Deviancy in Early Rabbinic Literature: A Collection of Socio-Anthropological Essays

247 Pages·2007·1.01 MB·English

by  Simcha Fishbane

Deviancy in Early Rabbinic Literature
The Brill Reference
Library of Judaism
Editors
Alan J. Avery-Peck (College of the Holy Cross)
William Scott Green (University of Miami)
Editorial Board
David Aaron (Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of
Religion, Cincinnati)
Herbert Basser (Queen’s University)
Bruce D. Chilton (Bard College)
José Faur (Netanya College)
Neil Gillman (Jewish Theological Seminary of America)
Mayer I. Gruber (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)
Ithamar Gruenwald (Tel Aviv University)
Maurice-Ruben Hayoun (University of Strasbourg and
Hochschule fuer Juedische Studien, Heidelberg)
Arkady Kovelman (Moscow State University)
David Kraemer (Jewish Theological Seminary of America)
Baruch A. Levine (New York University)
Alan Nadler (Drew University)
Jacob Neusner (Bard College)
ff
Maren Nieho (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Gary G. Porton (University of Illinois)
Aviezer Ravitzky (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Dov Schwartz (Bar Ilan University)
Guenter Stemberger (University of Vienna)
Michael E. Stone (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Elliot Wolfson (New York University)
VOLUME 27
Deviancy in
Early Rabbinic Literature
A Collection of Socio-Anthropological Essays
by
Simcha Fishbane
with an introduction by
Nissan Rubin
LEIDEN•BOSTON
2007
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on
http://catalog.loc.gov
Fishbane, Simcha.
Deviancy in early rabbinic literature: a collection of socio-anthropological essays /
by Simcha Fishbane ; with an introduction by Nissan Rubin.
p. cm. — (The Brill reference library of Judaism)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-90-04-15833-7 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 90-04-15833-2 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Deviant behavior in rabbinical literature. 2. Rabbinical literature—History
and criticism. 3. Talmud—Criticism, interpretation, etc. 4. Women in rabbinical
literature. I. Title. II. Series.
BM496.9.D46F57 2007
296.1’2067—dc22
2006101964
ISSN 1571-5000
ISBN 978 90 04 15833 7
© Copyright 2007 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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printed in the netherlands
Dedicated
to the memory of
my uncle
Dr. Victor Weinberg
hkrbl wnwrkz

CONTENTS
Preface and Acknowledgements ................................................ ix
Chapter 1. Introduction by Professor Nissan Rubin .......... 1
Chapter 2. The Case of the Modified Mamzer in Early
Rabbinic Texts .................................................... 4
Chapter 3. “As the Vows of the Evil Folk”: The Structure
and Implicit Message of Mishnah’s Tractate
Nazir .................................................................... 16
Chapter 4. “In the Case of Women-Any Hand Which
Makes Many Examinations is to be Praised”:
Niddah as Viewed by the Rabbis of the
Mishnah .............................................................. 42
Chapter 5. “Most Women Engage in Sorcery”: An
Analysis of Female Sorceresses in the
Babylonian Talmud ............................................ 67
Chapter 6. “Go and Enjoy Your Acquisition”: The
Prostitute in the Babylonian Talmud .............. 85
Chapter 7. “Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, See No Evil”:
The Physically Handicapped in the Mishnah .... 103
Chapter 8. Toward an Understanding of the Methodology
of Mishnah: The Case of Kutim ........................ 121
Chapter 9. Descriptive or Prescriptive: The Case of the
Gentile in Mishnah ............................................ 141
Chapter 10. Deviancy in Battle: Rituals and the Israelite
Soldier in the Torah and the Mishnah:
An Anthropological Understanding .................... 164
Chapter 11. “Every Dream Becomes Valid Only By Its
Interpretation”: Dreams, Dream Interpretations
and Dream Interpreters in the Babylonian
Talmud ................................................................ 177
Bibliography ................................................................................ 213
Index ............................................................................................ 221

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The essays in this book represent a summation of my research in
early rabbinic literature over the past twenty years. Throughout my
academic life, that literature has been my primary focus and love.
The types of deviant individuals dealt with in this volume are
found in early rabbinic literature, primarily in the Mishnah, Tosefta
and Talmud. The term deviancy here is defined with the sociolog-
ical meaning attached to the concept by the Collins Dictionary of
Sociology,1 i.e., “Any social behavior which departs from that regarded
as ‘normal’ or socially acceptable within a society or social context.”
This definition includes the bastard, prostitute, witch, gentile, nazir
and kuti, outsiders who are therefore not socially acceptable. In this
category I also include the physically handicapped, the soldier and
the dreamer, who also pose a threat to the social stability and daily
life of the community.
During my graduate studies at Concordia University in Montreal,
I had the opportunity to study the conceptual and methodological
framework that allowed me to pursue answers to questions which
deeply intrigued me, though they were not specifically dealt with by
the rabbinical commentaries. The answers to my queries gradually
emerged through the application of the tools and theories of social
anthropology to texts of early rabbinic Judaism. I therefore am obvi-
ously indebted to Emile Durkheim, Mary Douglas, Peter Berger,
Victor Turner and Arnold van Gennep, whose classic works discuss
these methodologies, as well as to Nissan Rubin. My first introduc-
tion to this approach came from my mentor Professor Jack Lightstone,
President of Brock University. Professor Lightstone’s doctoral super-
visor, Professor Jacob Neusner, Distinguished Service Professor of
the History and Theology of Judaism and Senior Fellow, Institute
of Advanced Theology, Bard College, has long exerted the greatest
influence on my methodological approach to the analysis of rabbinic
texts. His development of a unique approach to the study of Judaism,
1 Jary, David and Julia Jary, Eds. 2005. Collins Web-linked Dictionary of Sociology
3rd ed. Glasgow: Harper-Collins. p. 153.