DOCSLIB.ORG

Fooling the Tax Collector

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Fooling the Tax Collector Schachter, rosh yeshiva of Rabbi Isaac Elchanan In introducing a new metaphor — that Theological Seminary (RIETS) at Yeshiva citizens of a modern democracy are more University. “It is important to note that today like partners than subjects — into formalized the basis for taxation is totally different from Jewish legal thinking, Schachter has taken what it was in talmudic times.” According to a a first important step in opening up an en- contemporary understanding of Jewish law, we tirely new vista from which to think about ought to ground the obligation to pay taxes not the legitimacy of taxes and the responsibility SHMA.COM in the anachronistic notion of dina d’malchuta of partners to participate in public policy dis- dina; rather, we should invoke the talmudic cussions. In this alternative view, it is not us concept of shutfim or partnership. Schachter versus them, but rather “we the people” who concludes, “All people who live in the same must formulate fair tax rules and just public city, state, and country are considered ‘shut- policies. It follows directly from Schachter’s fim’ with respect to the services provided by new formulation that as Jewish partners in that city, state, and country. The purpose be- this process, we have a unique right and obli- hind the taxes is no longer ‘to enrich the king’ gation to bring to our fellow citizens the best in the slightest.” (Torahweb.org) of Jewish legal and ethical thinking. Fooling the Tax Collector: Why the Rabbis Once Approved DAVID BRODSKY abbi Naftali Tzvi Weisz, the Spinka Luke 3:12, 5:27–30, 7:29, 7:34, 15:1, and 18:9– Rebbe of Boro Park, and the great-great- 14), just as the Mishnah associates them with Rgrandson of R. Joseph Meir Weisz, au- murderers and highway robbers. (Nedarim 3:4 thor of the Imrei Yosef, was convicted recently and Bava Qamma 10:2) of an elaborate tax evasion scheme that de- During the Greek and Roman Empires, frauded the U.S. government of millions of dol- taxes were imposed without representation lars.1 Similar charges have been brought against and were at times collected by warlords in a several rabbis of the Syrian Jewish community manner quite similar to highway robbery, with in Brooklyn and New Jersey and also against armed individuals or troops going from town a number of rabbis in Israel.2 One might be to town and taking from people whatever they tempted to try to explain the circumstances, or could seize. While the methods of tax col- to point out that even supposedly “holy men” lection changed over the centuries and were are human and fallible, or to argue that their reformed under Augustus in the first century religious convictions have nothing to do with BCE, the perceived injustice of these systems David Brodsky is a visiting their actions, or that they assumed they were runs through rabbinic literature; the Mishnah, scholar at New York University. exempt from paying taxes to the secular state. for example, describes the hypothetical case of He previously served as an In fact, our own tradition offers sources a tax collector seizing someone’s donkey and assistant professor and co- that could be interpreted to support this replacing it with someone else’s donkey. (Bava chair of the department of rabbinic civilization at the fraudulent activity. For example, the Mishnah Qamma 10:2) Such cases were likely common- Reconstructionist Rabbinical (Nedarim 3:4) states that while it is normally place as the Romans reserved the right to seize College, and as the Perlow forbidden to make a false vow, an exception animals or people for labor, returning them Lecturer in Classical Judaism to this rule is made when it is in the service of as they saw fit. For this reason, the Mishnah in the religious studies fooling tax collectors! As damning as this may considers property possessed by tax collectors department at the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author seem, a proper understanding of tax collection to have the status of stolen property, group- of A Bride Without a Blessing: in its historic context reveals that the rabbis of ing these tax collectors together with highway A Study in the Redaction and the Mishnaic period advocated some evasion robbers. (Bava Qamma 10:2) Most egregious Content of Massekhet Kallah of taxes, which they considered part of a hor- to the rabbis must have been the use to which and its Gemara (Tübingen: rifically unjust tax system. Indeed, they were this money was put: the maintenance of the Mohr Siebeck, 2006). not alone in speaking out against the evils of imperialistic governments and their domina- 1 New York Post, Aug. 4, 2009; the tax collectors of their day. The gospels, for tion of the region. The Romans used the taxes Los Angeles Times, Dec. 22, 2009; example, consistently associate tax collectors they collected to support the military opera- The Jewish Week, May 4, 2010; 2 The Star Ledger, June 2, 2011; with sinners and prostitutes (Matthew 9:9–11, tions that put down Jewish rebellions (three The Seattle Times, July 13, 2012 11:19, 18:17, 21:31–32; and Mark 2:14–16; and in the span of 70 years — from 66 to 135 C.E. [6] MARCH 2013 | NISSAN 5773 — the general time period from which the In the Medieval period, particularly in the Mishnah’s statements derive), bringing a great twelfth and thirteenth centuries, sages such as deal of death and destruction to the Jewish Rabbi Solomon b. Abraham Adret (known as communities throughout the empire. It was the Rashba) instituted a complex scheme of these taxes and this system of tax collection taxation modeled loosely on the more rudi- with which the rabbis took umbrage. mentary system delineated in the Babylonian On the other hand, especially in the tal- Talmud. The new system, which held Jews mudic and medieval periods, the rabbis were liable if they evaded paying taxes, went well SHMA.COM clear that taxes that would benefit the people beyond the Talmud’s more basic provisions (as opposed to supporting a foreign military oc- for maintaining the city’s walls and gates and cupation) were just and obligatory. Thus, the feeding the poverty stricken. It included “any- rabbis mandated that Jews pay taxes for infra- thing that is for the need of the city.” (Rosh, structural maintenance of the city — specifi- Responsa, 6:22, cf. Mordekhai, Bava Batra 478 cally, for the upkeep of the walls and gates of [on Bava Batra 7b]) In a responsum, Adret the city (Mishnah Bava Batra 1:5 and BT Bava asserts that tax laws are a civil matter based Batra 7b–11a) — and for the maintenance of on local customs, and, in matters of taxes, the poor. (Bava Batra 7b–11a) While some have “custom nullifies the halakhah.” (Responsa, viewed such taxes as intended for Jews alone, 4:260) His point is that the system of taxation the upkeep of the town is clearly beneficial to instituted by the Babylonian Talmud is meant all residents, and not all towns were comprised as a historical example of the kind of obligation of a single ethnic group. And while charity for owed by citizens, rather than a declaration that the poor was particularly geared toward poor defines or limits the purposes for which taxes people within the Jewish community, poor gen- may be levied. tiles seem not to have been excluded. (Mishnah Today, we must recognize that our tax Gittin 5:8) Moreover, when it came to taxes owed system no longer operates in ways or for the to the Persian Empire, the Babylonian Talmud purposes that attracted the ire of the rabbis of undermined (and, one might even argue, coun- the Mishnah. On the contrary, our taxes pay termanded) the Mishnah’s apparently permissive for the very essentials for which the rabbis stance toward tax evasion, with the prominent advocated. Therefore, unless a person is with- third-century Babylonian Rabbi Shmuel declar- holding taxes as an act of civil disobedience ing, “dina d’malchuta dina,” “the law of the (as did Henry David Thoreau) to protest the land is binding.” (BT Nedarim 28a, Gittin 10b, militaristic and imperialistic uses to which one Bava Qamma 113a–b, and Bava Batra 54b–55a) could argue a percentage of U.S. taxes are used, When it came to governments that were not tax evasion today seems not to be in keeping putting down Jewish rebellions, killing tens of with rabbinic ethics and is a gross misapplica- thousands of inhabitants, or collecting taxes in tion of the Mishnaic tenet. The involvement of a manner the rabbis associated with highway rabbis with tax evasion is a dirty secret, and it robbery, it would seem that the rabbis of this is time we denounced it. It has no valid basis in period were less lenient toward tax evasion. Jewish law or ethics. Wolves and Sheep: Jewish Tax Collectors in Yiddish Literature JULIAN LEVINSON ne of the very first sounds heard in this word would evoke a compelling dramatic sit- Julian Levinson, a Sh’ma Advisory Board member, is an modern Yiddish literature was a cry of uation: Readers knew that taxes typically meant associate professor of Jewish Oanguish over the injustice of arbitrary exploitation, providing a way for wealthy Jews literature at the University of taxation. The year was 1869, and the pioneer- to prey upon their hapless, poorer brethren. A Michigan. He is the author ing Yiddish and Hebrew writer Sholem Yankev recurring image in Abramovitsh’s play is that of of Exiles on Main Street: Abramovitsh (aka Mendele Mocher Seforim) wolves devouring sheep.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • A USER's MANUAL Part 1: How Is Halakhah Organized?
    TORAHLEADERSHIP.ORG RABBI ARYEH KLAPPER HALAKHAH: A USER’S MANUAL Part 1: How is Halakhah Organized? I. How is Halakhah Organized? 4 case studies a. Mishnah Berakhot 1:1, and gemara thereupon b. Support of the poor Peiah, Bava Batra, Matnot Aniyyim, Yoreh Deah) c. Conversion ?, Yevamot, Issurei Biah, Yoreh Deah) d. Mourning Moed Qattan, Shoftim, Yoreh Deiah) Mishnah Berakhot 1:1 From what time may one recite the Shema in the evening? From the hour that the kohanim enter to eat their terumah Until the end of the first watch, in the opinion of Rabbi Eliezer. The Sages say: Until midnight. Rabban Gamliel says: Until morning. It happened that his sons came from a wedding feast. They said to him: We have not yet recited the Shema. He said to them: If it has not yet morned, you are obligated to recite it. Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 2a What is the context of the Mishnah’s opening “From when”? Also, why does it teach about the evening first, rather than about the morning? The context is Scripture saying “when you lie down and when you arise” (Devarim 6:7, 11:9). what the Mishnah intends is: “The time of the Shema of lying-down – when is it?” Alternatively: The context is Creation, as Scripture writes “There was evening and there was morning”. Mishnah Berakhot 1:1 (continued) Not only this – rather, everything about which the Sages say until midnight – their mitzvah is until morning. The burning of fats and organs – their mitzvah is until morning. All sacrifices that must be eaten in a day – their mitzvah is until morning.
    [Show full text]
  • The Prophet Jeremiah in the Talmud and Midrash Chronology
    Sun 4 Nov 2007 Dr Maurice M. Mizrahi Congregation Adat Reyim Joint series on Jeremiah with Beth El Hebrew Congregation The Prophet Jeremiah in the Talmud and Midrash Chronology 640-609 BCE: Josiah [Yoshiyahu], King of Judah. Marched against Pharaoh Necho and was killed at Megiddo. Strong religious reforms, restoration of Jewish practices, Temple-centered. 626-585 BCE: Jeremiah’s [Yirmiahu] 41 years of prophecy. Torn between love of Jews and love of Judaism. 609 BCE: Jehoahaz, son of Josiah, King of Judah. 3-month reign, died in exile in Egypt. 609-598 BCE: Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, King of Judah. Died during siege of Jerusalem. Burned scroll of Lamentations. Return of idolatry and corruption. 598 BCE: Jeconiah [Jehoiachin], son of Jehoiakim, King of Judah. Was 18, reigned 3 months, exiled to Babylon. 598-587 BCE: Zedekiah [Tzidkiyahu], son of Josiah, last king of Judah . Was 21 when began reign, exiled to Babylon. 589-586 BCE: Siege and sack of Jerusalem, destruction of Temple and exile to Babylon ========================== Authorship Jeremiah wrote the books of Jeremiah, Kings, and Lamentations (Talmud) Moses received the Torah from God and wrote the Book of Job, Joshua wrote his book and the last eight verses of Deuteronomy (that is, the account of the death of Moses); Samuel wrote his book, Judges and Ruth; David wrote the Psalms; Jeremiah wrote his book, the Book of Kings and Lamentations; Hezekiah and his council wrote Isaiah, Proverbs, Song of Songs, and Ecclesiastes; the men of the Great Assembly wrote Ezekiel, the Twelve Prophets, Daniel, and the Scroll of Esther; Ezra wrote his book and the genealogy of Chronicles down to himself.
    [Show full text]
  • What Sugyot Should an Educated Jew Know?
    What Sugyot Should An Educated Jew Know? Jon A. Levisohn Updated: May, 2009 What are the Talmudic sugyot (topics or discussions) that every educated Jew ought to know, the most famous or significant Talmudic discussions? Beginning in the fall of 2008, about 25 responses to this question were collected: some formal Top Ten lists, many informal nominations, and some recommendations for further reading. Setting aside the recommendations for further reading, 82 sugyot were mentioned, with (only!) 16 of them duplicates, leaving 66 distinct nominated sugyot. This is hardly a Top Ten list; while twelve sugyot received multiple nominations, the methodology does not generate any confidence in a differentiation between these and the others. And the criteria clearly range widely, with the result that the nominees include both aggadic and halakhic sugyot, and sugyot chosen for their theological and ideological significance, their contemporary practical significance, or their centrality in discussions among commentators. Or in some cases, perhaps simply their idiosyncrasy. Presumably because of the way the question was framed, they are all sugyot in the Babylonian Talmud (although one response did point to texts in Sefer ha-Aggadah). Furthermore, the framing of the question tended to generate sugyot in the sense of specific texts, rather than sugyot in the sense of centrally important rabbinic concepts; in cases of the latter, the cited text is sometimes the locus classicus but sometimes just one of many. Consider, for example, mitzvot aseh she-ha-zeman gerama (time-bound positive mitzvoth, no. 38). The resulting list is quite obviously the product of a committee, via a process of addition without subtraction or prioritization.
    [Show full text]
  • Of the Mishnah, Bavli & Yerushalmi
    0 Learning at SVARA SVARA’s learning happens in the bet midrash, a space for study partners (​chevrutas​) to build a relationship with the Talmud text, with one another, and with the tradition—all in community and a queer-normative, loving culture. The learning is rigorous, yet the bet midrash environment is warm and supportive. Learning at SVARA focuses on skill-building (learning how to learn), foregrounding the radical roots of the Jewish tradition, empowering learners to become “players” in it, cultivating Talmud study as a spiritual practice, and with the ultimate goal of nurturing human beings shaped by one of the central spiritual, moral, and intellectual technologies of our tradition: ​Talmud Torah​ (the study of Torah). The SVARA method is a simple, step-by-step process in which the teacher is always an authentic co-learner with their students, teaching the Talmud not so much as a ​normative​ document prescribing specific behaviors, but as a ​formative​ document, shaping us into a certain kind of human being. We believe the Talmud itself is a handbook for how to, sometimes even radically, upgrade our tradition when it no longer functions to create the most liberatory world possible. All SVARA learning begins with the CRASH Talk. Here we lay out our philosophy of the Talmud and the rabbinic revolution that gave rise to it—along with important vocabulary and concepts for anyone learning Jewish texts. This talk is both an overview of the ultimate goals of the Jewish enterprise, as well as a crash course in ​halachic​ (Jewish legal) jurisprudence. Beyond its application to Judaism, CRASH Theory is a simple but elegant model of how all change happens—whether societal, religious, organizational, or personal.
    [Show full text]
  • The Sun's Path at Night
    The Sun’s Path at Night The Revolution in Rabbinic Perspectives on the Ptolemaic Revolution RABBI NATAN SLIFKIN Copyright © 2010 by Natan Slifkin Version 1.1 http://www.ZooTorah.com http://www.RationalistJudaism.com This monograph is adapted from an essay that was written as part of the course requirements for a Master’s degree in Jewish Studies at the Lander Institute (Jerusalem). This document may be freely distributed as long as it is distributed complete and intact. If you are reading a printed version of this document and you wish to download it in PDF format, see www.rationalistjudaism.com Cover photograph: An armillary sphere, depicting the Ptolemaic model of the cosmos. Other monographs available in this series: The Evolution of the Olive Shiluach HaKein: The Transformation of a Mitzvah The Question of the Kidney’s Counsel Sod Hashem Liyreyav: The Expansion of a Useful Concept Messianic Wonders and Skeptical Rationalists The Sun’s Path at Night: The Revolution in Rabbinic Perspectives on the Ptolemaic Revolution Natan Slifkin Introduction The clash between reason and authority has many manifestations. But it comes to the fore with the issue of statements by the Sages of the Talmud concerning the natural world that are subsequently contradicted by science. In traditionalist circles, arguments about this topic have become especially heated in recent years, with many ultra-Orthodox authorities claiming that to attribute such error to the Sages was never a traditional view and is actually heresy.1 Typically, arguments about this topic range far and wide, covering many different statements in the Talmud and Midrash.
    [Show full text]
  • Prospects of Japanese Translation of the Babylonian Talmud
    Prospects of Japanese Translation of the Babylonian Talmud by Hiroshi Ichikawa Abstract An academic project of translating the Babylonian Talmud into Japanese was initiated by a president of private jewelry company in 1986 and sixteen volumes of it were published with the collaboration of more than ten Japanese scholars of the Bible and Judaism until 2016. In order to make an assessment for possible impacts of this trans- lation on Japanese cultural revitalization, the author tried to perceive the collision and struggles the Talmud has faced in transmitting itself to later generations even to the present days as it has still claimed its universal validity. It will be helpful to envisage Jewish intellectuals of the subsequent generations wondering what it was to live ac- cording to the Torah and the Talmud and how they coped with difficulties in facing the collision of foreign cultural impacts especially in the modern era. As the Japanese people had been profoundly influenced by Buddhism before the mod- ern era, the assumption of the similarity between the Buddhist notion of enlightenment through transmission of the ineffable truth and the similar notion of Rabbinic Judaism will help prospect the possible influence of the Jewish scripture. This Buddhist no- tion had been most successfully developed in the tradition of Zen Buddhism in Japan. Furthermore this notion was fully and more influentially developed in the sphere of education of Japanese military ruling class and their cultural achievements before the modern era. So we suppose that Jewish endeavors in the Talmudic studies facing col- lisions and struggles against western impacts will give some insights in considering Japanese struggles against, and responses to, the forceful impacts of the modern West upon our traditional value system.
    [Show full text]
  • Download File
    Halevy, Halivni and The Oral Formation of the Babylonian Talmud Ari Bergmann Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2014 © 2014 Ari Bergmann All rights reserved ABSTRACT Halevy, Halivni and The Oral Formation of the Babylonian Talmud Ari Bergmann This dissertation is dedicated to a detailed analysis and comparison of the theories on the process of the formation of the Babylonian Talmud by Yitzhak Isaac Halevy and David Weiss Halivni. These two scholars exhibited a similar mastery of the talmudic corpus and were able to combine the roles of historian and literary critic to provide a full construct of the formation of the Bavli with supporting internal evidence to support their claims. However, their historical construct and findings are diametrically opposed. Yitzhak Isaac Halevy presented a comprehensive theory of the process of the formation of the Talmud in his magnum opus Dorot Harishonim. The scope of his work was unprecedented and his construct on the formation of the Talmud encompassed the entire process of the formation of the Bavli, from the Amoraim in the 4th century to the end of the saboraic era (which he argued closed in the end of the 6th century). Halevy was the ultimate guardian of tradition and argued that the process of the formation of the Bavli took place entirely within the amoraic academy by a highly structured and coordinated process and was sealed by an international rabbinical assembly. While Halevy was primarily a historian, David Weiss Halivni is primarily a talmudist and commentator on the Talmud itself.
    [Show full text]
  • Teyku Teyku the Unsolved Problem in the Babylonian Talmud
    TEYKU TEYKU THE UNSOLVED PROBLEM IN THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD A study in the literary analysis and form of the Talmudic argument by Louis Ja eobs A• Leo Baeck College Publication London •CORNWALL BOOKS •New York © 1981 by Louisjacobs Cornwall Books 4 Cornwall Drive East Brunswick, N.J. 08816 Cornwall Books 69 Fleet Street London EC4Y lEU, England Cornwall Books Toronto M5E 1A7, Canada Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Jacobs, Louis. Teyku: the unsolved problem in the Babylonian Talmud. I. Talmud-Criticism and interpretation. 2. Jewish law-interpretation and construction. 3. Teku (The Aramaic word) I. Title. BM503.6.J33 296.1'2507 80-70887 ISBN 0-8453-4501-X AACR2 Printed in the United States of America In memory of my grandson Amos / CONTENTS List of abbreviations 9 CHAPTER I Introduction 13 11 Berakhot, Shabbat and 'Eruvin 16 Ill Pesa};!.im, Betzah, l;lagigah and Mo'ed Katan 45 IV Rosh Ha-Shanah, Yoma, Sukkah and Ta'anit 64 V Yevamot, Ketubot, Kiddushin and Gittin 7 5 VI Nedarim, Nazir and Sotah 111 VII Bava Kama, Bava Metz'ia and Bava Batra 129 VIII 'Avodah Zarah, Sanhedrin, Makkot, Shevu'ot and Horayot 182 IX Zeva};!.im, Mena};!.ot and Bekhorot 209 X Hullin, 'Arakhin, Temurah and Mei'lah 246 XI Niddah 286 XII Conclusions 290 APPENDIX I Teyku in the Works of the Post-Talmudic Halakhists 302 APPENDIX 11 Teyku in the Mystical Literature 308 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Angel Abraham Angel (Chelebi): Pittu~ey /fotam, Salonika, 1819 DS Dikdukey Soferim: Variae Lectiones in Mishnam et in Talmud Babylonicum by R.
    [Show full text]
  • Mohr Siebeck Josephus on Onias and the Oniad
    Volume 25 Meron M. Piotrkowski No. 1 Josephus on Onias and the Oniad Temple 1–16 2018 Mira Balberg and Haim Weiss “That Old Man Shames Us”: Aging, Liminality, and Antinomy in Rabbinic Literature 17–41 Federico Dal Bo Talmudic Angelology and the Tosafists: On Metatron in the Latin Translation of Tractates Sanhedrin and Avodah Zarah 42–61 Johannes Burgers Beyond Belle Juive and Femme Fatale: Rewriting the Female Jewish Body in Fin-de-Siècle England, France and Germany 62–83 Vered Sakal The Land of the Free? Orthodox Reactions to Religious Freedom in 19th and Early 20th-Century America 84–98 Mohr Siebeck Mira Balberg Northwestern University, USA Haim Weiss Ben Gurion University, Israel “That Old Man Shames Us”: Aging, Liminality, and Antinomy in Rabbinic Literature Abstract: This article explores the literary trope of old age in rabbinic narratives, primarily in the Babylonian Talmud. We argue that rabbinic narratives construct old persons as liminal figures, occupying spaces between center and margins and between life and death, and that their liminality serves a subversive function in stories in which they appear. We begin the article by providing a brief survey of the paradigmatic roles played by elderly people in rabbinic narratives. In the remaining parts of the article, we offer close readings of two narrative units in which an elderly person acts in an aberrant, confusing, or divisive way and thus casts a shadow of doubt and uncertainty on the normative stance that governs the narrative or its greater context. Key words: Old age, Talmud, narrative, liminality, rabbinic literature. Introduction In her 1970 book The Coming of Age, Simone de Beauvoir commented on the great difficulty in writing a history of old age, or of the elderly as a social group, based on the written sources that are available to us.
    [Show full text]
  • Judaism As a Religious Legal System Elliot Dorff
    Hastings Law Journal Volume 29 | Issue 6 Article 4 1-1978 Judaism as a Religious Legal System Elliot Dorff Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/hastings_law_journal Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Elliot Dorff, Judaism as a Religious Legal System, 29 Hastings L.J. 1331 (1978). Available at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/hastings_law_journal/vol29/iss6/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Hastings Law Journal by an authorized editor of UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Judaism as a Religious Legal System By ELLIOT DoPFF* Introduction I MERICANS are accustomed to thinking about Judaism as a religion, comprised primarily of beliefs and moral max- ims. Judaism is a religion; it does espouse beliefs and norms of behavior, but it includes much more. As Mordecai Kaplan has suggested, Judaism is best described as a civilization because Jewish identity involves attachment to a specific land, language, lit- erature, music, art, and people, in addition to beliefs and morals.' The religion is the core of the civilization because it gives all the other elements their distinctly Jewish character, but it is not the to- tality of what it means to be Jewish. The fact that Judaism is a religious civilization is important for two reasons. First, along with the specific attachments identified by Kaplan, Judaism includes a body of law. In fact, this body of law is central to the meaning of Judaism.
    [Show full text]
  • Jewish Folk Literature
    University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Department of Near Eastern Languages and Departmental Papers (NELC) Civilizations (NELC) 1999 Jewish Folk Literature Dan Ben-Amos University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/nelc_papers Part of the Cultural History Commons, Folklore Commons, Jewish Studies Commons, and the Near and Middle Eastern Studies Commons Recommended Citation Ben-Amos, D. (1999). Jewish Folk Literature. Oral Tradition, 14 (1), 140-274. Retrieved from https://repository.upenn.edu/nelc_papers/93 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/nelc_papers/93 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Jewish Folk Literature Abstract Four interrelated qualities distinguish Jewish folk literature: (a) historical depth, (b) continuous interdependence between orality and literacy, (c) national dispersion, and (d) linguistic diversity. In spite of these diverging factors, the folklore of most Jewish communities clearly shares a number of features. The Jews, as a people, maintain a collective memory that extends well into the second millennium BCE. Although literacy undoubtedly figured in the preservation of the Jewish cultural heritage to a great extent, at each period it was complemented by orality. The reciprocal relations between the two thus enlarged the thematic, formal, and social bases of Jewish folklore. The dispersion of the Jews among the nations through forced exiles and natural migrations further expanded
    [Show full text]
  • Abbreviations
    Abbreviations Names of biblical books, Apocrypha and Pseudepigraha, Josephus and Qum­ ran are abbreviated according to the JBL system, with exception of the prefixed numeral (1Cor) and omitting italics and full stops. Philo's works are indicated with the abbreviations of the Loeb edition. For Rabbinic works see list below. In the transcription of Hebrew words and names, a simple Anglo-based phonetic system rendering Israeli pronunciation is followed. New Testament mss are mostly indicated with the sigla used and explained in Nestle-Aland (26th ed), except for non-Latin characters: Sinai ( = alef), Athos (=psi), Byzantine majority or Koine (=Gothic M). Works referred to by mere author name are commentaries on the Pauline passage under discussion. 1. Text Editions of Mishna, Tosefta, Talmud Mishna K ms Kaufmann (ed Beer 1929) repr 1968 c ms Cambridge (ed Lowe 1883) repr 1967 p ms Parma (De Rossi 138) 1970 ParmaC ms Parma C (De Rossi 984) 1971 Tosefta Zeraim-Nashim: ed Lieberman 1955-73 Nezikin-Toharot: ed Zuckermandel1880 Yerushalmi Geniza fragments: ed Ginzberg 1909 ms Rome ib ed princ Venice 1523-4, facs repr Berlin n.d. Bavli M ms Munich ( ed Strack 1912) repr 1971 NY ms New York, ed Abramsoti 1957 ed princ Venice 1520-3, repr 1968 283 2. Mishnaic Tractates and Midrash Collections Ah Ahilut Ar Arakhin ARN alb Avot de-R. Natan (ed Schechter) vers. A/B AZ AvodaZara Av Avot b Bavli (Babylonian Talmud) BB Bava Batra Bekh Bekhorot Ber Berakhot Bik Bikkurim BK Bava Kamma BM Bava Metsia CantR Canticles Rabba Dem Demai Ed Eduyot Er Eruvin GenR Genesis Rabba (ed Theodor-Albeck) Git Gittin Hag Hagiga Hal Halla Hor Horayot Hul Hullin Kel Kelim Ker Keritot Ket Ketubbot Kid Kiddushin LevR Leviticus Rabba (ed M.
    [Show full text]