Mar 1, 2011
Speaker: Prof. Calvin Goldscheider,
Ungerleider Professor Emeritus of Judaic Studies and Professor
Emeritus of Sociology at Brown University, Providence, Rhode
Island
Location: Sixth & I Historic Synagogue;
Washington, DC
The Mishnah is a third century set of Jewish texts consisting of 63
volumes organized around an imagined and constructed community. It
is sub-divided into several themes that form the basis of
understanding Rabbinic Judaism. Assuming that we have only the
Mishnaic text as our source of evidence, we ask, what emerges
inductively from the text that informs us about the Mishnaic notion
of community? It is a social science question asked not of
contemporary societies but of canonized texts in the Judaic
tradition for a world that is past. By studying the Mishnah, we are
able to clarify how society is conceptualized in the Mishnah and in
the process gain some new insights into the Mishnah itself.
In this lecture Professor Goldscheider illustrated this approach by highlighting several critical social themes portrayed in the Mishnah: (1) Inequality and exclusion--Does the Mishnah have a utopian ideal of a classless Jewish society? How does the Mishnah characterize the relationship to Non-Jews? (2) Family and gender--What types of family relationships emerge in the Mishnah and how are family transitions described? How are the roles of men and women, boys and girls, differentiated in the Mishnah? (3) Holidays and rituals--How do holidays and religious rituals convey the meanings of Judaism in the Mishnah?
Also cosponsored by the Georgetown University Program for Jewish Civilization