Description
Raphael Patai
Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd, London, 1947. Hardcover. First Edition. 228 pages. Small pencil price on initial blank. Faint sunning/discolouration to endpapers, dust-jacket somewhat worn with some tears. An attractive Very Good copy of a highly collectable edition.
All those interested in Old Testament lore will gain something from this study in Hebrew anthropology.
Efforts to secure man’s well-being with the aid of the supernatural were at an early date organized in the Near Eastern lands into great seasonal rituals. In each ancient culture thee rituals were centred in a temple, and the temple-service was regarded as the agency responsible for the proper functioning of nature. In Israel an especially rich fabric of myths lent significance to the Jerusalem Temple’s central position in both the structure and the functioning of the world. This institutional aspect was first counterbalanced, then superseded by the personal aspect that saw in man the responsible agent for the maintenance of the cosmic order.
The author, utilizing the latest information on the ancient Near East and a very wide range of material collected by him from the Rabbinic literature, brings to bear on this double set of data the methods and viewpoints of modern anthropology. The accent of the book is on the social aspect of man’s approach to the operations of nature.
Dr. Raphael Patal, born in Budapest, has since 1933 taught Hebrew at the University of Jerusalem. In 1944 he founded the Palestine Institute of Folklore and Ethnology, of which he is scientific director; and he is editor of the journal Edoth.
