Diversity and Rabbinization: Jewish Texts and Societies between 400 and 1000 CE

This volume is dedicated to the cultural and religious diversity in Jewish communities from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Age and the growing influence of the rabbis within these communities during the same period. Drawing on available textual and material evidence, the fourteen essays presented here, written by leading experts in their fields, span a significant chronological and geographical range and cover material that has not yet received sufficient attention in scholarship.
The volume is divided into four parts. The first focuses on the vantage point of the synagogue; the second and third on non-rabbinic Judaism in, respectively, the Near East and Europe; the final part turns from diversity within Judaism to the process of "rabbinization" as represented in some unusual rabbinic texts.
Diversity and Rabbinization is a welcome contribution to the historical study of Judaism in all its complexity. It presents fresh perspectives on critical questions and allows us to rethink the tension between multiplicity and unity in Judaism during the first millennium CE.
L’École Pratique des Hautes Études has kindly contributed to the publication of this volume.
Diversity and Rabbinization: Jewish Texts and Societies between 400 and 1000 CE
Gavin McDowell, Ron Naiweld, Daniel Stökl Ben Ezra (eds) | Forthcoming in 2021
Semitic Languages and Cultures | ISSN: 2632-6906 (Print); 2632-6914 (Online)
ISBN Paperback: 9781783749935
ISBN Hardback: 9781783749942
ISBN Digital (PDF): 9781783749959
ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 9781783749966
ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 9781783749973
ISBN Hardback: 9781783749942
ISBN Digital (PDF): 9781783749959
ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 9781783749966
ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 9781783749973
ISBN Digital (XML): 9781783749980
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0219
Subject Codes: BIC: JF (Society and Culture: General), JFSR1 (Jewish Studies), CFF (Historical and comparative linguistics), CFP (Translation and interpretation); BISAC: REL006020 (RELIGION / Biblical Biography / General), LAN009010 (LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / Historical & Comparative)
1. Diversity in the Ancient Synagogue of Roman-Byzantine Palestine: Historical Implications
Lee I. Levine
Lee
I. Levine’s ‘Diversity in the Ancient Synagogue of Roman-Byzantine
Palestine: Historical Implications’ addresses the variety of synagogues
in Late Antiquity. Levine criticizes the hypothesis of a linear
development of synagogue types and shows that there was a great deal of
diversity in synagogue art, architecture, and even liturgy throughout
Late Antiquity. Furthermore, the number and size of synagogues suggests a
thriving Jewish community even after the Christianization of the Roman
Empire, a time that has been normally viewed as one of steady decline
for the Jews.
2. Society and the Self in Early Piyyut
Michael Swartz
Michael
Swartz, in ‘Society and the Self in Early Piyyut’, takes us on a
textual journey in the company of some early liturgical authors from the
Byzantine period whose work was probably recited in the synagogues of
Palestine and other places before audiences that were not exclusively
rabbinic. Through the analysis of selected piyyutim, Swartz shows that
these liturgical poems help us better understand ideological frameworks
and social structures of the Late Antique Jewish Palestinian society.
These piyyutim, whose authors are generally known (unlike most other
Jewish literary production from the period), complicate our vision of
the Jewish society and the structures that held it together.
3. Some Remarks about Non-Rabbinic Judaism, Rabbinization, and Synagogal Judaism
José Costa
In
‘Some Remarks about Non-Rabbinic Judaism, Rabbinization, and Synagogal
Judaism’, José Costa proposes the tripartite division of Late Antique
Judaism into rabbinic Judaism, Christian Judaism (i.e., Jewish
Christianity), and "synagogal Judaism”, a term coined by Simon Claude
Mimouni (Le judaïsme ancien du VIe siècle avant notre ère au IIIe siècle de notre ère,
2012). Costa particularly engages with and criticizes Ra‘anan Boustan’s
article ‘Rabbinization and the Making of Early Jewish Mysticism’
(2011). Costa suggests that the rabbinization process meant mainly the
rabbinization of the synagogues and the religious activity within, a
conclusion that can be shared also by those who do not adhere to the
model of "synagogal Judaism”.
4. In Search of Non-Rabbinic Judaism in Sasanian Babylonia
Geoffrey Herman
Geoffrey
Herman assesses the problem of Babylonian Jewry in his article ‘In
Search of Non-Rabbinic Judaism in Sasanian Babylonia’. If Jewish
diversity in the Roman Empire is broadly acknowledged, it has taken more
time for scholars to acknowledge diversity among Babylonian Jews. One
reason for this is a dearth of archeological evidence in context. For
example, vestiges of Late Antique synagogues in the regions around
Babylonia are wanting. Herman provides a survey of scholars who dealt
with the question, from Jacob Neusner’s Aphrahat and Judaism
(1971) to the more recent works of Richard Kalmin Catherine Hezser,
Moulie Vidas, and the Jewish Babylonian Aramaic magic bowls published by
Shaul Shaked and others.
5. Varieties of Non-Rabbinic Judaism in Geonic and Contemporaneous Sources
Robert Brody
In
‘Varieties of Non-Rabbinic Judaism in Geonic and Contemporaneous
Sources’, Robert Brody shows that, based on his analysis of several responsa attributed
to Natronai Gaon and the letter of Pirqoy ben Baboy, rabbinic
authorities were aware of the existence of several non-rabbinic Jewish
groups in the eighth century. However, over the course of a little more
than a century, rabbinic discourse shifted from knowledge of several
such groups to the assumption that all non-rabbinic teachings derived
from Anan ben David and his followers. Finally, Brody pinpoints several
differences between the earlier non-rabbinic groups (on the one hand)
and the Ananites and Karaites (on the other), who seem to have posed a
greater threat to the rabbis.
6. Karaites and Sadducees
Yoram Erder
Yoram
Erder, writing on the ‘Karaites and Sadducees’, addresses the polemical
identification of the two groups by Rabbanite Jews (such as Moses
Maimonides). Not all Rabbanites equated the Karaites with the Sadducees,
and the Karaites recognized the Sadducees as a group distinct from
their own movement. In fact, the Karaites refer to two groups called
Sadducees: the Second Temple sect and the "Zadokites” of the Qumran
movement. He suggests that the Damascus Document, found at Qumran but
also in the Cairo Genizah, was known to the Karaites. While the Karaites
have much in common with these "Zadokites”, there are also important
differences between them, such as the Karaite belief in the
resurrection.
7. The Judaism of the Ancient Kingdom of Ḥimyar in Arabia: A Discreet Conversion
Christian Robin
Christian
Robin’s ‘The Judaism of the Ancient Kingdom of Himyar in Arabia: A
Discreet Conversion’, surveys the prominent Yemenite kingdom, which
plays an important role in both Christian and Muslim historiography but
is utterly neglected in Jewish sources. This is surprising, since
Judaism was the official religion of the kingdom from the fourth to the
sixth centuries (c. 380-530 CE). Robin carefully analyses the primary
evidence, epigraphy, to assess our knowledge of Himyarite Judaism. He
arrives at the conclusion that it was grounded in priestly rather than
rabbinic currents. The Himyarite inscriptions mention neither the rabbis
nor belief in resurrection, yet there is an important inscription
mentioning the twenty-four priestly courses in the Temple. The scant
evidence, however, obscures the exact nature of Himyarite Judaism. Robin
characterizes this as calculated religious minimalism in a pluralistic
society.
8. The Didascalus Annas: A Jewish Political and Intellectual Figure from the West
Capucine Nemo-Pekelman
Capucine Nemo-Pekelman, in ‘The Didascalus Annas:
A Jewish Political and Intellectual Figure from the West’, explores the
identity of a little-known fifth-century figure who managed to secure
two legal victories for the Jewish community of Ravenna, both involving
controversies over conversion. Annas’ title, didascalus,
was one of several Latin and Greek titles used for Jewish legal
experts, but it was also used by Christians. It was therefore not a
synonym for rabbi. Nemo-Pekelman associates Annas with the same Jewish milieu that produced the Collatio Legum Mosaicarum et Romanarum. She also suggests, with some hesitation, that this Annas is also the author of the Epistola Anne ad Senecam.
9. Rabbis in Southern Italian Jewish Inscriptions from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages
Giancarlo Lacerenza
Giancarlo
Lacerenza, in ‘Rabbis in Southern Italian Jewish Inscriptions from Late
Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages’, examines the evolution of the
title rabbi based on the epigraphic evidence. Even though rabbinic literature mentions the presence of rabbis in Rome, the word rabbi rarely
appears in the early inscriptions. Lacerenza studies three Greek and
Latin funerary inscriptions from the fourth to sixth centuries that
mention some variation of the title. The scarcity of evidence for this
period contrasts with the situation after the ninth century, where
rabbinic allusions abound in predominantly Hebrew inscriptions.
Lacerenza postulates that a progressive rabbinization of southern Italy
occurred during the two centuries where the evidence is silent.
10. Jewish Demographics and Economics at the Onset of the European Middle Ages
Michael Toch
Michael
Toch’s contribution, ‘Jewish Demographics and Economics at the Onset of
the European Middle Ages’, deals with the knotty question of the origin
of European Jewry. Toch contests the controversial claim that both
Ashkenazi and Sephardi communities were descendants of converts (notably
the Khazars). He emphasizes the continuity of Jewish presence within
the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, which eventually resulted in
immigration northward into the European continent. Toch concludes that
these later European Jewish communities, who emerged with a fully-formed
culture in a short period of time, were rabbinic from the outset.
11. The Rabbinization Tractates and the Propagation of Rabbinic Ideology in the Late Talmudic Period
Ron Naiweld
Ron
Naiweld examines the process of rabbinization in ‘The Rabbinization
Tractates and the Propagation of Rabbinic Ideology in the Late Talmudic
Period’. He identifies two interrelated aspects of this process: first,
the rabbinization of the past, including the biblical past, and, second,
the acceptance of rabbinic institutions as normative. Naiweld focuses
on two texts that teach Jews how to think like rabbis, the
extracanonical Talmudic tractate Kallah and the Sar ha-Torah section of
Hekhalot Rabbati. He sees both texts as ideological tools intended to
promote rabbinic thinking outside of the academy.
12. Who is the Target of Toledot Yeshu?
Daniel Stökl ben Ezra
In
‘Who is the Target of Toledot Yeshu?’, Daniel Stökl ben Ezra begins
with the observation that the ideological opponents of this polymorphic
work are not merely Christians but (in the words of John Gager) ‘the
dangerous ones in-between’, Christianizing Jews and Judaizing
Christians. The rabbinic authors of Toledot Yeshu, which Stökl Ben Ezra
dates to the fifth century, were particularly concerned about
Christianizing Jews. Drawing from selected cases in the legal
composition Sefer ha-Ma‘asim, he argues that unforced conversion to
Christianity was a social reality in Late Antiquity.
13. Rabbinization of Non-Rabbinic Material in Pirqe de-Rabbi Eliezer
Gavin McDowell
Pirqe
de-Rabbi Eliezer (eighth century) is a clear example of the
rabbinization of the biblical past. Many of the stories in this
rewriting of biblical history have roots outside of rabbinic and even
Jewish literature. Gavin McDowell, in ‘Rabbinization of Non-Rabbinic
Material in Pirqe de-Rabbi Eliezer’, shows how Christian, "Gnostic”, and
Muslim legends about biblical characters have been altered to make them
compatible with existing rabbinic traditions from the Talmud and
classical Midrash. Through this process, biblical history, the common
cultural patrimony of all these groups, becomes specifically rabbinic
history.
14. Seder Eliyahu Rabbah: Rabbinic Tradition for a Non-Rabbinic Society
Günter Stemberger
Günter Stemberger investigates the raison d’être
of a late rabbinic text in ‘Seder Eliyahu Rabbah: Rabbinic Tradition
for a Non-Rabbinic Society’. Although Seder Eliyahu cites the Mishnah
and other classical rabbinic texts, it does not demand a level of
learning greater than knowledge of the Hebrew Bible. A couple of the
interlocutors with the narrator are not even Jewish. According to
Stemberger, the text advocates a "minimal Judaism” bordering on
universalism, where respect for the Law is equal to or greater than
academic achievement.
15. Rabbinization and the Persistence of Diversity in Jewish Culture in Late Antiquity
Ra‘anan Boustan
Ra‘anan
Boustan, in ‘Rabbinization and the Persistence of Diversity in Jewish
Culture in Late Antiquity’, offers some closing thoughts on the overall
theme of the volume. He begins with a brief history of the concept of
"rabbinization”, a twentieth-century neologism that only recently came
to designate the process by which rabbinic institutions became
normative. He also catalogues the written and archaeological sources
that are used in order to study this process, most of which are covered
in the present volume. In addition to rabbinic literature itself, he
mentions synagogues, piyyutim, inscriptions, the writings of the Church
Fathers, legal corpora, Geonic writings, and Jewish magic. At the same
time, Boustan sounds a note of caution that the varieties of
non-rabbinic Judaism should not be lumped together as a homogenous
entity in opposition to the emerging power of the rabbinic Sages.