Diss. - Universität in Prag.

Diss. - Universität in Prag.

At the heart of this study is my interest in the way in which a religious community establishes its sense of identity and its boundaries in relation to other groups. I explore the case of Israel's attitude towards her eastern neighbours, the Moabites and Ammonites, as portrayed in Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible. Most commentary from the last one hundred years privileges one particular view of Moab and Ammon as traditional enemies of Israel. I aim to show the validity of readings of the biblical accounts that reveal a more complex relationship between Israel and her neighbours. Tanakh exhibits a dialectic between eirenic and hostile viewpoints. The stories of Abraham and Lot, who are presented as ancestors of Israel and of Moab and Ammon, to some degree represent Israel’s understanding of her neighbours. Conventional commentaries take for granted the accepted orthodoxy of Judaism, Christianity and Islam concerning Abraham and his significance in terms of faith and righteousness and blessing and covenant. As none of these notions is specifically linked to Lot at any point, he is treated as a pathetic figure and remains secondary in conventional commentary. Many commentaries denigrate the character of Lot, often in direct comparisons with Abraham. My reading of the texts of Genesis attempts to free the story of Lot from the constraints imposed by the way the story of Abraham functions. A careful reading of the Genesis account shows that Lot and Abraham exhibit similar elements of moral ambiguity, and Genesis contains no statement that condemns Lot on moral or religious grounds. Genesis 19, the single narrative in which Lot appears independently of Abraham, participates in the dialectic elsewhere in Tanakh. On the basis of a consistent pattern of action and speech throughout the first portion of Genesis 19, I advance my own original conception of the eirenic viewpoint of the narrator concerning Lot and his relationship to the divine. I attempt to demonstrate ways in which the story of Lot critiques or deconstructs the dominant ideology centred upon Abraham. My conception of the particular interests of the compiler of Genesis 19 is supported by several intertextual studies. These include the traditions of Sodom and of Zoar, the story of hospitality in Judges 19, the story of the deluge (Genesis 6-9) and stories of women who, like Lot’s daughters, act to continue the family line. In a treatment of the history of Lot traditions, I find evidence to separate the story of Lot from the work of the Yahwist. I consider whether the stories of Lot have a derivation east of the Jordan and whether the stories were of particular interest to the Deuteronomists. In the final chapter of this study, I focus on the main themes of the narratives concerning Lot and Abraham, and Moab and Ammon and Israel. The question of social boundaries arises in regard to many of these themes, such as the interaction of female and male, the role of wealth, the relation of city and country, kinship, and rights to land settlement. In this way, the treatment of Lot and Abraham in Tanakh and in subsequent traditions offers a perspective upon the formation of identity in the contemporary world of religious plurality.

Das Dokument ist eine Zusammenfassung der wesentlichen Aspekte zu Rosh Sukka. / This document is a Hebrew summary of the essential aspects of Rosh Sukka.

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The study proposes that oral-traditonnal cultures, or cultures with a high degree of orality, use similar processes to hide political or social subversion in text. To test this hypothesis, the author examines three texts from three highly oral cultures: a tractate of the Babylonian Talmud, Homer's Odyssey and Maria Edgeworth's Castle Rackrent. The author finds that in all three texts subversion is concealed according to what she defines as the three principles of disguise: articulation, by which a text hides secondary meaning through its use of diction and syntax; construction, by which a text incorporates hidden transcripts or meaning within its narrative or textual structure; and diversion, by which a text directs the audience away from subversive meaning by focusing attention on other elements. All three principles of disguise exploit the relationship between the written text and the oral-traditional environment in which the text was used. The three-principle model of disguise enables us to set in comparative perspective relationships between the processes of communication and resistance in diverse cultures, and offers significant opportunities for comparative study. The author concludes that texts from diverse cultures may be employed similarly as extensions of oral tradition, especially when there is a need to conceal particular ideas from a dominant hegemony, and that reading these texts "against the grain" for evidence of subsurface subversion promises a deeper insight into both the function of text as a tool of resistance and the dynamics of human power relationships. / Graduate

Esta dissertação destaca os métodos de interpretação usados pelos sábios amoraítas para interpretar a Torá e definir a lei religiosa judaica. Este trabalho visa a entender como o texto da Torá serve como base para discussões legais por parte dos sábios e, por consequência, entender que abordagens tais sábios usavam para explicar e esclarecer os significados obscuros do texto bíblico. Para tanto, procedeu-se a um estudo sobre o desenvolvimento da Torá Oral no judaísmo rabínico e a uma análise crítica das obras clássicas da Torá Oral, a saber, a Mishná e o Talmud, sempre tendo como pano de fundo o texto da Torá Escrita. A pesquisa mostra como a aplicação dos métodos hermenêuticos por parte dos sábios amoraítas é, até certo ponto, altamente subjetiva e como isso ajudou a definir a lei religiosa judaica que é seguida até hoje por judeus ortodoxos. / This dissertation highlights the methods of interpretation used by the Amoraitic Sages to interpret the Torah and establish the Jewish religious law. This work aims to understand how the text of the Torah serves as a basis for legal discussions undertaken by the Sages and therefore tries to understand the approaches that such Sages used to explain and clarify the obscure meanings of the biblical text. In order to achieve that, we have proceeded to a study of the development of the Oral Torah in rabbinic Judaism and a critical analysis of classic works of the Oral Torah, namely the Mishnah and Talmud, besides the text of the Written Torah as a background. The research shows how the application of hermeneutical methods by the Amoraitic Sages is, to some extent, highly subjective and how it helped to define Jewish religious law that is followed even today by Orthodox Jews.

Dieser Vortrag setzt sich mit der Rezeption von Psalm 58 in den talmudischen Erzählungen auseinander. / This lectures deals with Ps. 58 and its reception in the Talmudic stories.

Dieser Beitrag setzt sich mit der Figur des R. Hanania ben Dosa auseinander. / This article deals with the figure of the wife of R. Hanania ben Dosa.

Esta dissertação destaca os métodos de interpretação usados pelos sábios amoraítas para interpretar a Torá e definir a lei religiosa judaica. Este trabalho visa a entender como o texto da Torá serve como base para discussões legais por parte dos sábios e, por consequência, entender que abordagens tais sábios usavam para explicar e esclarecer os significados obscuros do texto bíblico. Para tanto, procedeu-se a um estudo sobre o desenvolvimento da Torá Oral no judaísmo rabínico e a uma análise crítica das obras clássicas da Torá Oral, a saber, a Mishná e o Talmud, sempre tendo como pano de fundo o texto da Torá Escrita. A pesquisa mostra como a aplicação dos métodos hermenêuticos por parte dos sábios amoraítas é, até certo ponto, altamente subjetiva e como isso ajudou a definir a lei religiosa judaica que é seguida até hoje por judeus ortodoxos. / This dissertation highlights the methods of interpretation used by the Amoraitic Sages to interpret the Torah and establish the Jewish religious law. This work aims to understand how the text of the Torah serves as a basis for legal discussions undertaken by the Sages and therefore tries to understand the approaches that such Sages used to explain and clarify the obscure meanings of the biblical text. In order to achieve that, we have proceeded to a study of the development of the Oral Torah in rabbinic Judaism and a critical analysis of classic works of the Oral Torah, namely the Mishnah and Talmud, besides the text of the Written Torah as a background. The research shows how the application of hermeneutical methods by the Amoraitic Sages is, to some extent, highly subjective and how it helped to define Jewish religious law that is followed even today by Orthodox Jews.