Catherine Hezser

Rabbinic Body Language: Non-Verbal Communication in Palestinian Rabbinic Literature of Late Antiquity

This study constitutes the first comprehensive examination of rabbinic body language represented in Palestinian rabbinic sources of late antiquity. Catherine Hezser examines rabbis’ appearance and demeanor, spatial movement, gestures, and facial expressions on the basis of literary and social-anthropological methods and theories. She discusses the various forms of rabbis’ non-verbal communication in the context of Graeco-Roman and ancient Christian literary sources and in connection with the material culture of Roman and early Byzantine Palestine. Catherine Hezser convincingly shows that in rabbinic literature body language serves as an important means of rabbis’ self-fashioning. Rabbinic texts create the image of a particularly Jewish type of intellectual who functioned and competed for adherents within the highly visual and body-conscious environment of late antiquity.

Crossing Enemy Lines: Network Connections Between Palestinian and Babylonian Sages in Late Antiquity

The Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds transmit stories about sages who crossed the boundaries between the Roman and Persian empires in late antiquity to sojourn in the “enemy” territory for a certain amount of time. These sages, who were members of local rabbinic networks, established inter-regional network connections among Palestinian and Babylonian scholars which reached across political boundaries. This paper will investigate how these connections were established and maintained. What was the role of place and mobility in an intellectual network “without propinquity”?1 Which segments of the respective local rabbinic networks maintained inter-regional contacts? Or more specifically: which sages are presented as the main nodal points within these networks and what were their roles within Palestinian and Babylonian Jewish society? How did network centrality and power shift from Palestine to Babylonia between the fourth and sixth centuries c.e.?

Form-Criticism of Rabbinic Literature

This chapter addresses a number of issues concerning the form-critical study of rabbinic texts. The first problem faced by anyone who wants to study rabbinic literary forms is how to distinguish small and originally independent literary units from their context, where to draw the line. Secondly, the particular form of the literary unit has to be identified. Comparisons with similar forms in Graeco-Roman and early Christian literature have often been helpful in this regard. In recent years the structuralist approach to literary texts has been replaced by the post-modern approach which focuses on intertextuality and indeterminacy. Such approaches have been applied to midrash but have not been sufficiently exploited in the study of legal texts. In addition, rabbinic legal literature and hermeneutics may be compared with the forms and rhetorics of Graeco-Roman and other Ancient Near Eastern legal traditions in order to determine shared forms and styles. Keywords: form-critical study; hermeneutics; rabbinic texts

Capitalism and Christianity, American style

Connolly is Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University, but he is a political scientist with a difference; everything human is grist to his mill. This relatively short book constitutes a virtuoso performance. Its central argument is simple enough: a combination of cowboy capitalism, evangelical Christianity and a providential view of history constitutes a malign influence in present day North America, promoting a bellicose ethos resonating through sermons, Fox News, practices of consumption, investment priorities and state policies. These resonances diminish diversity, short-change future generations, ignore urban poverty and promote extensive economic inequality. They must be countered by a coalition of both religious and secular forces. Even those whose politics are different or more weakly espoused will learn a great deal from this book, especially concerning method in the social sciences. There are no pure form of realities like Capitalism and Christianity. There is a ‘capitalist axiomatic’, ‘a set of elements knotted together in a way that resists capture by a formal analysis. Once so knotted it creates constraints and possibilities as it bumps along, adding new components here, dropping others there and facing unexpected obstacles at other moments’. The particularities of a particular age give rise to a remarkably contingent ‘capitalist assemblage’. Christianity is just as complex a reality. Christianity ‘is both a long-term shifting constellation of existential experiments and a set of contending spiritual dispositions informing to various degrees the lives of about one-third of the world’s population’. Spirituality indicates ‘individual and collective dispositions to judgement and action that have some degree of independence from the formal creeds or beliefs of which they are a part. The relationship between creed and spirituality is real but loose . . . (containing) a variety of possible nuances’. In any particular ‘state-capital-Christian imbrication’, all these diverse elements are imbricated, intercalated, infused, incorporated (words Connolly likes) in their own special way. Connolly addresses the notion of causality within these complexes head-on. State-capital-Christian imbrications preclude attempts to define each component autonomously. ‘Each element sometimes forms a volatile force, variously surging into the others and containing energetic uncertainties within itself that might agitate its companion. The stability of each, thus depends significantly upon the balance that each element maintains with several others; the emergence of disequilibrium in one is apt to bump or jump into the others too.’ ‘Causality,

The Tanhuma-Yelammedenu Literature: Studies in the Evolution of the Versions, and: Megillat Taʻanit: Versions, Interpretation, History, and: Pirke de-Rabbi Elieser (review)

The textand literary-critical study, edition, and translation of rabbinic works is of fundamental importance, since it constitutes the basis of all forms of ‘‘higher criticism’’ investigating the meaning, historical context, and religious significance of the respective texts. Unfortunately, this groundwork has not yet been accomplished for all rabbinic documents. The three books discussed here all contribute to this task. The first two works are revised versions of doctoral dissertations submitted to the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Marc Bregman’s study of the Tanh. uma-Yelammedenu literature is an analysis of the textual witnesses of this corpus of traditions, the printed edition, the Buber version, references in the Midrash Rabbah and Pesikta literature, and further fragments and quotations. Altogether Bregman has identified more than two hundred complete or partial manuscripts which contain Tanh. uma-Yelammedenu–related material. These manuscripts are described in the second chapter of his book, following a review of previous scholarship on the issue (chapter 1). The third chapter focuses on one particular text passage, namely, the Tanh. uma-Yelammedenu commentary on Ex 7.8 ff. The four different versions are compared and their literary character and evolution determined. In the fourth and final chapter Bregman provides concluding remarks on the nature and development of the Tanh. uma-Yelammedenu literature as well as suggestions for further scholarship. Bregman points out that from the linguistic and literary point of view

From study-house to marketplace: rabbinic guidelines for the economy of Roman Palestine

L’article etudie les instructions developpees par les rabbins des cinq premiers siecles de notre ere pour eviter les comportements frauduleux et pratiquer les activites economiques d’une facon ethique et conforme a la Loi. Apres un bref rappel des caracteristiques de l’economie de la Palestine romaine, l’auteur analyse le discours rabbinique sur les differents aspects de la vie economique abordes dans la Mishna : la supervision des marches, la regulation des prix, la retractation des ventes et l’embellissement factice des marchandises vendues. Les rabbins ne traitent pas de questions economiques de grande ampleur, mais ils s’interessent aux problemes nes de la pratique journaliere des operations economiques. Comme ils sont eux-memes activement engages dans les activites de production et de vente, ils ont une connaissance de premiere main des questions qu’ils abordent. D’un autre cote, certaines discussions plus theoriques sont formulees dans le cadre de l’etude : les reponses apportees sont alors plus elo...

The Impact of Household Slaves On the Jewish Family in Roman Palestine

In late antiquity most of the slaves owned by Jewish slave owners in Roman Palestine seem to have been domestic slaves. These slaves formed an integral part of the Jewish household and played an important role within the family economy. In a number of respects the master-slave relationship resembled the wife-husband, child-father, and student-teacher relationships, and affectionate bonds between the slave and his master (or nursling) would have an impact on relationships between other members of the family. Master and slave were linked to each other through mutual ties of dependency which counteracted the basic powerlessness of slaves. On the other hand, slaves had to suffer sexual exploitation and were considered honorless. Rabbinic sources reveal both similarities and differences between Jewish and Graeco-Roman attitudes toward slaves. The Jewish view of the master-slave relationship also served as the basis for its metaphorical use.

Jewish law : bibliography of sources and scholarship in English

This compilation is the result of initiatives undertaken by the Center for Research in Jewish Law and the Library at the New York University School of Law to prepare a comprehensive bibliography of translations of primary sources and secondary literature (both books and articles) on Jewish law (Mishpat Ivri, i.e. Talmudic Civil Law) in English. Bibliographies of the respective Hebrew literature have already appeared, but the increase in the study of Jewish law amongst English speakers, especially at American universities, makes the present collection of English research materials especially useful and necessary. For Hebrew speakers, the book constitutes a convenient supplement to the existing Hebrew bibliographies. The plan is to publish updated editions of the bibliography in the future and to include materials in other European languages such as German as well. The bibliography covers material from rabbinic to modem times. Although the emphasis is on rabbinic law, medieval commentaries and codes, responsa and takanot (rabbinic and communal enactments), topics such as Jewish law in the State of Israel and the relationship between Jewish law and other legal systems are covered as well. Special attention has been given to material which deals with the legal situation in various Diaspora communities and the specific social and economic factors which may have influenced the development and practice of Jewish law.