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Overview"The Talmud's Red Fence explores how rituals and beliefs concerning menstruation in the Babylonian Talmud and neighboring Sasanian religious texts were animated by difference and differentiation. It argues that the practice and development of menstrual rituals in Babylonian Judaism was a product of the religious terrain of the Sasanian Empire, where groups like Syriac Christians, Mandaeans, Zoroastrians, and Jews defined themselves in part based on how they approached menstrual impurity. It demonstrates that menstruation was highly charged in Babylonian Judaism and Sasanian Zoroastrian, where menstrual discharge was conceived of as highly productive female seed yet at the same time as stemming from either primordial sin (Eve eating from the tree) or evil (Ahrimen's kiss). It argues that competition between rabbis and Zoroastrians concerning menstrual purity put pressure on the Talmudic system, for instance in the unusual development of an expert diagnostic system of discharges. It shows how Babylonian rabbis seriously considered removing women from the home during the menstrual period, as Mandaeans and Zoroastrians did, yet in the end deemed this possibility too ""heretical."" Finally, it examines three cases of Babylonian Jewish women initiating menstrual practices that carved out autonomous female space. One of these, the extension of menstrual impurity beyond the biblically mandated seven days, is paralleled in both Zoroastrian Middle Persian and Mandaic texts. Ultimately, Talmudic menstrual purity is shown to be driven by difference in its binary structure of pure and impure; in gendered terms; on a social axis between Jews and Sasanian non-Jewish communities; and textually in the way the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds took shape in late antiquity." Full Product DetailsAuthor: Shai Secunda (Jacob Neusner Professor of Jewish Studies, Jacob Neusner Professor of Jewish Studies, Bard College)Publisher: Oxford University Press Imprint: Oxford University Press Dimensions: Width: 15.80cm , Height: 1.60cm , Length: 24.00cm Weight: 0.450kg ISBN: 9780198856825ISBN 10: 0198856822 Pages: 224 Publication Date: 16 June 2020 Audience: Professional and scholarly , Professional & Vocational Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: To order  Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us. Table of ContentsPreface: Reading Nidah in its Sasanian Context 1. Like a Hedge of Lilies: Menstruation and Difference in the Iranian Talmud 2. Lifeblood and Deathblood: The Physiology, Etiology, and Demonology of Menstruation in Sasanian Judaism and Zoroastrianism 3. Impure Gates: Menstruation and Identity in Sasanian Religious Life 4. The Sasanian Queen-mother and Her Bloodstains: Talmudic Menstrual Purity and Competing Ritual Systems 5. Inside-out and Outside-in: The Segregation of Menstruants in the Talmud and its Sasanian Context 6. She Counts for Herself: Peering Beyond the Talmudic Discourse of Menstrual Impurity Conclusion: Nidah: An Enduring DifferenceReviewsSecunda's Irano-talmudic research breathes new life into the way we study rabbinic literature, with potential for expanding our understanding of the Babylonian Talmud (Bavli) in comparison to corpora such as the Mishnah and the Jerusalem Talmud (Yerushalmi) redacted by Jews in the Land of Israel in a Greco-Roman context. * Marjorie Lehman, Jewish Theological Seminary * Author InformationShai Secunda is Jacob Neusner Chair in Jewish Studies at Bard College, USA, where he directs the Religious Studies program. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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