The Annual of Rabbinic Judaism: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern

221 Pages·2000·11.06 MB·English

by  Alan J. Avery-Peck

THE
ANNUAL
OF
RABBINIC JUDAISM
THE
ANNUAL
OF
RABBINIC JUDAISM
ANCIENT, MEDIEVAL, AND MODERN
Editor
ALANJ. AVERY-PECK, College of the Holy Cross
Book Review Editor
WILLIAM SCOTT GREEN, University of Rochester
Chairman of the Editorial Council
JACOB NEUSNER, Bard College
Editorial Council
HERBERT BASSER, Queens University
JOSE FAUR, Bar Ilan University
MAYER GRUBER, Ben Gurion University of the Negev
ITHAMAR GRUENWALD, Tel Aviv University
MAURICE-RUBEN HAYOUN, University of Strasbourg and
Hochschule fur Judische Studien, Heidelberg
GARY G. PORTON, University of Illinois
GUNTER STEMBERGER, University of Vienna
AVIEZER RAVITZKY, Hebrew University
ELLIOT WOLFSON, New York University
VOLUME 3
THE
ANNUAL
OF
RABBINIC JUDAISM
ANCIENT, MEDIEVAL, AND MODERN
VOLUME 3
EDITED BY
ALANJ. AVERY-PECK
WILLIAM SCOTT GREEN
JACOB NEUSNER
BRILL
LEIDEN • BOSTON • KOLN
2000
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahme
The annual of Rabbinic Judaism : ancient, medieval and modern. -
Leiden ; Boston ; Koln : Brill, 1999
Erscheint jahrl. - Aufnahme nach vol. 1 (1998)
ISSN 1388-0365
ISSN 1388-0365
ISBN 90 04 11893 4
© Copyright 2000 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
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PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
THE STATE OF THE FIELD
The Relevance of Myth for Understanding Ritual in
Ancient Judaism 3
Ithamar Gruenwald, Tel Aviv University
ANCIENT JUDAISM
The Babylonian Talmud's Treatment of Levirate Marriage 35
Dvora Weisberg, University of Pittsburgh
The Religious Meaning of Bodily Excretions in Rabbinic
Judaism: The Halakhah on Leviticus Chapter Fifteen:
Zabim and Niddah 67
Jacob Neusner, Bard College
MEDIEVAL AND MODERN JUDAISM
Jews, Converses, and Native Americans: The Iberian Experience .. 95
Jose Faur, Bar-Ilan University and Netanya College
"Secular Studies are the Supplement of Torah Studies:"
Kol Ben Levi—The Homilies of Rabbi Yehiel Mechel
Halevi Epstein—The First Sermon 123
Simcha Fishbane, Touro College
JUDAISM AND ZIONISM
Zionism and Religion: The Transformation of an Idea 145
Norman Solomon, Oxford University
The Revolutionary Consciousness of the Religious Zionist
Movement since 1902 175
Dov Schwartz, Bar-Ilan University
VI CONTENTS
REVIEWS
DONALD HARMAN AKENSON, Surpassing Wonder. The Invention of
the Bible and the Talmuds 187
Jacob Neusner, Bard College
BEZALEL BAR-KOCHVA, Pseudo-Hecataeus "On the Jews:"
Legitimizing the Jewish Diaspora 192
Jacob Neusner, Bard College
SUSANNAH HESCHEL, Abraham Geiger and the Jewish Jesus 194
Jacob Neusner, Bard College
MENAGHEM KELLNER, Must a Jew Believe Anything? 197
Jacob Neusner, Bard College
LEE I. LEVINE, Judaism and Hellenism in Antiquity. Conflict or
Confluence? 200
Jacob Neusner, Bard College
JACOB NEUSNER, Four Stages of Rabbinic Judaism 203
Herbert W. Basser, Queen's College
RONEN REICHMAN, Mishna und Sifra. Ein literarkritischer Vergleich
paralleler Uberlieferungen 207
Giinter Stemberger, Universitat Wien
THE STATE OF THE FIELD
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THE RELEVANCE OF MYTH FOR UNDERSTANDING
RITUAL IN ANCIENT JUDAISM1
Ithamar Gruenwald
(Tel Aviv University)
There is no exaggeration in arguing that discussion of and scholarly
writing on myth are often accompanied by certain feelings of uneasi-
ness that give rise to various apologetic stances. Across the board,
attempts are made to find for myth a more central, or respectable,
place in human culture than is often allocated to it. This certainly is
true of myth as a religious phenomenon in general, and it is all the
more so in regard to myth in Judaism and other monotheistic reli-
gions in particular. The presence of myth in the context of forms of
Judaic religion is almost by definition predestined to create problems.
The first part of this article will, therefore, focus on the general prob-
lem of myth and religion, particularly in what are called monotheistic
religions. The second part will do so in regard to the more specific
aspects of the problem as it comes up in the Judaic context.
In my discussion of the subject, I refer to myth as a normal and
essential cultural phenomenon. Many people and cultures have their
respective myths (the Greek word signifies "story"). As is the case for
most stories, the mythic "story" engages the domain of the imagina-
tion. It is composed of subjective data that seek ways of coming into
life as objective realities. However, the central position that is taken in
the present paper is that the mythic "story" is best characterized by
its connection to a specific ritual or ethos. Myth generates ritual.
However, in a number of cases, the order is reversed, and a certain
ritual generates a myth or attaches itself to an existing one. While it is
difficult at times to determine which of the two precedes the other, in
any event, the connection of myth to a specific ritual appears to me to
be the essential feature of myth.2
1 In many ways, this article is a continuation of the discussion the inception of
which was in my article "The Inevitable Presence of Myth," in Eshel Be'er Sheva, 4
(1996), pp. 1-14 [in Hebrew]. My thanks go to my colleagues, Professors Sarah
Klein-Braslvy and Shlomo Biderman, who read various versions of the article and
offered useful and important comments. Likewise I would like to thank my friend Dr.
Israel Rosensohn for lending me a listening ear. An earlier Hebrew version was
published in Jewish Studies, vol. 38 (1998), pp. 178-210.
2 For a similar tension between myth and the mythic experience, see Hans Jonas,
"Myth and Mysticism: A Study of Objedification in Religious Though," in The
Journal of Religion, 49 (1969).