UID:
almahu_9949701917702882
Format:
1 online resource (302 pages)
ISBN:
9789004227989
Series Statement:
Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism
Content:
This study analyzes the specific textual formation of Mishna Sotah. Diverging significantly from its origins in the book of Numbers, the Mishnaic ritual was traditionally read by scholars as an \'ancient Mishna\', narrating an actual ritual practiced in the second temple. In contrast to this generally accepted view, this book claims that while Sotah does contain some traditions, its overall composition has a clear ideological and academic form. Furthermore, comparisons with parallel Tannaitic sources reveal the ideological redaction, which carefully selected only those opinions which support its rewriting of the ritual as a public punitive ritual, while rejecting all reservations and opposition to its specific punitive character - even ignoring the possibility of innocence of the suspected adulteress. The author's groundbreaking conclusion is that, regardless of the form the real ritual did or did not take at the temple, the specific Mishnaic ritual was (re)invented by the rabbis in the second century C.E. From its very inception, it was purely textual, reflecting rabbinic imagination rather than memory.
Note:
Preliminary Material -- Introduction: The Enigma of Tractate Sotah -- 1. Warning and Hiding: Sotah 1:2 -- 2. The Threat, Sotah 1:4 -- 3. Humiliation, Sotah 1:5-6 -- 4. Drinking and Death, Sotah 3:4-5 -- 5. "Measure for Measure" in the Sotah Ritual -- 6. Historical Reality and Ideology in Mishnah Sotah -- 7. Theatrical Punishments: Ezekiel and the Mishnah -- 8. Texts and Rituals: The Riddle of Mishnah Sotah -- Afterword: The Temple in the Mishnah -- Acknowledgments -- Bibliography -- Index -- Source Index.
Additional Edition:
Print version: Rosen-Zvi, Ishay Mishnaic Sotah Ritual : Temple, Gender and Midrash Leiden : BRILL, c2012 ISBN 9789004210493
Language:
English
