Biblical Narrative and the Formation of Rabbinic Law

Biblical Narrative and the Formation of Rabbinic Law
Author: Jane L. Kanarek
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2014-07-31
Genre: Bibles
ISBN: 1107047811

This book presents a new framework for understanding the relationship between biblical narrative and rabbinic law. Drawing on legal theory and models of rabbinic exegesis, Jane L. Kanarek argues for the centrality of biblical narrative in the formation of rabbinic law. Through close readings of selected Talmudic and midrashic texts, Kanarek demonstrates that rabbinic legal readings of narrative scripture are best understood through the framework of a referential exegetical web. She shows that law should be viewed as both prescriptive of normative behavior and as a meaning-making enterprise. By explicating the hermeneutical processes through which biblical narratives become resources for legal norms, this book transforms our understanding of the relationship of law and narrative as well as the ways in which scripture becomes a rabbinic document that conveys legal authority and meaning.

Biblical Narrative and the Formation of Rabbinic Law

Biblical Narrative and the Formation of Rabbinic Law
Author: Rabbi Jane Kanarek, PhD
Publisher:
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2014-08-22
Genre: Bible
ISBN: 9781139957953

This book presents a new framework for understanding the relationship between biblical narrative and rabbinic law. Drawing on legal theory and models of rabbinic exegesis, Jane L. Kanarek argues for the centrality of biblical narrative in the formation of rabbinic law. Through close readings of selected Talmudic and midrashic texts, Kanarek demonstrates that rabbinic legal readings of narrative scripture are best understood through the framework of a referential exegetical web. She shows that law should be viewed as both prescriptive of normative behavior and as a meaning-making enterprise. By explicating the hermeneutical processes through which biblical narratives become resources for legal norms, this book transforms our understanding of the relationship of law and narrative as well as the ways in which scripture becomes a rabbinic document that conveys legal authority and meaning.

Let the Story Remain with Us

Let the Story Remain with Us
Author: Jane Kanarek
Publisher:
Total Pages: 518
Release: 2007
Genre: Aggada
ISBN: 9780549016151

Drawing on legal theory connected to the Law and Literature movement, this dissertation demonstrates two main points. First, while rabbinic sources debate the readings of particular verses and larger Scriptural narratives, they do not question the use of Scriptural narrative for law. Second, rabbinic legal exegesis is linked with a wider web of aggadic exegesis. I argue that legal interpretation of Scriptural narratives does not necessarily rely on the atomistic analysis of selected verses but is instead consonant with a larger world of aggadic interpretation.

Law and Truth in Biblical and Rabbinic Literature

Law and Truth in Biblical and Rabbinic Literature
Author: Chaya T. Halberstam
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2010-01-26
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0253003989

How can humans ever attain the knowledge required to administer and implement divine law and render perfect justice in this world? Contrary to the belief that religious law is infallible, Chaya T. Halberstam shows that early rabbinic jurisprudence is characterized by fundamental uncertainty. She argues that while the Hebrew Bible created a sense of confidence and transparency before the law, the rabbis complicated the paths to knowledge and undermined the stability of personal status and ownership, and notions of guilt or innocence. Examining the facts of legal judgments through midrashic discussions of the law and evidence, Halberstam discovers that rabbinic understandings of the law were riddled with doubt and challenged the possibility of true justice. This book thoroughly engages law, narrative, and theology to explicate rabbinic legal authority and its limits.

Reading Law as Narrative

Reading Law as Narrative
Author: Assnat Bartor
Publisher: Society of Biblical Lit
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2010
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1589834801

Casuistic or case law in the Pentateuch deals with real human affairs; each case law entails a compressed story that can encourage reader engagement with seemingly "dry" legal text. This book is the first to present an interpretive method integrating biblical law, jurisprudence, and literary theory, reflecting the current "law and literature" school within legal studies. It identifies the narrative elements that exist in the laws of the Pentateuch, exposes the narrative techniques employed by the authors, and discovers the poetics of biblical law, thus revealing new or previously unconsidered aspects of the relationship between law and narrative in the Bible

What Is the Mishnah?

What Is the Mishnah?
Author: Shaye J. D. Cohen
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 545
Release: 2023-03-07
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0674293703

The Mishnah is the foundational document of rabbinic Judaism—all of rabbinic law, from ancient to modern times, is based on the Talmud, and the Talmud, in turn, is based on the Mishnah. But the Mishnah is also an elusive document; its sources and setting are obscure, as are its genre and purpose. In January 2021 the Harvard Center for Jewish Studies and the Julis-Rabinowitz Program on Jewish and Israeli Law of the Harvard Law School co-sponsored a conference devoted to the simple yet complicated question: “What is the Mishnah?” Leading scholars from the United States, Europe, and Israel assessed the state of the art in Mishnah studies; and the papers delivered at that conference form the basis of this collection. Learned yet accessible, What Is the Mishnah? gives readers a clear sense of current and future direction of Mishnah studies.

Studies in Rabbinic Narratives, Volume 1

Studies in Rabbinic Narratives, Volume 1
Author: Jeffrey L. Rubenstein
Publisher: SBL Press
Total Pages: 444
Release: 2021-03-31
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 195149881X

Explore new theoretical tools and lines of analysis of rabbinic stories Rabbinic literature includes hundreds of stories and brief narrative traditions. These narrative traditions often take the form of biographical anecdotes that recount a deed or event in the life of a rabbi. Modern scholars consider these narratives as didactic fictions—stories used to teach lessons, promote rabbinic values, and grapple with the tensions and conflicts of rabbinic life. Using methods drawn from literary and cultural theory, including feminist, structuralist, Marxist, and psychoanalytic methods, contributors analyze narratives from the Babylonian Talmud, midrash, Mishnah, and other rabbinic compilations to shed light on their meanings, functions, and narrative art. Contributors include Julia Watts Belser, Beth Berkowitz, Dov Kahane, Jane L. Kanarek, Tzvi Novick, James Adam Redfield, Jay Rovner, Jeffrey L. Rubenstein, Zvi Septimus, Dov Weiss, and Barry Scott Wimpfheimer.

Jewish Women's History from Antiquity to the Present

Jewish Women's History from Antiquity to the Present
Author: Rebecca Lynn Winer
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
Total Pages: 687
Release: 2021-11-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 0814346324

This publication is significant within the field of Jewish studies and beyond; the essays include comparative material and have the potential to reach scholarly audiences in many related fields but are written to be accessible to all, with the introductions in every chapter aimed at orienting the enthusiast from outside academia to each time and place.

Biblical Women and Jewish Daily Life in the Middle Ages

Biblical Women and Jewish Daily Life in the Middle Ages
Author: Elisheva Baumgarten
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2022-06-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 0812297520

In Biblical Women and Jewish Daily Life in the Middle Ages, Elisheva Baumgarten examines how medieval Jewish engagement with the Bible--especially in the tellings, retellings, and illustrations of stories of women--offers a window onto aspects of the daily lives and cultural mentalités of Ashkenazic Jews in the High Middle Ages.

"Let the Wise Listen and add to Their Learning" (Prov 1:5)

Author: Constanza Cordoni
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 857
Release: 2016-06-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3110429330

This Festschrift honours Günter Stemberger on the occasion of his 75th birthday on 7 December 2015 and contains 41 articles from colleagues and students. The studies focus on a variety of subjects pertaining to the history, religion and culture of Judaism – and, to a lesser extent, of Christianity – from late antiquity and the Middle Ages to the modern era.