Midrash and Multiplicity: Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer and the Renewal of Rabbinic Interpretive Culture (Studia Judaica)

Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer represents a late development in “midrash”, or classical rabbinic interpretation, that has enlightened, intrigued and frustrated scholars of Jewish culture for the past two centuries. Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer’s challenge to scholarship includes such issues as the work’s authorship and authenticity, an asymmetrical literary structure as well as its ambiguous relationship with a variety of rabbinic, Islamic and Hellenistic works of interpretation. This cluster of issues has contributed to the confusion about the work’s structure, origins and identity. Midrash and Multiplicity addresses the problems raised by this equivocal work, and uses Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer in order to assess the nature of “midrash”, and the renewal of Jewish interpretive culture, during its transition to the medieval era of the early “Geonim”. Pre And The History Of Rabbinic Literature -- Literary Arrangement In Pre -- Narrative And The Phenomenon Of Lists -- The Context Of Thematic Discourse -- Analogy And Bound Themes In Pre -- Pre And Pseudepigraphy -- R. Eliezer As Author, Pseudonym Or Archetype -- Transmission And Tradents In Pre -- Appendix: Geonic Hebrew And Pseudepigraphy -- Pre And The Language Of Scripture -- Exegetical Terminology In Pre -- Pre's Exegetical Expansions -- Appendix: Legal Authority And Scriptural Innovation In Pre -- Pre And The Rabbinic Tradition -- Technical Vocabulary In Pre -- Quotation And Resonance -- Mythic Clusters -- Appendix: Pre, Ishmael And Islam -- Conclusion. Steven Daniel Sacks. Includes Bibliographical References And Indexes. Frontmatter 1 Table of Contents 9 PRE and the History of Rabbinic Interpretation 11 Literary Arrangement in PRE 27 PRE and Pseudepigraphy 52 PRE and the Language of Scripture 98 PRE and the Rabbinic Tradition 130 Conclusion 178 Backmatter 181