This paper investigates the compilatory processes that led to the creation of the Talmud Yerushalmi and the Apophthegmata Patrum in early Byzantine Palestine. These encyclopaedic works are based on individual oral traditions that emerged from teacher-disciple networks of rabbis and monks. A comparison of the scholastic settings, editorial processes and structural arrangements highlights the complexity of the Talmud’s organizing principles, which did not allow for later accretions in the same way that the Apophthegmata collections did. The development from oral transmission to written compilations had significant consequences. For the first time, multiple individual traditions that were diverse and contradictory were visible together on one and the same page. The reader of the written compilations is offered a synoptic overview of the accumulated anchorite and rabbinic knowledge of one and a half centuries. The early Byzantine compilers commemorated and (re)created the “classical” rabbinic and monastic movements for their
{"title":"Jewishly-Behaving Gentiles and the Emergence of a Jewish Rabbinic Identity","authors":"Karin Hedner-Zetterholm","doi":"10.1628/JSQ-2018-0017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1628/JSQ-2018-0017","url":null,"abstract":"This paper investigates the compilatory processes that led to the creation of the Talmud Yerushalmi and the Apophthegmata Patrum in early Byzantine Palestine. These encyclopaedic works are based on individual oral traditions that emerged from teacher-disciple networks of rabbis and monks. A comparison of the scholastic settings, editorial processes and structural arrangements highlights the complexity of the Talmud’s organizing principles, which did not allow for later accretions in the same way that the Apophthegmata collections did. The development from oral transmission to written compilations had significant consequences. For the first time, multiple individual traditions that were diverse and contradictory were visible together on one and the same page. The reader of the written compilations is offered a synoptic overview of the accumulated anchorite and rabbinic knowledge of one and a half centuries. The early Byzantine compilers commemorated and (re)created the “classical” rabbinic and monastic movements for their","PeriodicalId":42583,"journal":{"name":"Jewish Studies Quarterly","volume":"54 1","pages":"321-344"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2018-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67507723","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper focuses on one criticism of Spinoza’s Tractatus TheologicoPoliticus articulated by Hermann Cohen between 1910 and 1918. Spinoza appears to claim that Jews were required by their religion to hate other nations or peoples. But for Cohen, this is a pernicious misrepresentation: the Talmud not only puts the condemnation of hatred on par with the most basic ethical prohibitions, it even bans all hatred as “groundless.” Condemnation of hatred is as fundamental to Judaism as its counterpart, the command to “love ones neighbor.”
{"title":"Between Jewish Law and State Law: Rethinking Hermann Cohen's Critique of Spinoza","authors":"S. Billet","doi":"10.1628/JSQ-2018-0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1628/JSQ-2018-0006","url":null,"abstract":"This paper focuses on one criticism of Spinoza’s Tractatus TheologicoPoliticus articulated by Hermann Cohen between 1910 and 1918. Spinoza appears to claim that Jews were required by their religion to hate other nations or peoples. But for Cohen, this is a pernicious misrepresentation: the Talmud not only puts the condemnation of hatred on par with the most basic ethical prohibitions, it even bans all hatred as “groundless.” Condemnation of hatred is as fundamental to Judaism as its counterpart, the command to “love ones neighbor.”","PeriodicalId":42583,"journal":{"name":"Jewish Studies Quarterly","volume":"25 1","pages":"139"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2018-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67507517","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Prophetic Style and Ethical Experience in Hermann Cohen and Spinoza","authors":"M. Rosenthal","doi":"10.1628/JSQ-2018-0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1628/JSQ-2018-0009","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42583,"journal":{"name":"Jewish Studies Quarterly","volume":"25 1","pages":"200"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2018-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67507627","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Spinoza, Hermann Cohen and the Legacies of German Idealism: Introduction","authors":"S. Billet, Leora Batnitzky","doi":"10.1628/jsq-2018-0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1628/jsq-2018-0003","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42583,"journal":{"name":"Jewish Studies Quarterly","volume":"25 1","pages":"99"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2018-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67507891","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Demons between the Desert Fathers and the Rabbis","authors":"Sophie Lunn-Rockliffe","doi":"10.1628/jsq-2018-0014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1628/jsq-2018-0014","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42583,"journal":{"name":"Jewish Studies Quarterly","volume":"25 1","pages":"269"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2018-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1628/jsq-2018-0014","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67507697","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Either Jews or Gentiles, Men or Women: The Talmudic Move from Legal to Essentialist Polarization of Identities","authors":"Moshe Lavee","doi":"10.1628/JSQ-2018-0018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1628/JSQ-2018-0018","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42583,"journal":{"name":"Jewish Studies Quarterly","volume":"8 1","pages":"345"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2018-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67507736","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"»Every State Becomes a Theocracy«: Hermann Cohen on the Israelites under Divine Rule","authors":"B. Pollock","doi":"10.1628/jsq-2018-0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1628/jsq-2018-0008","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42583,"journal":{"name":"Jewish Studies Quarterly","volume":"25 1","pages":"181"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2018-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67507583","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-12-01DOI: 10.1628/094457017X15072727130666
A. R. Shannon
This article examines the Tannaitic conception of the worship of avodah zarah. The term is commonly translated as “idolatry,” but the definition of what constitutes worship of avodah zarah, in m. Sanh. 7:6, is based on a more nuanced notion than simply worship of foreign gods. For the Sages of the Mishnah, worship of avodah zarah involved misuse of objects and rituals associated with the Temple cult, which constituted a betrayal of covenantal loyalty. This means that although the rabbinic laws against the worship of avodah zarah were based on the biblical prohibitions against worshiping other gods, the actual rules for how these laws were to be enacted were extrapolations of the laws against the misuse of Temple objects. This explains why some activities that might seem like idolatry – such as decorating a cult statue or dedicating a child to Molech – are not considered avodah zarah.
{"title":"Making Ritual Strange: The Temple Cult as the Foundation for Tannaitic Discourse on Idolatry","authors":"A. R. Shannon","doi":"10.1628/094457017X15072727130666","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1628/094457017X15072727130666","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the Tannaitic conception of the worship of avodah zarah. The term is commonly translated as “idolatry,” but the definition of what constitutes worship of avodah zarah, in m. Sanh. 7:6, is based on a more nuanced notion than simply worship of foreign gods. For the Sages of the Mishnah, worship of avodah zarah involved misuse of objects and rituals associated with the Temple cult, which constituted a betrayal of covenantal loyalty. This means that although the rabbinic laws against the worship of avodah zarah were based on the biblical prohibitions against worshiping other gods, the actual rules for how these laws were to be enacted were extrapolations of the laws against the misuse of Temple objects. This explains why some activities that might seem like idolatry – such as decorating a cult statue or dedicating a child to Molech – are not considered avodah zarah.","PeriodicalId":42583,"journal":{"name":"Jewish Studies Quarterly","volume":"24 1","pages":"339-355"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2017-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1628/094457017X15072727130666","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44840538","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}