The Concept of Diaspora in Rabbinic Sources

Abstract

Abstract The rabbinic diaspora in the Persianite and Sasanian empires of the second through seventh century CE provided the context for the production of one the great monuments of the culture of Jewish learning, the Babylonian Talmud. As the originary compilation of the rabbinic movement, the Mishnah (second century ce), on the other hand, appears as a text that was not only produced in the “land of Israel,” but also remained tethered to the land in its vision. This chapter discusses the dynamics of cultural mobility that enabled the rabbinic movement to transplant its traditions of learning to the geographic diaspora of what the rabbis referred to as Bavel (Babylonia). It traces some specific rhetorical strategies and, more generally, the consciousness that allowed the rabbis to transform Jewish dispersion into diaspora.