Unveiling the Hidden—Anticipating the Future

Josefina Rodríguez-Arribas (Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität, Münster) has written articles and chapters on medieval astronomy and divination. She is the author of El cielo de Sefarad: los judíos y los astros (El Almendro 2011) and co-editor of Astrolabes in Medieval Cultures (Brill 2017 and 2019).Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum (University of Wales Trinity Saint David) is the author of The Daimon in Hellenistic Astrology: Origins and Influence (Brill 2016) and has written numerous articles on the history, theory and practice of astrology, divination, and ancient medicine.

"This is a groundbreaking collection of papers on different aspects of divination in the Jewish world that provide vivid testimony to the popularity of divination among Jews and excellent starting points for the study of the social locations of diviners within Jewish society. Thus, this book seeks to establish Jewish divination as an important field of study, and does so in a remarkably successful manner."– Gideon Bohak, Tel Aviv University"This collection of excellent studies written by outstanding scholars intheir fields fills a real gap and sheds new light on both the history of divination as practiced by Jews (and as documented in texts partly edited for the first time in this volume), and on the intricate religious, legal, philosophical and epistemological problems that arise from it on the theoretical scale." – Reimund Leicht, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

• AcknowledgmentsList of Figures and TablesTable for the Transliteration of the Hebrew CharactersTable for the Transliteration of the Arabic CharactersNotes on the ContributorsIntroductory Essay: Divination in Jewish Cultures—Some Reflections on the Subject of This BookJosefina Rodríguez-Arribas1 Divination as Transaction: Rhetorical and Social Dimensions of Ancient Jewish Divination TextsMichael D. Swartz2 Aramaic Calendars and the Question of Divination in Late Second Temple JudaismHelen R. Jacobus3 Jewish Oneiric Divination: From Daniel’s Prayer to the Genizah Šeʾelat ḤalomAlessia Bellusci4 Dream Interpretation Reinterpreted in the Light of Judaeo-Arabic Fragments Attributed to Ḥai GaonBlanca Villuendas Sabaté5 If You Seek to Take Advice from the Torah, It Will Be Given—Jewish Bibliomancy through the GenerationsShraga Bar-On6 Judah bar Barzillai and His Role in Abraham bar Ḥiyya’s Letter on AstrologyJosefina Rodríguez-Arribas7 Abraham bar Ḥiyya’s Letter to Judah bar Barzillai—TranslationJosefina Rodríguez-Arribas and Amos Geula8 Maimonides on Magic, Astral Magic and Experimental ScienceDov Schwartz9 On the Various Faces of Hebrew Physiognomy as a Prognostic Art in the Middle AgesJoseph Ziegler10 Inscriptio characterum: Solomonic Magic and Palaeography. With an Appendix on the Making of the Grimoire by Nicholas PickwoadCharles BurnettBibliographyIndex of Names (People, Places, and Texts)Index of Quotations and Citations of Biblical, Pseudepigrapha, Qumran, and Rabbinic TextsIndex of Subjects