No. 2/10
Author: Beth Berkowitz
Title: A Short History of the People Israel from the Patriarchs to the Messiah: Constructions of Jewish Difference in Leviticus Rabbah 23
Abstract: "Did Judaism exist in antiquity?" is a question that on the face of it seems absurd, but it has recently been argued that Judaism as an abstract system – as a "religion" rather than an ethnicity – did not come into being until later. This paper proposes that a pericope in Leviticus Rabbah is preoccupied with this very question. Leviticus Rabbah 23, whose anchoring verse is Leviticus 18:3's instruction to Israel to separate from surrounding peoples, explores the nature of Jewish difference and, in so doing, the nature of Jewishness itself. This midrash produces a variety of paradigms of Jewish identity that include moral probity, physical appearance, relationship to God, ritual life, political status, economics, demographics, and sexual practice, demonstrating that classical rabbinic notions of Jewish identity go well beyond the categories of religion and ethnicity that scholars typically apply.
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