The extreme sacrifice of a cannibal mother in the siege of Jerusalem
The paper explores the Jewish reception of a paradoxically sacrificial narrative (found already in Josephus’ De bello iudaico) involving a mother cannibalizing her son during the 70 ce siege of Jerusalem. The sources addressed include rabbinic a ma‘aseh from midrash Sifra (3rd-century Palestine), a...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2024
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| In: |
Henoch
Year: 2024, Volume: 46, Issue: 2, Pages: 350-365 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Rabbinic literature
/ Jewish literature
/ Cannibalism
/ Ladin dialect
|
| Further subjects: | B
Ladino Poetry
B Cannibalism B Medieval Hebrew Literature B Rabbinic Literature |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The paper explores the Jewish reception of a paradoxically sacrificial narrative (found already in Josephus’ De bello iudaico) involving a mother cannibalizing her son during the 70 ce siege of Jerusalem. The sources addressed include rabbinic a ma‘aseh from midrash Sifra (3rd-century Palestine), a passage from Sefer Yosippon (10th-century Southern Italy), a liturgical poem by Safedian payyetan Israel Najara (Zemirot Isra’el, Ve- nice: 1599), and a poetic rendition in Ladino (17th-century North Africa). By reflecting on intertextual referencing and rhetorical construction, the analysis focuses on development of the intersection between the topos of ritual sacrifice and the unusual motif of (anti)maternal agency. The texts underlie diverging literary functions – from the hyperbolic taste in historiographical accounting to the dramatic performance of religious empathy – that can be understood according to their pertaining geo-historical sceneries. |
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| Contains: | Enthalten in: Henoch
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