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The Tradition vs. Individual Talent: Narrative Point of View and the Ideological Counter-Voice in the Story of R. Dosa ben Harkinas (bYevamot 16a)
- Jewish Quarterly Review
- University of Pennsylvania Press
- Volume 112, Number 2, Spring 2022
- pp. 261-288
- 10.1353/jqr.2022.0017
- Article
- Additional Information
Abstract:
This essay presents an analysis of a story which has been largely neglected by scholars of what has come to be known as the “Yavne Cycle,” and of talmudic narrative as whole: the Bavli’s version of the story of R. Dosa ben Harkinas. I begin with a close reading of the story, focusing on its sophisticated use of point of view and irony, and then go on to consider its literary and cultural contexts. I seek to establish its status as a high point of talmudic narrative art, an important and highly distinctive element of the Yavne Cycle, and a powerful counter-voice in the Bavli as a whole. I further argue that this story is part of a larger body of texts in the Bavli that challenge the Bavli’s dominant discourse and values. These sources may in turn reflect the work of a group of dissident scholars who were active in the Babylonian academies.