»In deciphering Ashkenazi Masorah we uncover a whole world of a forgotten Jewish textual tradition.«

 Hanna Liss 

»In deciphering Masorah we uncover a whole world of a forgotten Jewish textual tradition.«

 Hanna Liss 

Prof. Dr. Hanna Liss

Curriculum Vitae

Since 2003

Full Professor and Chair of the Department of Bible and Jewish Exegesis, Heidelberg Center for Jewish Studies

2002

Habilitation and Venia Legendi in Jewish Studies, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg

1995

PhD in Jewish Studies, Berlin/Jerusalem

2017/18: Senior Research Fellow at the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies, University of Hamburg; 2008: Alfried Krupp Senior Fellow at the Alfried Krupp Institute for Advanced Study Greifswald; 2003: Harry Starr Research Fellow in Judaica, Center for Jewish Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge/MA. 2002: Moosnick Distinguished Professor of Hebrew Bible & Jewish Studies, Lexington Theological Seminary and the University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY.

Other Research Projects

Project “Bible Glossaries as Cultural Carriers - Judeo-French Cultural Exchange in the High Middle Ages”

2023–40, funded by the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities

© Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation)
Project “Biblia Rabbinica: The Biblical Text in Rabbinic Literature – Collection of the Variant Readings on the Basis of the Babylonian-Yemenite Textual Tradition”

2020–26, funded by the German Research Foundation (1 Research Associate)

Member of the Study Group “Text & Textuality”

2017–21, funded by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation

Graduate School 1728 “Theology as an Academic Discipline”

2012–21, funded by the German Research Foundation (1 Research Associate)

Subproject B04 “Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible. The Masora Text of the Hebrew Bible in its Various Material Forms in Western Europe”

2011–23, Collaborative Research Centre 933 “Material Text Cultures. Materiality and Presence of Writing in Non-Typographic Societies”, Heidelberg University/Heidelberg Center for Jewish Studies, funded by the German Research Foundation (1 Research Associate)

Most Recent Books and Edited Volumes

Liss, Jüdische Bibelauslegung (2020)
Liss, Hanna. 2020. Jüdische Bibelauslegung. Tübingen: UTB.
Liss, Tanach (2019)
Liss, Hanna. 2019. Tanach. Lehrbuch der jüdischen Bibel. 4th. rev. ed. Schriften der Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg 8. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag C. Winter.
Liss, Hanna, and Bruno E. Landthaler. 2018. Wie das Judentum mit der Tora lebt. Weisung von ganz oben. Berlin: Cornelsen.
Liss, Hanna, Bruno Landthaler, and Darius Gilmont, eds. 2014. Erzähl es deinen Kindern: die Torah in fünf Bänden. Berlin: Ariella Verlag.
Philippson, Ludwig. 2018. Die Schriften (hebräisch-deutsch) in der Übersetzung von Rabbiner Ludwig Philippson. Edited by Walter Homolka, Hanna Liss, and Rüdiger Liwak. Freiburg: Herder.

Publications for download *

Liss, Hanna. 2021. “Masorah as Counter-Crusade? The Use of Masoretic List Material in MS London, British Library Or. 2091.” In Philology and Aesthetics: Figurative Masorah in Western European Manuscripts, edited by Hanna Liss and Jonas Leipziger, 111–48. Frankfurt am Main et al.: Peter Lang.
Liss, Hanna. 2021. “Introduction: Editorial State of the Art of the Masoretic Corpus and Research Desiderata.” In Philology and Aesthetics: Figurative Masorah in Western European Manuscripts, edited by Hanna Liss, 7–33. Realms of Judaism 85. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Liss, Hanna. 2019. “‚Die niedere Kritik‘. Das Studium der Masora zwischen Wissenschaft des Judentums und Bibelwissenschaft.” In Europäisch-jüdische Studien 40. Deutsch-Jüdische Bibelwissenschaft. Historische, exegetische und theologische Perspektiven, edited by Sophia Kähler, Shani Tzoref, and Daniel Vorpahl. Leiden / Boston: De Gruyter.
Liss, Hanna, and Kay Joe Petzold. 2019. “Masorah, Masoretes: I.B. Judaism: Medieval Ashkenaz; II. Visual Arts.” In Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception, edited by Christine Helmer, 17:1274–80. Berlin: de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/ebr.masorahmasoretes.
Liss, Hanna. 2018. “Scepticism, Critique, and the Art of Writing: Preliminary Considerations on the Question of Textual Authority in Medieval Peshaṭ Exegesis.” In Yearbook of the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies, edited by Bill Rebiger, 15–41. Berlin/Boston, MA: De Gruyter.
Liss, Hanna. 2018. “Aschkenasische Bibelcodices als Träger exegetischer und theologischer Geheimnisse.” In 700 Jahre Judentum Tirol, edited by Joseph Oesch and Ursula Schattner-Rieser, 203–23. Innsbruck: Univ. Press Innsbruck.
Liss, Hanna. 2017. “A Pentateuch to Read in? The Secrets of the Regensburg Pentateuch.” In Jewish Manuscript Cultures. New Perspectives, edited by Irina Wandrey, 89–128. Studies in Manuscript Cultures 13. Berlin: de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110546422-005.
Liss, Hanna. 2016. “Ein Pentateuch wie andere auch? Die Lese-Geheimnisse des Regensburg Pentateuchs.” In Metatexte: Erzählungen von schrifttragenden Artefakten in der alttestamentlichen und mittelalterlichen Literatur, edited by Friedrich-Emanuel Focken and Michael R. Ott, 197–330. Materiale Textkulturen: Schriftenreihe des Sonderforschungsbereichs 933 15. Berlin (Boston): De Gruyter.
Liss, Hanna. 2014. “Vom Sefer Tora zum sefer: Die Bedeutung von Büchern im ‘Buch der Frommen’ des R. Yehuda ben Shemu’el he-Ḥasid.” In Erscheinungsformen und Handhabungen Heiliger Schriften, edited by Joachim Friedrich Quack and Daniela Christina Luft, 207–27. Materiale Textkulturen 5. Berlin, München, Boston: De Gruyter. http://www.degruyter.com/viewbooktoc/product/431187).
Hanna, Liss. 2011. Creating Fictional Worlds. Peshat(-)Exegesis and Narrativity in Rashbam’s Commentary on the Torah. Studies in Jewish History and Culture 25. Boston, Leiden: Brill.

* The pdf files are made available in accordance with the repository policies of the publishers (Brill, de Gruyter, Innsbruck University Press, Peter Lang).