Sunday, June 8, from 1 to 4 p.m. in the Kovno Room in the Center for Jewish History’s Yeshiva University Museum. 15 West 16th Street in Manhattan.

I always say, if you think the Essenes have something to do with your secret society, you owe it to yourself to learn about Qumran from true scholars. The truth is more interesting than fantasy.

The program:

1-1:05 Opening Remarks

Lawrence H. Schiffman, Vice-Provost for Undergraduate Education and Professor of Judaic Studies, Yeshiva University


1:05-1:45 “Creature of Clay: Humanity According to the Thanksgiving Hymns”

Jeffrey Garcia, Lecturer in Bible, Nyack College


1:45-2:25 “When Insiders Become Outsiders: The Fear of Deviance in the Community Rule”

Ari J. Mermelstein, Assistant Professor of Bible, Yeshiva University


2:25-2:35 Break


2:35-3:15 “Torah and Prayer as Replacements for the Temple: Qumran and the Rabbis”

Azzan Yadin-Israel, Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and Classics, Rutgers University


3:15-3:55 “Looking for ‘Literature’ in the Dead Sea Scrolls: The Poetry of the War Scroll (1QM) from Qumran”

Moshe J. Bernstein, Professor of Bible and Jewish History and David A. and Fannie M. Denenberg Chair in Biblical Studies, Yeshiva University


3:55-4 p.m. Closing Remarks

Professor Schiffman


After the lectures, attendees are invited to tour the YU Museum exhibition Modeling the Synagogue: From Dura to Touro, featuring seven scale models of historic synagogues.
     

‘Schiffman lecture on Wednesday’

     
Professor Lawrence Schiffman, certainly the pre-eminent scholar in America on the subject of the Dead Sea Scrolls, will speak Wednesday morning on “Judaism and Christianity: How They Differ and Where They Parted.”

Wednesday, December 25

Morning Prayer at 8:30

Lecture/Breakfast at 9:15

Synagogue of the Suburban Torah Center

85 West Mt. Pleasant Avenue

Livingston, New Jersey

No matter what your concentration(s) in the Western Mystery Traditions may be, I think it is urgent to understand the history of the relationship of Judaism and Christianity. It’s not just a matter of knowing there would be no Christianity without Judaism; it really is crucial to have a working knowledge of the who, what, when, where, and why of how the two faiths connect and disconnect.

Click here to read a bit about Dr. Lawrence Schiffman.

I have no idea of what Professor Schiffman will say—and I do not expect a word on Western Hidden Wisdom and initiatic societies—but I imagine he will provide the factual background to explain away the ideas of what is called Christian Hebraism, that Renaissance period movement wherein Judaism was explored by Christian theologians for the purpose of better understanding Christianity. The findings of Christian Hebraism mostly were wrong and have been left behind, but it is to Christian Hebraism that I attribute the use today of Jewish thought (e.g. the mysticism of Kabbalah) in certain Christ-centered esoteric societies.

I had the pleasure of meeting Schiffman during my university days, interviewing him for a newspaper story on his role in Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship at New York University when the DSS finally were shared with scholars outside Israel nearly a quarter-century ago. Brilliant doesn’t satisfactorily describe him, and I’m very much looking forward to hearing him speak.

85 West Mt. Pleasant Avenue, Livingston.

Obviously the lecture lands on Christmas morning, but if you are available and desire to learn fundamental facts at the root of what would give form to the esoteric movements we hold dear today, do yourself a favor and visit this synagogue. (No offense, but if you think the Essenes have something to do with your secret society, I would think it essential that you hear this talk.) Call (973) 994-2620 to be added to the guest-list. Livingston is reached easily from routes 10, 24, and 280; and is near many other major highways.