Topic
Sifra
About: Sifra is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 15 publications have been published within this topic receiving 121 citations.
Papers
Book•
29 Jun 2004
TL;DR: In this paper, Azzan Yadin examines the restraint demanded of the Scriptural reader in Ishmaelian midrashim and refutes Harris's implication that nineteenth-century' polemical scholars/rabbis constructed the idea of the Ishmaelsian school and its "simpler," less fanciful approach to biblical interpretation.
Abstract: Scripture as Logos: Rabbi Ishmael and the Origins of Midrash, by Azzan Yadin. Divinations. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004. Pp. xiii + 231. $55.00 (hardcover). ISBN: 0812237919. The central thesis of Scripture as Logos is that the Tannai m (second-third centuries C.E. rabbis) who composed the Ishmaelian midrashic collections (basically the Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishtnael and Sifre Numbers) instituted a relatively restrained approach to the interpretation of Scripture. The notion of a fully polysemous Torah was not shared bv these rabbis. Their motto might be summarized as "Be silent until the text speaks," a motto that contrasts with that which they ascribe to their opponents, who say to the text, "Be silent until I expound." The reader of Scripture is to engage in moderately passive hermeneutics; the meaning of Scripture is not entirely open, as some literary theorists might propose, but rather semi-closed. The reader must accept interpretive cues from Scripture itself and not impart them from without. Scripture speaks to its interpreter and acts as its interpreter's teacher in a system where ultimately authority and control belong to the text itself. The classification of the midrashic schools into those of R. Ishmael and those of R. Aqiva upon which Yadin's work rests is worthy of note. Over one hundred years ago, David Zvi Huffman demonstrated that the halakic/tannaitic midrashim can be separated into these two schools. This classification was reinforced by the research of Jacob Nahum Epstein and Menahem Kahana, among others. Recently the classification was challenged by Gary Porton and Jay Harris. Yadin's book is a welcome response to their challenge. While we can no longer be certain that these midrashic collections reflect the opinions of their eponymous fathers, we can be certain of the basic differences between them. Overwhelming textual evidence for such a classification has been documented, and neither Porton nor Harris directly addresses this evidence. Yadin refutes Harris's implication that nineteenth-century' polemical scholars/rabbis constructed the idea of the Ishmaelian school and its "simpler," less fanciful approach to biblical interpretation. Yadin convincingly demonstrates that such an approach did exist and is not a scholarly fantasy. Yadin begins by analyzing the different uses of two terms which frequently appear in Ishmaelian midrashim: Torah and ha-katuv ("the verse"). As a term, Torah stands for the voice of revelation and is usually used to introduce Scripture itself. It is a voice of authority, but it speaks in the past and is not active. In contrast, ha-katuv is the midrashic voice, a teacher of Scripture, and it steins from Scripture itself. The personification of ha-katuv as Scripture teaching the hermeneutics of Scripture serves as a basis for the remainder of the book. In ch. 2, Yadin examines the restraint demanded of the Scriptural reader in Ishmaelian midrashim. He elucidates a fascinating exchange between R. Eliezer and R. Ishmael, in which the latter rebukes the former for replacing the proper submission to the verse with aggressive hyper-interpretation. While R. Ishmael listens to the verse and then interprets, R. Eliezer tells the verse to "be silent" until he is done interpreting. As part of their hermeneutical strategy, Ishmaelian midrashim claim that certain words in Scripture are "marked" and therefore "available" for interpretation. The reader is to search for and locate such marks (superfluity, anomalous spellings, and other such phenomena) and then and only then interpret them. Even this search for "markers" is restrained. Not all verses are "marked" and some "markers" merely lead toward understanding the simple, noninterpreted meaning of the verse. Without evidence of "marking," the Scriptural interpreter has no right to engage in creative exegesis. In contrast, the Sifra, the pinnacle of Aqivan midrashic creation, perceives all words as potentially "marked" and hence makes the category of "marked" meaningless since it has no contrast. …
60 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors of the Sifra, an early rabbinic legal midrash collection roughly contemporaneous with the Mishnah, explicitly and programmatically address the question of what is the proper Jewish relationship to gentile practice.
Abstract: (ProQuest: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.)INTRODUCTIONSCHOLARS HAVE RECENTLY suggested that "neutralization" is a productive way to think about how some early rabbis confronted paganism and, more broadly, Roman imperial dominance. In Moshe Halbertal's formulation, the rabbinic authors of m'Avodah Zarah attempt "to delineate the limits of a neutral space - a space that will enable to Jews to coexist with what they perceive to be their ideological and religious enemy."1 This essay will identify a neutralization strategy in a passage from the Sifra, an early rabbinic legal midrash collection roughly contemporaneous with the Mishnah, that explicitly and programmatically addresses the question of what is the proper Jewish relationship to gentile practice. The logic of neutralization for the Sifra, I will argue, is that legal significance is denied to popular, shared practice and restricted to the traditions passed on by a male elite. This reading of the Sifra draws from Daniel Boyarin 's argument in Border Linea that early rabbis and early Christians, respectively and relatedly, created new orthodoxies grounded in a notion of apostolic transmission.2 The Sifra text I examine creates what I call a "perverse parallel" to rabbinic orthodoxy and, in so doing, tries to naturalize it. I will also show the significance of gender and sexual identity for the creation of this set of Jewish/gentile parallels and, consequently, for the creation of rabbinic orthodoxy. Finally, I will contrast the neutralization strategy found in the Sifra with the construction of Jewish/gentile difference found in a section of material from the Ishmael school inserted into the Sifra. In this inserted text, rabbinic voices imply that it may be impossible to neutralize pagan practice. This inserted text represents an "anti-neutralization" strategy in which potency is recognized in a wide array of both elite and popular habits. My analysis of the Sifra and its inserted materials will support, enhance, and complicate the proposal for rabbinic neutralization by showing with respect to at least one formulation (1) its generating exegetical framework, (2) its importance to the institutionalization of rabbinic authority, and (3) its contestation. I hope thereby to contribute to the expanding conversation about early rabbis' strategies for negotiating Jewish identity within the Roman imperial context and to larger conversations about the construction of minority identities.THE SIFRA ON LEVITICUS 18.3: BUILDING AND PLANTING AS THEY DOThe Sifra, whose major redaction can be dated to approximately the middle of the third century CE. in Palestine, is the main extant corpus of early rabbinic (tannaitic) legal (halakhic) midrash on the book of Leviticus and is traditionally ascribed to the school of R. Akiba.3The Sifra responds to and exploits the ambiguity of the demand for Israelite distinctiveness voiced in Lev 18.3:Like the practice of the land of Egypt which you dwelled in, you should not practice, and like the practice of the land of Canaan to which I am bringing you, you should not practice, and in their laws you should not go....The close parallelism of the first two parts of the verse "like the practice of . . . you should not practice" is disrupted by the third concluding part, "and in their laws you should not go." The change in rhythm draws attention to the literary (and possibly legal) function of the last part of the verse: Are the laws hukot) mentioned in the third part equivalent to the practice ma Meti) mentioned in the first two parts or do they introduce a new prohibition?4 The remainder of Leviticus 18, which sets forth a series of sexual taboos, implies that sexual sins form the substance of the prohibited practices of Egypt and Canaan. Careful examination of the chapter, however, shows that the opening exhortation in verses 1-5 and the sexual taboos in verses 6-23 are each literarily autonomous units and that it is only the concluding exhortation in verses 24-30 that explicitly connects them. …
36 citations
Book•
17 Dec 2014
TL;DR: The Sifra as Midrash: Hermeneutic Markedness, Terminological Identity and the Hermeneutics of Camouflage as mentioned in this paper, and Rabbi Akiva's Biographical Transformation.
Abstract: Introduction PART I. A HERMENEUTIC OF CAMOUFLAGE Chapter 1. The Sifra as Midrash: Hermeneutic Markedness Chapter 2. The Sifra as Midrash: Vacuity and Semantic Discontinuity Chapter 3. Terminological Identity and the Hermeneutics of Camouflage Chapter 4. "On the Basis of This, They Said" (Mikan 'Amru) and the Role of Scripture PART II. THE CURIOUS CAREER OF BARRI AKIVA Chapter 5. Rabbi Akiva the Interpreter: From the Mishnah to the Talmud Chapter 6. Rabbi Akiva, the Anonymous Sifra, and the Hermeneutics of Camouflage Chapter 7. Rabbi Akiva's Biographical Transformation PART III. MIDRASH AND HALAKHOT: A REEVALUATION Chapter 8. The Anomaly of Tannaitic Literature: Interpretation, Revelation, and Mysteries Excursus. Oral Tradition as the Site of Esotericism Chapter 9. Midrash and Extra-Scriptural Tradition: A Synchronic Model Conclusion: Rabbi Akiva and the Ironic Triumph of Midrash Appendix: Hebrew Sources List of Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments
15 citations
1 Jan 2006
TL;DR: The Halakhic midrashim contain both halakhic and aggadic (i.e., non-legal) material from the Tannaic period arranged according to the order of verses in the Tora as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The Halakhic Midrashim contain both halakhic and aggadic (i.e., non-legal) material from the Tannaic period arranged according to the order of verses in the Tora. Halakhic Midrashim were composed on four of the five books of the Tora: Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. There is an extant Halakhic Midrash on each of these four books: Mekhilta de-Rabbi Yishmael on Exodus, Sifra on Leviticus, Sifrei on Numbers, and Sifrei on Deuteronomy. Three other Midrashim have been partially reconstructed from Geniza fragments and from citations by Rishonim: Mekhilta de-Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai on Exodus (MekRSbY), Sifrei Zuta on Numbers, and Mekhilta on Deuteronomy. Passages from a Tannaic Midrash on the book of Deuteronomy, were recently discovered. In D. Hoffmann's fundamental study of the Halakhic Midrashim, he drew a clear and persuasive distinction between the midrashic schools of R. Akiva and R. Yishmael. Keywords: Aramaic Targums translations; Early Halakha content; Halakhic Midrash; midrashic school of R. Akiva; midrashic school of R. Yishmael; Tora books
14 citations
Book•
1 Jan 1990
TL;DR: Sifra as mentioned in this paper re-presented the two Torahs as one and proposed a new logic of creation for the Mishnah's logic of cogent discourse, which is based on taxonomic classification and hierarchization.
Abstract: Preface Prologue 1. The problem of the Mishnah 2. Torah as a common noun: the solution of the Talmuds 3. A sample of Sifra 4. From common noun to proper noun: Sifra's re-presentation of the two Torahs as one 5. Sifra's alternative to the Mishnah's topical program and its order 6. Sifra's alternative to Mishnah's logic of cogent discourse 7. Sifra's alternative to the Mishnah's proof of prepositions through taxonomic classification and hierarchization 8. Re-presenting the Torah: Sifra's rehabilitation of taxonomic logic 9. Torah as proper noun and the structure of the logic of creation Appendix. The distinctive character of Sifra among Midrash compilations Bibliography Index.
9 citations
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| Year | Papers |
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| 2017 | 1 |
| 2014 | 1 |
| 2012 | 1 |
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| 2006 | 4 |