Blood for Thought: The Reinvention of Sacrifice in Early Rabbinic Literature (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780520295926)

Blood for Thought delves into a relatively unexplored area of rabbinic literature: the vast corpus of laws, regulations, and instructions pertaining to sacrificial rituals. Mira Balberg traces and analyzes the ways in which the early rabbis interpreted and conceived of biblical sacrifices, reinventing them as a site through which to negotiate intellectual, cultural, and religious trends and practices in their surrounding world. Rather than viewing the rabbinic project as an attempt to generate a nonsacrificial version of Judaism, she argues that the rabbis developed a new sacrificial Jewish tradition altogether, consisting of not merely substitutes to sacrifice but elaborate practical manuals that redefined the processes themselves, radically transforming the meanings of sacrifice, its efficacy, and its value.

Author: Mira Balberg
ISBN-10: 0520295927
ISBN-13: 9780520295926
Publisher: University of California Press
Language: English
Published: 09/26/2017
Pages: 304
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.20lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.30w x 1.10d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 06/01/2018