Foreword

Abstract

It is with great pride that we present the fourth issue of the annual journal, Jewish Thought, sponsored by the Goldstein-Goren International Center for Jewish Thought, at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. This issue focuses on the topic of new trends in the research of Jewish thought. It consists of 12 articles – 8 in Hebrew and 4 in English. Some of the articles raise methodological issues regarding the research of certain areas of Jewish thought, whether in Hassidic thought, Talmudic stories, or the editing of Jewish magical texts. Others point to fields of research that are relatively new – e.g., the impact of the social networks on Jewish thought, Jewish occultism. Many of the articles focus on the relation between Jewish thought with other fields of study, such as Jewish art history, medieval Jewish law, contemporary analytic philosophy. As in the case of the journal’s first three issues, Faith and Heresy, Esotericism, and Asceticism in Judaism and the Abrahamic Religions, which can be accessed at the following link : https://in.bgu.ac.il/en/humsos/goldsteingoren/Pages/Journal.aspx , most of the articles in this issue were written by established scholars, while some were written by young scholars who are at the beginning of their scholarly career. All articles that were submitted underwent a rigorous selection process involving at least two reviewers .