Sorrow and Distress in the Talmud [Hardcover]

Both the Babylonian Talmud and the Jerusalem Talmud depict a wide range of sorrowful situations tied to every level of society and to the complexities of human behavior and the human condition. The causes and expressions of sorrow amongst the Sages, however, are different from their counterparts amongst common people or women, with descriptions varying between the Babylonian and the Jerusalem Talmud. In Sorrow and Distress in the Talmud, Valler explores more than 50 stories from both the Babylonian and the Jerusalem Talmuds, focusing on these issues.Shulamit Valler (Ph.D. Jewish Theological Seminary) is a professor of Talmud and Chair of the Jewish History department at the University of Haifa. Her numerous publications include Women and Womanhood in the Babylonian Talmud (1999) and Massekhet Sukkaha Feminist Commentary on the Babylonian Talmud (2009). In a work that collects and categorizes narratives on the basis of the use of a particular term it is surprising to find such a high degree of continuity in the way Valler links nearly every story she analyzes to the one that follows in what becomes a set of flowing discussions that make up each of the chapters. Vallers study of stories of sorrow in Talmudic literature exhibits an all too rare combination of scholarly erudition and didactic practicality. This book will fuel further scholarship and also be useful in teaching. It will make a valuable addition to wide variety of Jewish studies collections. An important contribution not only to Talmudic studies but also to the general understanding of the human and emotional world of the Talmudic sages . . . From the academic standpoint Shulamit Vallers Sorrow and Distress in the Talmud is written with great profundity, and the reader can without doubt feel the knowledge and the erudition of the author.In this book Shulamit Valler gives the reader a glimpse into the emotional world of the Talmudic sages. She presents them, through unique and meticulous work, as senslÊ