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The Sage in Jewish Society of Late Antiquity, by Richard Kalmin. London/New York: Routledge, 1999. Pp. + 180. $27.99 (paper).
In his most recent book, Richard Kalmin presents a series of case studies that provide strong support for two important claims. The first claim is methodological: ancient rabbinic literature, while often ahistorical in its purpose and presentation, is nonetheless susceptible to historical analysis. The second claim is substantive: the relationship between rabbis and non-rabbis differed in the two major rabbinic settlements of late antiquity (Palestine and Babylonia).
The chapters in part 1 detail various aspects of this second claim. Chapter 1 demonstrates that ancient rabbinic sources attest to Palestinian involvement with, and Babylonian aloofness from, individual non-rabbis. Palestinian sources depict informal social relations between rabbis and non-rabbis, and frequently urge nonrabbinic Jews to provide food, money, shelter, and marriageable daughters to rabbis, an indication of the relatively weak position of Palestinian rabbis in society as compared to their Babylonian counterparts. By contrast, Babylonian rabbis interact with non-rabbis in primarily formal contexts, fearing more intimate relationships that could lead to marriage between the two groups and so compromise the highly prized genealogical purity of the former.
The Babylonian rabbinic obsession with genealogical superiority is demonstrated in ch. 2. According to Kalmin, the sources depict Babylonian rabbis as publicly revealing the tainted genealogy of non-rabbis and using genealogy as a weapon against prominent nonrabbinic Jews, an indication of the secure position of the rabbi in Babylonian Jewish society. By contrast, Palestinians do not employ these tactics and are said to suppress evidence of the genealogical blemishes of non-rabbis. Chapter 3 documents the antagonism between Babylonian Amoraim and aristocratic non-rabbis claiming Hasmonean descent-further evidence that Babylonian rabbis were socially secure enough to challenge prominent opponents with little fear for their position.
In ch. 4, Kalmin describes Palestinian rabbinic interaction with Bible-reading nonJews (e.g., Christians and Gnostics) and minim (heretics)-an interaction that is all but lacking in Babylonian sources. Kalmin argues that the strong Palestinian polemic against contact with heretics suggests that such contact was, in fact, routine and was perceived to pose a serious threat to rabbinic Judaism. In Babylonia such contact was...