Rabbis and Classical Rhetoric : Sophistic Education and Oratory in the Talmud and Midrash

Training in rhetoric - the art of persuasion - formed the basis of education in the Roman Empire. The classical intellectual world centered around the debate between philosophers, who boasted knowledge of objective reality, and sophists, who could debate both sides of any issue and who attracted large audiences and paying students. The roles of the Talmudic rabbis as public orators, teachers, and jurists, parallel that of Roman orators. Rabbinic literature adopted and adapted various aspects of the classical rhetorical tradition, as is demonstrated in the Talmudic penchant for arguing both sides of hypothetical cases, the midrashic hermeneutical methods, and the structure of synagogue sermons. At the same time, the rabbis also resisted the extreme epistemological relativism of rhetoric as is evident in their restraint on theoretical argumentation, their depiction of rabbinic and divine court procedure, and their commitment to the biblical prophetic tradition. Richard Hidary demonstrates how rabbis succeeded in navigating a novel path between platonic truth and rhetorical relativism. Cover 1 Half-title 3 Title page 5 Copyright information 6 Dedication 7 Table of contents 9 Preface and Acknowledgments 11 Translations and Abbreviations 13 Introduction 15 The Second Sophistic 16 Schools of Rhetoric: From Gaza to the Galilee and from Antioch to Elusa 20 Rabbinic Attitudes to Greek Language and Wisdom 24 Previous Scholarship and Methodology 29 Philosophy and Rhetoric, Truth and Language 37 On Rhetorical Arrangement 49 Outline of the Book 53 1 Rabbis as Orators: The Setting and Structure of Rabbinic Homilies 55 The Setting of Rabbinic Declamation: The Sabbath Sermon 57 The Structure of Rabbinic Declamation: The Proem Form 62 The Yelamdenu Form 71 The Passover Haggadah 82 Conclusion 87 2 Rabbis as Instructors: Rhetorical Arrangement and Reasoning in the Yerushalmi 92 The Setting of Rabbinic Instruction 92 Rabban Gamaliel’s Nonconformity 98 Source-Critical Analysis 100 [1] R. Meir 104 [2] R. Akiva 105 [3] R. Shimon bar Yo.ai 106 Response 108 Rhetorical Analysis 109 On Arrangement 109 Conclusion 118 3 The Agonistic Bavli: Greco-Roman Rhetoric in Sasanian Persia 120 Greco-Roman Rhetoric in Sasanian Persia 122 Must a Father Feed His Daughter? 128 Reading Four Portions in Second Adar 136 Leaven Owned on Passover 138 Further Examples 141 4 Progymnasmata and Controversiae in Rabbinic Literature 145 Progymnasmata 147 Controversiae and Hypotheticals 164 Controversiae and the Ta Shema Form 177 Rabbinic Paideia 184 5 Talmudic Topoi: Rhetoric and the Hermeneutical Methods of Midrash 188 Midrashic Hermeneutics as Rhetorical Topoi 189 Midrashic Hermeneutics as Anti-Sectarian Polemics 197 The Skeptical Pushback 204 Qal va-.omer 210 Gezerah Shavah 221 Conclusion 226 6 The Role of Lawyers in Roman and Rabbinic Courts 230 Adversarial and Inquisitorial Courts 231 The Roman Court System 235 The Rabbinic Court System 236 Conclusion 252 7 Why Are There Lawyers in Heaven? 254 Heavenly Advocates in the Bible and Second Temple Literature 256 Heavenly Advocates in Rabbinic Literature 261 Plato’s Heavenly Court 276 Conclusion: Rabbinic versus Christian Approaches to Rhetoric 278 The Rabbis and Classical Rhetoric 280 Christianity and Classical Rhetoric 282 Forty-Nine Ways: On Truth and Interpretation 291 Bibliography 302 Index of Sources 333 Index of Names and Subjects 343 Training in rhetoric formed the basis of education in the Roman Empire, even as philosophers like Plato derided it as worthless trickery. The Talmudic rabbis, as a minority in the Greek East, chart a novel approach through this dialectic that engages Greco-Roman rhetoric to recreate the pristine Sinaitic prophetic experience.