The Humanity of the Talmud: Reading for Ethics in Bavli ʿAvoda Zara

Spring 2014......Page 2
Acknowledgements......Page 8
Preface......Page 10
A Note on Sources, Usage, and Transliteration......Page 12
Is the Talmud Ethical?......Page 14
Two Readings of Rabbinic Double Talk (Baba Kama 113a-b)......Page 15
Is There Ethics in the Talmud? Two Modern Views......Page 21
Defining Ethics......Page 24
The Seven Commandments of the Children of Noah (Excerpts from Sanhedrin 56a-57b)......Page 27
On The Horns of a Dilemma (Baba Kama 38a)......Page 38
Gentiles in the Talmud: A Short, Selective Reception History of The Talmud\'s Most Troubling Texts, Told Backwards......Page 45
Chapter II: The Sense of A Beginning......Page 54
Storytelling in Lifney ʾEydeyhem......Page 55
Beginning with the End (AZ 2a-3b)......Page 59
A Story of Adam (AZ 8a)......Page 63
Literary Approaches to the Bavli: Between Bialik and Bakhtin......Page 65
Adam, Inside-Out and Upside-Down (AZ 11b)......Page 74
The Martyrdom of Rabbi Hanina ben Tradyon (AZ 18a)......Page 80
Ketiʿa bar Shalom Crosses Over (AZ 10b)......Page 86
Broken Spirit, Breaking Wind: Elazar ben Dordya (AZ 17a)......Page 88
Narrative Ethics (The Moral of the Stories)......Page 93
Thinking with Animals......Page 96
Creeping Suspicions (Mishna AZ 2:1)......Page 97
The Opening Sugya (AZ 22b)......Page 100
Jews, Gentiles, and other Animals......Page 111
The Opening Sugya and the Rest of the Chapter......Page 118
Widows and Wives in Relation to the Covenant (AZ 27a, 30a, 39a)......Page 121
Animal Husbands (AZ 36b)......Page 128
Mixed Drinks and Metaphors......Page 133
Mishna ʿAvoda Zara: What the Tannaim Say (and Don\'t Say) about Gentile Wine......Page 134
Gentile Wine in the Bavli......Page 140
Ben Dama\'s Snakebites (AZ 27b)24......Page 141
The Prohibition on Gentile Wine: “From Where Do We Get This?” (AZ 29b)......Page 144
Section II: Snakes......Page 149
Legal Reasoning and the “Rule of Exposure” (AZ 30a)......Page 150
Literary Analysis: How is a Gentile Like a Snake?......Page 155
Disclosures (AZ 35a)......Page 158
Keeping Secrets (AZ 36b)......Page 161
Why So Secret?......Page 170
Digestif......Page 171
The Bavli\'s Rag and Bone Shop......Page 173
Object Lessons......Page 176
Idolatry from the Bible to the Mishna......Page 180
Idolatry in the Babylonian Context......Page 188
The Bavli Puts the Pieces Together (AZ 41b-42b)......Page 189
Theseus\'s Ship Sails the Sea of Talmud......Page 194
A Theory of Representation in the Bavli (AZ 42b-43b)......Page 199
Dialogues with Non-Jews (AZ 44b and 54b-55a)......Page 206
Closing a Circle......Page 212
Changing Views on the ʿAm Ha-ʾaretz: From Other Jews to Jewish Others......Page 217
The Narcissism of Small Differences (AZ 59a and AZ 70b)......Page 221
The Last Word (AZ 76b)......Page 228
Selected Bibliography......Page 233