Studies in Christianity

and Judaism / Etudes sur le

christianisme et le judaïsme: 6
Studies in Christianity and Judaism/
Etudes sur le christianisme et le judaïsme

s
Studies in Christianity and Judaism / Etudes sur le christia-
nisme et le judaïsme publishes monographs on Christianity
and Judaism in the last two centuries before the common
era and the first six centuries of the common era, with a
special interest in studies of their interrelationship or the
cultural and social context in which they developed.

GENERAL EDITOR: Peter Richardson University of Toronto

EDITORIAL BOARD: Paula Fredriksen Boston University

John Gager Princeton University
Olivette Genest Université de Montréal
Paul-Hubert Poirier Université Laval
Adele Reinhartz McMaster University
Stephen G. Wilson Carleton University
Lyle Eslinger Canadian Society of
{ex ojficféï) Biblical Studies
STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY
A N D JUDAISM

THE RHETORIC OF THE

BABYLONIAN TALMUD,
ITS SOCIAL MEANING
AND CONTEXT

Jack N. Lightstone
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Lightstone, Jack N.
The rhetoric of the Babylonian Talmud : its
social meaning and context

(Studies in Christianity and Judaism = Etudes sur le

christianisme et le judaisme KSCJ ; 6)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-B8920-238-9

1. Talmud - Criticism, interpretation, etc,

I, Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion.
II. Title. III. Series: Studies in Christianity
and Judaism ; 6.

BM501.L55 1994 296.1 2506‫׳‬ C94-930983-4

©
© 1994 Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion /
Corporation Canadienne des Sciences Religieuses

Cover design by Jose Martucci, Design Communications

The Rhetoric of the Babylonian Talmud, Its Social Meaning and Con-
text has been produced from a manuscript supplied in camera-ready
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Dedicated to the memory of my mother,
Ethyl Nedivah Lightstone
‫זכרונה לברכה‬
This page intentionally left blank
C0 fl'Êfâ H tS

Charts viii
Preface ix
Abbreviations and Editions ‫״‬ xiii
1 Introduction 1
2 Bavli's Structural Formularies 25
3 Bavli's Structural Formularies in Comparative Relief 49
4 Bavli's Dialectical Formularies 77
5 Bavli's Dialectical Formularies in Comparative Relief 173
6 Summary and Conclusions: The Social Meaning
and Context of B avli ' s Rhetoric 247
Appendix A: A Comparative Analysis of the Distribution
of Selected Structural Formulae in
Nine Tractates of the Bavli 283
Appendix B: The Hebrew-Aramaic Texts of b. Avodah
Zarah 14b-16a and b. Bekorot 2a-5b 287
References and Selected Bibliography 297
Index 309

vii
Charts

of b. AZ 14b-16a and y. AZ 1:6

in b. AZ 14b-16a and y. AZ 1:6 60

3 Length of sugyot in b. AZ 14b-16a vs. y. AZ 1:6 71

and y. AZ 1:6 72
 Preface

This book examines the character, use and social meaning of the for-
malized rhetoric which pervades the Babylonian Talmud. Indeed, so
integral is that stock rhetorical vocabulary to the Bavli that were such
language to be removed from the Talmud, little would be left that we
would recognize as talmudic in character. For in so far as Bavli has a
definite style, character and agenda, these are in large measure con-
stituted by its stock language, which is the principal object of analysis in
this volume.
Virtually from the era of its redaction, about the sixth century, the
Babylonian Talmud became the rabbinic document par
Through its lens almost all previous canonical rabbinic tradition was
refracted. And although it lies beyond the ken of this book, during the
medieval period all situations calling for a rabbinic response, in particu-
lar those calling for legal decisions, were retroactively passed through
the Babylonian Talmud's filter. The initial criticism of the work of such
codifiers as Maimonides {Mishneh To rah) in the twelfth century and
Yosef Karo {Shulkan Aruk) in the sixteenth century had much to do with
the perceived danger of encouraging the removal of the Talmud and its
study from this recursive loop.
This era of the Talmud's initial ascendancy coincides, I shall
argue, with the rise of the Babylonian rabbinic academies (the yeshiva)
as the central institution of the rabbinic movement, with the Bavli as the
centrepiece of the academy's curriculum. Within this institution, study of
the Talmud in particular (even if not exclusively) defined what it meant
to be a rabbinic sage or a disciple of the sages. Thus Maimonides, writ-
ing half a millennium after the redaction of the Talmud, states that the
stature and authority of the early medieval sages and heads of the
academies (geonirn) rested upon the fact that "all of these heads of the
academies [and sages] who functioned in the Land of Israel, and in the
Land of Shinar [i.e., Babylonian J, and in Iberia and in France studied
the ways of the Talmud, and elucidated its secrets and explained its con-
tent,
because its wâys RT6 deep land lead] to enlightenment"
[Maimonides' introduction to Mishneh To rah, trans, and interpolations
are my own].
The Talmud, then, defined the role of the rabbinic elite. The text
was the paradigm for the "way" one went about studying to become, and
later exercised the power and authority of a rabbi. Thus the "way" of the
Talmud, that is, its way of going about things as much as its content,

ix