Download Medieval Jewish Religion, Cultural and Practice - Slides | HIST 282 and more Study notes World History in PDF only on Docsity! 1 Medieval Jewish Religion, Culture, and Practice Problem of Diaspora: “Of” or merely “in” the wider society? Divergent Jewish traditions and their contexts. Divergent intellectual traditions in Islamic and Christian lands. Gender norms and practices Initiation (for boys) into Torah Appropriation, Polemic Parody? November 27, 2006 Problem of Diaspora: “Of” or merely “In” the Wider Society? A broad problematic in the study of any diaspora. To great extent, focus on diaspora means attention to the experiences in the “host” society (enslavement, segregation and the African American experience; status, economic restrictions, persectution, for Med. Jews. Frequently tell us much about the “host” society’s values, structures, politics. Divergent Jewish traditions and their contexts Jews in Medieval society lived in a variety of social contexts: Mediterranean Islamic/Arab societies Christian societies of Northern Europe [But also, Byzantine Empire, Eastern Europe (toward the end of the M.A.s), Persia and elsewhere] Can see divergences in: Intellectual developments Gender norms and practices Other features Footnote: Ashkenaz, Sepharad 2 Divergent Jewish intellectual traditions in Islamic and Christian lands (i) In the Islamic (and post-Islamic, e.g., Spain) lands Talmud is prolegomenon to a complete education (See, e.g., presuppositions in Maimonides’s Guide; curriculum handed out 11/27) Rational theology and Greek philosophy (Platonic and Aristotelian) studied and had an impact Influence also of grammatical studies (|| Qur’anic studies) Poetry, stylistics, esthetics, modeled on Arabic- language culture. Divergent Jewish intellectual traditions in Islamic and Christian lands (ii) In the Ashkenazic lands Bible, Talmud, law substantially made up Jewish education Rashi (1040–1105) and Tosafot (a “school” including Rashi’s grandsons) reflect both the internalist focus, and (esp. Tosafot) some features of wider Christian intellectual tradition (scholastic dialectic) Some perpetuation of older Palestinian Jewish poetic tradition (piyyut) A period of peshat (i.e., contextual interpretation) in 11th- 12th centuries Scholars of So. France, 12th C onwards (e.g., Ramban = Moses b. Nahman = Nahmanides) harmonize these tradition Gender norms and practices Medieval Christian world: Greater public visibility Monogamy (“ban [herem] of R. Gershom,” 960-1028) Ideal of child marriage (for boys and esp. girls) (Tosafot) Greater openness to divorce Medieval Islamic world: Ideal of seclusion Accepted polygyny (negotiable in marriage contracts) Marriage between girl in teens and older man Less openness to divorce
