Yedidah Koren joins IIJS to discuss “How the Amoraim Reshape Lineage” and the multiple ways lineage and identity are imagined in rabbinic sources.
Wednesday, December 2, at noon | 617 Kent Hall
Scholars of ancient Judaism have discussed lineage for well over a century. These studies have tended to focus on the extent to which various groups “valued” lineage or merit. Using this dichotomic lens, scholars have posited an ideological divide between Palestinian and Babylonian rabbis, claiming that the former were more lenient regarding lineage, while the latter were more stringent.
This divide, however, does not align with many sources, which Prof. Yedidah Koren has examined in previous research. More importantly, several central rabbinic sources on lineage do not neatly fall on either side of the stringent/lenient divide, and scholars have offered conflicting interpretations of them. In this talk, Koren argues that the very question of rabbinic attitudes towards lineage assumes that “lineage” itself is a stable construct—one that the rabbis either value or disregard—thereby overlooking the multiple ways in which the rabbis envision and construe lineage.
Koren focuses on two primary sets of such sources. One, unique to Babylonian Amoraim, connects lineage to geography and uses it to put into place inner Jewish separation based on geography. The other, found in both Palestinian and Babylonian Amoraic sources, identifies lineage with character. In both cases, she shows how the rabbis reshape lineage while drawing on Greco-Roman tropes. Additionally, she highlights developments particular to the Babylonian Amoraim, demonstrating how they not only re-envision lineage but also genealogical knowledge itself, and how they deploy lineage to advance other goals of separation and delegitimization.
By drawing out the pluriformity and malleability of lineage in rabbinic sources and by offering a more nuanced account, this talk contributes to the study of the history of Halakhah and Jewish thought. By looking at the multiple ways in which lineage is imagined and separation is initiated, this talk sheds new light on ancient Jewish constructions of identity.
Yedidah Koren
Yedidah Koren is an assistant professor in the Department of Religion at Princeton University. Specializing in Ancient Jewish and Rabbinic literature, her work focuses on identity, constructions of Jewishness, the body, Jewish practice in antiquity, and the formation of Halakhah. She is currently completing her first book, Blemished Jews: Descent, Identity, and Social Control in Rabbinic Literature, which shows how the rabbis used the notion of blemished lineage to define Jewishness and belonging.
*Guests must register by Monday, November 30, to be approved for campus access; unregistered guests will not be permitted on campus. Each guest must register individually using a unique email address.
Supported by the generosity of the Kaye and Radov families.
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