1727058283

The Talmud's red fence : menstrual impurity and difference in Babylonian Judaism and its Sasanian context / Shai Secunda

First edition

Englisch

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2020

xvii, 203 Seiten

Bibliographie: Seite 181-194. - Index: Seite 195-203

Rezensiert in: Marcus, Alexander W.: [Rezension von: Secunda, Shai, 1979-, The Talmud's red fence: Menstrual Impurity and Difference in Babylonian Judaism and its Sasanian Context], 2021

Rezensiert in: Polzer, Natalie C. *1957-*: [Rezension von: Secunda, Shai, 1979-, The Talmud's red fence: Menstrual Impurity and Difference in Babylonian Judaism and its Sasanian Context], 2022

Erscheint auch als: Online-Ausgabe- Secunda, Shai *1979-*: The Talmud's red fence. - Oxford : Oxford University Press USA - OSO, 2020. - 1 online resource (223 pages)

Erscheint auch als: Online-Ausgabe- Secunda, Shai *1979-*: The Talmud's red fence. - Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2020. - 1 Online-Ressource (xvii, 203 Seiten)

978-0-19-885682-5 hardback

10.1093/oso/9780198856825.001.0001

*Sassaniden / Religiöse Literatur / Babylonischer Talmud / Menstruation / Kultische Reinheit

*Babylonischer Talmud / Geschlechtertrennung / Bibel. Levitikus, 15,19-33

*Iran <Altertum> / Juden / Kulturelle Identität / Menstruation / Parsen / Syrische Kirchen / Mandäer

Dewey Dezimal-Klassifikation: 296.125066;

The Talmud's Red Fence explores how rituals and beliefs concerning menstruation in the Babylonian Talmud and neighboring Sasanian religious texts were animated by difference and differentiation. It argues that the practice and development of menstrual rituals in Babylonian Judaism was a product of the religious terrain of the Sasanian Empire, where groups like Syriac Christians, Mandaeans, Zoroastrians, and Jews defined themselves in part based on how theyapproached menstrual impurity. It demonstrates that menstruation was highly charged in Babylonian Judaism and Sasanian Zoroastrian, where menstrual discharge was conceived of as highly productive female seed yet at the same time as stemming from either primordial sin (Eve eating from the tree) or evil(Ahrimen's kiss). It argues that competition between rabbis and Zoroastrians concerning menstrual purity put pressure on the Talmudic system, for instance in the unusual development of an expert diagnostic system of discharges. It shows how Babylonian rabbis seriously considered removing women from the home during the menstrual period, as Mandaeans and Zoroastrians did, yet in the end deemed this possibility too "heretical." Finally, it examines three cases of Babylonian Jewish women initiatingmenstrual practices that carved out autonomous female space. One of these, the extension of menstrual impurity beyond the biblically mandated seven days, is paralleled in both Zoroastrian Middle Persian and Mandaic texts. Ultimately, Talmudic menstrual purity is shown to be driven by difference inits binary structure of pure and impure; in gendered terms; on a social axis between Jews and Sasanian non-Jewish communities; and textually in the way the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds took shape in late antiquity.

Impression: 2