RT Article
T1 Material Disruptions in the Rabbinic Landscape
JF Material religion
VO 20
IS 1
SP 28
OP 50
A1 Mandsager, John
LA English
YR 2024
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1886418675
AB This essay uses New Materialist approaches to religious practice to demonstrate that early rabbinic (c. second–third centuries CE) Jewish prescriptions for Jewish farmers are part of assemblages of human and material forces. The Jewish farmer must show that his fields, gardens, and vineyards do not contain prohibited “mixed-kinds” (Deuteronomy 22:9–11), but the ways in which early rabbinic literature demands adherence to the commandment take into account forces beyond the human, such as wind, rain, and the unpredictable growth of the crops. These assemblages show the limits of human intention and action, as the Jewish farmer must react to the material world. Moreover, the analyses in this essay show how a New Materialist approach deepens our understanding of the entangled world of Jewish life and practice in Late Antiquity, as well as uncovers a non-anthropocentric view of the human in a material world within the Mishnah itself.
K1 Anthropomorphism
K1 plant growth
K1 wind
K1 Assemblage
K1 Agriculture
K1 the Mishnah
K1 Rabbinic Judaism
DO 10.1080/17432200.2024.2303901