Michael A. Fishbane (born 1943) is an American scholar of
Judaism
Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...
and
rabbinic literature
Rabbinic literature, in its broadest sense, is the entire spectrum of rabbinic writings throughout Jewish history. However, the term often refers specifically to literature from the Talmudic era, as opposed to medieval and modern rabbinic writ ...
. Formerly at
Brandeis University
, mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts"
, established =
, type = Private research university
, accreditation = NECHE
, president = Ronald D. Liebowitz
, pro ...
, he is currently Professor Emeritus of
Jewish Studies
Jewish studies (or Judaic studies; he, מדעי היהדות, madey ha-yahadut, sciences of Judaism) is an academic discipline centered on the study of Jews and Judaism. Jewish studies is interdisciplinary and combines aspects of history (esp ...
at the Divinity School,
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
.
Fishbane (Ph.D.,
Brandeis University
, mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts"
, established =
, type = Private research university
, accreditation = NECHE
, president = Ronald D. Liebowitz
, pro ...
) is well known as a
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach" ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...
scholar, especially for his work ''Biblical Interpretation in Ancient Israel'' and his work on the
JPS Tanakh
The New Jewish Publication Society of America Tanakh, first published in complete form in 1985, is a modern Jewish 'written from scratch' translation of the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible into Jewish English Bible translations, English. It is ...
mysticism
Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in u ...
,
myth
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of Narrative, narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or Origin myth, origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not Objectivity (philosophy), ...
and
Jewish theology
Jewish philosophy () includes all philosophy carried out by Jews, or in relation to the religion of Judaism. Until modern ''Haskalah'' (Jewish Enlightenment) and Jewish emancipation, Jewish philosophy was preoccupied with attempts to reconcil ...
. In 2015, Fishbane published a multileveled comprehensive commentary presenting the full range of Jewish interpretations on the Song of Songs (Jewish Publication Society).
He has received the ''Lifetime Achievement in Textual Studies'' award from the
National Foundation For Jewish Culture
The Foundation for Jewish Culture (formerly the National Foundation for Jewish Culture) was an advocacy group for Jewish cultural life and creativity in the United States.
Founded in 1960, it supported writers, filmmakers, artists, composers, ch ...
.
Bibliography
* ''Biblical Interpretation in Ancient Israel,'' (Oxford Clarendon Press, 1985.)
* ''Garments of Torah: Essays in Biblical Hermeneutics,'' (Indiana University Press, 1989.)
* ''The Kiss of God: Spiritual and Mystical Death in Judaism,'' (University of Washington Press, 1994.)
* ''The Exegetical Imagination: On Jewish Thought and Theology,'' (Harvard University Press, 1998.)
* ''Biblical Text and Texture: A Literary Reading of Selected Texts,'' (Oneworld Publications, 1998.)
* ''The JPS Bible Commentary: Haftarot,'' (Jewish Publication Society, 2002.)
* ''Biblical Myth and Rabbinic Mythmaking,'' (Oxford University Press, 2003.)
* ''Sacred Attunement: A Jewish Theology,'' (University of Chicago Press, 2007.)
* ''The JPS Bible Commentary: Song of Songs,'' (Jewish Publication Society, 2015)
* ''Fragile Finitude: A Jewish Hermeneutical Theology,'' (University of Chicago Press, 2021)