1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910812170103321

Autore

Kraemer David Charles

Titolo

Reading the rabbis : the Talmud as literature / / David Kraemer

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New York : , : Oxford University Press, , 1996

ISBN

0-19-774067-7

1-280-53363-3

0-19-535724-8

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (x, 165 pages)

Disciplina

296.1/25066

Soggetti

Rabbinical literature

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 159-161) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Contents; Abbreviations; 1. Introduction: The Talmud as Religious Literature; 2. Torah, Written and Oral; 3. The Rabbis and Scripture; 4. Rhetorics of Tradition and Innovation; 5. On Truth, Human and Divine; 6. Pluralism and Pragmatism; 7. Women Categorized; 8. The Problem with Foreskin: Circumcision, Gender, Impurity, and Death; 9. On Human Suffering; 10. The Difference a Lens Makes; Notes; Bibliography; Index

Sommario/riassunto

Traditionally, the Talmud was read as law, that is, as the authoritative source for Jewish practice and obligations. To this end, it was studied at the level of its most minute details, with readers often ignoring the composite whole and attending only to final decisions. Methods of reading have shifted as more readers and students have turned to the Talmud for evidence of rabbinic history, religion, rhetoric, or anthropology; still, few have employed a genuinely literary approach. In Reading the Rabbis, Kraemer attempts to fill this gap. He uses the tools developed in the study of other liter