A group for AJS members interested in Jewish history and culture in Antiquity
Rachel Rafael Neis deposited The Reproduction of Species: Humans, Animals and Species Nonconformity in Early Rabbinic Science in the group
Jewish History and Culture in Antiquity on AJS Commons 2 weeks, 3 days agoTracing an early rabbinic approach to the human, this article analyzes how the Tannaim (early Palestinian Jewish sages) of the Mishnah and Tosefta (redacted ca. early 3rd century CE) set the human side by side with other species, and embedded their account within broader considerations of reproduction, zoology and species crossings. The human here…[Read more]
Rachel Rafael Neis deposited Pilgrimage Itineraries: Seeing the Past through Rabbinic Eyes in the group
Jewish History and Culture in Antiquity on AJS Commons 2 weeks, 6 days agoThis article makes several claims. It argues that the genre of “pilgrim’s literature” is present in rabbinic sources, and identifies rabbinic pilgrimage itineraries. Secondly, it shows that aside from the expected melancholic post-Temple itinerary, there exist itineraries for Babylon and for biblical conquest that do a very dif…[Read more]
Rachel Rafael Neis deposited Eyeing Idols: Rabbinic Viewing Practices in Late Antiquity in the group
Jewish History and Culture in Antiquity on AJS Commons 1 month agoThis article introduces a new perspective, the history of vision, into the study of rabbinic literature. Specifically it examines how rabbinic visual regimes dealt with those objects and images that it designated as idols. It argues that rabbis took seeing seriously and that they developed a set of strategies to shape the viewing of problematic…[Read more]
Rachel Rafael Neis deposited ‘Their Backs toward the Temple, and Their Faces toward the East:’ The Temple and Toilet Practices in Rabbinic Palestine and Babylonia in the group
Jewish History and Culture in Antiquity on AJS Commons 1 month agoThis article treats the cultural meaning of rabbinic toilet rules from their Tannaitic instantiation through to later developments in Palestine and Mesopotamia. It argues that these rules draw their corporeal and mental bearings from the Jerusalem temple, in inverse and opposite directions to prayer deportment. It shows how the juxtaposition of…[Read more]
Rachel Rafael Neis deposited Generating Bodies of Knowledge – Food, Family, Fetus in Rabbinic Science in the group
Jewish History and Culture in Antiquity on AJS Commons 6 months agoABSTRACT: How to understand the processes, by which bodies ingest, gestate, generate, excrete, and expel various kinds of substances? This paper treats these questions as sorted through in rabbinic texts. The ways in which we think about how material bodies come into being, and the ways in which we distinguish and explain the emergence, entry, and…[Read more]
simeon chavel deposited The Utility and Futility of Poetry in Qohelet in the group
Jewish History and Culture in Antiquity on AJS Commons 7 months agoArgues that Qohelet’s famous bit of speech on the seasons at 3:1-8 mimics and mocks proverbial poetry, as part of his larger, prosaic denial that life has discernible and usable rhythms and rhymes.
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simeon chavel deposited Compositry and Creativity in 2 Samuel 21:1–14 in the group
Jewish History and Culture in Antiquity on AJS Commons 1 year agoAnalysis of the story of David and the Gibeonites, argues that two different stories have been spliced together.
Marc Bregman deposited “God Made Himself into a Serpent before Moses” in the group
Jewish History and Culture in Antiquity on AJS Commons 1 year, 2 months ago“God made Himself into a Serpent before Moses”
A Unique Midrashic Tradition on Exodus Chapters III-IV (Parashat Va-Era)
from an Early Tanhuma-Yelammedenu Genizah FragmentRachel Rafael Neis deposited Embracing Icons: The Face of Jacob on the Throne of God in the group
Jewish History and Culture in Antiquity on AJS Commons 1 year, 5 months agoRachel Neis’ article treats Hekhalot Rabbati, a collection of early Jewish mystical traditions, and more specifically §§ 152–169, a series of Qedusha hymns. These hymns are liturgical performances, the highlight of which is God’s passionate embrace of the Jacob icon on his throne as triggered by Israel’s utterance of the Qedusha. §§ 152–1…[Read more]
Jordan Rosenblum deposited Home is Where the Hearth Is?: Jewish Household Sacrifice as Appropriation in the group
Jewish History and Culture in Antiquity on AJS Commons 1 year, 11 months agoHousehold sacrifice is a common feature of the ancient Mediterranean. While offerings are made in temples, a home altar is a frequent sacrificial site. This raises an intriguing question for scholars of Judaism in antiquity: do Jews also sacrifice on household altars? While Judaism in antiquity is riotously diverse, it often looks very much like…[Read more]
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Jordan Rosenblum deposited Jewish Meals in Antiquity in the group
Jewish History and Culture in Antiquity on AJS Commons 1 year, 11 months agoA discussion of rabbinic meal practices.
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Jordan Rosenblum deposited Kosher Olive Oil in Antiquity Reconsidered in the group
Jewish History and Culture in Antiquity on AJS Commons 1 year, 11 months agoJosephus attests several times to a Jewish aversion to the use of Gentile olive oil. In m. ‘Abod. Zar. 2:6, this practice is first advocated and then immediately reversed by Rabbi and his court. What is the rationale for this sudden leniency with regard to Gentile olive oil? In a well-known article entitled “Kosher Olive Oil in Antiquity,” Marti…[Read more]
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Jordan Rosenblum deposited From Their Bread to Their Bed: Commensality, Intermarriage, and Idolatry in Tannaitic Literature in the group
Jewish History and Culture in Antiquity on AJS Commons 1 year, 11 months agoIn the tannaitic corpus, a novel innovation appears: sharing bread is understood to lead to sharing a bed. As such, the Tannaim problematise and marginalise commensal interactions between Jews and non-Jews. In several instances, commensality with non-Jews is equated with idolatry, the binary opposite of Jewishness in rabbinic literature. While…[Read more]
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Jordan Rosenblum deposited Justifications for Foodways and the Study of Commensality in the group
Jewish History and Culture in Antiquity on AJS Commons 1 year, 11 months agoJustifications for foodways are too often ignored in the academic study of commensality. In seeking to understand how a particular group constructs the rules around the table – what, how, and with whom one will or will not eat – the rationales for these rules must be factored into any scholarly analysis. In this essay, I use the example of anc…[Read more]
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Jordan Rosenblum deposited “Why Do You Refuse to Eat Pork?”: Jews, Food, and Identity in Roman Palestine in the group
Jewish History and Culture in Antiquity on AJS Commons 1 year, 11 months agoExplores the connections between Jews, Romans, pork, and identity.
