Congrats to our alumnus Shalom E. Holtz '94 upon publishing "Praying Legally."

Praying Legally
Shalom E. Holtz '94
Brown Judaic Studies, Nov 2019

In biblical and other ancient Near Eastern sources prayer is an opportunity to make one’s case before divine judges. Prayers were formulated using courtroom or trial language, including demands for judgment, confessions, and accusations. The presence of these legal concepts reveals ancient Near Eastern thoughts about what takes place when one prays. By reading ancient prayers together with legal texts, this book shows how speakers took advantage of prayer as an opportunity to have their day in the divine court and even sue against divine injustice.

PROFESSOR OF BIBLE; DIRECTOR OF THE JAY AND JEANIE SCHOTTENSTEIN HONORS PROGRAM AT YESHIVA COLLEGE

Shalom E. Holtz is an Assyriologist and biblical scholar interested in Mesopotamian literature and law and their relationships to biblical and post-biblical writings. His most recent book is Neo-BabylonianTrial Records (Society of Biblical Literature Writings from the Ancient World 35; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2014). Based on his research on cuneiform law, he has also written several comparative studies of courtroom terminology and imagery in the Hebrew Bible in light of Akkadian legal documents. He is currently working on a book to be entitled Praying Legally, which examines connections between prayer and the courtroom in the biblical world. His research for this project is supported by grants from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture and by the Chelst, Schreiber, and Zwas YC Book Fund.