From Persia with Love - (Études Sur Le Judaïsme Médiéval) by Michael G Wechsler (Hardcover)

About the Book

This volume comprises an edition and translation of the oldest-known programmatic Karaite commentary on the book of Esther. This mid-10th-century work offers fascinating insight--explored in our introduction--into the exegetical method and homiletical mindset of one of early's Karaism's central figures.

Book Synopsis

This volume comprises an edition and translation of one of the earliest specimens of Jewish programmatic commentary on the book of Esther. The commentary's author, Salmon b. Yerōḥām, is a central early figure in the "Golden Age" of Karaism (late-9th-11th cent.), a Jewish scripturalist and penitential movement centered at that time in Jerusalem. Among the various facets of Salmon's commentary that we explore in our introduction are his translation technique, exegetical method, homiletical emphases, and polemical concerns. We also explore his use of sources, both explicit and tacit (in the latter case to a surprisingly broad degree as regards rabbinic sources and Saadia), as well as the reception of Salmon's commentary in subsequent Jewish exegetical tradition.