Reuven R Kimelman
Degrees
Yale University, Ph.D.Yale University, M.Phil.
Jewish Theological Seminary, M.H.L.
Jewish Theological Seminary, B.H.L.
Columbia University, B.S.
Jewish Theological Seminary, Rabbi
Expertise
Talmud. Midrash. The History of Judaism. The Ancient Western Canon. Ethics of war and conflict.The History and Literature of the Jewish Liturgy, and Lekhah Dodi
Profile
Reuven Kimelman specializes in the history of Judaism with a focus on the history and poetics of the Jewish liturgy. His book on the subject soon to be published is The Rhetoric of Jewish Prayer: A Historical and Literary Commentary on the Prayer Book.He has written on the interaction between Judaism and Christianity in antiquity and modernity. He is also interested in the thematic connections between Greek and Biblical literature from Homer to Plato and from Genesis to Matthew. In the field of Jewish ethics, his focus is on the ethics of war, statecraft, conflict, and genocide. He has written extensively on his mentor, Abraham Joshua Heschel and published a book on Lekhah Dodi.
Courses Taught
| FYS | 18a | Understanding Evil and Human Destiny |
| HUM | 10a | The Western Canon |
| NEJS | 5a | The Transformations of Judaism from the Bible to Modernity |
| NEJS | 25a | Introduction to Talmud |
| NEJS | 125b | Midrashic Literature: Sifre Deuteronomy |
| NEJS | 126a | Intermediate Talmud |
| NEJS | 126b | Agadic Literature: The Ethics of the Fathers with Avot d'Rabbi Nathan |
| NEJS | 127a | Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism |
| NEJS | 127b | The Jewish Liturgy |
Awards and Honors
Florscheim Fellowship, Hebrew University (2006)
Shoshana Shier Distinguished Visiting Professor Toronto University (2005)
Starr Fellowship, Harvard University (1998)
Memorial Foundation Fellowship (1983 - 1984)
Manheimer Term Assistant Professor of University Studies (1982 - 1983)
Lady Davis Fellow, Hebrew Univesrity (1981)
Memorial Foundation Fellowship (1981)
Sir Isaac Wolfson Professorship in Israel (1980)
National Foundation of Jewish Culture Fellowship (1973 - 1974)
Scholarship
Kimelman, Reuven. The Rhetoric of Jewish Prayer: A Historical and Literary Commentary on the Prayer Book. Liverpoool: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2021. (forthcoming)
Kimelman, Reuven. "Is Judaism Too Important to be Left Just to Jews? The Sh’ma and the Alenu." All the World: Universalism, Particularism, and the High Holy Days. Ed. Lawrence Hoffman. Woodstock, Vermont: Jewish Lights, 2014. 98-106. (forthcoming)
The Moral Meaning of the Bible - The What, How, and Why of Biblical Ethics, Volume 3, Audio Coursebook. Kimelman, Reuven. 2013. (forthcoming)
Kimelman, Reuven. "Abraham Joshua Heschel: Contemplative and Activist." Rev. of Spiritual Radical: Abraham Joshua Heschel in America, 1940-1972,, by Edward Kaplan. Chrstian Century
Kimelman, Reuven. "Israel’s Election and the Moral Dilemma of Amalek and the Seven Nations of Canaan." Judaism’s Challenge: Election, Divine Love, and Human Enmity. Ed. Alon Goshen-Gottstein. Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2020. 142-173.
Kimelman, Reuven. "My Response to Alon Goshen Gottstein’s Luther the Anti Semite: A Contemporary Jewish Perspective." Contemporary Jewry 40. (2020): 85-107.
Kimelman, Reuven. "The Akedah Project, an analysis of Genesis 22." https://www.jewishlive.org/isaac (2020)
Reuven Kimelman. "The Theology of the Liturgy." The Cambridge Companion to Jewish Theology. Ed. Steven Kepnes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. 77-101.
Kimelman, Reuven. "Do We Mistake Our Passion for Truth with Its Possession?." Renovatio (2019): 25-34.
Reuven Kimelman. "“The Poetics and Theology of Adon Olam,”." On Wings Of Prayer: Sources Of Jewish Worship: Essays In Honor Of Professor Stefan C. Reif On The Occasion Of His Seventy-Fifth Birthday. Ed. Núria Calduch-Benages, Michael Duggan, and Dalia Marx. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2019. 187-202..
Kimelman, Reuven. "We Love the God that Loved Us First: The Second Blessing of the Shema Liturgy." Bridging between Sister Religions: Studies of Jewish and Christian Scriptures Offered in Honor of Prof. John T. Townsend. Ed. Isaac Kalimi. Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2016. 241-261.
Kimelman, Reuven. "Divine Epithets and Human Ambivalence." Naming God. Ed. Lawrence Hoffman. Woodstock: Jewish Lights, 2015. 107-112.
Kimelman, Reuven, Eliezer Brodt. "The Ethics of the Case of Amalek: An Alternative Reading of the Biblical Data and the Jewish Tradition." Seforim.blogspot.com (2014)
Kimelman, Reuven, Interpretation. "Prophecy as Arguing with God and the Ideal of Justice ." Interpretation 68. (2014): 17-27.
Kimelman, Reuven. "Elie Wiesel and the Stories of the Rabbis." Elie Wiesel: Jewish, Literary, and Moral Perspectives. Ed. Steven T. Katz and Alan Rosen. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2013. 38-48.
The Hidden Poetry of the Jewish Prayerboook -- The What, How, and Why of Jewish Liturgy, Volmue 2, audio course book. Kimelman, Reuven. 2012.
Kimelman, Reuven. "Confession and Its Discontents." We Have Sinned: Sin and Confession in Judaism (Ashamnu and Al Chet), Prayers of Awe,. Ed. Lawrence Hoffman. Woodstock, Vermont: Jewish Lights, 2012. 186-190.
Kimelman, Reuven. "Is Kol Nidre Typical?." All These Vows (Kol Nidre) Prayers of Awe. Ed. Lawrence Hoffman. Woodstock: Jewish Lights, 2011. 168-173.
Kimelman, Reuven. "Judaism, War, and Weapons of Mass Destruction, Preface." Interfaith Just Peacemaking: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Perspectives on the New Paradigm of Peace and War. Ed. Susan Thistlethwaite. Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. xiii-xiv, 181-194.
Kimelman, Reuven. "U-n'taneh Tokef as a Midrashic Poem." The Experience of Jewish Liturgy: Studies Dedicated to Menachem Schmelzer. Ed. Deborah Blank Reed,. Leiden: Brill, 2011. pp. 115-146.
Kimelman, Reuven. "Mah Tovu as a Psychological Introduction to Prayer." Continuity and Change: A Festschrift in Honor of Irving (Yitz) Greenberg's 75th Birthday.. Ed. Steven Katz and Steven Bayme. Lanham: University Press of America, 2010. 189-202.
Kimelman, Reuven. "Rabbis Joseph B. Soloveitchik and Abraham Joshua Heschel on Jewish-Christian Relations." Rabbi in the New World: The Influence of Rabbi J. B. Soloveitchik on Culture, Education and Jewish Thought. Ed. Avinoam Rosenak and Naftali Rothenberg. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 2010. 446-467.
Kimelman, Reuven. "The Poetics of Prayer: How Un'taneh Tokef Means What it Means." Who By Fire and Who by Water (Un'taneh Tokef). Ed. Lawrence Hoffman. Woodstock, Vermont: Jewish Lights Publishing, 2010
Kimelman, Reuven. "Abraham Joshua Heschel's Theology of Judaism and the Rewriting of Jewish Intellectual History." Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy 17. (2009): 207-38.
Kimelman, Reuven. "Abraham Joshua Heschel's Thesis on the Unity of Jewish Theology." Tikkun November-December, 2009 (2009): 48-50, 74.
Kimelman, Reuven. "Kedoshim (19:1-20:27) The Hardest Mitsvah?." The Modern Men's Torah Commentary. Ed. Jeffrey Salkin. Woodstock, Vermont: Jewish Lights Publishing, 2009. 176-181.
Kimelman, Reuven. "Tehillah Le-Dovid -- Mivneh U-Mashma‘ut." Megadim 49. (2009): 61-69.
Kimelman, Reuven. "The Theology of Abraham Joshua Heschel." First Things 198. December (2009): 35-39.
Kimelman, Reuven. "The Penitential Part of the Amidah and Personal Redemption." Seeking the Favor of God--Volume 3: The Impact of Penitential Prayer beyond Second Temple Judaism. vol. 3 Ed. Mark J. Boda, Daniel K. Falk, and Rodney A. Werline. Atlanta/Leiden:: SBL/Brill, 2008. 71-84.
The Moral Meaning of the Bible - The What, How, and Why of Biblical Ethics, vol. 2 -- Audio Book. Kimelman, Reuven. Our Learning Company, 2007.
Kimelman, Reuven. "For the Sake of Heaven and Earth: The New Encounter between Judaism and Christianity." by Irving Greenberg. Modern Judaism vol. 27 2007: 103-120..
Kimelman, Reuven. "Heavenly Torah as Refracted through the Generations." Rev. of Heavenly Torah as Refracted through the Generations, by Abraham Joshua Heschel. Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies vol. 26 225-229.
Kimelman, Reuven. "The Sabbath." by Abraham Joshua Heschel. Shofar vol. 26 187-190.
Kimelman, Reuven, Steven Katz.. "Rabbinic Prayer in Late Antiquity,". Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Kimelman, Reuven. ""What Do We Want Others to Teach About Jewish Prayer and Liturgy?"." What Do We Want the Other to Teach About us? Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Dialogues. vol. 1 Ed. David L. Coppola. Fairfield, CT:: Sacred Heart University Press, 2006. 259-269.
Kimelman, Reuven. "Polemics and Rabbinic Liturgy." Discussing Cultural Influences: Text, Context, and Non-Text in Rabbinic Judaism. Ed. Rivkah Ulmer. Lanham: University Press of America, 2006. 59-98.
Kimelman,Reuven. "The Rabbinic Theology of The Physical: Blessings, Body and Soul, Resurrection, Convenant and Election." History of Judaism' The Late Roman-Rabbinic Period. vol. 4 Ed. Steven Katz and Reuven Kimelman. Cambridge University Press, 2006. 946-976.
The Hidden Poetry of the Jewish Prayerboook -- The What, How, and Why of Jewish Liturgy -- Audio Book. Kimelman, Reuven. Our Learning Company, 2005.
Kimelman, Reuven. "Blessing Formulae and Divine Sovereignty in Rabbinic Liturgy,." Liturgy in the Life of the Synagogue: Studies in the History of Jewish Prayer. Ed. Ruth Langer and Steven Fine. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2005. 1-35.
Kimelman, Reuven. "Rabbis Joseph B. Soloveitchik and Abraham Joshua Heschel on Jewish-Christian Relations'." Modern Judaism 24, Internet The Edah Journal (Kislev 5765), 2005. 251-271.
Kimelman,Reuven R. "Judaism and Weapons of Mass Destruction." Ethics and Weapons of Mass Destruction: Religious and Secular Perspectives. Cambridge University Press, 2004. 363-384.
Kimelman,Reuven R. "Lekhah Dodi and Kabbalat Shabbat." My People's Prayer Book. vol. 3 Ed. L. Hoffman. Jewish Lights, 2004
S. Trigano, Reuven Kimelman, ed. "Les différents types de guerres dans la tradition juive, à la lumière du conflit actuel,". Pardes, 36 2004.
Kimelman,Reuven R. The Mystical Meaning of "Lekhah Dodi" and "Kabbalat Shabbat". Magnes, 2003.