Why Study Talmud in the Twenty-First Century?
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Why Study Talmud in the Twenty-first Century? Why Study Talmud in the Twenty-first Century? The Relevance of the Ancient Jewish Text to Our World Paul Socken LEXINGTON BOOKS A division of ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC. Lanham • Boulder • New York • Toronto • Plymouth, UK Published by Lexington Books A division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 http://www.lexingtonbooks.com Estover Road, Plymouth PL6 7PY United Kingdom Copyright © 2009 by Lexington Books All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any elec- tronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Socken, Paul, 1945- Why study Talmud in the twenty-first century? : the relevance of the ancient Jewish text to our world / Paul Socken. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7391-4200-4 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-7391-4202-8 (electronic) 1. Talmud. I. Title. BM501.S63 2009 296.1’25—dc22 2009027478 Printed in the United States of America ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Dedication This volume is dedicated to Moshe Avraham Weissmann and Temima Esther Weissmann, my grandchildren. May they grow in Torah and in good deeds. Table of Contents Acknowledgments ix Talmud Introduction 1 Women’s Voices 9 Elizabeth Shanks Alexander 11 Judith Baskin 25 Jane Kanarek 41 Devora Steinmetz 47 Devorah Zlochower 67 Teaching Talmud 73 Tsvi Blanchard 75 Pinchas Hayman 93 Academics Respond 103 Michael Chernick 105 Shaye Cohen 125 Yaakov Elman 135 Richard Kalmin 151 Ephraim Kanarfogel 161 vii viii Table of Contents Jeffrey Rubenstein 177 Barry Wimpfheimer 195 Azzan Yadin 207 A Philosopher’s Approach 221 David Novak 223 Bibliography 241 Biographies 243 Index 251 Acknowledgments I would like to thank Professor Arnold Ages, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of the University of Waterloo, and Professor James Diamond, Joseph and Wolf Lebovic Chair of Jewish Studies at the University of Waterloo, for their invaluable advice on this project. A good idea is of little value if one cannot develop it and their assistance was indispensable. I am deeply grateful for their kindness and their friendship. ix Talmud Introduction My family moved back to Toronto after many years in Kitchener-Waterloo, a mid-sized city with a major university, where I still work, and a small, close- knit Jewish community. In Kitchener-Waterloo, I studied Bible (Chumash) with the revered and brilliant teacher, Rabbi Phyvle Rosensweig. Once in Toronto and commuting to the University of Waterloo, I took up the study of Talmud.1 However, not having a day/parochial school or yeshiva background, this was truly a daunting task and very different from the analysis of French and French-Canadian literature, my academic field. Literary critics tell university students that authors invite readers into their novelistic world and share with them their vision. We remind students of Coleridge’s dictum of the willing suspension of disbelief until they have a complete view of the author’s universe and are in a position to judge. Talmud is different. Besides the obvious difference of the Talmud’s dealing with the interpretation of the sacred and the writer’s usually secular vision, it would be impossible to wait until all of Talmud is thoroughly examined before coming to conclusions because of the vastness of the Talmudic enterprise. Nevertheless, after seventeen years of study, I have more than a passing acquaintance with both the content and the methodology of Talmud. As has been noted before, Talmud is perhaps the first interactive text. Not only do rabbis over a period of approximately five hundred years comment on one another’s interpretations, the extensive and elaborate reflections continue through the Middle Ages and beyond in sidebar comments and analyses. This massive set of volumes is clearly the distillation of many centuries of thought and wisdom that have been transmitted to each succeeding generation.2 However, the point needs to be acknowledged that Talmud is studied by a fraction of the world’s Jews. In addition, the organization, presentation, and 1 2 Talmud Introduction discussion of the issues raised are sometimes exceedingly detailed, elaborate, and ostensibly unfocused. This was essentially an oral tradition that was eventually set down in writing and reflects the informal structure of oral transmission. This means that comprehension is not automatic, that under- standing evolves over time, that texts sometimes seem impenetrable, and that their relevance to today’s world is not always obvious. Understanding that most Jews have little or no knowledge of Talmud and realizing that its study requires a serious, disciplined, long-term commitment, I asked myself why it is studied at all. What reward is there for such engage- ment and effort? What precisely is the point? Those committed to it have done so for so many years that I am not sure they have reflected on the “Why?” of the matter. It is part of the chain of sacred transmission from Mount Sinai, it is a link through the millennia to the great Sages and their insights. That, I imagined, would be the response of most practitioners of the tradition. I set out to pose the question to some of the finest academic Talmudists and to get their considered response. To receive answers that were worthy of the subject, I cast my net very wide. I decided to ask scholars from Israel, the United States, and Canada and from a broad range of Jewish interpretive traditions. It seemed to me that this was not a topic that should be restricted to a parochial approach, hence my inclusion of thinkers and teachers from a variety of Jewish schools of thought. One thing I have learned is that Talmud should not be the exclusive domain of any single group and that, if it is to be appreciated widely, it must be broadly approached. The revered Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein addressed this issue in a chapter (“Why Learn Gemara?”) of his book Leaves of Faith.3 After conceding that the text itself is “unwieldy, rambling, allusive and convoluted,” he identifies four factors that make the study of Gemara/Talmud essential. The first is “its status as a primary—in a sense . the primary—text” of Jewish sources so that the “sense of challenge and concomitant invigoration is pervasive.” Second, the student of Gemara feels “the pulsating presence of our masters in the primal forge of the [Oral Law].” The third factor is the “substantive nature” of Gemara: “anecdote and proverb jostle with rigorous textual and legal analysis; within which the excitement of confrontation takes precedence over the lucidity of exposition, discourse over conclusion, debate over resolution—such is the fabric of the Gemara.” Finally, he concludes that the individual becomes wholly engaged as a result of the process, “the activated self is then open to a more intensive relationship, religious as well as intellectual.” What I found even more striking than the four reasons for studying Talmud was his realization that the question “Why Study Gemara/Talmud?” was not merely one for novices: “The question may also be asked of bnei Torah Talmud Introduction 3 (students of Torah) fully committed, intellectually and emotionally, to the study of Gemara, and yet seeking to define the basis of their aspiration. Even when no need is felt for an apologia or a raison d’être to shore up personal learning, a richer understanding of its import may very well enhance it.” From this perceptive and insightful acknowledgement from one of the great Torah sages of the modern era, I took encouragement and inspiration. Elizabeth Shanks Alexander views Talmud study as both an academic exercise and an intensely personal Jewish experience. She sees the Talmud as an important great text of world literature in its ability to develop critical thinking, amongst other qualities. However, it also presents an opportunity for 21st century Jews to come to an understanding of Judaism and them- selves in ways not possible before because of the postmodern acceptance of sustained contradictions. New research holds profound implications for the role of women in Judaism. In light of the fact that “revealed texts demand continuous rereading,” Judith Baskin discusses what she discovered about “rabbinic convictions of female otherness.” The Talmud’s view of women is as varied as it is on every other subject, but the fundamental belief is in the separate nature, the dis- tinctions, between men and women, physically, morally, and intellectually. Baskin reads the rabbinic interpretation of the source of women’s subordinate status as Divine intention from the moment of her creation. Why, then, should she and others study Talmud today? Baskin concludes with a series of reasons, including the fact that it is a “rich and enduring component of the Jewish heritage,” that its teachings “united and sustained Jewish life and identity,” and “all contemporary forms of Jewish religious life are constructed on the foundation of rabbinic Judaism.” In addition, feminist interpreters have focussed on alternative and minority voice in the Talmud, a text of “endless possibilities.” Tsvi Blanchard sees Talmud as part of one of the great human wisdom tradi- tions. Like other contributors, he finds talking about Talmud to be impossible without exploring specific passages because the ideas are inextricably embedded in the text.