Transforming Identity The Ritual Transition from Gentile to Jew – Structure and Meaning

by Sagi, Avi; Zohar, Zvi

• ISBN13: 9780826496720
• ISBN10: 0826496725
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-01-29
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

Of all Judaic rituals, that of giyyur is arguably the most radical: it turns aGentile into a Jew - once and for all and irrevocably. The very possibility of such a transformation is anomalous, according to Jewish tradition, which regards Jewishness as an

Author Biography

Professor Avi Sagi is the founder and director of Bar-Ilan University's Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Hermeneutics and Cultural Studies, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, Israel Professor Zvi Zohar is Chauncey Stillman Professor of Sephardic Law and Ethics at Bar-Ilan University and a Senior Research Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, Israel

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
The proselyte's motivation as a factor in giyyur	p. 5
Introduction	p. 7
The proselyte's motivation in Talmudic sources	p. 9
The proselyte's motivation in post-Talmudic sources up to the sixteenth century	p. 19
The motivation for giyyur in modern halakhic sources: adaptivist positions	p. 37
The motivation for giyyur in modern halakhic sources: rejectionist and transformationist positions	p. 74
The giyyur ritual	p. 105
Introduction	p. 107
Giyyur as a voluntaristic normative commitment in Talmudic literature	p. 108
Giyyur as a bodily ritual in Talmudic literature	p. 116
The canonical formulation of the ritual of giyyur	p. 141
The Yevamot paradigm in mediaeval halakhah	p. 158
The ritual of giyyur: aspects of the Demai Paradigm in mediaeval halakhah	p. 177
The two paradigms of giyyur - from the Arba'ah Turim to the Shulhan Arukh	p. 196
The hermeneutical controversy regarding Rabbi Caro's position - and its significance	p. 208
The polyphonic meaning of acceptance of the commandments in halakhic literature	p. 219
Introduction	p. 221
Acceptance of the commandments as an objective act	p. 223
Acceptance of the commandments as subjective intent	p. 233
Ex post facto annulment of giyyur	p. 252
The meaning of giyyur	p. 265
Introduction	p. 267
15 Giyyur and Jewish identity	p. 268
Bibliography	p. 297
Index	p. 307
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