Protest or pedagogy? Trivial sin and divine justice in rabbinic narrative
This study examines two classical rabbinic stories in which a person's premature death is attributed to an apparently trivial sin. One line of scholarly response views them as addressing challenges to accounts of divine justice, such that the appeal to the small sin is a complex attempt at theo...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Print Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
College
2003
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| In: |
Hebrew Union College annual / Jewish Institute of Religion
Year: 2003, Volume: 74, Pages: 243-278 |
| IxTheo Classification: | BH Judaism NBC Doctrine of God |
| Further subjects: | B
Justice
B Rabbinic literature B Sin B Idea of God |
| Parallel Edition: | Electronic
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| Summary: | This study examines two classical rabbinic stories in which a person's premature death is attributed to an apparently trivial sin. One line of scholarly response views them as addressing challenges to accounts of divine justice, such that the appeal to the small sin is a complex attempt at theodicy. Others interpret the stories as primarily about the importance of apparently minor transgressions. This analysis centers on the reception of the stories by rabbinic redactors — five recensions of one story and three of the other — and sets out two methodological innovations. First, divine justice is examined not only as a concept, but as an interrelated set of concepts, tropes, and understandings of human action that can be employed for various purposes. A broad survey of this discourse provides an intellectual context for the stories at hand. Second, integrating Jeffrey Rubenstein's approach to talmudic narratives with Menahem Kister's focus on the metamorphosis of traditions, the study identifies multiple settings of meaning for each story conditioned by literary structure, anthologizing, exegesis, and expansion. The study concludes that the dominant tendency is to bring both stories into the realm of ethical teaching, though many details reveal that conflicts remain and the resolution is not complete. |
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| ISSN: | 0360-9049 |
| Contains: | In: Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Hebrew Union College annual / Jewish Institute of Religion
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