Archaeology, Rabbinic Literature, Scholarship “The archaeological remains in Babylonia reveal few clear markers of Jewish identity” Author Drew Kaplan Date 27 September 2018 The archaeological remains in Babylonia reveal few clear markers of Jewish identity. In the...
Menstrual Impurity, Talmud “Rabbi Zera merely describes a stringent practice which Babylonian Jewish women had taken upon themselves” Author Drew Kaplan Date 16 April 2018 This term, first used by medieval commentators (see Zimmerman, p. 27, note 6), is,...
Scholarship “Unparallel parallels which feed a partisan ego scarcely represent good scholarship…” Author Drew Kaplan Date 15 March 2018 Unparallel parallels which feed a partisan ego scarcely represent good scholarship, whether the dabblers...
Rabbinic Literature, Talmudic Sages “For the rabbis, breastfeeding offers a fascinating set of variables for academic investigation” Author Drew Kaplan Date 16 August 2017 For the rabbis, breastfeeding offers a fascinating set of variables for academic investigation. First,...
Babylonian Talmud, Beer “Being the principal alcoholic beverage of Mesopotamia, beer is discussed at length in the Babylonian Talmud and, naturally, the vocabulary is Mesopotamian” Author Drew Kaplan Date 12 June 2017 Being the principal alcoholic beverage of Mesopotamia, it is discussed at length in the...
Bible, Judaism, Menstrual Impurity, Rabbinic Literature, Tannaim, Tannaitic Literature “In addition to the biblical distinction between normal and abnormal discharges, the rabbis developed two more categories…” Author Drew Kaplan Date 7 June 2017 Leviticus 15 is concerned with normal and abnormal, male and female genital discharges. As...
Amoraim, Babylonian Talmud, Judaism “The practice of waiting seven blood-free days following the end of a regular menstrual period is variously described in the Talmud as heḥemiru al atzman, minhaga, and halakhah pesukah, indicating that a variety of attitudes existed as to the severity of the requirement” Author Drew Kaplan Date 6 June 2017 Zimmerman is correct in saying that a seven-day wait after any bleeding has become...
Amoraim, Babylonian Talmud “…the term halakhah pesukah need not be considered the opposite of minhaga. It may simply mean a rule that cannot be questioned or supported on the basis of conventional talmudic dialectics” Author Drew Kaplan Date 25 May 2017 Perhaps it can be argued that the ḥumra of the daughters of Israel is...
Amoraim, Babylonian Talmud, Beer, Late Antiquity, Wine “The contrast between wine culture of Palestine and beer culture of Babylonia is well documented in the Talmud…” Author Drew Kaplan Date 17 May 2017 One of the important distinctions between the diet of Graeco-Roman Palestine and Babylonia was...
Amoraim, Babylonian Talmud, Passover “Through their sharp political interpretations of the Passover story, Rav and Shmuel described the political condition of the Jewish people long after the Exodus from Egypt” Author Drew Kaplan Date 9 April 2017 In its transition from Joseph’s death to a new era, the book of Exodus...