Language:
Hebrew
Year of publication:
2019
Titel der Quelle:
אוקימתא; מחקרים בספרות התלמודית והרבנית
Angaben zur Quelle:
ה (תשעט) 71-99
Keywords:
Talmud Bavli. Criticism, interpretation, etc.
;
Virginity Religious aspects
;
Judaism
;
Virginity in rabbinical literature
;
Sex in the Bible
;
Marriage (Jewish law)
Abstract:
These are maidens”: Virginity as a Discursive Category inTalmudic HalakahOqimta 5 (2019). Article at: http://www.oqimta.org.il/oqimta/2019/davidovich-eshed5.pdfAvital Davidovich EshedThe paper discusses the concept of virginity formulated by talmudicHalakhah and its inherent inner tensions. In the new jurisprudence createdby the rabbis, virginity is a discursive category that elucidates the complexties between the body, sexuality, and the social and religious order.It is shown that virginity has three senses in the Talmud—sexualinexperience, bodily perfection, and a legal presumption—which takedifferent perspectives and overlap only partly. Each of them reflectsdifferent cultural motives and social ideas of the body, sexuality, andgender. Their coexistence creates a plastic concept of virginity thatconstantly oscillates between the real and the symbolic, the physical andthe spiritual, and the social and the religious. The broad range forinterpretation allowed by the multiple definitions reveals the ideologicaland political nature of every halakhic ruling concerning virginity.The paper demonstrates how the concept of virginity functions in theHalakhic discourse about the marriage of a virgin bride in the BabylonianTalmud. The close link between the special customs for the wedding of avirgin bride, meant to highlight her physical virginity, and the economicand class privileges derived from the formal presumption of virginity,exemplifies virginity as an analytical category that can tie together levelsof meaning often presented as separate.Finally, the lines that the talmudic discourse draws between awoman’s definition as a virgin, on the one hand, and her personal status,legal rights, and social and religious standing, on the other, makevirginity a useful tool for mapping the mechanisms that shaped gender inJewish culture and for reaching a deeper understanding of how theyfunction. By means of a theoretical and methodological framework thattranscends the talmudic context, the paper proposes virginity as a vitalcategory for the study of the history of sex and the gender economy inJewish culture.
Note:
With an.English summary.
URL:
אתר את הפרסום בקטלוג המאוחד של ספריות ישראל
