Simcha Gross
@Simcha_Gross
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Assistant Professor of Ancient Jewish History @Penn @UPennNELC . Author of Babylonian Jews and Sasanian Imperialism @CambridgeUP
West Philadelphia
Joined November 2012
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And now the discount code (such as it is)!
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As a grad student, I heard stories about Jewish candidates facing antisemitism on the job market.
This was ancient history I thought, a sign of how far things had come.
Then I was a finalist for an ancient Judaism job at a Christian denominational university.
Strap in.
🧵
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Lastly, no matter where ppl fell on the issue, their presence in the department made me, justifiably or not, view them differently.
Do what you can not only to fall on the right side of an issue, but to ensure that discriminatory views are entirely unwelcome in your dept.
Fin.
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Third, take people seriously on THEIR terms. Those who wanted to hire me BECAUSE I was Jewish were making an analogous move to the antisemites in their department, they just liked the fact that I was Jewish instead of disliking it.
I was there to present myself as an academic.
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First, yes, antisemitism still exists. I am typically wary of the speed at which some cry antisemitism and the extent to which it is politicized, and this is just one anecdote.
But it's an important reminder that it exists, and not only among QAnon supporters and the alt-right.
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A c. 9th century Hebrew sheet of paper from cave 17 of the Mogao Grottoes, in Dunhuang, Gansu Province, western China, with selections from Psalms, and repeatedly creased, suggested it was worn as a protective amulet.
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I called my beloved advisor that evening to commiserate. She gave me typically wise advice:
1st, this was a small taste of what women & BIPOC face on the market all the time.
2nd, I would not get the position, so I should view the campus visit as an opportunity to practice.
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Second, this experience was unpleasant, but I was incredibly fortunate to find other welcoming and lovely academic homes.
Other groups and individuals face far more systemic bias and overt discrimination.
We must do better.
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They showed no real interest in me, and certainly not in my work. But they had also laid some traps for me.
First, breakfast consisted of bacon, eggs, and cheese.
I took some bread.
I went most of the day on an empty stomach.
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The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. I thought I did a good job. My advisor was right, it was great practice.
I had several meetings throughout the day. It became clear that there was another faction, the "new guard," that wanted to hire me precisely because I was Jewish.
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I said cryptically: "he warned me that I might face a hostile audience here for reasons outside of my control..."
She responded with visible relief and sadness: "Phew. I wasn't sure how to warn you. It's terrible, I'm really sorry."
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2nd, though they had taken food, they weren't eating. I figured they were hoping I would eat before they said grace, giving them a pretense to oppose my hire.
I waited.
Once it grew awkward, one of them said grace. He began: "Thank you Jesus for bringing us Simcha here today."
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I was picked up at the airport by a professor I knew who was a visiting scholar at the university.
As he drove me to campus, he explained that he had volunteered to pick me up so as to warn me that there was no way I was getting the job... because I am Jewish.
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They clearly wanted to make a statement against the old guard about the future direction of the department.
Though I had not asked, they kept telling me how the city had great Jewish communities, great Jewish schools, many synagogues.
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He entered the room, saw me, and put his face into his hands in instinctive shame.
He knew I knew what had happened.
He apologized to me profusely, said how embarrassed he was about what happened.
I drew a number of takeaways from this ordeal.
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He explained that the "old guard" on campus would oppose my hire no matter what I did.
I was picked up by a new member of the faculty, who gave me a tour of the campus.
As we set off, she asked me: "so...did the professor who picked you up tell you anything about the job...?"
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The first thing on the schedule the next morning was breakfast at a Christian denominational house with three male members of the department.
It had been made clear to me that these were the fellas who did not want to hire me. This became very apparent.
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I went to dinner that night with two young scholars in the department, one of whom works in a related field.
He gave me knowing looks a few times throughout the meal, but we did not discuss the elephant in the room.
A few months later, he and I attended the same conference.
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The oldest depiction of the Book of Esther was discovered in the synagogue in Dura Europos, destroyed in 256 CE in the war between the Romans and the Sasanians.
The synagogue offers precious insight into the dynamics of Jewish communities on the Roman-Sasanian frontier.
🧵
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Jesus and the trinity invoked on a Jewish Babylonian Aramaic incantation bowl. Merry Christmas to all who are celebrating!
...ובשמיה דאישו דכבש רומ(א) ועומ(ק)א בזקיפיה...
…and by the name of Jesus, who conquered the height and the depth by his cross
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Cat in the Kotel (Western Wall), or should I say, Katel...
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Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, begins tonight.
The liturgy is now thoroughly rabbinic, but over 100 years ago, a fragmentary Hebrew papyrus was discovered at Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, which dates to around the 4th century CE.
It contains some form of liturgy for Yom Kippur.
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Student final project: "I ask you Covidiel, Fauciel, Purell, angels who rule the fates of the children of Adam and Eve, that you keep N son of N in his house lest he contribute to the spread of disease & do not let his presence be seen in any household except his own household."
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In honor of the meeting between Pope Francis and Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani in Iraq, a quick thread on a fascinating encounter in Baghdad between the head of the Babylonian Jewish academy and the Syriac Christian Catholicos almost exactly 1000 years ago.
🧵
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Two exciting professional developments:
My first book, "Babylonian Jews and Sasanian Imperialism in Late Antiquity," will be published by Cambridge University Press!
Next year I will be a member of the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton!
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In Jewish tradition, Hanukkah is most often associated with the victory of the Hasmoneans over the Seleucids.
Yet starting in the medieval period, another figure, not mentioned in the 2 books of Maccabees or any earlier Jewish works, is associated with Hanukkah: Judith!
🧵 1/13
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Netanyahu: Jesus spoke Hebrew.
Pope Francis: Aramaic.
Scholars: this is a false binary; ancient Palestine was a multilingual environment in which Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek were used in varying degrees by different people for different purposes and in different contexts.
Netanyahu: Yeah we know Jesus, he spoke Hebrew
Pope Francis: Aramaic
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Officially out in one week, but apparently copies are already being shipped!
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Finished Dune, & just learned that Frank Herbert’s messianic like figure, the Kwisatz haderach, was inspired by the Jewish concept of Kefitzat haDerekh (קפיצת הדרך), "shortening the way," miraculously speedy travel between distant lands. A short thread. 1/8
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An amazing classics major (
@PennAncient
), Olivia Lee, who took my Ancient Jewish Magic course, produced a beautiful 3D image of an incantation bowl in the
@pennmuseum
for her "Material Past in the Digital World" class
@CAAMatPenn
.
Check it out here!
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Baghdad was founded in 762, by al-Mansur. It was called City of Peace (مدينة السلام) & the round city.
So why is it called Baghdad?
Because that's what the site was called before al-Mansur. Bagdadu appears in Babylonian documents, & a rabbi in the Talmud is named Aḥa Bagdata.
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A follow up to a post earlier this week about Sasanian reliefs, this time on the unique free standing sculpture of Shapur I (r. 240–270), in Bishapur, Fars. 1/6
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On Easter, let's remember that according to early sources, Pilate was a consistent & total ass.
During his 10 year stint as Judean governor, he was involved in brutally subduing Jews, popular movements & their charismatic figures..including Jesus.
Everyone hated Pilate.
🧵 1/12
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A short thread on the invocation of angels - especially Michael - in late antique incantation bowls and its afterlife in modern Jewish and Catholic liturgy. 1/7
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The Lachish letters from 587 BCE, an archive of an Israelite military officer composed in Hebrew just prior to the destruction of the first Jerusalem temple and Israelite exile, offer a fascinating window into Israelite life at the time. 1/4
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On the first day of Spanish class in my Orthodox Jewish high school, we had to choose a Spanish name (in retrospect, a strange thing to do).
I chose Jesús.
My teacher was not amused.
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Happy Purim from the Dura Europos synagogue!
The Mordechai & Esther panel is fascinating both as the earliest known image of the story, but also because it had six Middle Persian inscriptions added by Persian visitors, who variously exclaimed that they "Approved this picture"!
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In honor of Christmas, let's acknowledge what is the best attested Jewish sermon delivered during the life of Jesus..,
I am of course referring to the Sermon on the Mount, delivered by Jesus himself.
A 🧵 on the Sermon on the Mount (SotM) in its 1st century Jewish context.
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The correct pronunciation of the O of Omicron is ע (ʿayin).
– This message brought to you by the Phoenician alphabet.
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Of the many fascinating documents discovered in the archives of the Jewish community in Elephantine, in Upper Egypt, circa the 5th-4th BCE, the one that has always astounded me the most is the Aramaic copy of Darius' Behistun inscription from what is now western Iran.
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A monumental family tomb in the Jewish necropolis in Jericho from 1st CE included a group of ossuaries of 5 members of the "Goliath" family.
A few were bilingual: גלית and Γολιάθου, “of Goliath."
Acc. to the archaeologists, the members of the family were exceptionally tall.
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As Hanukkah begins this evening, a note on a fascinating scholarly discussion worth following.
It involves this magnificent mosaic panel discovered in a synagogue in Huqoq.
Upon discovery, many suggested that it is our earliest Jewish depiction of the events of Hanukkah.
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Hanukkah is typically commemorated as a "clash of cultures".
It represents the battle between a clearly defined and largely monolithic "Judaism" against a clearly defined and largely monolithic "Hellenism".
This narrative is increasingly problematized in scholarship.
🧵 1/20
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A thread on Jewish magical recipe books, or grimoires, from late antiquity. Ancient and Medieval Jews possessed a variety of handbooks to harness the supernatural. 1
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Passover Haggadah with Judeo-Persian instructions made by the Jews of Kaifeng, China around the 17th c. (HUC ms. 927).
Here we see instructions in Judeo-Persian to bless the "unleavened bread (פטיר נאן/faṭīr nān)," i.e. Matzah.
Another Haggadah w/ a rich history.
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Hebrew inscriptions from the Ḥijāz (western Saudi Arabia) centuries before the rise of Islam.
One reads: "Blessing to ʿAtur son of Menaḥem and rabbi Jeremiah."
"Rabbi" here is almost certainly an honorific, not a formal title signaling belonging to the "rabbinic movement."
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Publication day (discount code coming)!
I'm really looking forward to the responses it generates.
For now, I want to recognize the incredible network of friends & colleagues around me, who helped make this a richly edifying & deeply enjoyable process.
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In honor of Passover, which is just a few days away:
A fascinating recently published (2014) ostracon from Umm Balad, Egypt, dated to 96 CE, may tell us something about accommodations made by the Romans to a group of Jewish soldiers or workers.
1/
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Late antique Synagogue mosaic from Gerasa, Jordan. It was discovered in 1929 underneath a Church which was build atop it in 530-31 CE.
Fits with other reports from antiquity of synagogues repurposed (often violently) as churches.
Depicted here: the animals entering Noah's ark.
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Four manichaean Syriac script incantation bowls have nearly identical incantations invoking the legal & divorcing powers of Rabbi Joshua ben Perahya, a rabbi named in the Mishnah, identified in the Babylonian Talmud as Jesus' master, & regularly invoked in Jewish bowls.
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Voting numbers continue to pour in from key battleground districts.
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Jews used many surfaces to write incantations in late antiquity.
Two of the more well known & preserved kinds are earthenware bowls & metal amulets. In Babylonia, we only have evidence of the former.
However, other surfaces were used, like skulls and eggshells! 💀🥚
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Thrilled that my article "Playing with Persecution: Parallel Jewish and Christian Memories of Late Antiquity in Early Islamic Iraq" was just published in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies!
A 🧵 on its main claims.
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Zoroastrianism in antiquity was fundamentally dualist, built on the idea that the world is composed in equal parts of two types of creation, some by the benevolent god Ohrmazd, which were to be cultivated, and others by the wicked Ahriman, to be eliminated. A short thread. 1/8
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In honor of Nowruz, rabbinic literature offers a number of lists of non-Jewish festivals, including Iranian festivals.
Because later scribes & reciters did not know Persian, the names have grown garbled in the manuscript tradition.
But they can be reconstructed.
🧵
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On the last day of Hanukkah, let's talk about the end of the Hasmonean dynasty.
This is typically dated to the end of the 1st BCE.
Herod married the Hasmonean Mariamne, had two children with her, but would come to kill all three.
Thus ended the dynasty.
Or did it...?
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Apparently my book now has its own web page!
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Before the empire's Christianization, the local coins of Apamea in Phrygia, minted over the course of 5 emperors between the late 2nd-mid 3rd centuries, depict a surprising motif: the story of Noah's ark.
What is this story of Noah doing on these city coins at this time?
🧵
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As a child, I was upset that my name was so difficult for some to pronounce.
So I demanded that my mother give me an Anglicized name.
She said: "No problem! You're named after your grandfather, who also went by Sheldon. You can be Sheldon."
I realized I love the name Simcha.
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Thrilled to receive proofs for this forthcoming piece!
The piece is technical, but the argument has major ramifications for our understanding of Jewish society under Sasanian rule & of the Sasanian Empire itself, which I unpack in greater depth in the forthcoming book.
🧵
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Overstruck coin from the Bar Kokhba revolt (132-135 CE), where part of the name of emperor Domitian (d. 96) are still visible.
These coins were symbolic not only in their own iconography, but in the way they erased Roman iconography, symbolism, and rulers.
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This 🧵 demonstrates the importance of key methodological trends in the past few decades that reconsider traditional narratives based on naive reliance on literary sources, & in particular, on Josephus Flavius, allowing for more textured, multicausal, & critical accounts.
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Today in AD 70 the Roman army led by Titus breached the walls of Jerusalem.
Great destruction and slaughter followed.
[Thread🧵]
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Thrilled that the 1st piece I ever submitted is out at last!
It deconstructs the composition history of a Syriac martyr act of a Jewish boy who converts to Christianity, & what it teaches about the transmission of knowledge, scribal creativity, & the formation of a genre.
🧵
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Discussing Sasanian royal reliefs this week, and I have to say, Sasanians knew that the best way to convey the idea that they trample on their foes... was to literally depict themselves trampling on their fallen foes. 1/4
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Some ancient synagogues also functioned as hostels for travelers.
The Theodotos inscription describes how he: "built the synagogue for the reading of the law & teaching the commandments, & the guest room (τὸν ξενῶνα)..& water fittings as an inn for those in need from abroad.."
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Excited to receive proofs for this article!
In it, I situate the parallel projects of construction of the late antique past by the late 7th-c. Syriac Christian author John of Fenek & the late-8th/early-9th c. Jewish author Pirqoi ben Baboi in the context of early Islamic rule.
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The Arch of Titus is one of the most well-known ancient monuments concerning Jewish history.
Built in 82 CE, it depicts the victorious procession of Roman troops carrying Jewish temple vessels, including of course the golden Menorah.
But there was once another arch.
🧵
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Good on
@IKEAUSA
for appropriately naming its simple minimalist curtains "Ritva," no doubt after the clearest and least frilly of medieval Talmudic commentators, the Ritva (Rabbi Yom Tov ben Avraham Assevilli, Spain, d. 1314).
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When the indispensable commentary of the great biblical & talmudic interpreter Rashi, Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (d. 1105), came to an end mid-tractate, followed by a different commentary, a short notice declares not “here ends Rashi’s commentary” but “here died Rashi (כאן מת רש״י)".
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Thrilled that this article is now published!
In it, I ask why some Jewish rebels in the "Great Revolt" believed they could defy the odds against them, why the Romans responded as they did, & I propose better ways to think about "Judeophobia" in antiquity
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In contrast to the Passover Haggada, where Moses receives little attention, enjoy the Dura Europus synagogue panel (destroyed in 256 CE) in which the towering Moses appears three times, leading the Israelites from Egypt, splitting the Red Sea, and causing the Egyptians to drown.
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This anecdote serves to show that interreligious contact between Jews and Christians in the medieval period was far more common than our sources often suggest.
This is now a field of growing interest in recent years, and I will link some articles below.
Fin.
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I am thrilled to share that I will be joining the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania this Fall! A special thank you to
@cobbpasha
!
I will miss my colleagues and friends at the UC Irvine, and am grateful for my time there.
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Proofs! Out at
@StudLateAntiq
soon!
Will thread about the piece when it's officially published.
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Disappointed there is no equivalent scriptural text for Hanukkah like the Scroll of Esther?
Say hello to the Scroll of Antiochus, a fascinating text that nearly became a widespread feature of Jewish Hanukkah liturgy, and challenges the notion of a "closed canon".
Thread 1/10
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God's hand(s), in late antique Jewish art.
Scenes from the Dura Europos synagogue (Binding of Isaac, Splitting of the Red Sea, Ezekiel's dry bones vision) and the Beth Alpha synagogue (Binding of Isaac).
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Third century CE golden amulet with Shema prayer from the grave of a Jewish child in Halbturn, Austria.
ΣΥΜΑ ΙΣΤΡΑΗΛ ΑΔΩNΕ ΕΛΩΗ ΑΔΩN Α
Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one.
Compare with incantation bowl from c. 6th century Iraq, with extended Shema prayer.
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My copies finally arrived! Thanks to all of the wonderful contributors and to my inimitable coeditor!
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Hanukkah is most identified with the menorah, which of course commemorates the so-called miracle of oil. Or does it...? A thread. 1/15
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Not a time for celebration, but wanted to acknowledge the publication at long last of a wonderful and pathbreaking set of articles, including by
@AnnetteYReed
, edited by James Adam Redfield and myself.
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A few days ago, the JTA reported on a controversy over the fact that the MET's catalogue identified what is observably a Jewish phylactery as a 6th century Egyptian amulet. A thread. 1/28
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Thrilled that this article is now live
@jewish_studies
!
In it, I argue that the editorial material of the Talmud - from glosses to elaborate stories - reflects developments of the Sasanian sixth century, from infrastructure to backgammon to Aristotle!
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So much Jewish symbolism & practice derives from a history of magic:
The Star of David, known in antiquity as the Seal of Solomon!
The Hamsa🪬, AKA the hand of Fatima!
Phylacteries & mezuzah, i.e. prescribed amulets!
The nightly prayer originates in Jewish incantations!
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Excited to soon see this article in print
@jewish_studies
!
I argue that sections of the editorial layer(s) of the Talmud presuppose intellectual, cultural & administrative developments of the Sasanian 6th century.
Come for taxes & bridge repair, stay for Aristotle & backgammon!
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In Modern Hebrew vernacular, the direct object marker 'et (את) and the definitive article ha (ה) is often pronounced instead as ta. So et-ha-shabbat (the Sabbath) becomes ta-shabbat. The same form is found in the Bar Kokhba Letters c. 135 CE (תשבת). A case of continuity or drift?
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Thrilled that my piece "Being Roman in the Sasanian Empire: Revisiting the Great Persecution of Christians under Shapur II" is out at
@StudLateAntiq
!
It offers a new approach to the Sasanian Empire's anxieties concerning its heterogenous communities.
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The recent tragic news about the arson attack on the shrine of Mordechai and Esther in Hamadan, Iran, is a good occasion to reflect on the history of this site, a window into Jewish-Iranian identity through the ages. A thread. 1/23
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Having just published a book on Jews in the Sasanian Empire () and as I work on a chapter for my next book on the 614 episode, it seems worth emphasizing to "Slow Boring" hosts & friends that rushing to wiki for facile historical curios ain't the way.
1
In 614, a joint Persian/Jewish force captured Jerusalem from the Byzantine Empire.
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This is ridiculous: who still thinks Hebrew has a biliteral root system, already rejected in the medieval period.
Hebrew primarily has triliteral roots.
Let me show you:
Perry Stone can be transliterated into Hebrew as Peri Šeten (פרי שתן), meaning urine fruit.
It works!
Right-wing pastor Perry Stone claims to have discovered that Joe Biden's name, when translated into Hebrew, means "Alas, Judgment."
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A reminder that the earliest surviving physical parallels to what became the Bible... are a pair of silver amulets.
They were discovered in Ketef Hinnom & are dated to the 6th century BCE.
The inscription on the second (KH2) is parallel to the 'priestly blessing' in Numbers 6.
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New Publication Wednesday! Just received the printed version of a chapter I wrote entitled "A Long Overdue Farewell: The Purported Jewish Origins of Syriac Christianity." A thread. 1/35 (sorry for length!)
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Foreign names like mine are regularly butchered. This doesn't bother me at all; pronunciation is difficult, it's all good.
What does annoy me is when scholars offer different transliterations of my name, typically replacing the ch with kh, ḥ, or h.
I'm not a journal article.
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I was today years old when I learned that cotton candy in Hebrew is called “grandmother’s hairs (שערות סבתא)”.
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While I have here derided Pilate, he was overzealous and particularly brutal, but not categorically different from some other Judean procurators and officials of the first century CE, & esp. their reactions to the rise of various dissident groups. A thread for another time.
Fin.
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The chief rabbi of Iran tweets about the Taq-i Kisra in Ctesiphon, the capital of the Sasanian Empire, and the home of many rabbis named in the Talmud, and my Irano-Talmudic heart soars.
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