Sages and Commoners in Late Antique 'EreẒ Israel: A Philosophical Inquiry into Local Traditions in Talmud Yerushalmi (review)

Hebrew Studies 49 (2008) 360 Reviews read and re-interpreted. In this manner, Alexander has responded to one of the greatest challenges for early rabbinic Orality Studies—demonstrating how the theoretical reconsideration of early rabbinic textuality can result in altering how scholars should read and understand the literature itself. As a result, Transmitting Mishnah challenges scholars of rabbinic literature to examine more extensively the oral and literary dynamics of early rabbinic textuality , and to allow such examinations to influence and affect their reading and interpretation of the early rabbinic textual tradition. W. David Nelson Brite Divinity School—Texas Christian University Fort Worth, TX 76129 d.nelson@tcu.edu SAGES AND COMMONERS IN LATE ANTIQUE ’EREZ . ISRAEL: A PHILOSOPHICAL INQUIRY INTO LOCAL TRADITIONS IN TALMUD YERUSHALMI. By Stuart S. Miller. TSAJ 111. Pp. xiii + 554. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2006. Cloth,
124,00. $165.00. Stuart S. Miller’s book has two key, inter-related foci of investigation, what he calls the “social” and “geographical” parameters of the rabbinic movement in Roman Palestine, during the amoraic period of the third and fourth centuries C.E. The first encompasses the relationship of rabbis to those in the surrounding society, as well as the make-up of rabbinic and nonrabbinic (the “commoners” of the title) populations. The second addresses the question of the physical location of rabbis in Roman Palestine, that is, the degree to which the rabbinic movement should be considered an “urban” movement—or rather, since Miller agrees with a number of other scholars that the amoraic rabbinic movement was a significantly urban phenomenon, “whether this urbanization of the rabbinic movement was a gradual or sudden development” (p. 16). Both of these foci have further implications for considering the extent of “rabbinization” of Jewish culture and society during the period under consideration. Like many current scholars, Miller is seeking methods for scholars of Late Antiquity to utilize rabbinic documents in ways that view them as neither transparent records of their socio-cultural moment and milieu, nor as so “tendentious” as to be functionally “useless for historical reconstruction of any type” (p. 6). As the subtitle states, his approach is philological. The book is structured in two parts, “The Terms in Context” and “Synthesis and Analysis.” In the first three chapters, Miller examines collective terms for residents of a particular location: Zippora’ei, Tibera’ei, and Deroma’ei. Through close readings of the sources using these terms, he probes such questions as: who are the people involved (rabbis or commoners), what is Hebrew Studies 49 (2008) 361 Reviews the nature of the questions involved (for example, ritual, the theoretical basis of a halakhah, biblical exegesis), where and when is the episode purported to have taken place. A fourth chapter examines other, less frequently appearing designations of residents of various locales, and formulations of “benei” or “anshei” (people of) X. Miller finds that in each of his X-a’ei cases that those referred to by these collective terms are more likely to be people with connections to rabbis, if not in the inner circles of the rabbinic movement. In contrast, the formula of benei/anshei X is frequently used for non-rabbinic commoners. The last chapter of the first part shifts focus somewhat, applying Miller’s philological methodology to the vocabulary used to describe various interactions involving rabbinic figures: introducing or announcing a halakic ruling or directive (hinhig, k/r/z), giving instructions (mefaqqed, horei), and expounding (derash). Again Miller examines his sources in thorough detail to elucidate who is likely to be depicted as presenting information by one of these means, and who is likely to be the audience. This allows Miller to further nuance his larger investigation, most notably in refinements to his analysis of the nature of an interaction when a collective group is addressed in one of these manners (especially if the collective is itself passive in the encounter, and/or the text provides few clues as to their identity). Here too he finds that these terms are likely to indicate rabbinic settings, though not exclusively rabbinic audiences. In the second section of the book, Miller begins by turning his attention to the non-rabbinic Jewish population...