Targumic Toseftot to the Prophets.

• Author: Grossfeld, Bernard
• Position: Review

By RIMON KASHER. Sources for the Study of Jewish Culture, vol. 2. Jerusalem: WORLD UNION OF JEWISH STUDIES, 1996. Pp. 314. $28. [Hebrew.]

The author has compiled one hundred and fifty targum toseftot passages from over one hundred manuscripts and first editions into one convenient volume. Some of these have already been published individually, others make their first appearance in print here.

The work opens with a comprehensive eight chapter "Introduction," in which Kasher discusses the linguistic, literary, and textual nature of toseftot that differ from the well-known "official" Targum Jonathan to the prophets. In discussing the date of these manuscripts, the author describes a wide range that extends from the tenth and eleventh centuries to the fifteenth century, the date of the tosefta Targum to Obadiah, with the majority copied between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries. As far as date of composition is concerned, those toseftot that are close in language and content to Targum Jonathan ben Uzziel could be as early as between the first and fourth centuries C.E., while those in Palestinian Aramaic were probably written between the third and seventh centuries in an Aramaic speaking context. The "Babylonian" targum texts date to after the seventh century, coming from Palestine or beyond.

The multi-faceted character of the manuscripts permit the following division: manuscripts containing an Aramaic companion version to the prophets; manuscripts of haphtorah targums; manuscripts of prayer mahzors for the holidays and special sabbaths; isolated texts. In a like manner, the place of origin is various, ranging from Palestine, Italy, Greece, Romania, and Germany to Spain, North Africa, and Yemen. Yet the original composition was in Palestine, from where they spread to various places.

In dealing with the Sitz im Leben for these targums, Kasher differentiates between Targum Jonathan ben Uzziel, the "brief targum," in contrast to the tosefta targum, the "expansive targum." The former had its background in the schoolhouse, where the Bible was...