Annette Yoshiko Reed

@annetteyreed

Stendahl Chair at Harvard Divinity School / studying demons, apocalypses, and ancient identities, between memory and forgetting

2.254 Folgt5.403 Follower1.111 Posts

Bluesky

Ist das dein Profil?Übernimm es — dann gehört dir annetteyreed.dirty.social.Profil übernehmen

Annette Yoshiko Reed@annetteyreed· 15d

Mine, though, got lucky with jobs at the sunbeam nap factory

Black cat and grey tabby, napping together in sunbeam next to glass door

Annette Yoshiko Reed@annetteyreed· 16d

August as an academic

Tabbycat in tie say he hopes he doesn’t have a lot of meetings… while in the background is a lots of meetings factory

Annette Yoshiko Reed@annetteyreed· Jul 17

Rohini agrees 🐈‍⬛ (on behalf of tiny black cats)

Black cat on blue velvet blanket, pink tongue blepped

Annette Yoshiko Reed@annetteyreed· Jul 15

First review of Shaul’s new translation book! link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Zionism versus anti-Zionism; is anti-Zionism the same as antisemitism? Have young Jews abandoned Zionism? These are among the issues with which contemporary Jews and supporters of Israel are grappling. Many in the broader Jewish world are only vaguely aware that a few generations ago Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, the Satmar Rebbe, articulated an anti-Zionist theology that remains enormously influential, as Satmar is the largest Hasidic group in the world. This reality also greatly complicates contemporary debates. If such a large community of pious Jews proudly identifies as anti-Zionist, can anti-Zionists elsewhere point to Satmar to avoid being labeled antisemites?

Even those with a more substantial knowledge of the Rebbe’s teachings have generally derived it from the popular press or from a handful of academic articles. The major corpus of the Rebbe's writings on the subject, what we can call his anti-Zionist classics, Va-Yoel Moshe and Al ha-Geulah ve-al ha-Temurah, have remained largely inaccessible to most readers. Even those fluent in Hebrew would find these volumes challenging, as they presuppose a significant degree of rabbinic learning.

In his latest book, the prolific scholar Shaul Magid has translated and annotated what he rightly identifies as the Rebbe’s major writings. While Magid’s own views regarding Zionism are hardly a secret, and he has in recent years emerged as a major public intellectual, there is no trace of them in this volume. This absence is evident even in the two pages of acknowledgments, where one might have expected some personal reflections on his relationship to the Rebbe, whether he was inspired by him, challenged by him, or both. Instead, the most we are given is the following statement: “I am sure R. Teitelbaum would not agree with many of my life choices. But I think I have come to understand him, and I hope to have rendered his thought both accurately and generously” (p. ix).

Magid’s decision to keep his own views out of the book wa…

That said, some of the Rebbe’s rhetoric can easily spill over into the political realm. For example, he blamed Israel for the Six-Day War (p. 158). Some of his assertions are genuinely startling. He maintained that if the State of Israel ceased to exist, “it is certain that there would no longer be wars and travails [in Eretz Yisrael] and the people there would make order and not kill one another” (p. 155). He even blamed the Zionists for Hitler’s decision to annihilate European Jewry (p. 156).

On broader issues, it is difficult to regard the Rebbe as a model for contemporary readers. For example, he explains why women may not study Torah independently (pp. 119 ff.). They may also not be taught the Oral Law or even leshon ha-kodesh. The result is that women in the Satmar community are not supposed to be able to open a traditional Jewish text on their own, which is precisely the point: to keep them ignorant (see also pp. 135–136).

Magid’s annotations enable readers of any background to understand the Rebbe's arguments and the sources upon which they are based. Even readers capable of studying the originals will benefit from consulting this translation to take advantage of Magid’s notes.Footnote 1

Annette Yoshiko Reed@annetteyreed· Jun 9

Back flap includes a listing of other books by the same press

Hand holding open book to back flap - list includes *Book of Noah from Sefer Raziel*

Annette Yoshiko Reed@annetteyreed· Jun 9

Random used bookstore find of the day…

Pic of book = The Angelic Alphabet by
Susan Mernit (Berkeley: Tree, 1975) - cover image feautures two serious women in long robes, one with an aleph over her head, the other tav

Annette Yoshiko Reed@annetteyreed· Jun 9

2 out of 2–my spouse Shaul got Maskil 🎯

YOUR CLOSEST COUNTERPART
The Maskil
C. 1770-1800 • BERLIN & KÖNIGSBERG • REASON AND ENLIGHTENMENT
Mendelssohn, the Ferusalem
You live in two worlds at once-the tradition you were raised in and the age of reason around it-and you mean to bring them together.
Faith and philosophy needn't quarrel. The old learning can open to science and the wider world, the law can be sifted by reason, and a person can be a citizen and a Jew at once-whatever the rabbis or the gentiles say.
REPRESENTATIVE FIGURES Moses Mendelssohn, Naftali Herz Wessely,
Salomon Maimon

Annette Yoshiko Reed@annetteyreed· Jun 9

Um… this quiz is eerily accurate…

YOUR CLOSEST COUNTERPART
The Hermetic Magus
C. 1460–1600 · ITALY & NORTHERN EUROPE · NATURAL MAGICIAN
Agrippa, the Occult Philosophy
You suspect the universe is alive and laced with hidden correspondences only the learned can read. You think the adept who knows the ancient keys can reach up and pull on its strings.

REPRESENTATIVE FIGURESMarsilio Ficino, Cornelius Agrippa, John Dee, Giordano Bruno

Annette Yoshiko Reed@annetteyreed· Jun 3

Just out in newest HTR!! www.cambridge.org/core/journal... (As always, happy to send a PDF to anyone w/o institutional access)

Review Essay*
A Life in (Much More than) Midrash:
Reading Jewish Books with David Stern
Annette Yoshiko Reed
Harvard Divinity School

I have known David Stern for decades—including as colleagues at the University
of Pennsylvania (Penn) in the 2010s and at Harvard University since 2022. The
present essay reflects upon his scholarship through the lens of the first two volumes
of his collected articles and the recent Festschrift in his honor edited by Naftali
Cohn and Katrin Kogman-Appel. Taken together, these three volumes offer a
lens onto Stern’s evolving research interests while also illuminating the study of
Jewish texts and textuality during critical decades for academic Jewish Studies in
the United States.1

Annette Yoshiko Reed@annetteyreed· May 12

Open access article on “An Independent Śiva Purāṇa and Śiva’s Reverence to the Man-Lion” by Benjamin Fleming www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/17...

This article traces the history of a small independent Śiva Purāṇa that has circulated across South Asia for centuries. Rather than focusing on its theological and narrative content alone, this article also focuses on the text’s material manifestation in three distinct time periods: Medieval, Mughal, and Colonial. The first section considers its material and textual history with attention to manuscripts. The second section elucidates the value of this approach by considering one episode from the text: the Śarabha-Narasiṃha story. In the process of illuminating the Śiva Purāṇa tradition, this article uses this Purāṇic example to experiment with approaches to scriptural materiality through Pierre Bourdieu’s lens of a “double existence”.

Annette Yoshiko Reed@annetteyreed· May 8

Fascinating (and free!) article from newest JHI: “An Ethiopian Lucretius? Giusto da Urbino and the Origins of the Ḥatäta Zärʾa Yaʿɘqob Controversy” by Lea Cantor and Jonathan Egid muse.jhu.edu/article/989311

An Ethiopian Lucretius?
Giusto da Urbino and the Origins of the Ḥatäta Zärʾa Yaʿɘqob Controversy
Lea Cantor and Jonathan Egid
Abstract
This article uses new archival evidence to reframe the controversy over the authorship of the Ḥatäta Zärʾa Yaʿǝqob (also known as the Wärqe), a philosophical autobiography set in seventeenth-century Ethiopia. We demonstrate that, already in the context of the Catholic mission to evangelize the Oromo people of southern Ethiopia, accusations were made against a Capuchin missionary, Fr. Giusto da Urbino (1814–56), to the effect that he had endorsed, edited, or even forged this work. Catholic authorities promptly attempted to suppress the Ḥatäta Zärʾa Yaʿǝqob, identified in an 1857 report as a “true Lucretius of Ethiopian literature.”

Annette Yoshiko Reed@annetteyreed· Apr 28

Open access Enochica in HTR! Kirsten Macfarlane on “A principio fuit canonicus”: The Controversy over 1 Enoch in Seventeenth-Century Europe” www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

The past decade has seen significant advances in our understanding of the early modern reception of 1 Enoch, thanks to the pioneering work of Ariel Hessayon, Annette Yoshiko Reed, and Gabriele Boccaccini among others. Building on their research, this article reconstructs the dynamics that generated interest in 1 Enoch in early modernity, focussing on the reception of the Syncellus fragments published in 1606 by Joseph Scaliger. To do so, it offers three observations. Firstly, it expands our understanding of the nature of interest in 1 Enoch prior to 1606. Secondly, it corrects a common misinterpretation of Scaliger’s comments on the Syncellus fragments. Finally, it reconstructs three trends which arose after Scaliger and which functioned to perpetuate interest in 1 Enoch. This account should interest both scholars of Enoch’s afterlives and historians of scholarship for the light it sheds on the development of early modern biblical criticism.

Annette Yoshiko Reed@annetteyreed· Apr 24

If you see this, QP something pink 💕

A cascade of magnolias, just starting to bloom, with an azalea bush in the background

Annette Yoshiko Reed@annetteyreed· Apr 17

The event will be 4/20 5:15 at @hdslibrary.bsky.social , and speakers includ Shaul Magid and Jericho Vincent—attend either IRL or by Zoom!

Poster for “Sacred Fragments,” a panel at HDS on 4/20 5:15pm on Fragments of a Furure Scroll - b&w image of Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

Annette Yoshiko Reed@annetteyreed· Apr 17

Book launch on Monday! harvard.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

Black cat on gray couch looks curiously at a book - 50th anniversary reprint of Fragments of a Future Scroll

Annette Yoshiko Reed@annetteyreed· Apr 15

“Loanwords along the Silk Road” by Adam Bremer-McCollum cswr.hds.harvard.edu/news/2026/04...

Turfan, U 2973, side 1: The Diamond Sutra in Old Uyghur

Annette Yoshiko Reed@annetteyreed· Apr 15

Perfect! These cacti are so magical. An old friend of mine had one & when it bloomed she’d throw a party. (I haven’t thought of this for decades but managed to find a pastel drawing I made of it!)

Annette Yoshiko Reed@annetteyreed· Apr 15

NYC spring 💕

White flowering trees and colorful graffiti behind fence

Annette Yoshiko Reed@annetteyreed· Apr 14

Washington Sq Pk 🌸

Pink flowering trees abounding - building in background

Annette Yoshiko Reed@annetteyreed· Apr 13

Soho & LES 💕

Hawk statue in park surrounded by flowering trees, as glimpsed from behind fences

Pink and white flowering trees on a city street, against blue skies
Up

Side view of parklet with white blooms on city street

Annette Yoshiko Reed@annetteyreed· Apr 13

Cloisters abloom

Annette Yoshiko Reed@annetteyreed· Apr 9

Boston-area friends: come hear Prof. Alex Jassen's talk about the discovery of Dead Sea Scrolls (4/22 5pm) @cjsharvard.bsky.social + also check out my mini-exhibit of related materials at HDS special collections! On the latter = humanhistoriesofkn.substack.com/p/the-dead-s... @hdslibrary.bsky.social

Two signs--with Dead Sea Scrolls imagery--advertising "The Dead Sea Scrolls & Harvard Divinity School, a display of letters and other materials from HDS Library's special collections, April-May 2026"

Poster with black and white photos of Library of Congress exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls, advertising a Lecture by Prof. Alex Jasson, 4/22 5pm, Sever Hall 103, Harvard

Annette Yoshiko Reed@annetteyreed· Apr 8

Spring ❤️

Tree with white flowers on city street with red building

Annette Yoshiko Reed@annetteyreed· Apr 8

This is my favorite NYC season—I love the flowers that surprise on city sidewalks

Blue sky and tree with round white flowers next to urban building

Pink and pointy flowers, lush in a tiny parklet

Yellow in a tiny parklet squeezed between two busy city streets

Annette Yoshiko Reed@annetteyreed· Apr 8

Chilly spell but spring flowers all out in NYC!

Cityscape with blue skies, fluffy clouds, and a white blossoming tree

Annette Yoshiko Reed@annetteyreed· Apr 4

Rereading *Josephus and Jesus* in preparation for our event on Monday—a debate btwn T. C. Schmidt & Giovanni Bazzana! For a FREE PDF of this Open Access book = josephusandjesus.com/purchase-page/

Copy of *Josephus & Jesus* resting on gray tabby cat with big ears and curious eyes

Annette Yoshiko Reed@annetteyreed· Apr 4

Cambridge, Mass. = still cold + spring flowers finally starting…

Fluffy pink blossom bush bright with sunbeam, in front of brick building

Annette Yoshiko Reed@annetteyreed· Apr 2

🌸🌸

Little tree with plump pink blooms on city street

Pale pink blossoms on tree next to blue graffiti

Annette Yoshiko Reed@annetteyreed· Mar 30

Show me your spring flowers! In NYC, it’s been a looooong winter, and the flowering trees are only now starting to pop…

Big building, blue skies, and the beginnings of flowers on an urban flowering tree

Pink blossoms in a small urban park, behind a big gate

Annette Yoshiko Reed@annetteyreed· Mar 7

And so too with theorizing of demonology, demonization, and difference… www.jpost.com/middle-east/...