Deutsch Intern
  • Extracts from magical texts in antiquity (Greek, Hieratic, Demotic, Akkadian): British Library P 122; British Museum P Chester Beatty 7 and P Leiden/London, British Museum BM 34065
DFG Centre for Advanced Studies MagEIA

Bill Rebiger

Research Interests

  • Jewish magic
  • Kabbalah
  • editions of magical and kabbalistic texts
  • Hebrew and Aramaic manuscripts
  • Jewish-Christian relations
  • Jerusalem Talmud

Curriculum Vitae

1999-2025  

  research assistant in various projects on Sefer ha-Razim (Berlin), the Jerusalem Talmud (Marburg), Yohanan Alemanno (Berlin), binding fragments (Mainz), Jewish Scepticism (Hamburg), and on Keter Shem Tov (Halle), all funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)

2004   

 Ph.D. in Jewish Studies (Free University Berlin, supervisor: Prof. Peter Schäfer)
1998    M.A. in Jewish Studies and Philosophy (Free University Berlin)

Publications (selection)

A. Books

  • Eds. (together with Gerold Necker), Editing Kabbalistic Texts, Studies in Magic and Kabbalah 2 [Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2024].
  • Ed., Yearbook of the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies 2018 [Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2018].
  • Ed., Yearbook of the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies 2017 [Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2017].
  • Eds. (together with Giuseppe Veltri, in collaboration with Silke Schaeper), Yearbook of the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies 2016, Jewish Thought, Philosophy, and Religion 1 [Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2016].
  • Sefer Shimmush Tehillim. Buch vom magischen Gebrauch der Psalmen, Edition, Übersetzung und Kommentar, Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism 137 [Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010].
  • Eds. (together with Peter Schäfer, in collaboration with Evelyn Burkhardt and Dorothea Salzer), Sefer ha-Razim I und II. Das Buch der Geheimnisse I und II, Band 2: Einleitung, Übersetzung und Kommentar, Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism 132 [Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2009].
  • Eds. (together with Peter Schäfer, in collaboration with Evelyn Burkhardt, Gottfried Reeg and Henrik Wels), Sefer ha-Razim I und II. Das Buch der Geheimnisse I und II, Band 1: Edition, Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism 125 [Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2009].
  • Gittin - Scheidebriefe, Übersetzung des Talmud Yerushalmi, vol. III/5 [Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008].
  • Schäfer, Peter and Shaul Shaked, eds., in collaboration with Reimund Leicht, Bill Rebiger and Irina Wandrey, Magische Texte aus der Kairoer Geniza, vol. 3, Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism 72 [Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1999].

B. Articles

  • (together with Gerold Necker), “The One and the Many: The Structure and Versions of Keter Shem Tov According to the New Synoptic Edition with a Special Focus on MS Jerusalem, NLI, 8° 541,” in Editing Kabbalistic Texts, edited by Bill Rebiger and Gerold Necker [Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2024]: 83-94.
  • (together with Emma Abate), “The Christian Reception of Keter Shem Tov: Egidio da Viterbo’s Annotations in MS London, British Library, Harley 5510,” in Editing Kabbalistic Texts, edited by Bill Rebiger and Gerold Necker [Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2024]: 187-198.
  • “Unveiling the Secrets of Practical Kabbalah: Gottfried Selig’s German Translation of Sefer Shimmush Tehillim or ‘Book of the Magical Use of Psalms,’” in Magic and Language Perspectives on Jewish and Christian Magic in Early Modern Europe, edited by Yuval Harari, Gerold Necker and Marco Frenschkowski [Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2024]: 211-221.
  • “A Magic Touch: Performative Haptic Acts in Biblical and Medieval Jewish Magic,” in A Touch of Doubt: On Haptic Scepticism, edited by Rachel Aumiller [Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2021]: 105-121.
  • “The editio princeps of Sefer Šimmuš Tehillim, Sabbioneta 1551,” in L’Eredità di Salomone. La magia ebraica in Italia e nel Mediterraneo, edited by Emma Abate [Florence: Giuntina, 2019]: 169-184.
  • Art. “Magic, Magician C. Medieval Judaism,” in Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception (EBR), vol. 17: Lotus – Masrekah, edited by Christine Helmer et alii [Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2019]: 453-456.
  • “Sceptical Elements in a Dogmatic Stance: Isaac Polqar against Kabbalah,” in Yearbook of the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies 2018, edited by Bill Rebiger [Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2018]: 47-65.
  • “Engel und Dämonen im rabbinischen Denken und in der jüdischen Magie,” in Chilufim. Zeitschrift für jüdische Kulturgeschichte 25 (2018): 3-38.
  • “‘Write on Three Ribs of a Sheep’: Writing Materials in Ancient and Medieval Jewish Magic,” in Jewish Manuscript Cultures. New Perspectives, edited by Irina Wandrey [Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2017]: 339-359.
  • “Sceptical Strategies in Simone Luzzatto’s Presentation of the Kabbalists in his Discorso,” in Yearbook of the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies 2017, edited by Bill Rebiger [Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2017]: 51-69.
  • “The Early Opponents of the Kabbalah and the Role of Sceptical Argumentations: An Outline,” in Yearbook of the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies 2016, edited by Giuseppe Veltri and Bill Rebiger [Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2016]: 39-57.
  • “Wein in der jüdischen Magie des Mittelalters,” in Wein und Judentum, edited by Andreas Lehnardt [Berlin: Neofelis, 2014]: 97-120.
  • “Non-European Traditions of Hekhalot Literature. The Yemenite Evidence,” in Envisioning Judaism. Studies in Honor of Peter Schäfer on the Occasion of his Seventieth Birthday, edited by Ra’anan S. Boustan, Klaus Herrmann, Reimund Leicht et alii [Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2013]: 1:685-713.
  • “Unterweisung, Überlieferung und Aktualisierung von magischem Wissen im Judentum. Ansätze zu einer Textpragmatik,” in Frankfurter Judaistische Beiträge 36 (2010): 31-55.
  • “Zur Redaktionsgeschichte des Sefer Razi’el ha-Mal’akh,” in Frankfurter Judaistische Beiträge 32 (2005): 1-22.
  • “Die magische Verwendung von Psalmen im Judentum,” in Ritual und Poesie. Formen und Orte religiöser Dichtung im Alten Orient, im Judentum und im Christentum, edited by Erich Zenger, Herders Biblische Studien, 36 [Freiburg i.Br.: Herder, 2003]: 265-281.
  • “Bildung magischer Namen im Sefer Shimmush Tehillim,” in Frankfurter Judaistische Beiträge 26 (1999): 7-24.