The Mounted Angel in Byzantine Art

Angels, incorruptible beings of incorporeal matter, according to the teaching of Christianity are the first and most perfect God’s creatures, members of the Church whose Head is Christ. God’s messengers, guardians and heavenly warriors, or belonging to other ranks which were later defined and classified by theologians as found in the different texts of the Old and New Testaments, they do not have a clearly defined appearance and attributes, with the notable exception of Cherubim and Seraphim. Very rarely are flying angels even vaguely mentioned in Biblical texts, still less – winged angels. Rather, the angel – God’s herald, ascends and descends on Jacob’s ladder (Gen 28:12), or rides on a red horse in Prophet Zechariah’s vision (Zech 1:8). According to Jewish understanding, the angel was not able to fly as he needed a ladder in order to ascend or a horse in order to travel. Thus, the angel seems to have been thought of by the Jews in rather material terms, and it was only later that his incorruptible nature was specified. However, the winged Greco-Roman deities (such as Nike, Eros etc) and the very ancient images of angels in Zoroastrianism, also winged, apparently influenced Jewish and Christian iconography. So, it was as early as the 5th century that Christian iconography gradually adopted the angel’s appearance as a personage with human features (with the exception of Cherubim and Seraphim) supplied with wings, and this form of representation was applied to all ranks of angelic powers, regardless of style development. Thus, under the influence of ancient Greco-Roman ideas, the angel is depicted as a winged, flying creature. He has been adopted in this form universally by Christian doctrine, regardless of the lack of sufficient official texts. It is only in certain apocryphal texts that occasionally winged angels are specifically mentioned. This Christian as well as Jewish practice – at least during the early centuries of the Christian Era, adopted the type of the winged angel, and wings have become an invariable attribute of angels even when it is a matter of interpreting texts in which the angel as a God’s herald is not mentioned as a winged creature at all.

Neolog: Reforming Judaism in a Hungarian Milieu

This article explores the mentality of Neolog Judaism and how its early proponents fashioned a centrist, non-ideological alternative to both Orthodoxy and German-Jewish style Reform Judaism, an alternative that emphasized Judaism’s inherent compatibility with and adaptability to the demands of citizenship. Early proponents of this Neolog mentality, such as Aron Chorin and Leopold Löw, argued that adapting Jewish practice within the framework and systemic rules of Jewish law, precedent, and custom would not undermine a commitment to traditional Judaism in any way, as Orthodox jeremiads predicted; nor would it require the sort of re-definition of Judaism that Reform Jews advocated. Four aspects of Neolog mentality, in particular, laid the foundation for this outlook: a belief that Judaism has always been inherently malleable and diverse; a willingness to see leniency as no less authentic an option than stringency (in contrast to the “humra culture” that has defined Orthodox Judaism for the last two centuries); a preference for unity over schism (contra the secession of Orthodox communities in Germany and Hungary); and the use of halachic precedent and argumentation as a mandatory part of the rationale for innovation.

The Sasanian Queen-mother and Her Bloodstains

This chapter shows how the Babylonian Jewish practice and Talmudic discourse of menstrual impurity developed within the space of the Sasanian Empire. It considers evidence of imperial persecutions that may have impinged on the observance of the Jewish menstrual rituals. The chapter then considers evidence of Babylonian Jewish awareness of the importance of menstrual impurity in neighboring, non-Jewish religious life, and how the shared similarity may have led to some tension. It surveys a series of Talmudic strategies for competing with the parallel Zoroastrian system. And it shows how the need to emphasize Jewish expertise may have led to the devolvement of the rabbinic diagnostic approach to bloody discharges.

“Their synagogues shall remain in their accustomed peace”

The courts of Theodosios’s two young sons, Honorius in the West and Arkadios in the East, were dominated by various powerful advisors—Stilicho, Rufinus, and others. Legislation against dissident Christians and those who clung to traditional worships accelerated. Jewish religion remained licit for those born Jews. Laws pertaining to Jews mostly affirmed Jewish rights to be free from violence, while hinting at threats to those rights. Various laws pertaining to the Jewish patriarch in Palestine, his subordinates, and his authority may reflect alliances between the patriarchs and persons at court. One or more patriarchs may have tried to extend their influence further into the diaspora, with mixed results. Laws reiterated that eligible Jewish men, like non-Jews, must fulfill the onerous obligations of decurions. A law targeting “Hheaven-fearers” is probably wrongly understood as evidence for non-Jews who adopted only some aspects of Jewish practice (sometimes called “God-fearers”). Evidence for Jewish converts remains modest.

“Artifacts from the Future”

What follows is a conversation between artist Nicki Green and scholar S. J. Crasnow. In this conversation they consider two of Green's artworks in relationship to historical and contemporary Jewish practice and especially in relationship to queer and trans Jewish communities. Green's pieces, Incantation Crock and Bedikah Quilt Topper, are themselves trans, Jewish ritual objects, and in this conversation Green and Crasnow investigate the underlying themes of queer/trans Jewish futures, history preservation, ritual innovation and challenges to “traditional” Judaism, the queer/trans body as a holy site of transformation, and craft and cultural production to parse and question modes of making and of religious practice.