Abstract

This paper explores the sugya in the Babylonian Talmud that includes the story of the Oven of Akhnai, in BT Baba metzi'a 58b-59b, expanding earlier studies by Jeffrey Rubenstein and Charlotte Fonrobert. It shows that two scriptural quotations involving, respectively, David and Tamar, situated in the first part of the sugya, anticipate the subsequent story and clarify how it functions as a "foundation myth" of the Beit Midrash (Fonrobert), and, therefore, of male identity (Boyarin). I suggest that the entire sugya constructs male identity by way of contrast with two "others," the divine and the female realms, which are excluded from the Law-making process. The danger of verbal wrong, however, reveals the necessity of reintroducing the excluded "others." The text achieves this by recognizing the existence of a transcendent justice, and by making Tamar, a foreign and female character with no access to the Law, a model of delicacy in verbal communication.

pdf

Share