“…metaphors that associate sex with eating, sexual partners with food, and/or sexual desire with hunger/appetite are not unique to rabbinic Judaism”
One detail that stands out in this particular attempt to bring the Torah of...
Category Archives: Talmud
“…Rashi’s method highlighted key phrases in the talmudic discussion…instead of the paraphrasing commentary style of [previous] scholars”
Unlike the commentaries of R. Hananel, R. Gershom, or the other various commentaries that...
“Incredibly, since World War II talmudists have scarcely paid attention to the rich Iranian milieu in which the Babylonian Talmud was composed”
Incredibly, since World War II talmudists have scarcely paid attention to the rich Iranian...
“Boyarin’s book was largely responsible for the “modernization” of talmudic studies in North America, and it played a signal role in updating the concerns and methods of talmudists to match broader trends in the humanities”
In 1993, Daniel Boyarin published a relatively compact book entitled Carnal Israel: Reading Sex...
“…both the Babylonian Talmud and Middle Persian literature are preoccupied with the preferred contours of the female body”
…it is noteworthy how, despite the differences in subject matter (Jewish marital law versus...
“…quite a bit of work remains to be done in terms of explaining the sources of the Talmud’s articulations of carnality and sexuality…”
Since the “Talmudo-Iranica” revolution, students of the Babylonian Talmud have proceeded to reexamine basic...
“…the process of Talmud…can have real world value, and that, as full participants in a riven civil society, we should see it as our obligation to realize that value”
I do want to suggest that the process of Talmud, which I understand in...
“…it is worth noting that Iranian literature can even illuminate rabbinic texts produced in Roman Palestine, beyond what is usually seen as the orbit of Iranian culture…”
First, it is worth noting that Iranian literature can even illuminate rabbinic texts produced...
Artscroll and Reuben laying with Bilhah
Genesis 35:22 states that “Reuben lay with Bilhah.” The Artscroll multi-volume commentary on Bereshit...
“An examination of biblical and talmudic sources does not reveal that women in particular practiced witchcraft”
An examination of biblical and talmudic sources does not reveal that women in particular...