And shall you clear out the old to make way for the new? BIBLICAL RHETORICAL FEATURES IN RABBINIC LITERATURE Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of “DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY” by Ariel Ram Pasternak Submitted to the Senate of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev 16.11.2016 Beer-Sheva And shall you clear out the old to make way for the new? BIBLICAL RHETORICAL FEATURES IN RABBINIC LITERATURE Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of “DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY” by Ariel Ram Pasternak Submitted to the Senate of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Approved by the advisor Approved by the Dean of the Kreitman School of Advanced Graduate Studies _____________________ 16.11.2016 Beer-Sheva This work was carried out under the supervision of Professor Shamir Yona The Department of Bible, Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies The Faculty of Humanities and Social Science Research-Student's Affidavit when Submitting the Doctoral Thesis for Judgment I Ariel Ram Pasternak, whose signature appears below, hereby declare that: X I have written this Thesis by myself, except for the help and guidance offered by my Thesis Advisors. X The scientific materials included in this Thesis are products of my own research, culled from the period during which I was a research student. ___ This Thesis incorporates research materials produced in cooperation with others, excluding the technical help commonly received during experimental work. Therefore, I am attaching another affidavit stating the contributions made by myself and the other participants in this research, which has been approved by them and submitted with their approval. Date: 16.11.2016 Student's name: Ariel Ram Pasternak Signature: Acknowledgments I would like to thank my advisor, Prof. Shamir Yona, under whose wings I have sheltered in the last decade. Thank you for your unlimited support, guidance, patience and assistance. I would like to thank all my teachers and colleagues from the Department of Bible, Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Ben-Gurion University. I would like to thank my partners from the Kaye Academic College of Education: Orly, Hagit and Nevo. I would like to thank both the Katz and Haran families: Alex, Rozita, Oshrit and Kalanit, Erez, Netanel and Nili. I would like to thank Hezi Natanya for his support over the years. I would like to thank my sister, Yasmin Miriam Vinograd. I would like to thank Keren, a true woman of valor, who stood beside me every step of the way. Without her, this work would not exist. I would like to dedicate this work to my beloved daughters, Avigail Sarah and Achinoam Shani, whose smiles accompanied me every day; to my late grandmother, Sarah Rivka Pasternak; to my beloved ones that are not beside me anymore, and to the One who brought me to this day. Maybe, maybe, if I close my eyes I will surely see such a beautiful dream The moon and the star will send a letter You will see. Table of Contents 1. Introduction 1 1.1 The Corpus 4 1.2 Methodology 5 1.3 Previous Research 7 2. The Style of Rabbinic Literature 9 3. Paper no. 1: Ariel Ram Pasternak and Shamir Yona: "The "Better" Proverb in 21 Rabbinic Literature", The Review of Rabbinic Judaism 17 (2014), pp. 27–40 4. Paper no. 2: 35 Ariel Ram Pasternak and Shamir Yona: "Concatenation in Ancient Near East Literature, Hebrew Scripture, and Rabbinic Literature", The Review of Rabbinic Judaism (2014, Forthcoming) 5. Paper no. 3: 78 Ariel Ram Pasternak and Shamir Yona: "Numerical Sayings in the Literatures of the Ancient Near East, in the Hebrew Bible, in the Book of Ben-Sira and in Rabbinic Literature", The Review of Rabbinic Judaism 19 (2016), pp. 202-244. 6. Paper no. 4: 121 Ariel Ram Pasternak and Shamir Yona: "The Use of Numbers as an Editing Device in Rabbinic Literature", The Review of Rabbinic Judaism (2015, Forthcoming) 7. Analysis of the first paper: "The "Better" Proverb in Rabbinic Literature" 159 7.1 "Normal" Use of the "Better" Proverb, Similar to Biblical Use 160 7.2 Adaptation of the Pattern 161 7.2.1 Replacement of the Comparative Adjective 161 7.2.2 Structural Changes: Rearrangement and 163 Replacement of the Comparison Word 7.3 Unique Changes to the Basic Pattern 164 7.3.1 Superlative Negative Pattern 164 7.3.2 Multiple Consecutive Comparisons 165 7.3.3 Double Progressive Comparison in a Single 165 Saying 8. Analysis of the second paper: "Concatenation in Ancient Near East Literature, 167 Hebrew Scripture, and Rabbinic Literature" 8.1 Concatenation in Short Units 168 8.2 Concatenation that Does not Affect Syntax 169 8.3 Concatenation that Unifies Different Sayings 170 8.4 Concatenation in Large Units 171 9. Analysis of the third paper: "Numerical Sayings in the Literatures of the Ancient 174 Near East, in the Hebrew Bible, in the Book of Ben-Sira and in Rabbinic Literature" 9.1 Typological Numbers 174 9.2 Graded Numerical Sayings: "Normal" use to specify an unknown 175 or uncertain number or to specify a small number 9.3 Graded Numerical Sayings: Poetic parallelism with a graded pair 175 of numbers 9.4 Graded Numerical Sayings: Graded Numerical Parallelism 177 10. Analysis of the fourth paper: "The Use of Numbers as an Editing Device in 178 Rabbinic Literature" 11. The Results of this Research 184 11.1 Contributions to the Study of Biblical Rhetoric 184 11.2 Contributions to the Study of Rhetoric of Rabbinical Literature 185 11.3 Contribution to the Study of Other Aspects of Rabbinical Literature 186 11.3.1 Textual Criticism 186 11.3.2 Writing, Redaction and Editing Process 189 12. Summary 191 13. Appendix 193 13.1 Abbreviations 193 13.2 Proofreading Confirmation 195 13.3 Letters of Acceptance from Publishers of Forthcoming Papers 196 13.3.1 Letter no. 1: Ariel Ram Pasternak and Shamir 196 Yona: Concatenation in Ancient Near East Literature, Hebrew Scripture, and Rabbinic Literature, The Review of Rabbinic Judaism (2014, Forthcoming) 13.3.2 Letter no. 2: Ariel Ram Pasternak and Shamir 197 Yona: The Use of Numbers as an Editing Device in Rabbinic Literature, The Review of Rabbinic Judaism (2015, Forthcoming) 14. Bibliography 199 Abstract Since the Second Temple period, there has been a separation between Hebrew Bible (the "written" Torah), and Rabbinic Literature (the "oral" Torah). In our day, this separation has exerted its influence within the walls of academia, and is most clearly expressed by the division between the departments of Bible and Jewish thought. In each of these departments, scholars have researched different aspects of the texts, often without referring to applicable research done in the other department. Thus, stylistic research, which has taken a central place in Biblical studies, is almost completely lacking in textual studies of Rabbinic literature. In the interdisciplinary research presented here, different sayings of the Rabbis, most of which are taken from the Mishnah, Tosefta, and Talmud, are examined according to the research tools developed within the arena of Biblical rhetorical study. These discussions reveal the wide usage of Biblical rhetorical patterns by the rabbis for stylistic embellishment of their texts. In addition, the rabbis cleverly used these patterns within their editing and redacting process, in a manner that is not found in the Hebrew Bible. This dissertation contains four papers. In each paper I discuss the use of a different Biblical rhetorical pattern in Rabbinic Literature. The first paper in this dissertation discusses the "Better" proverb, which is a well-known comparison pattern in the literature of the Ancient Near East, and in the Hebrew Bible. The second deals with Anadiplosis, also known as Concatenation. The final two articles are related: the first deals with the use of numbers as a rhetoric device, and the last continues this line of thought, discussing the use of numbers as an editing device. In each article, I discuss in detail the use of this pattern in the Hebrew Bible, in the literature of the Ancient Near East and, if needed, in the Book of Ben-Sira, who in many aspects constitutes a bridge between the Bible and Rabbinic Literature , and in Rabbinic Literature. Different and diverse rhetorical features were deliberately chosen in order to present the wide knowledge of Biblical rhetoric by the Rabbis. Although the papers primarily focus on the use of these various patterns by the Rabbis, which has almost never been discussed in the past, they also contribute a fresh look at these patterns in Biblical research, especially concerning several rhetorical devices that have not received much attention of late. This dissertation is formed, as stated above, by a collection of articles, in each of which are new discoveries and innovations that stand alone. Each article in this work contains tens of unique examples and discussions concerning each one. The conclusions of these discussions are summarized at the end of each article. These conclusions have been brought together in the final section of this work. The hundreds of examples in this work indisputably prove that the rabbis were not only familiar with Biblical rhetorical patterns, but also adopted them, adapted and altered them at times, and used them for their different needs, which were at times different from the Biblical use. Key words: Rabbinical literature, Biblical rhetoric, Wisdom literature, Rhetorical patterns. ח.נ. ביאליק, משנה לעם: 1 יש רואים את למוד המשנה כ"יבש", דמיונה בעיניהם כעולם מאובן ודומם... לא המשנה יבשה. יבשה נפשנו. ואם המשנה נראית כיבשה מבחוץ – לחה היא מבפנים.2 S. Sekles, the Poetry of the Talmud:3 In fact, very few efforts appear to have been made during-Talmudical times to express thought in the beautiful form of poetry.