DFG-Emmy Noether Research Group "Patterns of Knowledge Circulation," with the European Association for Jewish Studies and the Institute for Jewish Studies at the Free University of Berlin, cordially invites you to the international conference

Medicine, Illness, and the Body:

Jewish Healing and Healers from the Middle Ages to Early Modernity

 Conference conveners: Dr Andrea Gondos (FU Berlin), Dr Magdalena Jánošíková (Van Leer Institute, Jerusalem) 

27-28 July 2022

Free University of Berlin, Institute for Jewish Studies

Fabeckstraße 23-25, Room 2.2058

In-person conference, entrance free of charge

Wednesday, 27 July 2022

9:00-9:30                     Welcome and Introduction

9:30-11:00                   Kabbalah, Healing, and the Theosophical Body of the Divine 

                                    Chair: Agata Paluch

Elliot R. Wolfson (University of California at Santa Barbara)

The Metaphysics of Disability: Asceticism and the Rhetoric of the Body                   

Biti Roi (Shalom Hartman Institute, Jerusalem)

"Were if not the Wings of the Lungs:" The Anatomy of the Sacred Body as a Symbol of Restrained Ecstasy from Tiqqunei ha-Zohar to Hasidism

Assaf Tamari (Van Leer Institute, Jerusalem)

What is Medical in Spiritual Medicine? A Lurianic Perspective

11:00-11:15                   Coffee Break

11:15-12:15                   Early Modern Approaches to Healing in Conversation      

                                      Chair: Avinoam Stillman

Francois Guesnet (University College London)

One-Eyed in the Land of the Blind? Tuvia Cohen's Assessment of the Plica Polonica

Ma'oz Kahana (Tel Aviv University)

Heal the Mortal Body, Purify the Heavenly Text: German Alchemists and Jewish Rabbinic Philology in 18th-Century Germany 

12:15-13.15                     Lunch Break (in room, vegetarian lunch catered for conference participants and chairs only)

13:15-14:15                     Keynote Lecture

Eve Krakowski (Princeton University)

“She has neither night nor day, the world has darkened for her:” Living with the Dead in Cairo Geniza letters

14:15-14:30                     Coffee Break 

14:30-16:00                     Epidemics and Medicine: Historical, Religious, and Cultural Trajectories   

                                        Chair: Magdalena Jánošíková                                    

Joshua Teplitsky (Stony Brook University)

Experiencing Epidemic in the Everyday: Coping with Chaos in Early Modern Jewish Culture

Leore Sachs-Shmueli (Bar Ilan University)

Plagues in the Service of God: Fear and Hope in Hasidic Rhetoric

Daniella Mauer (University of Amsterdam)

“Take a Spider and Three living Flies:” Paratexts and Remedies from the Yiddish Remedy Book Seyfer Segules U’refues by Tsvi Hirsh ben Yerahmiel Chotsch (Amsterdam, 1703) 

                         

Thursday, 28 July 2022

10:00-11:30                  Body, Foodways, and Medical Expertise            

                                     Chair: Ruth von Benruth

Irina Klymenko (Ludwig-Maximilians Universität, München)

Food and Fasting: Between Religion, Medicine, and Society in Judaism 

Efraim Lev (Haifa University)

From Plants and Animals to Inorganic Matter: Tracing Medieval Arabic Pharmacology in Jewish Sources

Magdalena Jánošíková (Van Leer Institute, Jerusalem)

Jewish Healers and Negotiating the Expertise: Tracing Practice in Medical Texts 

11:30-11:45                   Coffee Break

11:45-13:15                   Women, the Female Body, and Healing            

                                      Chair: Magdalena Jánošíková

Carmen Caballero-Navas (University of Granada)

Let's Talk About Women: Sections on Female Physiology, Health, and Disease in Two Medieval Hebrew Books on Medicine

Jordan Katz (University of Massachusetts at Amherst)

“Her Craft is Known to All:” Expertise and Pathways of Knowledge among Early Modern Jewish Midwives 

Andrea Gondos (Freie Universität)

Four Pearls, Dung of Black Mice, and Egg White: Magical Matter or Material Magic in Early Modern Treatment of the Female Body

12:15-13:30                  Lunch Break (Das Café in der Gartenacademie)

13:30-14:30                  Magic, Demonology, and Healing          

                                     Chair: Emma Abate                                        

Alessia Bellusci (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice)

"'Oh my Lady, Oh My Mother, Help me, Help me:’ (Jewish) Techniques for Easing Labor Based on Inquisitorial Records and Anti-Judaic Invectives"

Sivan Gottlieb (Bar Ilan University)

Will this Patient Live or Die? Medicine and Divination in Hebrew Manuscripts 

Gal Sofer (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)  

Healing with Demons: Re-examining Jewish Exorcistic Rituals

14:30-15:00                   Concluding Remarks