Deviancy in Early Rabbinic Literature The Brill Reference Library of Judaism Editors Alan J. Avery-Peck (College of the Holy Cross) William Scott Green (University of Miami) Editorial Board David Aaron (Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati) Herbert Basser (Queen’s University) Bruce D. Chilton (Bard College) José Faur (Netanya College) Neil Gillman (Jewish Theological Seminary of America) Mayer I. Gruber (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) Ithamar Gruenwald (Tel Aviv University) Maurice-Ruben Hayoun (University of Strasbourg and Hochschule fuer Juedische Studien, Heidelberg) Arkady Kovelman (Moscow State University) David Kraemer (Jewish Theological Seminary of America) Baruch A. Levine (New York University) Alan Nadler (Drew University) Jacob Neusner (Bard College) ff Maren Nieho (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) Gary G. Porton (University of Illinois) Aviezer Ravitzky (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) Dov Schwartz (Bar Ilan University) Guenter Stemberger (University of Vienna) Michael E. Stone (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) Elliot Wolfson (New York University) VOLUME 27 Deviancy in Early Rabbinic Literature A Collection of Socio-Anthropological Essays by Simcha Fishbane with an introduction by Nissan Rubin LEIDEN•BOSTON 2007 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on http://catalog.loc.gov Fishbane, Simcha. Deviancy in early rabbinic literature: a collection of socio-anthropological essays / by Simcha Fishbane ; with an introduction by Nissan Rubin. p. cm. — (The Brill reference library of Judaism) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-90-04-15833-7 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 90-04-15833-2 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Deviant behavior in rabbinical literature. 2. Rabbinical literature—History and criticism. 3. Talmud—Criticism, interpretation, etc. 4. Women in rabbinical literature. I. Title. II. Series. BM496.9.D46F57 2007 296.1’2067—dc22 2006101964 ISSN 1571-5000 ISBN 978 90 04 15833 7 © Copyright 2007 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. printed in the netherlands Dedicated to the memory of my uncle Dr. Victor Weinberg hkrbl wnwrkz CONTENTS Preface and Acknowledgements ................................................ ix Chapter 1. Introduction by Professor Nissan Rubin .......... 1 Chapter 2. The Case of the Modified Mamzer in Early Rabbinic Texts .................................................... 4 Chapter 3. “As the Vows of the Evil Folk”: The Structure and Implicit Message of Mishnah’s Tractate Nazir .................................................................... 16 Chapter 4. “In the Case of Women-Any Hand Which Makes Many Examinations is to be Praised”: Niddah as Viewed by the Rabbis of the Mishnah .............................................................. 42 Chapter 5. “Most Women Engage in Sorcery”: An Analysis of Female Sorceresses in the Babylonian Talmud ............................................ 67 Chapter 6. “Go and Enjoy Your Acquisition”: The Prostitute in the Babylonian Talmud .............. 85 Chapter 7. “Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, See No Evil”: The Physically Handicapped in the Mishnah .... 103 Chapter 8. Toward an Understanding of the Methodology of Mishnah: The Case of Kutim ........................ 121 Chapter 9. Descriptive or Prescriptive: The Case of the Gentile in Mishnah ............................................ 141 Chapter 10. Deviancy in Battle: Rituals and the Israelite Soldier in the Torah and the Mishnah: An Anthropological Understanding .................... 164 Chapter 11. “Every Dream Becomes Valid Only By Its Interpretation”: Dreams, Dream Interpretations and Dream Interpreters in the Babylonian Talmud ................................................................ 177 Bibliography ................................................................................ 213 Index ............................................................................................ 221 PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The essays in this book represent a summation of my research in early rabbinic literature over the past twenty years. Throughout my academic life, that literature has been my primary focus and love. The types of deviant individuals dealt with in this volume are found in early rabbinic literature, primarily in the Mishnah, Tosefta and Talmud. The term deviancy here is defined with the sociolog- ical meaning attached to the concept by the Collins Dictionary of Sociology,1 i.e., “Any social behavior which departs from that regarded as ‘normal’ or socially acceptable within a society or social context.” This definition includes the bastard, prostitute, witch, gentile, nazir and kuti, outsiders who are therefore not socially acceptable. In this category I also include the physically handicapped, the soldier and the dreamer, who also pose a threat to the social stability and daily life of the community. During my graduate studies at Concordia University in Montreal, I had the opportunity to study the conceptual and methodological framework that allowed me to pursue answers to questions which deeply intrigued me, though they were not specifically dealt with by the rabbinical commentaries. The answers to my queries gradually emerged through the application of the tools and theories of social anthropology to texts of early rabbinic Judaism. I therefore am obvi- ously indebted to Emile Durkheim, Mary Douglas, Peter Berger, Victor Turner and Arnold van Gennep, whose classic works discuss these methodologies, as well as to Nissan Rubin. My first introduc- tion to this approach came from my mentor Professor Jack Lightstone, President of Brock University. Professor Lightstone’s doctoral super- visor, Professor Jacob Neusner, Distinguished Service Professor of the History and Theology of Judaism and Senior Fellow, Institute of Advanced Theology, Bard College, has long exerted the greatest influence on my methodological approach to the analysis of rabbinic texts. His development of a unique approach to the study of Judaism, 1 Jary, David and Julia Jary, Eds. 2005. Collins Web-linked Dictionary of Sociology 3rd ed. Glasgow: Harper-Collins. p. 153.