Scripture as Logos Rabbi Ishmael and the Origins of Midrash Azzan
Yadin "This is perhaps the most significant and innovative
scholarly work on the halakhic midrashim in the past thirty years.
The claims are extremely convincing, the scholarship is rigorous,
and the writing is engaging. The conclusions repeatedly break new
ground and dispel mistaken ideas that have been accepted among
scholars. Most impressive, Yadin consistently displays a command of
both textual expertise and theory."--Jeffrey L. Rubenstein, New
York University The study of midrash--the biblical exegesis,
parables, and anecdotes of the Rabbis--has enjoyed a renaissance in
recent years. Most recent scholarship, however, has focused on the
aggadic or narrative midrash, while halakhic or legal midrash--the
exegesis of biblical law--has received relatively little attention.
In "Scripture as Logos," Azzan Yadin addresses this long-standing
need, examining early, tannaitic (70-200 C.E.) legal midrash,
focusing on the interpretive tradition associated with the figure
of Rabbi Ishmael. This is a sophisticated study of midrashic
hermeneutics, growing out of the observation that the Rabbi Ishmael
midrashim contain a dual personification of Scripture, which is
referred to as both "torah" and "ha-katuv." It is Yadin's
significant contribution to note that the two terms are not in fact
synonymous but rather serve as metonymies for Sinai on the one hand
and, on the other, the rabbinic house of study, the bet midrash.
Yadin develops this insight, ultimately presenting the complex but
highly coherent interpretive ideology that underlies these rabbinic
texts, an ideology that--contrary to the dominant view today--seeks
to minimize the role of the rabbinic reader by presenting Scripture
as actively self-interpretive. Moving beyond textual analysis,
Yadin then locates the Rabbi Ishmael hermeneutic within the
religious landscape of Second Temple and post-Temple literature.
The result is a series of surprising connections between these
rabbinic texts and Wisdom literature, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the
Church Fathers, all of which lead to a radical rethinking of the
origins of rabbinic midrash and, indeed, of the Rabbis as a whole.
Azzan Yadin teaches in the Department of Jewish Studies at Rutgers
University. Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion 2004 248
pages 6 x 9 ISBN 978-0-8122-3791-7 Cloth $69.95s 45.50 ISBN
978-0-8122-0412-4 Ebook $69.95s 45.50 World Rights Religion,
History
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