Author : Julia Watts Belser
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1316395650
Total Pages : 423 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (163 download)
Book Synopsis Power, Ethics, and Ecology in Jewish Late Antiquity by : Julia Watts Belser
Download or read book Power, Ethics, and Ecology in Jewish Late Antiquity written by Julia Watts Belser and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-08-06 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rabbinic tales of drought, disaster, and charismatic holy men illuminate critical questions about power, ethics, and ecology in Jewish late antiquity. Through a sustained reading of the Babylonian Talmud's tractate on fasts in response to drought, this book shows how Bavli Taʿanit challenges Deuteronomy's claim that virtue can assure abundance and that misfortune is an unambiguous sign of divine rebuke. Employing a new method for analyzing lengthy talmudic narratives, Julia Watts Belser traces complex strands of aggadic dialectic to show how Bavli Taʿanit's redactors articulate a strikingly self-critical theological and ethical discourse. Bavli Taʿanit castigates rabbis for misuse of power, exposing the limits of their perception and critiquing prevailing obsessions with social status. But it also celebrates the possibilities of performative perception - the power of an adroit interpreter to transform events in the world and interpret crisis in a way that draws forth blessing.