The Culture of the Babylonian Talmud

by Rubenstein, Jeffrey L.

• ISBN13: 9780801882654
• ISBN10: 0801882656
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-08-17
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr

Summary

In this pathbreaking study Jeffrey L. Rubenstein reconstructs the cultural milieu of the rabbinic academy that produced the Babylonian Talmud, or Bavli, which quickly became the authoritative text of rabbinic Judaism and remains so to this day. Unlike the rabbis who had earlier produced the shorter Palestinian Talmud (the Yerushalmi) and who had passed on their teachings to students individually or in small and informal groups, the anonymous redactors of the Bavli were part of a large institution with a distinctive, isolated, and largely undocumented culture. The Culture of the Babylonian Talmud explores the cultural world of these Babylonian rabbis and their students through the prism of the stories they included in the Bavli, showing how their presentation of earlier rabbinic teachings was influenced by their own values and practices. Among the topics explored in this broad-ranging work are the hierarchical structure of the rabbinic academy, the use of dialectics in teaching, the functions of violence and shame within the academy, the role of lineage in rabbinic leadership, the marital and family lives of the rabbis, and the relationship between the rabbis and the rest of the Jewish population. This book provides a unique and new perspective on the formative years of rabbinic Judaism and will be essential reading for all students of the Talmud.

Author Biography

Jeffrey L. Rubenstein is a professor in the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University. He is the author of The History of Sukkot in the Second Temple and Rabbinic Periods, Rabbinic Stories, and Talmudic Stories: Narrative Art, Composition, and Culture, the last available from Johns Hopkins.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments	vii
Abbreviations and Conventions	ix
Tractates	xi
Introduction	1	(15)
Chapter 1 The Rabbinic Academy	16	(23)
Chapter 2 Dialectics	39	(15)
Chapter 3 Violence	54	(13)
Chapter 4 Shame	67	(13)
Chapter 5 Lineage and Rabbinic Leadership	80	(22)
Chapter 6 Wives	102	(21)
Chapter 7 Elitism: The Sages and the Amei ha'arets	123	(20)
Chapter 8 Conclusion: The Legacy of the Stammaim	143	(20)
Notes	163	(44)
Selected Bibliography	207	(6)
General Index	213	(14)
Source Index	227