The Desert as an Inventarium: Going to the Wilderness in Babylonian Talmud Stories

This article is about the symbolic representation of the wilderness motif in a selection of rabbinic travel tales, taking into consideration its representation in earlier Jewish writings. The article includes a selection of rabbinic travel narratives found in b. Baba Batra that concern the desert jo...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Ḳiperṿaser, Reuven 1960- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill 2024
In: Dead Sea discoveries
Year: 2024, Volume: 31, Issue: 3, Pages: 355-374
Further subjects:B nomadic guide
B wondrous plants
B tall-tales
B Mount Sinai
B fantastic animals
B Wilderness
B Arabs
B Eschatology
B b. Baba Batra
B Sinai desert
B Korah band
B travel narrative
B Rabbinic Literature
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Summary:This article is about the symbolic representation of the wilderness motif in a selection of rabbinic travel tales, taking into consideration its representation in earlier Jewish writings. The article includes a selection of rabbinic travel narratives found in b. Baba Batra that concern the desert journeys of the remarkable rabbinic protagonist Rabba bar Bar Ḥanna. The hero of the stories is presented as viewing the giant dead bodies of the biblical tribes in the wilderness, Mount Sinai, and Korah and his people, all according to the sequence of biblical events in the books of Moses. Wilderness plays an integral role in these stories. While there is little interest in this motif in Palestinian rabbinic literature, wilderness plays a distinct role in the eschatological process according to the rabbinic theological speculations known from the Babylonian Talmud. According to the selected travel narratives, which all focus on the wilderness, several objects from the biblical past, as well as some items from the dawn of creation, which are designated to play an important role in the eschatological process, are stored there.
ISSN:1568-5179
Contains:Enthalten in: Dead Sea discoveries
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/15685179-bja10060