Talmud – 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[…]

“Neusner was a rabbinic historian. He can be credited with reinventing rabbinic historiography in the modern period”

5 February 20195 February 2019 Drew KaplanScholarship

Neusner was a rabbinic historian. He can be credited with reinventing rabbinic historiography in the modern period. Prior rabbinic historians were either completely naïve in accepting traditional histories or, if they were critically-oriented, prioritized the[…]

“The field of rabbinics is peopled by two types of scholars—literary scholars and historians”

5 February 2019 Drew KaplanScholarship

The field of rabbinics is peopled by two types of scholars—literary scholars and historians. Literary scholars produce scholarship on small quantities of text read very closely and squeezed with various methodologies to maximize the potential[…]

“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 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[…]

“The archaeological remains in Babylonia reveal few clear markers of Jewish identity”

27 September 2018 Drew KaplanArchaeology

The archaeological remains in Babylonia reveal few clear markers of Jewish identity. In the Greek and Roman world, with their so-called epigraphic habit, plenty of inscriptions have been unearthed that attest to a Jewish presence.[…]

“Rabbi Zera merely describes a stringent practice which Babylonian Jewish women had taken upon themselves”

16 April 201812 April 2018 Drew KaplanMenstrual Impurity

This term, first used by medieval commentators (see Zimmerman, p. 27, note 6), is, itself, an inaccuracy: Rabbi Zera merely describes a stringent practice which Babylonian Jewish women had taken upon themselves. Thus, the correct[…]

“Unparallel parallels which feed a partisan ego scarcely represent good scholarship…”

15 March 201813 March 2018 Drew KaplanScholarship

Unparallel parallels which feed a partisan ego scarcely represent good scholarship, whether the dabblers are Christians or Jews. How should a serious student assess the statement of a modern writer that “in many ways the[…]

“For the rabbis, breastfeeding offers a fascinating set of variables for academic investigation”

16 August 20176 September 2017 Drew KaplanRabbinic Literature

For the rabbis, breastfeeding offers a fascinating set of variables for academic investigation. First, breast milk is produced by women and for infants, both of which are non-normative rabbinic categories of people. Second, it is[…]

“Being the principal alcoholic beverage of Mesopotamia, beer is discussed at length in the Babylonian Talmud and, naturally, the vocabulary is Mesopotamian”

12 June 20176 September 2017 Drew KaplanBabylonian Talmud

Being the principal alcoholic beverage of Mesopotamia, it is discussed at length in the Babylonian Talmud and, naturally, the vocabulary is Mesopotamian. Its preparation is short, less than a week: They may put in [ingredients][…]

Excerpted

Excerpts of Interest

Tag: Talmud

“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”

“Neusner was a rabbinic historian. He can be credited with reinventing rabbinic historiography in the modern period”

“The field of rabbinics is peopled by two types of scholars—literary scholars and historians”

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

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

“The archaeological remains in Babylonia reveal few clear markers of Jewish identity”

“Rabbi Zera merely describes a stringent practice which Babylonian Jewish women had taken upon themselves”

“Unparallel parallels which feed a partisan ego scarcely represent good scholarship…”

“For the rabbis, breastfeeding offers a fascinating set of variables for academic investigation”

“Being the principal alcoholic beverage of Mesopotamia, beer is discussed at length in the Babylonian Talmud and, naturally, the vocabulary is Mesopotamian”