Ṣedaqa and Torah in Postexilic Discourse ed. by Susanne Gillmayr-Bucher and Maria Häusl

Abstract

Reviewed by: Ṣedaqa and Torah in Postexilic Discourse ed. by Susanne Gillmayr-Bucher and Maria Häusl Stephen A. Long susanne gillmayr-bucher and maria häusl (eds.), Ṣedaqa and Torah in Postexilic Discourse (LHBOTS 640; London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2017). Pp. xiii + 178. $114. This collection of essays examines the use of and in "postexilic identity discourse" (p. 8), concentrating primarily on the Hebrew Bible (seven essays) with a glance toward NT and rabbinic literature as well (one essay each). An introduction provided by Maria Häusl sketches the concepts of and , outlines attempts to understand their possible interrelation, and summarizes both the essays and the results thought to have been obtained. The essays are divided into two sections. The first, entitled "Ṣedaqa and Torah in the Pentateuch, the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah and the Book of Isaiah," contains five essays. Kåre Berge ("Ṣedaqa and the Community of the Scribes in Postexilic Deuteronomy: A Didactical Perspective") notes that the Book of Deuteronomy sometimes explicitly links and (e.g., Deut 4:1-8 and 6:20-25). Berge interprets this as pointing to a utopian program of "Torah-didacticism"—a social vision of a postexilic Yehud constituted by "a society of scribes that ponders over the word of Torah and the teaching of their families about it" (p. 19). Jeremiah Cataldo ("How Torah, Ṣedaqa and Prejudice Mapped the Contours of Biblical Restoration") finds that postexilic was "constructive" rather than "descriptive" law. As such, " provides the framework for the production of collective identity, the expression of which may be designated as , or a type of moral behaviour centred upon a creative and judging God" (p. 54). Maria Häusl ("Searching for Forces of Group Cohesion in the Books of Nehemiah and Isaiah") probes four passages—Neh 5:1-13; Nehemiah 9–10; Isa 58:1-12; and Isa 65:16b-25—in order to discern the strategies deployed in each for the creation of a commonly shared ethos and an individual sense for the common good. In "The Role and Function of Ṣedaqa and Torah in the Introduction to the Book of Isaiah (1.1–2.5)," Alphonso Groenewald argues that the word in Isa 1:10 and 2:3 is a device intended by the postexilic redactor to link Isaiah's prophetic message with the Torah of Moses. Finally, in "'Keep Justice!' (Isaiah 56.1): Thoughts Regarding the Concept and Redaction History of a Universal Understanding of Ṣedaqa," Judith Gärtner advances the twin claims that the realization of justice and righteousness in Isa 56:1-8 is linked to Sabbath and covenant observance, and that they are "established by means of [a] theology of creation and thereby open to all humankind" (p. 87). The second section of the book, titled "Ṣedaqa and Torah Linked with Other Concepts: Holiness, Purity/Impurity and Faith," contains four essays. Marianne Grohmann ("Purity/Impurity: Identity Marker and Boundary Maintenance in Postexilic Discourse") surveys texts about purity/impurity from Leviticus, Ezekiel, and Lamentations and "considers their contribution to the shaping of identity in exilic and postexilic Judah" (p. 104). Dolores Kamrada ("Ideas of the Holy: Ṣedaqa and Torah within a Cultic/Religious System") seeks to relate and within a cultic system characterized by binary logic. According to Kamrada, the "instruction" () obtained by priestly divination likely yielded simple yes or no answers—and this binary structuring is still visible, claims Kamrada, in Psalm 1's association of with the (as opposed to association with the latter's binary opposite, the ). According to K., "one may conclude that the notion of seems to have evolved from a cultic system that reflects a binary logic and can be understood as the manifestation of the divine cosmic order" (p. 131). Christina Tuor-Kurth ("How Is Justice Referred to in [End Page 745] Faith? Some Reflections on the Hellenistic Jewish Tradition of the Reciprocal Relationship between Obedience to Torah and Righteousness and Their Reception in the New Testament with Special Focus on the Letter to the Romans") argues for a basic continuity between Paul and Hellenistic Judaism in that for both "righteousness in relation to humans, namely , means exemplary moral behaviour based on the Torah" (p. 146...