RABBINIC LITERATURE

Aryeh Amihay

Details:
RGST 131J, Winter 2018
T R 3:30-4:45
Room: Arts 1349

Office HSSB 3048

Office Hours: T & R 11:00-12:00; 2:00-3:00
aamihay@ucsb.edu

Books
Jeffrey L. Rubenstein, Rabbinic Stories, Classics of Western Spirituality. Mahwaw, NJ: Paulist Press,
2002. (ISBN: 978-0809140244). Henceforth: Rabbinic Stories

Description and Mission

The purpose of this course is to familiarize students with the literature and themes of classic rabbinic
literature, primarily Talmud and midrash. Students will consider the plurality of voices and ideas, the
richness of topics that the rabbis address, and the use of scripture in these texts.
Students are expected to prepare readings before each class, and to be prepared for a Havruta-style
study in class, before we resume for class discussion.
Primary readings from the collection Rabbinic Stories will be supplemented with various secondary
articles, through which students will gain competence in reading scholarship on rabbinic literature, as
well as consider the relationship between aggadic and halakhic material in rabbinic literature.

Tardiness and Absence

Students should be in class on time. Repeated tardiness may result in an F. Students are allowed four
absences from class. Any further absence, regardless of cause, will be penalized. Students with more
than seven absences, regardless of cause, will fail the course – no exception.

Grading
10% Havruta and participation
60% 3 optional assignments (20% each)
30-90% final paper

Lack of presence, preparation or participation, may be penalized up to a full letter grade.

Students who have missed more than a third of the course will not be graded.

All students are required to have one office hour meeting with instructor during the course.
Grades will not be submitted for no-show students.
Class 1 (Jan. 9) – Introduction

Goldenberg, “The Rebirth of Judaism”

Holtz, “Midrash”

Class 2 (Jan. 11) – Terminology and genres: midrash, mishna, talmud

Rabbinic Stories, 1-20

Class 3 (Jan.16) – Historical background

Lapin, “Rabbis in Palestine: Texts, Origins, Development”

Cohen, “The Significance of Yavneh: Pharisees, Rabbis, and the End of Jewish Sectarianism”

Class 4 (Jan. 18) – Historical Memory of the Rabbis

Rabbinic Stories, 31-63

Class 5 (Jan. 23) – Authority and Scripture

Rabbinic Stories, 67-92

Class 6 (Jan. 25) – Authority and Exegesis

Hayes, “Rabbinic Contestations of Authority”

Fraade, “Rewritten Bible and Rabbinic Midrash as Commentary”

Class 7 (Jan. 30) – Rivalry and Dialectics

Rabbinic Stories, 95-118

Class 8 (Feb. 1) – Controversy and Friendship

Hezser, “Friendship in the Talmud Yerushalmi and in Graeco-Roman Literature”

Ben-Menahem, “Controversy and Dialogue in the Jewish Tradition: An Interpretive Essay”

Class 9 (Feb. 6) – Magic and Mysticism

Rabbinic Stories, 121-135

The Four Who Entered the Orchard and other selections (on GauchoSpace)

Class 10 (Feb. 8) – Magic and Mysticism

Schäfer, “Magic and Religion in Ancient Judaism”

Ronis, “Space, Place, and the Race for Power: Rabbis, Demons, and the Construction of Babylonia”

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Class 11 (Feb. 13) – Women and Marriage

Rabbinic Stories, 139-153

Class 12 (Feb. 15) – Gender and Sex

Hauptman, “Relations between the Sexes”

Boyarin, “Studying Women: Resistance from Within the Male Discourse”

Class 13 (Feb. 20) – Jews and Non-Jews

Rabbinic Stories, 157-177

Class 14 (Feb. 22) – Idolatry and Conversion

Halbertal, “Coexisting with the Enemy: Jews and Pagans in the Mishnah”
Schiffman, “Conversion to Judaism in Tannaitic Halakhah”

Class 15 (Feb. 27) – Charity and Righteousness

Rabbinic Stories, 181-203

Class 16 (March 1) – Righteousness and Charity

Novick, “Eager Observance”

Gardner, “The Charity Supervisor”

Class 17 (March 6) – Martyrdom and Theodicy

Rabbinic Stories, 207-225

Class 18 (March 8) – Heresy

Schremer, “Laws of Minim”

Halberstam, “Justice without Judgement”

Class 19 (March 13) – Sin and Repentance

Rabbinic Stories, 229-248

Bar-Asher Siegal, “Repentant Whore, Repentant Rabbi”

Class 20 (March 15) – Conclusion

Wimpfheimer, “Deconstructing Halakhah and Aggadah”

Gafni, “Talmudic Research in Modern Times: Between Scholarship and Ideology”

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Reserves
(These titles are recommended resources for papers. We will discuss these further in class).

Bialik, Hayyim Nahman and Yehoshua Ḥana Rawnitzki, eds. The Book of Legends. Translated by William G. Braude.
New York: Schocken, 1992.
Fonrobert, Charlotte Elisheva, and Martin S. Jaffee, eds. The Cambridge Companion to the Talmud and Rabbinic Literature,
Cambridge Companions to Religion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Katz, Steven T., ed. The Cambridge History of Judaism. Vol. IV: The Late Roman-Rabbinic Period. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2006.
Solomon, Norman, ed. The Talmud: A Selection. London: Penguin Books, 2009.
Strack, Hermann L., and Günter Stemberger. Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash. Translated by Markus Bockmuehl.
Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996.

Sources of Secondary Readings

Bar-Asher Siegal, Michal. Early Christian Monastic Literature and the Babylonian Talmud. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2013.
Ben-Menahem, Hanina. “Controversy and Dialogue in the Jewish Tradition: An Interpretive Essay.” In Controversy and
Dialogue in the Jewish Tradition: A Reader, edited by Hanina Ben-Menahem, Neil S. Hecht, and Shai Wosner, 1-41.
London and New York: Routledge, 2005.
Boyarin, Daniel. Carnal Israel. Reading Sex in Talmudic Culture. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.
Cohen, Shaye J. D. The Significance of Yavneh and Other Essays in Jewish Hellenism. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010.
Fraade, Steven D. “Rewritten Bible and Rabbinic Midrash as Commentary.” In Current Trends in the Study of Midrash,
edited by Carol Bakhos, 59-78. Leiden: Brill, 2006.
Gafni, Isaiah. “Talmudic Research in Modern Times: Between Scholarship and Ideology.” In Jüdische Geschichte in
hellenistisch-römischer Zeit. Wege der Forschung vom alten zum neuen Schürer, edited by Aharon Oppenheimer, 133-48.
München: Oldenbourg, 1999.
Gardner, Gregg E. The Origins of Organized Charity in Rabbinic Judaism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
Goldenberg, Robert. The Origins of Judaism. From Canaan to the Rise of Islam. New York: Cambridge University Press,
2007.
Halberstam, Chaya. “Justice without Judgement: Pure Procedural Justice and the Divine Courtroom in Sifre
Deuteronomy.” In The Divine Courtroom in Comparative Perspective, edited by Ari Mermelstein and Shalom E. Holtz,
49-68. Leiden: Brill, 2015.
Halbertal, Moshe. “Coexisting with the Enemy: Jews and Pagans in the Mishnah.” In Tolerance and Intolerance in Early
Judaism and Christianity, edited by Graham N. Stanton and Guy G. Stroumsa, 159-72. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1998.
Hauptman, Judith. Rereading The Rabbis: A Woman’s Voice. Boulder, Col.: Westview, 1998.
Hayes, Christine “Rabbinic Contestations of Authority.” Cardozo Law Review 28.1 (2006): 123-41.
Hezser, Catherine. “Rabbis and Other Friends: Friendship in the Talmud Yerushalmi and in Graeco-Roman
Literature.” In The Talmud Yerushalmi and Graeco-Roman Culture, volume II, edited by Peter Schäfer and Catherine
Hezser, 189-254. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2000.
Holtz, Barry W. “Midrash.” In Back to the Sources. Reading the Classic Jewish Texts, edited by Barry W. Holtz, 177-211.
New York: Touchstone, 1992.
Lapin, Hayim. Rabbis as Romans. The Rabbinic Movement in Palestine, 100-400 CE. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
Novick, Tzvi. What Is Good, and What God Demands. Normative Structures in Tannaitic Literature. Leiden: Brill, 2010.
Ronis, Sara. “Space, Place, and the Race for Power: Rabbis, Demons, and the Construction of Babylonia.” Harvard
Theological Review 110.4 (2017): 588-603.
Schäfer, Peter. “Magic and Religion in Ancient Judaism.” In Envisioning Magic. A Princeton Seminar and Symposium, edited
by Peter Schäfer and Hans G. Kippenberg, 19-43. Leiden: Brill, 1997.
Schiffman, Lawrence H. “Conversion to Judaism in Tannaitic Halakhah.” In Conversion, Intermarriage, and Jewish Identity,
edited by Adam Mintz and Marc D. Stern, 189-215. New York: Ktav and Urim, 2015.
Schremer, Adiel. Brothers Estranged. Heresy, Christianity, and Jewish Identity in Late Antiquity. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2007.
Wimpfheimer, Barry Scott. Narrating the Law. A Poetics of Talmudic Legal Stories. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
Press, 2010.

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