Migrating Tales The Talmud&146s Narratives and Their Historical Context [Hardcover]

Migrating Talessituates the Babylonian Talmud, or Bavli, in its cultural context by reading several rich rabbinic stories against the background of Greek, Syriac, Arabic, Persian, and Mesopotamian literature of late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, much of it Christian in origin. In this nuanced work, Richard Kalmin argues that non-Jewish literature deriving from the eastern Roman provinces is a crucially important key to interpreting Babylonian rabbinic literature, to a degree unimagined by earlier scholars. Kalmin demonstrates the extent to which rabbinic Babylonia was part of the Mediterranean world of late antiquity and part of the emerging but never fully realized cultural unity forming during this period in Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, and western Persia.

Kalmin recognizes that the Bavli contains remarkable diversity, incorporating motifs derived from the cultures of contemporaneous religious and social groups. Looking closely at the intimate relationship between narratives of the Bavli and of the Christian Roman Empire,Migrating Talesbrings the history of Judaism and Jewish culture into the ambit of the ancient world as a whole.

Richard Kalminis Theodore R. Racoosin Chair of Rabbinic Literature at The Jewish Theological Seminary. He is the author of the award-winningJewish Babylonia between Persia and Roman Palestineand several other books about the literature and history of the Jews of late antiquity. The research and writing ofMigrating Taleswas supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

A fascinating book, a real tour de force. In Kalmin's hands, the stories of the Babylonian Talmud become evidence of the Bavli's cultural connections with Greeks, Romans, Christians, and others. If anyone tries to tell you how insular ancient rabbinic literature was, tell them to read this book. Shaye J. D. Cohen, Littauer Professor of Hebrew Literature and Philosophy atlï