Recomposed corporealities, purity, body, and self in the mishnah
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- The purpose of this dissertation is to trace and analyze the ways in which the rabbis who created the Mishnah, a Palestinian rabbinic legal codex whose final compilation is dated to the first half of the third century C.E., developed a unique notion of a bodily self in their remaking of the biblical laws of purity and impurity. As I show throughout the dissertation, while the rabbis adhere to the basic scheme of purity and impurity as it is portrayed in the Priestly Code, they suggest a whole new set of principles regarding the contraction, conveyance, and management of impurity. At times these principles are not only unprecedented in the Bible, but actually run contrary to the biblical understanding of impurity as a phenomenon. These remarkable innovations, I argue, are a strong indication that the rabbis reshaped the inherited system of purity and impurity not only in an attempt to preserve it but also in an attempt to make it relevant, and to adapt it to a changing conceptual and cultural framework. By examining some of the fundamental innovations that the rabbis introduced to the system of purity and impurity that they had inherited from their predecessors, I show that questions of subjectivity and consciousness profoundly shape the concepts of purity and impurity as those are developed in the Mishnah, ultimately presenting the self as a new focal point in the discourse of ritual impurity. In particular, I emphasize the ways in which the human body, which is the main and most critical site in which the drama of purity and impurity takes place, is negotiated in the Mishnah as both subject and object, both as identical to the self and as disparate from it. Through my analysis of various themes in the mishnaic discourse of purity and impurity, I demonstrate that the rabbis constructed the daily engagement with impurity and the ongoing pursuit of ritual purity as closely reflective of one's relations with one's self, with one's human and non-human environment, and with one's body.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2011 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Balberg, Mira |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Religious Studies |
| Primary advisor | Fonrobert, Charlotte Elisheva |
| Thesis advisor | Fonrobert, Charlotte Elisheva |
| Thesis advisor | Bashir, Shahzad, 1968- |
| Thesis advisor | Gleason, Maud W, 1954- |
| Thesis advisor | Weitzman, Steven, 1965- |
| Advisor | Bashir, Shahzad, 1968- |
| Advisor | Gleason, Maud W, 1954- |
| Advisor | Weitzman, Steven, 1965- |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Mira Balberg. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Religious Studies. |
| Thesis | Ph.D. Stanford University 2011 |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2011 by Mira Balberg
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