Когда задрожат стерегущие дом...

Tema pestrykh ėsse, sobrannykh v ėtu knigu, - mert͡sanie dobra i zla, ikh obmannoe skhodstvo, ikh preryvistyĭ khod v reke vremen. Zaglavie otsylaet chitateli͡a k stikhu Ekklesiasta (12:3): "V tot denʹ, kogda zadrozhat steregushchie dom i sognutsi͡a muzhi sily…" Ekklesiast govoril o starosti, kogda chelovek slepnet, glokhnet, teri͡aet zuby, sgibaetsi͡a pod gruzom bolezneĭ i let. No my vprave otnesti ėto k trevozhnym vremenam, kogda poluzabytye poni͡atii͡a dobra i zla vdrug ovladevai͡ut soznaniem i napolni͡ai͡utsi͡a smyslom. Arkadiĭ Bent͡sionovich Kovelʹman - professor, doktor istoricheskikh nauk, avtor ri͡ada monografiĭ i sbornikov stateĭ, v tom chisle: "Ritorika v teni piramid: Massovoe soznanie rimskogo Egipta" (M. : Nauka, 1988); "Between Alexandria and Jerusalem: the Dynamic of Hellenistic and Jewish Culture" (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2005); "Ėllinizm i evreĭskai͡a kulʹtura" (Moskva - Ierusalim: Mosty kulʹtury - Gesharim, 2007); "Talmud, Platon i Sii͡anie Slavy" (M. : Knizhniki, 2011); "Sokrytoe i i͡avlennoe v Talmude. Ocherk nefilosofskogo myshlenii͡a na iskhode antichnosti" (v soavtorstve s U. Gershovichem) (M. : Indrik, 2016); "Voshedshie v Pardes. Paradoksy evreĭskoĭ, khristianskoĭ i svetskoĭ kulʹtury" (M. : Knizhniki, 2019); "Deti Ekklesiasta (Shestov, Brodskiĭ i drugie)" (M. : Nauka, 2024).

The theme of the motley essays collected in this book is the shimmer of good and evil, their deceptive similarities, and their intermittent course in the river of time. The title refers the reader to the verse of Ecclesiastes (12:3): "In the day when the keepers of the house tremble and the men of power bend..." Ecclesiastes spoke about old age, when a person goes blind, goes deaf, loses his teeth, bends under the weight of diseases and years. But we have the right to attribute this to disturbing times when half-forgotten concepts of good and evil suddenly take over consciousness and become meaningful. Arkady Bentsionovich Kovelman is a professor, Doctor of Historical Sciences, author of a number of monographs and collections of articles, including: "Rhetoric in the Shadow of the Pyramids: The Mass Consciousness of Roman Egypt" (Moscow : Nauka, 1988); "Between Alexandria and Jerusalem: the Dynamics of Hellenistic and Jewish Culture" (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2005); "Hellenism and Jewish Culture" (Moscow — Jerusalem: Bridges of Culture — Gesharim, 2007); "Talmud, Plato and the Radiance of Glory" (Moscow : Scribniki, 2011); "Hidden and revealed in the Talmud. An essay on non-philosophical thinking at the end of Antiquity" (in collaboration with W. Gershovich) (Moscow : Indrik, 2016); "Included in the Pardes. Paradoxes of Jewish, Christian and Secular Culture" (Moscow : Scribes, 2019); "The Children of Ecclesiastes (Shestov, Brodsky and others)" (Moscow : Nauka, 2024).