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Tzahi (Yitzhak) Weiss, Professor

Prof. Tzahi (Yitzhak) Weiss
Contact Info

The Open University of Israel Department of Literature, Language and the Arts 1 University Road, P. O. Box 808, Raanana 4353701, Israel
Office:972-9-7781807 Mobile:972-50-2185850 Email::tzahiw@openu.ac.il
Born:1978 Marital Status:Married + 3

Additional Information

My CRIS profile

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2021
Professor, The Department of Literature, Language and the Arts, The Open University of Israel
2015-21
Associate Professor, The Department of Literature, Language and the Arts, The Open University of Israel
2014-15
Senior lecturer (visiting) The Department of Literature, Language and the Arts, The Open University of Israel
2017-20
Dean of Research, The Open University of Israel
2015-17
Secretary of the Faculty Council, The Open University of Israel
2004-8
Ph.D. Jewish Thought, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem
2003-4
M.A. Jewish Thought, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem
2001-4
Revivim Honors Program for the Teaching of Jewish Studies Teachers The Hebrew University, Jerusalem
2001-3
B.A. Jewish Thought and Biblical Studies, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem

2010-11: The Israel Council for Higher Education Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Tel-Aviv University

2009-10: Rothschild Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Divinity School, University of Chicago

2014-17
The Israeli Council for Higher Education Yigal Alon Fellowship for Outstanding Young Researchers
2012-13
The Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture Research Fellowship
2010-11
The Israeli Council for Higher Education Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Tel-Aviv University
2009-10
Rothschild Postdoctoral Fellowship, The University of Chicago, Divinity School
2009-11
Kreitman Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, Ben Gurion University, Be’er Sheva (declined)
2008-12
Shalem Post-Doctoral Fellowship – The Shalem Center, Jerusalem
2006-11
Research Fellow – Shalom Hartman Institute
2006-8
Stephan & Irene Lipper prize in excellence: a full scholarship from the Institute of Jewish Studies and the Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University
2005-6
A Scholarship from the Institute of Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University
2005-6
Bahana Prize for an Outstanding Ph.D. Student in Jewish Thought
2003-4
Mirella and Alberto De Picciotto Prize for excellent M.A Students in Jewish Thought
2002-3
:  Dean’s list of academic excellence at the Hebrew University
2001-2
Dean's prize of academic excellence at the Hebrew University
2016
The Open University Publishing House

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M.A Thesis: The Phenomenology of the Sinner and the Theurgical Implications of the Sin – a Theurgical Reading of Agnon's Short Stories. 
Supervisor: Moshe Idel [Hebrew University].

Ph.D. Thesis: A Conceptual Examination of the Attitude towards Alphabetic Letters as Independent Units in Jewish and Culturally Affiliated Sources of Late Antiquity: Midrash, Mysticism and Magic.
Supervisors: Moshe Idel [Hebrew University], Aminadav Dykman [Hebrew University].

 Tzahi Weiss, Death of the Shekhinah in S. Y. Agnon’s Oeuvre: a Reading in Four Stories and their Sources, Bar-Ilan University Press: Ramat-Gan 2009 [Hebrew]

 Tzahi Weiss, Letters by which Heaven and Earth were Created: The Origins and the Meanings of the Perceptions of Alphabetic Letters as Independent Units in Jewish Sources of Late Antiquity, Bialik Press: Jerusalem 2014 [Hebrew]

Tzahi Weiss, Cutting the Shoots: The Worship of The Shekhinah in the World of Early Kabbalistic Literature, The Hebrew University Magnes Press: Jerusalem 2015 [Hebrew]

Tzahi Weiss, Sefer Yeṣirah and its Contexts: Other Jewish Voices, Penn Press – The University of Pennsylvania: Philadelphia 2018

Tzahi Weiss, ‘The Perception of the Letters in the Samaritan 'Memar Marqah' and in its Equivalents in Rabbinic Sources and in the Book of Creation’, Jewish Studies 43 (2006), pp. 89-129 [Hebrew]

 Tzahi Weiss, ‘Teaching the Bible as Misreading’, Hagut: Studies in Jewish Educational Thought 8 (2008), pp. 141-163 [Hebrew]

 Tzahi Weiss, ‘Different Traditions of Creation of the World from Letters’, Kabbalah: Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical texts 17 (2008), pp.169-200 [Hebrew]

 Tzahi Weiss, ‘S. Y. Agnon’s Ido and Einam and the Death of the Myth’, Reshit 1 (2009), pp. 261-277 [Hebrew]

Tzahi Weiss, ‘On the Matter of Language: Creation of the World from Letters and Jacques Lacan's Perception of Letters as Real’, The Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy 17 (2009), pp. 101-115

 Tzahi Weiss, ‘Brief Comments on the Syrian Context of Sefer Yetsirah’, Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought 22 (2011), pp. 75-89 [Hebrew]

 Tzahi Weiss, ‘Soft and Hard: More Comments on the Syrian Context of Sefer Yetsirah’, Kabbalah: Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical texts 26 (2012), pp. 229-242 [Hebrew]

Tzahi Weiss, ‘'Things that Are Better Concealed than Revealed': An Historical Biographical Study of S.Y. Agnon’s Attitude toward the Sabbatean Movement and the Traditional Jewish World’, AJS Review, 36 (2012), pp. 103-120

Tzahi Weiss, ‘Katerina and the Jew: a Few Notes about Appelfeld’s Katerina and Freud’s Katherina’, Studies in Jewish Narrative 3 (2013), pp. 485-495. [Hebrew]

  Tzahi Weiss, ‘The Reception of Sefer Yetsirah and Jewish Mysticism in the Early Middle Ages’, The Jewish Quarterly Review, 103-1 (2013), pp. 26-46

 Tzahi Weiss, ‘Who is a Beautiful Maiden without Eyes? The Metamorphosis of a Zohar Midrashic Image from a Christian Allegory to a Kabbalistic Metaphor’, The Journal of Religion 93-1 (2013), pp. 60-76

 Tzahi Weiss, 'Most of the Errant Err in Malkhut': The Worship of the Shekhinah in Early Kabbalah', Tarbiz 82-2 (2014), pp. 319-334 [Hebrew]

 Yakir Paz and Tzahi Weiss, 'From Encoding to Decoding: The AṬBḤ of R. Hiyya in Light of a Syriac, Greek and Coptic Cipher', The Journal of Near-Eastern Studies 74 (2015), pp. 45-65

Michael Ebstein and Tzahi Weiss, 'A Drama in Heaven: 'Emanation on the Left' in Kabbalah and a Parallel Cosmogonic Myth in Ismā'īlī Literature', History of Religions 55-2 (2015), pp. 148-171

Na'ama Ben Shachar and Tzahi Weiss, 'An Anonymous Geronese Commentary on the Ten Sefirot', Kabbalah: Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical texts 38 (2017), pp. 159-170 [Hebrew]

 Na'ama Ben Shachar and Tzahi Weiss , 'The Order of Emanation Regarding 'The Unity of Our God and Our Torah for Our People'- A Commentary on the Ten Sefirot from the Circle of Sefer haTmunah', Kabbalah: Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical texts 41 (2018), pp. 279-304 [Hebrew]

Tzahi Weiss, 'Their Heart Was Turned Away from the Uppermost': Rethinking the Boundaries of the 'Kabbalistic Literature' and the Opposition to 'Kabbalah' in the First Half of the 13th Century', Da'at: Journal for Jewish Philosophy and Kabbalah 85 (2018), pp. 311-344 [Hebrew]

Tzahi Weiss, 'The Worship of Metatron: A Synoptic Edition', Kabbalah: Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical texts 42 (2018), pp. 193-208 [Hebrew] 

Tzahi Weiss, ''God of Israel – a Prince before God': On the Meanings and the Origins of a Jewish Tradition from the Early Middle Ages', Jewish Studies 52 (2018), pp. 129-142 [Hebrew]

Tzahi Weiss, 'The Book of the Formation of the World: Sefer Yeṣirah and Hilkhot Yeṣirah', The Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy, 27-2 (2019), pp. 168-179.

Tzahi Weiss, 'Prayers to Angels and the Early Sefirotic Literature', Jewish Studies Quarterly 27-1 (2020) pp. 22-35  

Tzahi Weiss, ‘Beyond the Scope of Philosophy and Kabbalah’, Religions 12 (2021): 160, pp. 1-11

Tzahi Weiss, 'Between Scholarly Assumptions and Historical Reality: The Letter of Isaac the Blind to Nahmanides and Jonah Gerondi in its Context', Journal of Jewish Studies, [Forthcoming]

Na'ama Ben Shachar and Tzahi Weiss, ‘Ten Holy Sefirot, and their Inverse: A Commentary on the Ten Sefirot Alongside the Left Emanation’, Koveṣ 'al-Yad [Hebrew] [Forthcoming] 

Tzahi Weiss, ‘The Emergence of the Kabbalah: Early Sefirotic Theosophy as a Response to Contemporary Theological Challenges’, NUMEN [Forthcoming]

 Tzahi Weiss, ‘From Na'ama to Na'aman: the Metamorphosis of Three Myths from the Biblical Literature to Contemporary Literature’, in: Shay Le-Yoseph: A Festschrift for Joseph Dan Written by his Students J. Meir (ed.), Jerusalem 2003, pp. 181-188 [Hebrew].

 Tzahi Weiss, ‘The Yearning for Eastern Europe in Modern Hebrew Literature’, in: Michael’s Book: Between this Time to those Days - A Festschrift for Michael Bahat, A. Sagi (ed.), Tel-Aviv 2007, pp. 525-543 [Hebrew].

 Tzahi Weiss, ‘The 'Akedah' Complex and Aharon Appelfeld's Attitude towards Christian Metaphysics’, in: Twenty Four Readings in Aharon Appelfeld’s literary Work, A. Lipsker & A. Sagi (eds.), Ramat-Gan 2011, pp. 285-300 [Hebrew].

 Tzahi Weiss, ‘A Metamorphosis in the Perception of God in Bialik’s Poetry’, in: Faith: Jewish Perspectives, A. Sagi and D. Schwarz (eds.), Boston 2013, pp. 500-512.

 Tzahi Weiss, ‘Listening to the Silent Crying of the Shekhinah: Mysticism in Modern Hebrew Literature - Between Textual Influence and Mythical Narrative’, Kabbalah, Mysticism and Poetry: The Journey to the End of Vision, A. Elkayam and Sh. Mualem (eds.), Magnes Press: Jerusalem 2015, pp. 527-546.

 Tzahi Weiss, ''Gods Change': The Deconstruction of the Transcendent God and the Reconstruction of the Mythical Godhead in Yehuda Amichai's 'Open Closed Open'' in: Negative Theology as Jewish Modernity, M. Fegenblat (ed.), Indiana University Press: Bloomington 2017, pp. 323-334

2. Tzahi Weiss, 'Gemula and the Golem: Plausible Conversations of Two Sages that  were in Our Town', in: Reflections on Booklore: Studies Presented to Prof. Avidov Lipsker, Y. Schwartz, L. Nethanel and C. Rosenzweig (eds.), Bar Ilan University Press: Ramat Gan 2020, pp. 513-524 [Hebrew]

Tzahi Weiss, 'The Names of Sefer Yeṣirah' in: The Path of the Book: A Tribute to Zeev Gries, Avriel Bar-Levav, Oded Israeli, Jonathan Meir and Avraham (Rami) Reiner (eds.) Carmel: Jerusalem 2020, pp. 27-35 [Hebrew]

Tzahi Weiss, 'By Emanation and not in Unity: The Status of the Shekhinah, the Diminution of the Moon, and the Sin of Adam in Nachmanidean Kabbalah', Festschrift for Moshe Idel, Avirel Bar Levav, Moshe Halbertal and Ron Margolin (eds.) Idra Press (Forthcoming) [Hebrew]

 Tzahi Weiss, ‘A Tale about Passion and Fear: A Short History of the Jewish Tale about the Creation of an Artificial Man, The Golem’, Foreword to: Elishai Ezra-Tsur,Neuromorphic Engineering, The Scientist’s, Algorithms Designer’s and Computer Architect’s Perspectives on Brain-Inspired Computing, Chapman & Hall \ CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL. 2021, pp. XII-XXVII
 

 Tzahi Weiss, 'Kabbalah’, Encyclopedia of Jewish Folklore, H. Bar Yitzhak ed., M.E. Sharpe: New York 2013, Vol. I, pp. 287-291.

 Tzahi Weiss, 'Sefer Yeṣirah' The Routledge Medieval Encyclopedia Online edition (9 p.) (Forthcoming).

The Golem Legend from Late Antiquity to the 20th Century

https://campus.gov.il/course/course-v1-oui-acd_oui_golem/

07.2006: The 14th World congress of Jewish Studies 
 Title of lecture: 'The Perceptions of Letters in the Samaritan Memar Marqah and its parallels in Rabbinic Sources and in the Book of Creation' 

08.2009:  The 15th World Congress of Jewish Studies
  Title of lecture: 'The Origins of Alphabetic letters’ Speculations in Jewish Sources from Late Antiquity'

12.2009:  The 41ST Annual Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies (AJS) Title of lecture: 'Kabblisitc and Mystical Influences on Contemporary Israeli Poetry and Literature'

03.2010:  University of Chicago, The Center for Jewish Studies – Guest Lecture. 
    Title of lecture: 'Why was the World Molded by Alphabetical Letters? a Lacanian Perspective'.

07.2010:  National Association of Professors of Hebrew (NAPH) conference, New York. Title of Lecture: 'Vicissitudes in the Perception of the Mythical Godhead in Bialik's Poems'

09.2010:  British Association of Jewish Studies (BAJS) Conference (Southampton, England). Title of Lecture: 'The Literary Depiction of the Figurative Image of God in S.Y. Agnon’s Oeuvre'

06.2011  Tel Aviv University, The Department of Literature Conference in Memory of Yosef Ha’Efrati. Title of lecture: 'S.Y. Agnon and the Sabbatean Movement'

12.2011 The 42nd Annual Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies (AJS)
               Title of lecture: 'Sefer Yetsirah before the 10th century'

03.2012   Gershom Scholem Conference, The National Library, Jerusalem
               Title of lecture: 'Gershom Scholem as a Literary Figure in S.Y. Agnon’s Oeuvre'

05.2012  Hochschule für Jüdische Studien, Heidelberg Germany – Guest Lecture
                 Title of Lecture: 'The acceptance of Sefer Yetsirah'

05.2012  Freie Universität Berlin, Institut für Judaistik – Guest Lecture
               Title of Lecture: 'The acceptance of Sefer Yetsirah'

06.2012  The Conference of the  Departments for Jewish Thought, The Hebrew University
 Title of Lecture: "Where and when was Sefer Yetsirah edited?"

11.2013   Conference in Memory of Charles Mopsik, AIU, Paris France
                 Title of Lecture:  'Who is a Beautiful Maiden without Eyes?'

01.2014   Centre d'Études Juives' at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris France- Guest Lecture

  Title of Lecture: 'Sefer Yetsirah: new Perspectives

07.2014   The 10th Conference of the European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS), Paris France
      Title of Lecture: 'Some New Observations Concerning the Context of Sefer Yetsirah'

01.2015  The 5th International Conference of Jewish Studies, Adam Mickiewicz University in Gniezno, Poland
                Title of Lecture: Cutting the Shoots: The Shekinah in the World of Early Kabbalistic Literature

12.2015 The 2nd International Conference of the Zohar, Ben Gurion University
               Title of Lecture:  The problem of the status of the Shekhinah – a Few Examples from the Zoharic Literature

01.2016 Centre d'Études Juives' at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris France- Guest Lecture
Title of Lecture: Can Two Kings Use One Crown? - The Diminishing of the Moon in the Midrash and Early Kabbala, and a Rabbinic Critique of the Tetrarchy

04.2016 The 35th Folklore Conference of Israel Universities - Ben Gurion University
                Title of Lecture: 'The Margins' of Jewish Mysticism

06.2016 The 6th Annual Conference of the Israeli Network for the Academic Study of Western Esotericism Haifa University
                Title of Lecture: Sefer Yezira and early Islam: A Re-evaluation

12.2016  Fifty Years after Agnon's Noble Prize Award in Literature: A conference on S.Y. Agnon Oeuvre at Bar Ilan University
               Title of Lecture: Scholem's Golem and Agnon's Golems

06.2017   'Creation' - The first conference of The Israeli Association for the Study of Religions
               Title of Lecture: The Origins of the Golem and Spontaneous Generation

08.2017   The 17th World Congress of Jewish Studies Title of Lecture: Binitarianism and Early Kabbalistic Literature

01.2018   The Kabbalah in Gerona in the 13th century CE, The Hebrew University
                 Title of Lecture: New Reflections about the Beginning of the Kabbalistic Literature

07.2018     The 11th Conference of the European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS), Krakow, Poland
                   Title of Lecture: 'Philosophy, Binitarianism and the Emergence of Kabbalistic Literature'

10.2018      The Department of Jewish Thought, Ben Gurion University – a colloquium 
                    Title of lecture: 'Jewish Philosophy, Sefirotic Theosophy and Medieval Binitarianism in the First Half of the Thirteenth Century'

06.2019     Literature and Kabbalah, an International Conference at Bar Ilan University
                   Title of Lecture: 'Gods Change': The Deconstruction of the Transcendent God and the Reconstruction of the Mythical Godhead in Yehuda Amichai's 'Open Closed Open'

11.2019      The Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies of Yeshiva University, New York City – Guest lecture
                   Title of lecture: 'Rethinking Kabbalah: Kabbalistic literature, Jewish myth and the myths about the emergence of Kabbalah'

11.2019      The Jewish Theological Seminary, New York City– Guest lecture
                   Title of lecture: 'Rethinking Kabbalah: Kabbalistic literature, Jewish myth and the myths about the emergence of Kabbalah'

11.2019      The Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Program in Jewish studies, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore – Guest lecture
                   Title of lecture: 'Rethinking Kabbalah: Kabbalistic literature, Jewish myth and the myths about the emergence of Kabbalah'

11.2019      The Program in Judaic Studies, Princeton University, Princeton – Guest lecture
                   Title of lecture: 'Rethinking Kabbalah: Kabbalistic literature, Jewish myth and the myths about the emergence of Kabbalah'

02.2020     The Open University, Text and Context - Zikhron Ya'akov
                  Title of lecture: 'Re-reading of three Documents from the Early Stages of the Sefirotic Literature'

Research Areas
• Jewish Mystical Literature of Late Antiquity and Early middle Ages
• Kabbalistic Literature between the 12th and the 14th centuries
• Modern Hebrew Literature
• Comparative Religion
• Theology and Literature

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2016-20
Tzahi Weiss (P.I.) Commentaries to the Ten Sefirot - The Israeli Science Foundation (ISF) grant no. 116/16 (600,000 NIS)