Aryeh Kasher
Encyclopedia
Aryeh Kasher (born 1935) is an emeritus professor at Tel Aviv University
and a winner of the Bialik Prize
.
, where he graduated from elementary school and high school. In his youth he wrote with his childhood friends and classmates Gad Yaacobi
(later Israel minister and member of the Knesset
) and Micha Gisser (later professor to economics in University of New Mexico
in Albuquerque, New Mexico
) the feuilleton "Hilik Haviv", which used to be broadcast in the radio. In the Israeli army, he served at the Nahal
.
He began his history teaching in Emek Hefer regional school in the early 1960s. He received a MA
from Tel Aviv University
- the subject of his thesis, completed in 1966, was history background and messaich in Aliyat Moshe.
Kasher received his PhD
in Jewish studies from Tel Aviv University in 1973. The dissertation subject was "The jurisric-political class and the rights system of the Jews of Egypt
in the Hellenistic period
and the Roman Principate". His advisor was Professor Shimon Applebaum. His most distinguished teacher who influenced his work was professor Joshua Efron.
Kasher taught many years in the society of the Jewish People history in Tel Aviv University and officiated as the head of Center of the Study of Land of Israel and its Settlement in Tel Aviv University, that affiliated to Yad Yitzhak Ben-Zvi (Yitzhak Ben-Zvi Institute). He retired in 2005.
His proficiency is the Jews and Land of Israel
during the Second Temple
period.
for Jewish thought.
and their integrating in the Jewish society. The Judaizing action describe in the Hellenistic Historiography
as an act of compelling by the Hasmonean
, in order to abase their name. Kasher shows that the judaising conducted out of good will and cooperation of the nations who judaized with the Hasmonean. He examines the consequences of the Hellenistic influence in the Idumean society, and its implications on their relations with the neighbor Jewish nation, even though in the Bible
the Idumean accused in co-operation with Babylon
power and the ruin of Jerusalem and the temple in the year 586 BCE.
The second part of the book deals with the Nabataeans
relations with the Jews from 332 BCE to 70 AD. The relations start with great friendship in the beginning of the Hashmonean period and ends in the Alexander Jannaeus
wars and the Roman rule.
It is a pioneering monographic research, that was held in the first time by Aryeh Kasher. till his research historians used to study specially the Jewish People and the regime that conquer the country and hardly look for the non Jewish Israel country inhabitants. This because we hardly have national history papers of this nations authors, the archeological finding about them is scarse and the majority of the knowledge we have is from Josephus
, who describe them through their relations with the Jewish people.
and the Philistines
from the Bible period, whom the Hasmonean try to distinct, in the spirit of the Biblians saying. with all that accompany political, economical and cultural rival, that gather strength since the Hellenistic period.
. Psychological biography about in collaborate with the psychiatrist professor Eliezer Witztum. The book stands as an antithesis to Avraham Shalit: Herod the Great: the man and his deed, third edition, Bialik Institute, 1964. In this book Shalit describe Herod as king that contribute a great deal to the Jewish People due to his monumental building enterprises. Kasher choose in his study to another aspect in Herod personality: his murderousness and interpret him as suffer from a paranoid
illness.
Kasher's research based on Josephus
's writing as a main source of knowledge. He was assisted by professor Witztum that using the psychological research tools in order to decipher the complex personality of Herod and diagnose his illness as inferiority complex
, a man that murder his closest relatives and anyone who he suspect by the least sign of treason, including his wife and three sons.
The manuscript of the book won the Bahat Prize given for distinguished reference books by the University of Haifa
in 2006.
Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University is a public university located in Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel. With nearly 30,000 students, TAU is Israel's largest university.-History:...
and a winner of the Bialik Prize
Bialik Prize
The Bialik Prize is an annual literary award given by the municipality of Tel Aviv, Israel for significant accomplishments in Hebrew literature. The prize is named in memory of Hayyim Nahman Bialik. There are two separate prizes, one specifically for "Literature", which is in the field of fiction,...
.
His life and his research activity
Kasher grew up in Kfar VitkinKfar Vitkin
Kfar Vitkin is a moshav in central Israel. Located near Netanya, it falls under the jurisdiction of Hefer Valley Regional Council and was the first Jewish settlement in the valley. In 2007 it had a population of 1,700....
, where he graduated from elementary school and high school. In his youth he wrote with his childhood friends and classmates Gad Yaacobi
Gad Yaacobi
Gad Yaacobi was an Israeli Minister, Alignment Knesset member, and Israel Ambassador to the United Nations.-Biography:Yaacobi was born in Kfar Vitkin during Mandate era, where he completed his high-school studies...
(later Israel minister and member of the Knesset
Knesset
The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Role in Israeli Government :The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister , approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government...
) and Micha Gisser (later professor to economics in University of New Mexico
University of New Mexico
The University of New Mexico at Albuquerque is a public research university located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the United States. It is the state's flagship research institution...
in Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque is the largest city in the state of New Mexico, United States. It is the county seat of Bernalillo County and is situated in the central part of the state, straddling the Rio Grande. The city population was 545,852 as of the 2010 Census and ranks as the 32nd-largest city in the U.S. As...
) the feuilleton "Hilik Haviv", which used to be broadcast in the radio. In the Israeli army, he served at the Nahal
Nahal
Nahal is an Israel Defense Forces infantry brigade. Historically, it refers to a program that combines military service and establishment of new agricultural settlements, often in outlying areas...
.
He began his history teaching in Emek Hefer regional school in the early 1960s. He received a MA
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
from Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University is a public university located in Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel. With nearly 30,000 students, TAU is Israel's largest university.-History:...
- the subject of his thesis, completed in 1966, was history background and messaich in Aliyat Moshe.
Kasher received his PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in Jewish studies from Tel Aviv University in 1973. The dissertation subject was "The jurisric-political class and the rights system of the Jews of Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
in the Hellenistic period
Hellenistic period
The Hellenistic period or Hellenistic era describes the time which followed the conquests of Alexander the Great. It was so named by the historian J. G. Droysen. During this time, Greek cultural influence and power was at its zenith in Europe and Asia...
and the Roman Principate". His advisor was Professor Shimon Applebaum. His most distinguished teacher who influenced his work was professor Joshua Efron.
Kasher taught many years in the society of the Jewish People history in Tel Aviv University and officiated as the head of Center of the Study of Land of Israel and its Settlement in Tel Aviv University, that affiliated to Yad Yitzhak Ben-Zvi (Yitzhak Ben-Zvi Institute). He retired in 2005.
His proficiency is the Jews and Land of Israel
Land of Israel
The Land of Israel is the Biblical name for the territory roughly corresponding to the area encompassed by the Southern Levant, also known as Canaan and Palestine, Promised Land and Holy Land. The belief that the area is a God-given homeland of the Jewish people is based on the narrative of the...
during the Second Temple
Second Temple
The Jewish Second Temple was an important shrine which stood on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem between 516 BCE and 70 CE. It replaced the First Temple which was destroyed in 586 BCE, when the Jewish nation was exiled to Babylon...
period.
Awards
In 1990, Kasher was the co-recipient (jointly with Menachem Dorman) of the Bialik PrizeBialik Prize
The Bialik Prize is an annual literary award given by the municipality of Tel Aviv, Israel for significant accomplishments in Hebrew literature. The prize is named in memory of Hayyim Nahman Bialik. There are two separate prizes, one specifically for "Literature", which is in the field of fiction,...
for Jewish thought.
Jews, Idumaeans and Ancient Arabs
His book deals with two major subjects: first, the Idumeans Judaizing, located in Idumea land and the Yturs in the GalileeGalilee
Galilee , is a large region in northern Israel which overlaps with much of the administrative North District of the country. Traditionally divided into Upper Galilee , Lower Galilee , and Western Galilee , extending from Dan to the north, at the base of Mount Hermon, along Mount Lebanon to the...
and their integrating in the Jewish society. The Judaizing action describe in the Hellenistic Historiography
Historiography
Historiography refers either to the study of the history and methodology of history as a discipline, or to a body of historical work on a specialized topic...
as an act of compelling by the Hasmonean
Hasmonean
The Hasmonean dynasty , was the ruling dynasty of Judea and surrounding regions during classical antiquity. Between c. 140 and c. 116 BCE, the dynasty ruled semi-autonomously from the Seleucids in the region of Judea...
, in order to abase their name. Kasher shows that the judaising conducted out of good will and cooperation of the nations who judaized with the Hasmonean. He examines the consequences of the Hellenistic influence in the Idumean society, and its implications on their relations with the neighbor Jewish nation, even though in the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
the Idumean accused in co-operation with Babylon
Babylon
Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
power and the ruin of Jerusalem and the temple in the year 586 BCE.
The second part of the book deals with the Nabataeans
Nabataeans
Thamudi3.jpgThe Nabataeans, also Nabateans , were ancient peoples of southern Canaan and the northern part of Arabia, whose oasis settlements in the time of Josephus , gave the name of Nabatene to the borderland between Syria and Arabia, from the Euphrates to the Red Sea...
relations with the Jews from 332 BCE to 70 AD. The relations start with great friendship in the beginning of the Hashmonean period and ends in the Alexander Jannaeus
Alexander Jannaeus
Alexander Jannaeus was king of Judea from 103 BC to 76 BC. The son of John Hyrcanus, he inherited the throne from his brother Aristobulus I, and appears to have married his brother's widow, Shlomtzion or "Shelomit", also known as Salome Alexandra, according to the Biblical law of Yibbum...
wars and the Roman rule.
It is a pioneering monographic research, that was held in the first time by Aryeh Kasher. till his research historians used to study specially the Jewish People and the regime that conquer the country and hardly look for the non Jewish Israel country inhabitants. This because we hardly have national history papers of this nations authors, the archeological finding about them is scarse and the majority of the knowledge we have is from Josephus
Josephus
Titus Flavius Josephus , also called Joseph ben Matityahu , was a 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian and hagiographer of priestly and royal ancestry who recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the 1st century AD and the First Jewish–Roman War, which resulted in the Destruction of...
, who describe them through their relations with the Jewish people.
Kenaan, Paleshet, Yavan ve-Yisrael
The book describes the history of the Jews relating to their relations with the Hellenistic cities in Israel country, in chronological order, during the period from the country conquest by Alexander the Great till the end of the big rebel against the Romans. the Jews saw in the Hellenistic cities citizens as the heris of CanaanCanaan
Canaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan...
and the Philistines
Philistines
Philistines , Pleshet or Peleset, were a people who occupied the southern coast of Canaan at the beginning of the Iron Age . According to the Bible, they ruled the five city-states of Gaza, Askelon, Ashdod, Ekron and Gath, from the Wadi Gaza in the south to the Yarqon River in the north, but with...
from the Bible period, whom the Hasmonean try to distinct, in the spirit of the Biblians saying. with all that accompany political, economical and cultural rival, that gather strength since the Hellenistic period.
King Herod: A Persecuted Persecutor
Pioneers research about Herod the GreatHerod the Great
Herod , also known as Herod the Great , was a Roman client king of Judea. His epithet of "the Great" is widely disputed as he is described as "a madman who murdered his own family and a great many rabbis." He is also known for his colossal building projects in Jerusalem and elsewhere, including his...
. Psychological biography about in collaborate with the psychiatrist professor Eliezer Witztum. The book stands as an antithesis to Avraham Shalit: Herod the Great: the man and his deed, third edition, Bialik Institute, 1964. In this book Shalit describe Herod as king that contribute a great deal to the Jewish People due to his monumental building enterprises. Kasher choose in his study to another aspect in Herod personality: his murderousness and interpret him as suffer from a paranoid
Paranoia
Paranoia [] is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself...
illness.
Kasher's research based on Josephus
Josephus
Titus Flavius Josephus , also called Joseph ben Matityahu , was a 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian and hagiographer of priestly and royal ancestry who recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the 1st century AD and the First Jewish–Roman War, which resulted in the Destruction of...
's writing as a main source of knowledge. He was assisted by professor Witztum that using the psychological research tools in order to decipher the complex personality of Herod and diagnose his illness as inferiority complex
Inferiority complex
An inferiority complex, in the fields of psychology and psychoanalysis, is a feeling that one is inferior to others in some way. Such feelings can arise from an imagined or actual inferiority in the afflicted person...
, a man that murder his closest relatives and anyone who he suspect by the least sign of treason, including his wife and three sons.
The manuscript of the book won the Bahat Prize given for distinguished reference books by the University of Haifa
University of Haifa
The University of Haifa is a university in Haifa, Israel.The University of Haifa was founded in 1963 by Haifa mayor Abba Hushi, to operate under the academic auspices of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem....
in 2006.
List of published works
- Kasher, Aryeh. (in collaboration with Witztum, Eliezer). King Herod: A Persecuted Persecutor. A Case Study in Psychohistory and Psychobiography. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin-New York, March 2007.
- Kasher Aryeh. Jews and Hellenistic cities in Eretz-Israel: relations of the Jews in Eretz-Israel with the Hellenistic cities during the second Temple Period (332 BCE-70ce). Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 1990.
- Kasher A., Rappaport U., Fux G. (editors). Greece and Rome in Eretz Israel: collected essays. Jerusalem: Yad Itzhak Ben-Zvi, 1990.
- Kasher, Aryeh. Jews, Idumaeans, and ancient Arabs: relations of the Jews in Eretz-Israel with the nations of the frontier and the desert during the Hellenistic and Roman era (332 BCE-70 CE). Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 1988.
- Kasher, Aryeh. The Jews in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt: the struggle for equal rights. Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 1985.
See also
- List of Bialik Prize recipientsBialik PrizeThe Bialik Prize is an annual literary award given by the municipality of Tel Aviv, Israel for significant accomplishments in Hebrew literature. The prize is named in memory of Hayyim Nahman Bialik. There are two separate prizes, one specifically for "Literature", which is in the field of fiction,...