Studies in Rabbinic Narratives, Volume 1 ed. by Jeffrey L. Rubenstein

Abstract

Reviewed by: Studies in Rabbinic Narratives, Volume 1 ed. by Jeffrey L. Rubenstein Zev Garber jeffrey l. rubenstein (ed.), Studies in Rabbinic Narratives, Volume 1 (BJS 367; Providence, RI: Brown Judaic Studies, 2021). Pp. xxvi + 417. Paper $29. Rabbinic narrative is a relatively new subject taught primarily in the halls of academia rather than between the walls of Yeshiva. In the latter, for example, neither the Talmud (Bavli, primarily, and Yerushalmi) nor its traditional commentaries are introduced or taught as distinct literary forms or genres. Instead, traditional rabbinic writings are distinguished between halakah (Jewish law) and aggadah (diverse literary forms, including, narratives, [End Page 346] homilies, biographies, exegesis, and more) not directly related to the halakic decision-making process. In traditional rabbinic learning, the emphasis is primarily on the ways of halakah and insights related to aggadah are seen as peripheral, nonessential, and redirected for public education. Alternate approaches emerged in the nineteenth century, when academic scholars trained by the Wissenschaft des Judentums movement for the scientific study of Judaism began to probe rabbinic literature for evidence of Jewish life in antiquity, and evaluated the Talmud's narratives about the lives of the ancient rabbis as historical testimony. But how authentic is the recorded history? Does its influence substitute for its factuality? For example, Rabbi Aqiba's death by laceration is included in the 'Eleh 'Ezkerah ("The Ten Martyrs") musap prayer, which is recited primarily in Ashkenazi services on Yom Kippur. Contrary to the talmudic view, the liturgical Ten Martyrs were executed on the same day. There are two reasons given for the execution: (1) they founded schools of learning that ran contrary to imperial edict during the reign of Hadrian; or (2) they were slaughtered to atone for the sins of Joseph's ten brothers, who sold him on Yom Kippur (as per the Book of Jubilees). Both explanations provide ethical and moral challenges, that is to say, whether slaughtered for the spread of Torah and as proxy punishment, nay, execution (see Deut 24:16). More excruciating is Aqiba's contented 'Eḥad' in lieu of spitting at the executioner (saving life), as observed in b. Ber. 61b: When R. Aqiba was taken out for execution, it was the hour for the recital of the Shema, and the enemy (Rome) was combing his flesh with an iron comb, and he was accepting upon himself the kingship of heaven with love. His disciples said to him: "Our teacher, why are you content? He said to them, All my days I have been troubled over not fulfilling the verse, 'Love the Lord, your God, with all your soul'; and now that I have the opportunity to complete the Shema properly, shall I not do so?" In recent decades, Jeffrey L. Rubenstein (Talmudic Stories: Narrative Art, Composition, and Culture [Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999]) began to treat narrative in the Talmud as a subject for study in its own right. This volume contains the papers presented at a conference on "Rabbinic Narratives" held at New York University June 4–5, 2018 organized by editor Rubenstein. The inclusions are sensitively introduced by R., who reads the rabbinic narrative in venues of source criticism, redaction criticism, and comparative studies; and all essays are accompanied by a concise detailed explanation to help clarify rabbinic ideas and arguments within the broader historical and ideological context of Jewish religious history. In the Introduction, Rubenstein previews the importance of rabbinic narrative and explains his rationale for the selection and interpretation of the chapters that follow—that is, discussion of diverse examples of rabbinic devices and textual nuances that present the image, experience, teachings, and worldviews of rabbinic masters. Collectively, the book's essays and methodology immerse traditional Jewish exegesis and eisegesis in the cultural, intellectual, legal, and literary history, contexts, and categories of late antiquity to enlighten rabbinic discourse. The result is a thinking person's guide to rabbinic legal and literary contexts and texts that complement nicely traditional midrashic and sermonic approaches in the study of the Torah of Moses. Julia Watts Belser ("'Hornets Came and Consumed Her': Gender, Animality, and Hunger in Bavli Sanhedrin's Stories of Sodom and Noah") speaks of negative and positive...