Friends and Colleagues or Barely Acquainted? Relations Between Fourth-Generation Masters in the Babylonian Talmud
This paper demonstrates that dialogues between Abaye and Rava, conventionally assumed to form the backbone of the Babylonian Talmud, are extremely rare. Nearly all of their apparent dialogues involve Abaye and his teacher, Rabbah, rather than Abaye and his contemporary, Rava. In general, face-to-fac...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Print Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
College
1990
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| In: |
Hebrew Union College annual / Jewish Institute of Religion
Year: 1990, Volume: 61, Pages: 125-158 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Talmud
/ Introduction
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| IxTheo Classification: | BH Judaism |
| Parallel Edition: | Electronic
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| Summary: | This paper demonstrates that dialogues between Abaye and Rava, conventionally assumed to form the backbone of the Babylonian Talmud, are extremely rare. Nearly all of their apparent dialogues involve Abaye and his teacher, Rabbah, rather than Abaye and his contemporary, Rava. In general, face-to-face contact between fourth-generation Babylonian masters of approximately equal status is extremely infrequent, indicating the absence of a Babylonian rabbinic equivalent to the synods of the Catholic Church. These findings may have important implications for David Goodblatt's theory that rabbinic education during the Amoraic period took place in the context of disciple circles rather than academies, although further study is necessary before firm conclusions are drawn. This paper also demonstrates that dispute dialogue, dialogue between Amoraim whose contradictory opinions are juxtaposed in dispute form, is in general extremely rare throughout the Babylonian Talmud. Dispute dialogue between R. Yohanan and Resh Lakish, however, is quite routine. According to Avraham Weiss, the lengthy dispute dialogues between R. Yohanan and Resh Lakish establish them as the originators of the complex, multi-tiered Talmudic sugya. This paper demonstrates that the basic core of the dialogues might be authentically Amoraic, substantially augmented by later editors, eliminating the need to view the sugya as an early Amoraic, Palestinian innovation. |
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| ISSN: | 0360-9049 |
| Contains: | In: Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Hebrew Union College annual / Jewish Institute of Religion
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