Jewish Books – Excerpted

“the Talmud only makes sense to the reader who has already read it; a first reading of the Talmud only happens during its second reading”

5 April 2020 Drew KaplanBabylonian Talmud

The Talmud is not a book to be read, but a book to do things with – not a book to think about but a book to think with; and beginning to read the Talmud[…]

“The term ma’aseh is the intrusion of real life events into the largely theoretical in hypothetical discourse of the Mishnah”

17 February 2020 Drew KaplanMishnah

The term ma’aseh is the intrusion of real life events into the largely theoretical in hypothetical discourse of the Mishnah. It introduces an event that happened in the past which has halakhic implications or ramifications[…]

The Siyum HaShas “Shockingly Has Nothing to Do with the Talmud Bavli”

2 January 2020 Drew KaplanBabylonian Talmud

The Event Shockingly Has Nothing to Do with the Talmud Bavli. I kind of knew to expect this—forgive me if what follows sounds hopelessly naïve—but I was struck by how the event had no educational[…]

“A comparison between Avot and Philostratus’ Lives of the Sophists underscores striking similarities and differences between the compositions…”

3 February 2019 Drew KaplanLate Antiquity

A comparison between Avot and Philostratus’ Lives of the Sophists underscores striking similarities and differences between the compositions and thereby functions as a natural springboard into the analysis of Avot in light of the Second[…]

“Philologists can sometimes forget that texts are not themselves autonomous subjects that move here and there, or chameleons that change color to fit the scenery”

8 January 20197 January 2019 Drew KaplanBabylonian Talmud

Philologists can sometimes forget that texts are not themselves autonomous subjects that move here and there, or chameleons that change color to fit the scenery. What numerous intertalmudic parallels throughout the Bavli and Yerushalmi—including collections[…]

“The Korean Talmud and its outsized popularity can thus also be understood as a form of Occidentalism”

8 January 20197 January 2019 Drew KaplanBabylonian Talmud

The turn to the Talmud as a book of Western wisdom in Japan, Korea, and China is reminiscent of a similar interest in and fetishizing of Eastern wisdom in the West. On a visit to[…]

“The ability of an individual halakhist to bring about a change depends…on one’s ability to foresee the opposition of one’s peers to one’s innovation”

1 November 2018 Drew KaplanHalakhah

…the ability of an individual halakhist to bring about a change depends, to a certain extent, on his ability to foresee the opposition of his peers to his innovation. From these conclusions, it is possible[…]

“recycling…is the likely explanation for the relative scarcity of metal finds at major urban centres at opposite ends of the Sasanian empire…”

31 October 201831 October 2018 Drew KaplanBabylonian Talmud

It should be remembered that recycling is not a modern Western concept, but is deeply rooted in human behaviour and economic practice and is the likely explanation for the relative scarcity of metal finds at[…]

Cultivated Crops during the Time of the Babylonian Talmud

31 October 2018 Drew KaplanBabylonian Talmud

As in earlier periods, the staple crops were wheat, barley and dates. A daily grain market is referred to at Nehardea (Avodah Zarah 38b) and the twin towns of Hini and Shili, somewhere near Sura,[…]

“…the most important source for mapping Jewish settlement and…urban reality as a whole in Sasanian Babylonia is the Babylonian Talmud”

27 September 201827 September 2018 Drew KaplanBabylonian Talmud

By far, the most important source for mapping Jewish settlement and, in a sense, urban reality as a whole in Sasanian Babylonia is the Babylonian Talmud. The dearth of any substantial late antique Jewish archaeology[…]

Excerpted

Excerpts of Interest

Category: Jewish Books

“the Talmud only makes sense to the reader who has already read it; a first reading of the Talmud only happens during its second reading”

“The term ma’aseh is the intrusion of real life events into the largely theoretical in hypothetical discourse of the Mishnah”

The Siyum HaShas “Shockingly Has Nothing to Do with the Talmud Bavli”

“A comparison between Avot and Philostratus’ Lives of the Sophists underscores striking similarities and differences between the compositions…”

“Philologists can sometimes forget that texts are not themselves autonomous subjects that move here and there, or chameleons that change color to fit the scenery”

“The Korean Talmud and its outsized popularity can thus also be understood as a form of Occidentalism”

“The ability of an individual halakhist to bring about a change depends…on one’s ability to foresee the opposition of one’s peers to one’s innovation”

“recycling…is the likely explanation for the relative scarcity of metal finds at major urban centres at opposite ends of the Sasanian empire…”

Cultivated Crops during the Time of the Babylonian Talmud

“…the most important source for mapping Jewish settlement and…urban reality as a whole in Sasanian Babylonia is the Babylonian Talmud”