Rabbinic Literature Research Articles

One God, Two Powers, and the Rabbinic Rejection of Subordinationism

Abstract This article furthers our understanding of rabbinic theology through an examination of its characteristic modes of expression. I demonstrate that although the rabbinic literature frequently polemicizes against perceived deviant theologies, it refrains from explicit expressions of God’s unity. This disinclination derives from the target and intent of rabbinic theological polemic. The rabbis’ opponents were not Christian binitarians who believed in multiple divine persons, but what I will refer to as Jewish subordinationists who believed in created divine agents through which God acts in the world. The rabbis were therefore less concerned with the ontological nature of God’s unity than they were with distancing all other beings from God’s sole sovereignty. My work provides additional textual support for the growing scholarly consensus that Jewish proponents of Logos theologies were among the rabbis’ earliest opponents, but it challenges the current convention that interprets these theologies in a primarily Christian binitarian context.

Keepers of the Vineyard and the Fence around the Torah: The Vineyard Metaphor in Rabbinic Literature

Abstract Rabbinic texts apply the metaphor of the vineyard to the Torah as well as to Israel. Conceptual Metaphor Theory allows us to explain the parallel use of the vineyard metaphor for the two target domains, Israel and the Torah. The conceptual metaphor of the vineyard includes such aspects as the fence, the vines and the wine. The generic metaphor something precious is a cultivated piece of land enables us to include related conceptual fields, such as a field of wheat, or another cultivated piece of land. By means of the principle of the “creation of similarity,” the Torah and Israel are linked in the rabbinic cultural world, using the notion of preciousness, segulah. The metaphor of the vineyard not only reflects, but also induces the similarity: conceived as vineyards, Israel and the Torah become precious in the minds of the people using and hearing or reading the metaphorical texts.

Contradictions between Faith and Reality in the Rabbinic Literature

In the following study, I examine the attitude of the Rabbis to reality on the basis of the parables told in the Rabbinic literature. I would like to answer the following question: how did the Rabbis react to attempts by gentiles to introduce substantial changes to the basic spiritual principles in Judaism in wake of the Destruction of the Second Temple? The paper reveals that the Rabbis ignored reality in order to preserve the fundamental concepts in of Judaism and rejected any attempt to introduce changes therein in light of changes in actual reality. They accepted positively only those ideas that strengthened the traditional principles of Judaism. Thus, when pagan sages called the Rabbis’ attention to aspects of reality that contradicted their traditional approach, the Rabbis ignored the pagans’ provocative questions. The Rabbis rebuked any attempts by gentiles to engage them in a dispute intended to prove that the Jewish God is wrong or has decided to forego His covenant with the Jewish people. However, when the Rabbis they feel that the pagans are truly asking how to fulfill Judaism in the best possible way, the Rabbis respond to them gladly, with focused and substantive answers. The Rabbis are unwilling to forego Judaism under any circumstances, even in wake of the catastrophe which befell the people of Israel upon the Destruction of the Second Temple which was the most terrible catastrophe in the Jewish history in that period.

Between Wisdom and Apocalypse: Reading Tosefta Soṭah Chapters 10–15

Abstract Chapters 10–15 in Tosefta Soṭah contain the longest, most elaborated aggadic unit in the Tosefta. It comprises various units that seem to be connected only loosely: the biblical righteous figures who brought abundance to the world (chs. 10–12); various revelations and appearances of the holy spirit and divine echo (ch. 13); and the effects of the destruction and the calamities of the present (chs. 14–15). In this article I argue that it forms in fact a coherent unit. It combines apocalyptic, priestly, and wisdom themes in a manner that is unprecedented in rabbinic literature, but is similar to several Second Temple texts. It tells a tale of perpetual decline from the biblical golden age to the rabbis’ own age of destruction, together with its eschatological remedy. It combines priestly and apocalyptic themes to form an alternative to the standard rabbinic meta-narrative of the transfer from prophecy to Torah. The first section of the article discusses chapters 10–13 and reconstructs their meticulous similarity with, and influence by, Ben Sira; the second section compares the complete composite unit (chs. 10–15) to the parallel Mishnah; and the third section examines the apocalyptic themes found in our text. I end with the need to reevaluate the relationship between rabbinic literature and apocalypticism.

Imaging the Other: The Magical Arab in Rabbinic Literature

Imaging the Other: The Magical Arab in Rabbinic Literature

The Glory of the Scholar: The Nexus of Beauty and Intellect in Chinese and Rabbinic Literature

The Glory of the Scholar: The Nexus of Beauty and Intellect in Chinese and Rabbinic Literature

Power, Violence, and Responsibility

ABSTRACT We are living in what some have described as an “age of protest.” Nevertheless, protesting has been around for thousands of years, and some core features of contemporary discourse are already prominent in antiquity. In this article I explore three key dimensions of protest and rebuke within early rabbinic (tannaitic) literature: power, violence, and responsibility. Although protest and rebuke overlap in many respects, tannaitic discussion of these actions diverge in significant ways that grant us greater clarity into the dynamics the early rabbis perceived to be at play when attempting to effectively confront others on the individual level. I argue that the differences between rabbinic discourse about these two types of confrontation in the three aforementioned areas stem from crucial differences in the ways these acts are perceived and received. The notable nuances between rabbinic portrayals of protest and rebuke can provide insight into thinking about effective interpersonal confrontation today.

Inaccurate volume values in the discussion of Solomon’s sea in Yerushalmi Eruvin 1:5

Solomon’s sea (a brass basin used in the First Temple) was discussed in the Yerushalmi Talmud Eruvin 1:5 (as well as in BT Eruvin 14a-b), and it revolved around the shape of Solomon’s sea. However, inaccurate volume values of the basin were cited in the Yerushalmi. The aim of this article was to offer a new explanation for one problem arising in connection with these values. The setting of this study was the inaccurate volume values of the basin appearing in the Yerushalmi. The background of the issue at stake is the fact that Jewish scholars cannot accept that Scripture contains discrepancies (cf. BerR. 4:6). Our methods were to review the different explanations given by different commentators and to introduce a discussion by R. Avraham Ben Hiyya ha-Nassi and the Book of Tashbetz dealing with an explanation of verses related to the basin’s shape. We suggested a new idea based on the above-mentioned discussion: by reducing the basin’s width by one handbreadth as the verse states, one could reach exactly the values appearing in the Yerushalmi for the volumes of a squared basin and a circular basin. Based on our suggestion, one could settle the volume values appearing in the Yerushalmi without correcting them.Contribution: The key insight was that one could settle the volume values appearing in the Yerushalmi without correcting them. This insight was connected with the textual history of the Rabbinic literature, which exactly fit HTS’s scope.

On the Character of the Rabbinic Hebrew Verbal System

This article examines the character of the verbal system in Rabbinic Hebrew. Based on a discussion of the difference between absolute and relative tense, it is argued that the verb forms in Rabbinic Hebrew cannot be described as absolute tenses. This is in contrast to the conventional view still espoused by many scholars whose area of expertise is Biblical Hebrew, according to which the Hebrew verbal system evolved from aspect prominence to a system of absolute tense. Several passages from the rabbinic literature serve to show that qatal, yiqtol, the participle, and even the construction [inline-graphic 01] plus infinitive occur in various time frames and must be seen as relative tenses. In line with recent studies on the rabbinic verbs, it is argued that aspect also plays a major role in the system. Indeed, in contrast to the standard view, it must be concluded that Rabbinic Hebrew is more aspect-prominent than earlier phases of the language. The final part of the article briefly discusses the widespread view that early grammarians invariably described Biblical Hebrew in terms of absolute tense and it is argued that the views of early scholars were in fact much more complex.

Editors’ Introduction

Editors’ Introduction

Inaccurate volume values in the discussion of Solomon’s sea in Yerushalmi Eruvin 1:5

Solomon’s sea (a brass basin used in the First Temple) was discussed in the Yerushalmi Talmud Eruvin 1:5 (as well as in BT Eruvin 14a-b), and it revolved around the shape of Solomon’s sea. However, inaccurate volume values of the basin were cited in the Yerushalmi. The aim of this article was to offer a new explanation for one problem arising in connection with these values. The setting of this study was the inaccurate volume values of the basin appearing in the Yerushalmi. The background of the issue at stake is the fact that Jewish scholars cannot accept that Scripture contains discrepancies (cf. BerR. 4:6). Our methods were to review the different explanations given by different commentators and to introduce a discussion by R. Avraham Ben Hiyya ha-Nassi and the Book of Tashbetz dealing with an explanation of verses related to the basin’s shape. We suggested a new idea based on the above-mentioned discussion: by reducing the basin’s width by one handbreadth as the verse states, one could reach exactly the values appearing in the Yerushalmi for the volumes of a squared basin and a circular basin. Based on our suggestion, one could settle the volume values appearing in the Yerushalmi without correcting them. Contribution: The key insight was that one could settle the volume values appearing in the Yerushalmi without correcting them. This insight was connected with the textual history of the Rabbinic literature, which exactly fit HTS’s scope.

Trumpets and Shofarot in the War Scroll (1QM): Musical and Terminological Insights

This article is an archaeo-musicological study of the trumpets (ḥaṣoṣrot, metal wind instruments) and shofarot (animal horns) in the War Scroll from the Dead Sea Scrolls of Qumran. The study of ancient Jewish music is largely uncharted territory. Many musical terms that appear in the Bible, Second Temple writings, and rabbinic literature, including the names of musical instruments, are not fully understood and there are many questions about their interpretation. For this reason, the War Scroll is one of the most important sources for archaeo-musicological scholarship of the ancient world generally, and of the Second Temple period in particular. This is not only because of the extensive description of the use of trumpets and shofarot in warfare that is found in the scroll, but especially because this rare and rich description is unmatched in any ancient work, Jewish, Hellenistic, or Roman. This uniquely extensive description includes a detailed itemization of the stages when the priests use different types of trumpets to direct the fighting forces, and describes the sounding of the shofarot by the Levites and the people as a means of instilling fear in the enemy. In addition, the scroll lists the types of sounds generated by trumpets and shofarot in battle, using technical and musical terms whose meaning is not always clear. In this article, I re-examine the interpretations that previous scholars have suggested for the terms describing the sounds made by the trumpets and shofarot in the War Scroll, and, in some cases, I offer new interpretations. I also examine how trumpets and shofarot were used in specific stages of the eschatological war depicted in the scroll and suggest a number of ways to understand the military uses and purpose of the incorporation of these instruments. In addition to contributing to the understanding of the musical terms that appear in the War Scroll, my research opens a window to the rich musical language used by the Dead Sea sect and perhaps also by other groups in the Second Temple era.

Assemblages and Realism in Tannaitic Law: Legal Intensities, Affects, and Circuits

Abstract The question of rabbinic apprehensions of the nonhuman is not frequently listed as paramount in the study of rabbinic legal texts. Yet, nonhumans such as animals, tools, and trees, as well as impersonal forces, such as impurity, fill much of the space within Tannaitic legal traditions. What effect, if any, do these nonhumans have on the Tannaitic subject, and in what ways do they shape the legal traditions of which they are a part? To answer these questions and to understand the relationship between rabbinic law and rabbinic science in relation to the nonhuman, this study takes up assemblage theory. This study sheds light on the relationship of humans and nonhumans in Tannaitic legal traditions and shows that these traditions are predicated on a science of the nonhuman, which itself is predicated on broader underlying ontological commitments. This study also brings clarity to the realism/nominalism debate in rabbinic literature.

As the Deep River Rises

Abstract The present essay seeks to offer a conceptual framework for grappling with climate change from within the sources of Jewish law (halakhah), a discourse rooted in the Hebrew Bible but developed in the rabbinic literature of Late Antiquity and then in medieval and modern codes and commentaries. Halakhah reflects deeply-held intellectual, theological, ontological, and sociological values. As a modus vivendi, rabbinic law—variously interpreted by Jews of different stripes—remains a vital force that shapes the life of contemporary practitioners. We are interested in how a variety of contemporary scholars, theologians, and activists might use the full range of rabbinic legal sources—and their philosophical, jurisprudential, and moral values—to construct an alternative environmental ethic founded in a worldview rooted in obligation and a matrix of kinship relationships. Our essay is thus an exercise in decolonizing knowledge by moving beyond the search for environmental keywords or ready analogies to contemporary western discourse. We join the voices of recent scholars who have sought to revise regnant assumptions about how religious traditions should be read and interpreted with an eye to formulating constructive ethics.

Time and Difference in Rabbinic Judaism by Sarit Kattan Gribetz (review)

Reviewed by: Time and Difference in Rabbinic Judaism by Sarit Kattan Gribetz Deborah Barer Sarit Kattan Gribetz. Time and Difference in Rabbinic Judaism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2020. 391 pp. doi:10.1017/S0364009421000179 Time and Difference in Rabbinic Judaism examines how the demarcation of time plays a role in identity construction. Structurally, the book progresses from the broad to the particular, moving from a study of the yearly calendar to the weekly cycle (with an emphasis on the Sabbath) to different ways of marking time within a single day. That trajectory is paralleled by a shift in focus from the external to the internal; while the first two chapters examine how time is used both to construct and reinforce distinctions between Jewish and non-Jewish communities (both Greco-Roman and Christian), the latter two chapters focus on the construction of difference within a Jewish framework (between women and men, as well as between humanity and God). These two progressions are closely related: when the focus is external, Kattan Gribetz emphasizes structures of time that would be visible to all participants, since the rabbis were aware of Greco-Roman holidays and vice versa, but when the focus is internal, her analysis shifts to less visibly time-based rituals, such as the way a woman's daily checking of her niddah status creates gendered experiences of time. The first part of the book, which looks at how time is used both to construct and to reinforce distinctions between Jews and non-Jewish Romans, as well as between Jews and Christians, offers a rich comparative historical analysis that will be of interest to many students of late antiquity, not just those who study rabbinic culture. The first chapter, "Rabbinic and Roman Time," provides an accessible explanation of the Roman calendar and its festivals, while also providing a rich analysis of the ways that rabbis reimagined those festivals and their significance. As Kattan Gribetz persuasively shows, the rabbis were deeply embedded in Roman society, even using Roman festivals to demonstrate the truth (and superiority) of Jewish holidays. The evidence demonstrates direct intercultural awareness and engagement. In the second chapter, "Jewish and Christian Time," Kattan Gribetz wades into more highly disputed territory, arguing that from as early as the third century, rabbinic discussions of Shabbat are in implicit dialogue with Christian writings about (and against) Jewish Sabbath observance, although they do not engage with Christian texts or thinkers explicitly. [End Page 442] Such a claim is, by its nature, more difficult to prove, but Kattan Gribetz advances a plausible and nuanced argument through her study of the Mekhilta's treatment of Shabbat and acknowledges possible alternative explanations, noting that the text repeatedly "struggles with ideas firmly based in second- and third-century anti-Jewish Christian theological works, though it is difficult to definitively conclude whether it was responding to such claims" (117). The second part of the book, which looks at how time is used to construct distinctions within the Jewish community (predominantly between men and women) and to understand the relationship between humanity and God, shifts to focus exclusively on rabbinic sources, and thus will be of particular interest to students of rabbinic literature and culture. The third chapter, "Men and Women's Time," draws a novel comparison between the daily practice of reciting the Shema, which comes to be gendered as male (although women may also recite it), and the daily practice of checking one's bodily purity status, which comes to be gendered as female and associated specifically with menstrual purity. This comparison is especially provocative because the recitation of the Shema is halakhically categorized as a time-bound commandment, a category of obligations that are triggered at specific times of day and from which women are considered exempt under Jewish law. Why, then, is the process of checking one's niddah (menstrual purity) status, which also happens every morning and night, not considered a time-bound commandment? Kattan Gribetz argues that although "it is not clear why rabbinic sources do not understand menstrual purity laws also as positive timebound commandments," the effect of this category and its gendered distinctions was "the bifurcation of time for men and women, as...

The Talmud's Red Fence: Menstrual Impurity and Difference in Babylonian Judaism and Its Sasanian Context by Shai Secunda (review)

Reviewed by: The Talmud's Red Fence: Menstrual Impurity and Difference in Babylonian Judaism and Its Sasanian Context by Shai Secunda Alexander W. Marcus Shai Secunda. The Talmud's Red Fence: Menstrual Impurity and Difference in Babylonian Judaism and Its Sasanian Context. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020. xvii + 203 pp. doi:10.1017/S0364009421000192 The unique aspects of Babylonian rabbinic approaches to niddah, or menstrual impurity, have long been recognized, as have broader conceptual convergences regarding purity among Sasanian Jews, Zoroastrians, and others. Yet until now there have been few studies of these linkages. Shai Secunda's long-awaited monograph, developed from his 2007 doctoral dissertation, fills a significant lacuna with newly published transcriptions and keen analyses of sources related to niddah in the Babylonian Talmud. It represents an important contribution to newly robust research into the Bavli's Sasanian context, advancing scholarly conversations regarding methodological possibilities and the scope of such inquiries. Secunda situates his study around the concept of a "semiotically productive 'red fence' generating meaningful distinctions among the genders and neighboring communities in Sasanian society, and between the Babylonian Talmud and the rest of rabbinic literature" (xi). He thereby introduces us to the core proposition guiding the book: that menstruation was a potent topic for the construction and maintenance of religious boundaries precisely because it was grounded in shared landscapes of meaning. In chapter 1, Secunda expands on his thesis that the Bavli's menstrual discourse constituted "a robust and active notion of difference" in terms of purity, gender, and Jewish identity (2). He surveys scholarship on niddah and purity discourse—from Leviticus to late antique rabbinic sources in Greco-Roman Palestine and Sasanian Babylonia—and engages with the work of Mira Balberg, Beth Berkowitz, Yaakov Elman, Charlotte Fonrobert, Christine Hayes, and others. Through a close reading of the tale of Rav Kahana and the heretic (B. Sanhedrin 37a), examining its development from Palestinian midrashim and its contextual significance within the Sasanian Mesopotamian world, he identifies a "textual differentiation" between "Palestinian sources submerged in the Bavli and their fully edited Talmudic form" (7–8), setting the stage for the rigorous source-critical analyses that follow. In chapter 2, Secunda compares rabbinic discussions of menstruation to Greco-Roman and Iranian sources, respectively, focusing especially on their physiological, etiological, and demonological dimensions. He surveys rabbinic and Zoroastrian sources alongside Greek embryological traditions, noting the [End Page 447] complex, long-standing relationships between them, arguing that "the shift from an Aristotelian downplaying of menses in Palestinian rabbinic embryology to the Bavli and Zoroastrian literature's neo-Galenic embrace of the powers of vaginal blood demonstrates that in Sasanian Iran, menstrual fluid was appreciated as powerful, generative stuff" (49). In chapter 3, he broadens his purview to the local Sasanian context in which the Bavli arose. While Secunda and others have fruitfully explored this ground before—the past several decades being especially rich in such studies—his work here represents a significant theoretical and methodological advance by illuminating how Sasanian interreligious life was informed by distinctions operating within shared conceptual frameworks. Highlighting, for example, Babylonian rabbinic mobilizations of the Iranian term for menstruation—daštān—at B. Taʿanit 22a, B. Shabbat 110a, and B. Avodah Zarah 24b, he observes that "the very stuff which is supposed to distance the 'other' is a commonality" (81). Secunda returns in chapter 4 to the Bavli's distinctive approach to menstruation within rabbinic corpora. He identifies discussions that suggest the Babylonian rabbis' familiarity with Zoroastrian conceptions of purity, and he argues that their construction of "blood science in the Bavli" (96–98) as "impossibly involved" (103) reflects a world of competition and anxiety over menstrual diagnoses and stringencies. He traces textual shifts from "intra-religious competition" in the Yerushalmi and other Palestinian sources to "inter-religious competition in Sasanian Babylonia," for instance, in the tale of Rava and the Sasanian queenmother Ifra Hormiz, who sends him "bloodstains of no halakhic consequence" to examine (B. Niddah 20b), and in the "disquiet" engendered by his passing the final challenge through heavenly intervention alone (84–85, 98–103). Chapter 5 combines the approaches of the previous two chapters, utilizing the topic of menstrual distancing and...

The Oath Formulas of Matthew 23:16–22 as Evidence for a Pre-70 Date of Composition for Matthew’s Gospel

Although several Matthean scholars have suggested that the oath formulas in Matthew 23:16-22 offer evidence of a pre-70 date of composition for the Gospel, scholars have not previously conducted a thorough investigation of this claim. This essay explores the potential meaning and rationale of the oath formulas, examines post-70 Jewish conceptions of the temple site, scrutinises the oaths ‘by the sanctuary’ or ‘by the temple’ in early rabbinic literature that potentially undermine the usefulness of the oath formulas for establishing the date of the Gospel, and considers Matthew’s purpose for including Matthew 23:16-22. It concludes that the oath formulas of Matthew 23 do lend credible support to a pre-70 date of composition for the Gospel of Matthew, though they cannot establish this date conclusively.

How to Live Communally Amidst Doubts: Moshe Halbertal, The Birth of Doubt: Confronting Uncertainty in Early Rabbinic Literature

How to Live Communally Amidst Doubts: Moshe Halbertal, The Birth of Doubt: Confronting Uncertainty in Early Rabbinic Literature

Redemption, settlement and agriculture in the religious teachings of Hovevei Zion

Hovevei Zion is a collective name for several societies established in Eastern Europe in the 19th century, advocating immigration to the land of Israel, settlement of the land and agricultural work. This article examines the religious approach of several prominent thinkers from among Hovevei Zion and the First Aliya, who shared the perception of farming and settling the land as having religious and even messianic meaning. It was clear to them that the Torah is the foundation of the Jewish people’s existence, however, to this they added another value – work. These thinkers strived to change the identity of the exilic Jew, who was occupied only with spiritual religious life and to reinstate the identity of the biblical Jew, who combined a spiritual and a material religious life. The article examines the approach of Hovevei Zion in light of the general rabbinic approach to redemption, settlement and agriculture and the social changes in 19th century Europe.Contribution: This article contributes to the journal’s multidisciplinary theological perspective, particularly the notion ‘historical thought’, which covers the textual and oral history and hermeneutical studies, narratives and philosophies behind the Abrahamic religions as expressed in the Hebrew Scriptures and the Rabbinic literature.

“Faith so as to Remove Mountains”

The presence of πίστις in the list of spiritual gifts in1 Cor 12:8-10 is problematic. Should not faith be the common basis of the charisms and not a particular gift? What means “faith” in 1 Cor 12:9, given that Paul includes it among the nine manifestations of the Spirit? How to understand and to translate it? Evidently, “faith” points here not simple adherence, but a very precise form of πίστις. In fact, Paul places wisdom, knowledge and “faith” in rapid succession, making them the three principal dimensions of the teaching charisms. As reflected in the repetition of the same gifts in the sequence of 13:2. Some Jewish texts talk about rabbis able to change the point of view of people whose convictions were as immovable as a mountain. They were nicknamed “mountain mover” (oker harim). Thanks to the support of rabbinic literature it becomes possible to explain the presence of πίστις among the teaching gifts in 1 Cor 12:9 and 13:2, offering a translation, certainly broad but more attentive to the semantics of the charism of faith: “if I have all the ability to deliver discourses of faith from which to convince people as immovable as mountains, but I do not have charity, I am nothing”.