Abstract
Abstract Chapter 4 examines relationships among older and younger rabbis in the setting of the study house, focusing on the role of eyes, looks, and gazes in narrative depictions of old age. In the first story analyzed in the chapter, a young rabbi, upon gazing at an older rabbi who is dancing publicly, feels shame and self-consciousness as though his own body is implicated in the body of the old man and is put on display (BT Kettubot 17a). In the second story, an aging rabbi is the object of the harsh and merciless gaze of others but also appears capable of destroying the one who gazes at him with his own gaze (BT Baba Qamma 117a). The gaze in this story is a destructive force but also proves, in the end, to have a redeeming power.
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