Books by Yair Furstenberg
The concern for purity was the cornerstone of the religious culture of ancient Judaism. Purity ... more The concern for purity was the cornerstone of the religious culture of ancient Judaism. Purity and Identity in Ancient Judaism explores how this concern shaped the worldview of Jews during the Second Temple period as well as their daily practices and social relations. It examines how different groups offered competing visions and methods for living a life of purity, which embodied a promise for personal and cosmic salvation and at the same time determined the degree of sectarian separation.
Purity and Identity in Ancient Judaism offers a comprehensive description of the world of purity among the Jews of the Second Temple period in general and within the tradition of the Pharisees in particular. Yair Furstenberg explores the language of purity that provided Jews in antiquity a powerful tool for organizing legal, social, and ideological boundaries, and its study is therefore pertinent for understanding the powers that shaped the varieties of Second Temple Judaism and their later offshoots: Early Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism.
Purity and Identity in Ancient Judaism offers new methods for carefully integrating the New Testament, Qumran literature, and early rabbinic sources into a comprehensive history of purity laws from the world of the Second Temple and the Pharisees to the later rabbinic movement, allowing the reader to trace the emergence of new religious sensibilities within changing social and cultic circumstances.
Brill -CRINT Series, vol, 17, 2023
https://brill.com/display/title/64260?rskey=k5RsOi&result=6
This volume offers a comprehensive d... more https://brill.com/display/title/64260?rskey=k5RsOi&result=6
This volume offers a comprehensive discussion of all relevant sources concerning Jewish martyrdom in Antiquity. By viewing these narratives together, tracing their development and comparing them to other traditions, the authors seek to explore how Jewish is Jewish martyrdom? To this end, they analyse the impact of the changing social and religious-cultural circumstances and the interactions with Graeco-Roman and Christian traditions. This results in the identification of important continuities and discontinuities. Consequently, while political ideals that are prominent in 2 and 4 Maccabees are remarkably absent from rabbinic sources, the latter reveal a growing awareness of Christian motifs and discourse.
Jews and Christians under the Roman Empire shared a unique sense of community. Set apart from the... more Jews and Christians under the Roman Empire shared a unique sense of community. Set apart from their civic and cultic surroundings, both groups resisted complete assimilation into the dominant political and social structures. However, Jewish communities differed from their Christian counterparts in their overall patterns of response to the surrounding challenges. They exhibit diverse levels of integration into the civic fabric of the cities of the Empire and display contrary attitudes towards the creation of trans-local communal networks. The variety of local case studies examined in this volume offers an integrated image of the multiple factors, both internal and external, which determined the role of communal identity in creating a sense of belonging among Jews and Christians under Imperial constraints. All interested in the history of Jews and Christians under the Roman Empire and in their respective ideologies and organizational patterns during the first three centuries CE. READERSHIP: For more information see http://www.brill.com/products/book/jewish-and-christian-communal-identities-roman-world View full information on http://www.brill.com/
השאיפה לטהרה עמדה במוקד התרבות הדתית של יהודי העת העתיקה ועיצבה את תמונת עולמם, אורחות חייהם ויחס... more השאיפה לטהרה עמדה במוקד התרבות הדתית של יהודי העת העתיקה ועיצבה את תמונת עולמם, אורחות חייהם ויחסיהם החברתיים. קבוצות שונות הציעו דרכים למימוש חיי טהרה וכרכו בה גאולה עצמית ותיקון קוסמי.
הספר טהרה וקהילה בעת העתיקה: מסורות ההלכה בין יהדות בית שני למשנה מציע תיאור מקיף של תחום הטהרה, אופייה ותכליתה בעולמם של יהודי בית שני בכלל, ובפרט בתורתם של הפרושים. על רקע תפיסות מתחרות, המופיעות בספרות קומראן ובברית החדשה, הציעו הפרושים חלופה משלהם לחיי טהרה שבה נכרכו מסורת בדלנית ואידאולוגיה חברתית. מקורות התקופה משרטטים אורח חיים מעורר מחלוקת הממוקד בהגנה על הגוף במקום על הקודש, ובשליטה על הטומאה במקום שעבוד לעוצמתה הקוסמית. מדיניות הפרושים הוסיפה ועיצבה את דמותן של ההלכה והקהילה גם לאחר החורבן, ותורתם הניחה את היסודות לפעילותם של התנאים בתוך הקשרים חברתיים משתנים. ניתוח ביקורתי של תולדות מסורות ההלכה בתחום הטהרה במשנה ובתוספתא חושף את תהליכי התפרקותה של התרבות הדתית הקדומה והתגבשותה של תורת החכמים.
The concern for purity shaped Second Temple Judaism, and its significance expanded far beyond the limited realm of the Temple. The fear of impurity shaped daily conduct, stood at the heart of ideological disputes and formed the contours of Jewish society. The question how to ensure ritual and moral purity was of cosmic dimensions, and therefore determined the dividing lines between the main parties of Jewish society in Palestine. The Qumran sect developed the notion of the defiling sin, and Jesus was viewed by his followers as the ultimate purifier. Against these alternatives, this book offers a comprehensive analysis of the purity policy in the teachings of the dominant Pharisees. Early rabbinic traditions alongside anti-pharisaic sources uncover a controversial policy focused on the body and not on the purity of the Temple. They provided purification to wider social circles, while preserving its role in maintaining their own status. The book further demonstrates the fundamental change of religious life and social practices from the Second Temple period through the rise of the rabbinic movement, which offered a new version of ritual purity and community. A close analysis of the halakhic traditions in rabbinic literature reveals the gradual disintegration of the ancient religious culture and the emergence of the rabbinic culture within new social contexts.
Papers by Yair Furstenberg
נטועים כד-כה, 2024
פורסטנברג - שבות רשות ומצווה ועריכתה של מסכת ביצה
Qumran and the New Testament, ed. J. Frey , 2024
The Routledge Handbook of Jews and Judaism in Late Antiquity, 2024
The rabbinic movement, which developed after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E., saw... more The rabbinic movement, which developed after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E., saw itself as a successor of the Pharisees, one of three major "sects" (alongside the Sadducees and Essenes) that were active in Judaea during the Second Temple period and offered competing modes of Torah observance. The rabbis adopted some facets of Pharisaic ideology, such as the notion of oral tradition, and they explicitly identified with Pharisaic positions in legal matters (m. Yad. 4:4-6). However, in addition to these ideological connections, scholars have claimed some form of institutional continuity between the Sanhedrin, imagined as the pre-70 Jerusalem high court, that was controlled-according to this view-by proto-rabbinic figures, and two rabbinic institutions that presumably governed Jewish society after 70, the Great Court in Yavneh (Jamnia) and the patriarchate. According to this narrative, later generations of rabbis managed to transfer these institutions of Jewish leadership from Judaea to Galilee after the Bar Kokhba revolt (132-136 C.E.). Their activity is considered to have culminated in the compilation of the Mishnah, the corpus of authoritative rabbinic law brought about by R. Judah the patriarch. According to this narrative, the third and fourth centuries saw a growing rift between the two branches of rabbinic governing institutions in Palestine, the rabbinic academy and the patriarchate, due to the latter's cultural assimilation until the final abolishment of the patriarchate at the beginning of the fifth century. Although this narrative of institutionalized rabbinic leadership was prominent among historians up to the last decades of the twentieth century (eg Safrai 1974), this approach is now generally dismissed (
![Research paper thumbnail of Furstenberg - “The Evolution of the Mishnah on the Temple: The Sources of Tractate Sheqalim 5-8” [in Hebrew]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/109697516/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Mehqerei Talmud: Talmudic Studies 4, 2023
Scholars have long debated the nature and authenticity of Temple traditions within early rabbinic... more Scholars have long debated the nature and authenticity of Temple traditions within early rabbinic literature, and have sought after methods for tracing fragments of earlier sources from beneath the heavily redacted Mishnah and other rabbinic sources. In this article I suggest a new method for reconstructing the underlying traditions, which served the rabbis for a systematic development of the field of Temple laws. As it currently stands the latter part of tractate Sheqalim consists of lists of things that were in the Temple, followed by lists of things that were found in the Temple and in Jerusalem. This organization reflects a later rabbinic form of study, which builds on a core of a more consolidated unit concerning Temple funding. The article thus uncovers the form of the early rabbinic traditions that are comparable to Second Temple sources, including Qumran and the Gospels, while at the same time tracing the trajectory of rabbinic study methods.
Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic and Roman Period, 2023
https://brill.com/view/journals/jsj/aop/article-10.1163-15700631-bja10070/article-10.1163-1570063... more https://brill.com/view/journals/jsj/aop/article-10.1163-15700631-bja10070/article-10.1163-15700631-bja10070.xml
In this article I argue that the rabbinic movement reinvented itself during the second century by expanding the boundaries of Jewish law to include all spheres of private law, and thereby claiming juristic expertise in these matters. A variety of sources from the Second Temple period indicate that Jewish law at this stage included primarily ritual laws, while private law was not considered unique to the Jewish way of life and was not treated by scholars of Torah until the second century CE. This far-reaching change resonates with other concurrent developments in provincial legal culture, primarily the emergence of the local nomikoi (legal experts) and legal profession during this period and the dissemination of legal knowledge in the Roman East. The provincial situation served to reshape the rabbinic movement in the guise of the local jurists, and ultimately to establish their political and social standing.
What is the Mishnah - State of the Question, 2023
K. Bertholet, N. Dohrmann and C, Nemo Peckelman (eds.), Legal Engagement: The Reception of Roman Law and Tribunals by Jews and Other Inhabitants of the Empire, 2021
link to full text: https://books.openedition.org/efr/9808
Following the destruction of Jerusale... more link to full text: https://books.openedition.org/efr/9808
Following the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE and the imposition of a direct Roman rule over Palestine the rabbis transformed the corpus of biblical commandments, Judean legal practices and customs into a comprehensive and detailed legal system. How can we explain the surprising fact that it was specifically under Roman jurisdiction that Jewish law emerged for the first time as a cohesive and codified system of civil law? In this article I argue that rather than functioning as an ideological or utopian construct the creation of rabbinic law under Rome follows a familiar pattern well attested in the study of indigenous law under colonial rule. Scholars have recurrently described the development of local legal practices into fixed and formal legal systems, following colonial standards, thus triggering the invention of colonized “customary law”. In a similar manner, papyrological evidence attests to the crystallization of a corpus of “laws of the Egyptians” during the second century CE. Rabbinic material however offers the most detailed account of the processes by which the diversity of local customs characteristic of the pre-Roman period transformed into a fixed and general system of law at the hands of local experts. The article surveys three aspects of rabbinic legal innovation that feature elements of colonized “customary law”: the creation of new legal fields, codification of custom, and the establishment of a Roman-like court procedure. Together, these elements reflect the rabbinic effort to transform normative practices of different sources into a comprehensive legal system befitting imperial legal landscape.
Te'uda 31, 2021
יאיר פורסטנברג, 'מספרות ההלכה הקדומה לחוק הרומי: לתולדות התהוותם של פרקי בבא מציעא', מתלמידיו של ... more יאיר פורסטנברג, 'מספרות ההלכה הקדומה לחוק הרומי: לתולדות התהוותם של פרקי בבא מציעא', מתלמידיו של אהרן : עיונים בספרות התנאית ומקורותיה לזכרו של אהרן שמש, בעריכת ד' באיארין, ו' נעם וי' רוזן צבי, תעודה לא (תשפ"א), 541-574
The thirty chapters of tractate Neziqin reflect a novel attempt to create a distinct field of private law: from delicts and damages to loans, contracts, sale, and inheritance. The topics in the tractate begin with scriptural-based topics (such as the four fathers of damage) and later turn to new non-biblical issues (sales and contracts). However, the middle section offers a perplexing mixture of topics that belie any attempt to explain their organizing principles. Biblical and non-biblical topics are mixed, and similar issues are separated into remote sections.
This article argues that the complexity and apparent disorder of these chapters are the result of a double-stage process of redaction, with each stage representing a distinct organizing pattern. The earlier layer follows precisely the sequence of topics in the two main biblical units that address issues of private law: Exodus 22-23 and Deuteronomy 22-25. Later, the Mishnah reframed and transferred the biblical issue of guarding livestock into a well-structured unit on lease and hiring as part of a group of units on contracts.
I further argue that this change of redaction method reflects the changing intellectual environment that shaped rabbinic legal activity. The earlier stage closely corresponds to the legal writings of Qumran, such as the Temple Scroll and 4Q251, which maintain the sequence of biblical topics despite including diverse source materials. On the other hand, the uniform units on contract that were added at a later stage reflect the principles of Roman Law, to which the biblical cases were adjusted. Thus, by tracing the stages of mishnaic redaction, we may expose the growing integration of the rabbis’ thought into their Roman legal environment.
journal of Biblical Literature 139:4, 2020
AJS Review, 2022
copyright notice:
This paper has been accepted for publication and will appear in a revised form... more copyright notice:
This paper has been accepted for publication and will appear in a revised form, subsequent to editorial input by Cambridge University Press.
Cambridge University Press is the copyright holder of this forthcoming publication
Abstract
The ban against writing Oral Torah stands at the heart of rabbinic study culture. Scholars have suggested that the ban was formulated during the third century in Palestine in attempt to preserve the oral nature of rabbinic study. At the same time, despite the overt orality of rabbinic practice, multiple Talmudic anecdotes point to a complex reality that does not align with what seems as an explicit prohibition. In this article I argue that the key for solving this long-standing crux is to distinguish between the two book cultures among the rabbis in Palestine and in Babylonia. Although the Bavli directly relies on Palestinian clusters of traditions, it transformed their meaning. While Palestinian sources forbid inappropriate writing of scriptural texts, in fear of the physical obliteration of Scriptural material, the Bavli reinterpreted these prohibition as securing the original division between the two forms of the Torah.
A Companion to Late Ancient Jews and Judaism, 2020
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781119113843.ch11
There was no agreed upon definiti... more https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781119113843.ch11
There was no agreed upon definition of who was a Jew among the ancients, and changing political and social circumstances brought about far‐reaching innovations in the ways Jews understood the nature of their distinctiveness. This chapter surveys the major stations and disputations concerning these issues during Antiquity. The unique situation of the Jews during this period served to dismantle initial ethnic affiliations and encouraged the creation of new versions of cultic and genealogical identity. The penetration of Greek cultural categories and the Roman civic model further accelerated the creation of an abstracted conception of Judaism, as an acquired cultural and legal system. At the same time, sectarian tendencies created alternative non‐ethnic identities and laid the foundation for the rise of Christian inclusivity within the divine body of the Church. Building upon this diverse heritage, rabbinic traditions offered a new version of the community of law.
Self, Self Fashioning and Individuality in Late Antiquity, 2020
Jewish Quartely Review 109, 2019
Since Antiquity, Jewish divorce procedure was perceived to be fundamentally at odds with the libe... more Since Antiquity, Jewish divorce procedure was perceived to be fundamentally at odds with the liberal and egalitarian divorce in the Greco-Roman world. Despite some obvious distinctions, I argue that the Mishnah sought to shape the procedure in accordance with Roman conception of marriage. The rabbis explicitly address issues that concerned Roman jurists and were characteristic to their system. As in Roman practice, the Mishnah demands that the actual separation precede the writing of a ‘repudium’, and in clear tension with the principles of the rabbinic system, the school of Hillel rules that this document is retroactively annulled if the couple happen to express marital affection (affectio maritalis). The rabbis sought to shape the bill of divorce as a testimony of the termination of marital relations, rather than the machinery for separation, making it in reality similar to the surrounding practice. The article further argues that this cultural-legal integration later provided the necessary grounds for employing the power of Roman jurisdiction in order to execute local Jewish law, in a characteristic provincial manner. The case of divorce thus demonstrates the diverse modes of rabbinic incorporation into their Roman cultural-legal environment, and adds to our understanding of Roman impact on the creation of rabbinic law.
JSIJ 16, 2019
While conventional midrashic method seeks to bridge Scripture and rabbinic law, the current artic... more While conventional midrashic method seeks to bridge Scripture and rabbinic law, the current article identifies a form of oppositional midrashic rhetoric. Three examples serve to demonstrate the unique method of the Mishnah in its intentionally presenting a halakhic topic as a mirror image of biblical law, albeit with significant variations. (1) Return of lost objects: whereas Scripture assumes the owner seeks his lost property, the Mishnah demands that the finder announce his finding. The peculiar double structure of m. BM chapter 2 exposes the tension between the two systems. (2) Divorce: In Deuteronomy 24:1-4 the man expels the woman from his house after handing her a bill of divorce. Mishnah Gittin, by contrast, rejects the possibility of handing the get while the couple are still living together. (3) Chapter 8 of m. BK addresses the damages of livestock and fire to fields following Ex. 22:4-5. In this case, however, the Mishnah switches the two forms of damage, employing the same Scriptural language. By amplifying such oppositional elements, the Mishnah, I argue, makes use of its scripturally independent literary framework to underline the unique features of rabbinic law.
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Books by Yair Furstenberg
Purity and Identity in Ancient Judaism offers a comprehensive description of the world of purity among the Jews of the Second Temple period in general and within the tradition of the Pharisees in particular. Yair Furstenberg explores the language of purity that provided Jews in antiquity a powerful tool for organizing legal, social, and ideological boundaries, and its study is therefore pertinent for understanding the powers that shaped the varieties of Second Temple Judaism and their later offshoots: Early Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism.
Purity and Identity in Ancient Judaism offers new methods for carefully integrating the New Testament, Qumran literature, and early rabbinic sources into a comprehensive history of purity laws from the world of the Second Temple and the Pharisees to the later rabbinic movement, allowing the reader to trace the emergence of new religious sensibilities within changing social and cultic circumstances.
This volume offers a comprehensive discussion of all relevant sources concerning Jewish martyrdom in Antiquity. By viewing these narratives together, tracing their development and comparing them to other traditions, the authors seek to explore how Jewish is Jewish martyrdom? To this end, they analyse the impact of the changing social and religious-cultural circumstances and the interactions with Graeco-Roman and Christian traditions. This results in the identification of important continuities and discontinuities. Consequently, while political ideals that are prominent in 2 and 4 Maccabees are remarkably absent from rabbinic sources, the latter reveal a growing awareness of Christian motifs and discourse.
הספר טהרה וקהילה בעת העתיקה: מסורות ההלכה בין יהדות בית שני למשנה מציע תיאור מקיף של תחום הטהרה, אופייה ותכליתה בעולמם של יהודי בית שני בכלל, ובפרט בתורתם של הפרושים. על רקע תפיסות מתחרות, המופיעות בספרות קומראן ובברית החדשה, הציעו הפרושים חלופה משלהם לחיי טהרה שבה נכרכו מסורת בדלנית ואידאולוגיה חברתית. מקורות התקופה משרטטים אורח חיים מעורר מחלוקת הממוקד בהגנה על הגוף במקום על הקודש, ובשליטה על הטומאה במקום שעבוד לעוצמתה הקוסמית. מדיניות הפרושים הוסיפה ועיצבה את דמותן של ההלכה והקהילה גם לאחר החורבן, ותורתם הניחה את היסודות לפעילותם של התנאים בתוך הקשרים חברתיים משתנים. ניתוח ביקורתי של תולדות מסורות ההלכה בתחום הטהרה במשנה ובתוספתא חושף את תהליכי התפרקותה של התרבות הדתית הקדומה והתגבשותה של תורת החכמים.
The concern for purity shaped Second Temple Judaism, and its significance expanded far beyond the limited realm of the Temple. The fear of impurity shaped daily conduct, stood at the heart of ideological disputes and formed the contours of Jewish society. The question how to ensure ritual and moral purity was of cosmic dimensions, and therefore determined the dividing lines between the main parties of Jewish society in Palestine. The Qumran sect developed the notion of the defiling sin, and Jesus was viewed by his followers as the ultimate purifier. Against these alternatives, this book offers a comprehensive analysis of the purity policy in the teachings of the dominant Pharisees. Early rabbinic traditions alongside anti-pharisaic sources uncover a controversial policy focused on the body and not on the purity of the Temple. They provided purification to wider social circles, while preserving its role in maintaining their own status. The book further demonstrates the fundamental change of religious life and social practices from the Second Temple period through the rise of the rabbinic movement, which offered a new version of ritual purity and community. A close analysis of the halakhic traditions in rabbinic literature reveals the gradual disintegration of the ancient religious culture and the emergence of the rabbinic culture within new social contexts.
Papers by Yair Furstenberg
In this article I argue that the rabbinic movement reinvented itself during the second century by expanding the boundaries of Jewish law to include all spheres of private law, and thereby claiming juristic expertise in these matters. A variety of sources from the Second Temple period indicate that Jewish law at this stage included primarily ritual laws, while private law was not considered unique to the Jewish way of life and was not treated by scholars of Torah until the second century CE. This far-reaching change resonates with other concurrent developments in provincial legal culture, primarily the emergence of the local nomikoi (legal experts) and legal profession during this period and the dissemination of legal knowledge in the Roman East. The provincial situation served to reshape the rabbinic movement in the guise of the local jurists, and ultimately to establish their political and social standing.
Following the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE and the imposition of a direct Roman rule over Palestine the rabbis transformed the corpus of biblical commandments, Judean legal practices and customs into a comprehensive and detailed legal system. How can we explain the surprising fact that it was specifically under Roman jurisdiction that Jewish law emerged for the first time as a cohesive and codified system of civil law? In this article I argue that rather than functioning as an ideological or utopian construct the creation of rabbinic law under Rome follows a familiar pattern well attested in the study of indigenous law under colonial rule. Scholars have recurrently described the development of local legal practices into fixed and formal legal systems, following colonial standards, thus triggering the invention of colonized “customary law”. In a similar manner, papyrological evidence attests to the crystallization of a corpus of “laws of the Egyptians” during the second century CE. Rabbinic material however offers the most detailed account of the processes by which the diversity of local customs characteristic of the pre-Roman period transformed into a fixed and general system of law at the hands of local experts. The article surveys three aspects of rabbinic legal innovation that feature elements of colonized “customary law”: the creation of new legal fields, codification of custom, and the establishment of a Roman-like court procedure. Together, these elements reflect the rabbinic effort to transform normative practices of different sources into a comprehensive legal system befitting imperial legal landscape.
The thirty chapters of tractate Neziqin reflect a novel attempt to create a distinct field of private law: from delicts and damages to loans, contracts, sale, and inheritance. The topics in the tractate begin with scriptural-based topics (such as the four fathers of damage) and later turn to new non-biblical issues (sales and contracts). However, the middle section offers a perplexing mixture of topics that belie any attempt to explain their organizing principles. Biblical and non-biblical topics are mixed, and similar issues are separated into remote sections.
This article argues that the complexity and apparent disorder of these chapters are the result of a double-stage process of redaction, with each stage representing a distinct organizing pattern. The earlier layer follows precisely the sequence of topics in the two main biblical units that address issues of private law: Exodus 22-23 and Deuteronomy 22-25. Later, the Mishnah reframed and transferred the biblical issue of guarding livestock into a well-structured unit on lease and hiring as part of a group of units on contracts.
I further argue that this change of redaction method reflects the changing intellectual environment that shaped rabbinic legal activity. The earlier stage closely corresponds to the legal writings of Qumran, such as the Temple Scroll and 4Q251, which maintain the sequence of biblical topics despite including diverse source materials. On the other hand, the uniform units on contract that were added at a later stage reflect the principles of Roman Law, to which the biblical cases were adjusted. Thus, by tracing the stages of mishnaic redaction, we may expose the growing integration of the rabbis’ thought into their Roman legal environment.
This paper has been accepted for publication and will appear in a revised form, subsequent to editorial input by Cambridge University Press.
Cambridge University Press is the copyright holder of this forthcoming publication
Abstract
The ban against writing Oral Torah stands at the heart of rabbinic study culture. Scholars have suggested that the ban was formulated during the third century in Palestine in attempt to preserve the oral nature of rabbinic study. At the same time, despite the overt orality of rabbinic practice, multiple Talmudic anecdotes point to a complex reality that does not align with what seems as an explicit prohibition. In this article I argue that the key for solving this long-standing crux is to distinguish between the two book cultures among the rabbis in Palestine and in Babylonia. Although the Bavli directly relies on Palestinian clusters of traditions, it transformed their meaning. While Palestinian sources forbid inappropriate writing of scriptural texts, in fear of the physical obliteration of Scriptural material, the Bavli reinterpreted these prohibition as securing the original division between the two forms of the Torah.
There was no agreed upon definition of who was a Jew among the ancients, and changing political and social circumstances brought about far‐reaching innovations in the ways Jews understood the nature of their distinctiveness. This chapter surveys the major stations and disputations concerning these issues during Antiquity. The unique situation of the Jews during this period served to dismantle initial ethnic affiliations and encouraged the creation of new versions of cultic and genealogical identity. The penetration of Greek cultural categories and the Roman civic model further accelerated the creation of an abstracted conception of Judaism, as an acquired cultural and legal system. At the same time, sectarian tendencies created alternative non‐ethnic identities and laid the foundation for the rise of Christian inclusivity within the divine body of the Church. Building upon this diverse heritage, rabbinic traditions offered a new version of the community of law.
Purity and Identity in Ancient Judaism offers a comprehensive description of the world of purity among the Jews of the Second Temple period in general and within the tradition of the Pharisees in particular. Yair Furstenberg explores the language of purity that provided Jews in antiquity a powerful tool for organizing legal, social, and ideological boundaries, and its study is therefore pertinent for understanding the powers that shaped the varieties of Second Temple Judaism and their later offshoots: Early Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism.
Purity and Identity in Ancient Judaism offers new methods for carefully integrating the New Testament, Qumran literature, and early rabbinic sources into a comprehensive history of purity laws from the world of the Second Temple and the Pharisees to the later rabbinic movement, allowing the reader to trace the emergence of new religious sensibilities within changing social and cultic circumstances.
This volume offers a comprehensive discussion of all relevant sources concerning Jewish martyrdom in Antiquity. By viewing these narratives together, tracing their development and comparing them to other traditions, the authors seek to explore how Jewish is Jewish martyrdom? To this end, they analyse the impact of the changing social and religious-cultural circumstances and the interactions with Graeco-Roman and Christian traditions. This results in the identification of important continuities and discontinuities. Consequently, while political ideals that are prominent in 2 and 4 Maccabees are remarkably absent from rabbinic sources, the latter reveal a growing awareness of Christian motifs and discourse.
הספר טהרה וקהילה בעת העתיקה: מסורות ההלכה בין יהדות בית שני למשנה מציע תיאור מקיף של תחום הטהרה, אופייה ותכליתה בעולמם של יהודי בית שני בכלל, ובפרט בתורתם של הפרושים. על רקע תפיסות מתחרות, המופיעות בספרות קומראן ובברית החדשה, הציעו הפרושים חלופה משלהם לחיי טהרה שבה נכרכו מסורת בדלנית ואידאולוגיה חברתית. מקורות התקופה משרטטים אורח חיים מעורר מחלוקת הממוקד בהגנה על הגוף במקום על הקודש, ובשליטה על הטומאה במקום שעבוד לעוצמתה הקוסמית. מדיניות הפרושים הוסיפה ועיצבה את דמותן של ההלכה והקהילה גם לאחר החורבן, ותורתם הניחה את היסודות לפעילותם של התנאים בתוך הקשרים חברתיים משתנים. ניתוח ביקורתי של תולדות מסורות ההלכה בתחום הטהרה במשנה ובתוספתא חושף את תהליכי התפרקותה של התרבות הדתית הקדומה והתגבשותה של תורת החכמים.
The concern for purity shaped Second Temple Judaism, and its significance expanded far beyond the limited realm of the Temple. The fear of impurity shaped daily conduct, stood at the heart of ideological disputes and formed the contours of Jewish society. The question how to ensure ritual and moral purity was of cosmic dimensions, and therefore determined the dividing lines between the main parties of Jewish society in Palestine. The Qumran sect developed the notion of the defiling sin, and Jesus was viewed by his followers as the ultimate purifier. Against these alternatives, this book offers a comprehensive analysis of the purity policy in the teachings of the dominant Pharisees. Early rabbinic traditions alongside anti-pharisaic sources uncover a controversial policy focused on the body and not on the purity of the Temple. They provided purification to wider social circles, while preserving its role in maintaining their own status. The book further demonstrates the fundamental change of religious life and social practices from the Second Temple period through the rise of the rabbinic movement, which offered a new version of ritual purity and community. A close analysis of the halakhic traditions in rabbinic literature reveals the gradual disintegration of the ancient religious culture and the emergence of the rabbinic culture within new social contexts.
In this article I argue that the rabbinic movement reinvented itself during the second century by expanding the boundaries of Jewish law to include all spheres of private law, and thereby claiming juristic expertise in these matters. A variety of sources from the Second Temple period indicate that Jewish law at this stage included primarily ritual laws, while private law was not considered unique to the Jewish way of life and was not treated by scholars of Torah until the second century CE. This far-reaching change resonates with other concurrent developments in provincial legal culture, primarily the emergence of the local nomikoi (legal experts) and legal profession during this period and the dissemination of legal knowledge in the Roman East. The provincial situation served to reshape the rabbinic movement in the guise of the local jurists, and ultimately to establish their political and social standing.
Following the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE and the imposition of a direct Roman rule over Palestine the rabbis transformed the corpus of biblical commandments, Judean legal practices and customs into a comprehensive and detailed legal system. How can we explain the surprising fact that it was specifically under Roman jurisdiction that Jewish law emerged for the first time as a cohesive and codified system of civil law? In this article I argue that rather than functioning as an ideological or utopian construct the creation of rabbinic law under Rome follows a familiar pattern well attested in the study of indigenous law under colonial rule. Scholars have recurrently described the development of local legal practices into fixed and formal legal systems, following colonial standards, thus triggering the invention of colonized “customary law”. In a similar manner, papyrological evidence attests to the crystallization of a corpus of “laws of the Egyptians” during the second century CE. Rabbinic material however offers the most detailed account of the processes by which the diversity of local customs characteristic of the pre-Roman period transformed into a fixed and general system of law at the hands of local experts. The article surveys three aspects of rabbinic legal innovation that feature elements of colonized “customary law”: the creation of new legal fields, codification of custom, and the establishment of a Roman-like court procedure. Together, these elements reflect the rabbinic effort to transform normative practices of different sources into a comprehensive legal system befitting imperial legal landscape.
The thirty chapters of tractate Neziqin reflect a novel attempt to create a distinct field of private law: from delicts and damages to loans, contracts, sale, and inheritance. The topics in the tractate begin with scriptural-based topics (such as the four fathers of damage) and later turn to new non-biblical issues (sales and contracts). However, the middle section offers a perplexing mixture of topics that belie any attempt to explain their organizing principles. Biblical and non-biblical topics are mixed, and similar issues are separated into remote sections.
This article argues that the complexity and apparent disorder of these chapters are the result of a double-stage process of redaction, with each stage representing a distinct organizing pattern. The earlier layer follows precisely the sequence of topics in the two main biblical units that address issues of private law: Exodus 22-23 and Deuteronomy 22-25. Later, the Mishnah reframed and transferred the biblical issue of guarding livestock into a well-structured unit on lease and hiring as part of a group of units on contracts.
I further argue that this change of redaction method reflects the changing intellectual environment that shaped rabbinic legal activity. The earlier stage closely corresponds to the legal writings of Qumran, such as the Temple Scroll and 4Q251, which maintain the sequence of biblical topics despite including diverse source materials. On the other hand, the uniform units on contract that were added at a later stage reflect the principles of Roman Law, to which the biblical cases were adjusted. Thus, by tracing the stages of mishnaic redaction, we may expose the growing integration of the rabbis’ thought into their Roman legal environment.
This paper has been accepted for publication and will appear in a revised form, subsequent to editorial input by Cambridge University Press.
Cambridge University Press is the copyright holder of this forthcoming publication
Abstract
The ban against writing Oral Torah stands at the heart of rabbinic study culture. Scholars have suggested that the ban was formulated during the third century in Palestine in attempt to preserve the oral nature of rabbinic study. At the same time, despite the overt orality of rabbinic practice, multiple Talmudic anecdotes point to a complex reality that does not align with what seems as an explicit prohibition. In this article I argue that the key for solving this long-standing crux is to distinguish between the two book cultures among the rabbis in Palestine and in Babylonia. Although the Bavli directly relies on Palestinian clusters of traditions, it transformed their meaning. While Palestinian sources forbid inappropriate writing of scriptural texts, in fear of the physical obliteration of Scriptural material, the Bavli reinterpreted these prohibition as securing the original division between the two forms of the Torah.
There was no agreed upon definition of who was a Jew among the ancients, and changing political and social circumstances brought about far‐reaching innovations in the ways Jews understood the nature of their distinctiveness. This chapter surveys the major stations and disputations concerning these issues during Antiquity. The unique situation of the Jews during this period served to dismantle initial ethnic affiliations and encouraged the creation of new versions of cultic and genealogical identity. The penetration of Greek cultural categories and the Roman civic model further accelerated the creation of an abstracted conception of Judaism, as an acquired cultural and legal system. At the same time, sectarian tendencies created alternative non‐ethnic identities and laid the foundation for the rise of Christian inclusivity within the divine body of the Church. Building upon this diverse heritage, rabbinic traditions offered a new version of the community of law.
In the first section, I offer a new interpretation of Tosefta Eduyot 1.1, and other closely related sources, which address fear of losing the Torah, since it has been splintered into multiple contradictory traditions. These sources justify the creation of the new controversy-centered literary form, which has come to dominate rabbinic literature, such as ‘Rabbi X prohibits, and R. Y permits’. Paradoxically, the systematic preservation of disputes within a shared textual framework has transformed the collection of contradictory teachings into a manageable whole.
The following sections provide a close analysis of Mishnah Eduyot ch. 1. The three sections of that chapter display controversy as the essential textual space for further development of the law. In its redacted form, corresponding to the practice of R. Akiva’s disciples, the chapter presents a manifesto for the value of transmitting controversies, such as those of the Houses of Shammai and Hillel, and the preservation of rejected views. At the same time, the earlier materials underlying each of the sections belong to an earlier Yavnean study-culture, based on the authority of tradition. In this earlier stage, there is no place for the rejected views of Shammai and the House of Shammai, unless they are adapted to the authoritative tradition of the House of Hillel.
Rabbinic statements of the early second century assume that Roman courts were accepting cases according to local law. Such a practice is well known from the Roman courts in Egypt, which were willing to judge according to the 'Laws of the Egyptians'. The rabbis resisted such a system, in fear of Roman appropriation of local practice, and as an alternative, offered their own legal arbitration services according to both Jewish and foreign law. Other sources of the period reflect rabbinic rejection to Roman property laws, as in the case of "Sikarikon" concerning land confiscated by the fiscus. However, Judah the Patriarch diverted from previous assumptions and legislated a new decree that was set to complement Roman land laws. Finally, while early rabbinic sources assume gentiles under Jewish sovereignty are subject to Jewish criminal law, these sources were reinterpreted in the Palestinian Talmud, which refers the disputing sides to gentile courts. This development reflects the legal situation after 212 CE, when all inhabitants of the Empire were brought under direct Roman jurisdiction.
Archaeology and Text: A Journal for the Integration of Material Culture with Written Documents in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East
people, such as idols, gentiles and “outsiders” in general. Consequently, the distinction between moral and ritual impurity was blurred, and practices for the disposal of bodily impurity were gradually applied to carriers of sin impurity. Arguably, both Qumran sectarians and Christians shared this Second Temple tendency, and it shaped their common ritual language. In this article, I examine the gradual development of initiation as a locus of purification from sin impurity in various Qumran texts and
in the Christian Apostolic Tradition. The two corpora share the challenge of expelling the impure presence of sin through concrete ritual patterns of bodily purification. Although they seem to differ in their choice of ritual resources, in both cases the principles of gradual bodily purification merge with the language of exorcism to create a separate purification procedure in addition to the initial rite of initiation.
החל מדקה 1:05 בסרטון ביוטיוב
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSyngPUxPJ8
לרגל מלאת יובל שנים לספרו של פרופ' אפרים אלימלך אורבך "חז"ל: פרקי אמונות ודעות", ולרגל יציאתו לאור של הקובץ "מחשבת חז"ל", דעת 86
בעקבות חורבן ירושלים בשנת 70 לספירה והחלתה של מערכת שיפוט רומית בפרובינקיה יהודה (שהפכה בהמשך לסוריה-פלסטינה), יצרו החכמים לראשונה מערכת חוק אזרחי, שהתבססה על מצוות התורה אך התרחבה אל מעבר להן לקראת הסדרה כוללת של יחסי הממון. חכמים פעלו ליצירתם של תחומים שלמים, כגון דיני קניין, חוזים, נזיקין, ומשפחה, שאין כל עדות קודמת לניסוחם, ארגונם או לזיהויים כמרכיבים מהותיים של מערכת החוק היהודית. הן התורה והן ספרות בית שני מציגים מספר הנחיות כלליות בעלות אופי מוסרי, אך אין להן כל עניין בהסדרה חוקית של תחומים אלו. בתי הדין היהודיים הקדומים נהגו בהתאם למקובל במרחב, והם לא התייחדו בשיטת משפט נפרדת. כיצד ניתן להסביר את העובדה המפתיעה שדווקא עם איבוד העצמאות השיפוטית, והכפפתם הישירה של יהודי ארץ ישראל לשיפוט הרומי, נוצרה לראשונה מערכת לכידה של חוק אזרחי? בהרצאה זו אני מבקש לטעון שאין לראות בפעילות זו של החכמים ביטוי אוטופי לסדר עולם חלופי שיעמוד כנגד השיפוט הרומי הקונקרטי (שוודאי שירת את האוכלוסיה היהודית), אלא יש לפרש פעילות זו בהתאם לתבניות מוכרות של התפתחות חוק מקומי תחת שלטון קולוניאליסטי. חוקרים הצביעו בהקשרים היסטוריים מגווונים כיצד החדירה של נורמות משפטיות קולוניסאליסטיות הובילה לגיבושו וליצירתו של 'מנהג מקומי' ושל ערכאות מקומיות התואמות את הסטנדרטים המשפטיים הזרים. מסמכים ממצרים מאותה תקופה שבה פעלו ראשוני החכמים, במאה השניה לספירה, מעידים על התגבשות קורפוס של 'חוקי המצרים', שנוצקו על מנת לגבש זהות מקומית אל מול הנורמות המשפטיות שיובאו על ידי הפקידים הרומיים. בהתאם לכך, ספרות חז"ל הקדומה מאפשרת לעקוב אחר גיבושם של נורמות מגוונות, קונוונציות ומנהגים, אל תוך מערכת משפטית מקיפה וסדורה. חכמים העניקו מעמד סמכותי למנהגים מקובלים דרך קודיפיקציה של המנהג, פנו למודלים רומיים כדי לנסח תחומים משפטיים חדשים, והציעו זהות משפטית יהודית. מבחינה זו, החכמים תפקדו כמומחי חוק מקומיים, שיכלו לתווך את השיפוט הרומי, אך בתוך כך גם להציע לאוכלוסיה היהודית אופציה שיפוטית שהיתה מסוגלת להשתלב בתוך המרחב הרומי.
שנתון המשפט העברי כח 2018