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Home Seminar. Session 10, November 2, 2022, Jerusalem. Professor Michael Shenkar, Hebrew University. Zoroastrianism, Problems of Its Genesis and Development Renowned archaeologist, Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Michael Shenkar, in his concentrated review talks about Zoroastrianism and its common Iranian-Indian Aryan substrate. Although this religious tradition itself dates back, if not to the third, then to the second millennium BC, it has undergone inevitable changes and variations over an enormous period of time. What we know about the teachings of Zoroaster is limited primarily by its very late written recording. Meanwhile, Zoroastrianism is alive today, and not only in Iran and India, where large communities function: it is widely in demand in Europe and the USA, where Zoroastrians have become an elite group that has achieved amazing socio-cultural achievements. Its liturgics are entirely dominated by ritual, which is the property of the priests alone - however, their obligatory hereditary succession is hampered by socio-demographic and theological factors. The lecture notes, in particular, the fundamental differences between the Indo-Iranian religious tradition and the religious environment of the ancient Near East, which produced Judaic and then Christian monotheism. At the same time, it highlights the undeniable Persian influence on Jewish demonology, and on the other hand, on the Babylonian Talmud, imbued with concern for ritual and literalism. The discussion (which continued after the filming) was attended by Alexander Zorin, Olga Polevaya, Zeev Bar-Sella, Maria Kelbert, Elena Gendeleva-Kurilova, Elena Tolstaya, Mikhail Vayskopf.