What Is Good, and What God Demands: Normative Structures in Tannaitic Literature (Leather) (ISBN-13: 9789004187580)

The normative rhetoric of tannaitic literature (the earliest extant corpus of rabbinic Judaism) is predominantly deontological. Prior scholarship on rabbinic supererogation, and on points of contact with Greco-Roman virtue discourse, has identified non-deontological aspects of tannaitic normativity. However, these two frameworks overlook precisely the productive intersection of deontological with non-deontological, the first because supererogation defines itself against obligation, and the second because the Greco-Roman comparate discourages serious treatment of law-like elements. This book addresses ways in which alternative normative forms entwine with the core deontological rhetoric of tannaitic literature. This perspective exposes, inter alia, echoes of the post-biblical wisdom tradition in tannaitic law, the rich polyvalence of the category mitzvah, and telling differences between the schools of Akiva and Ishmael.

Author: Novick
ISBN-10: 9004187588
ISBN-13: 9789004187580
Publisher: Brill
Language: English
Published: 09/24/2010
Pages: 248
Format: Leather
Weight: 1.35lbs
Size: 9.70h x 6.50w x 0.80d