Imperialism and Jewish Society, 200 B.C.E. to 640 C.E. - Seth Schwartz

226 CHAPTER EIGHT The Second and Third Centuries and the Rabbis^35 Despite the absence of archaeological evidence, it is certain ...

THE SYNAGOGUE: ORIGINS AND DIFFUSION 227 That synagogues existed in the second and third centuries is certain be- cause they are ...

228 CHAPTER EIGHT tributivelawsincumbentoneverymaleIsraelite—anoccasionaltitheofcrops, the obligation to leave parts of fields f ...

THE SYNAGOGUE: ORIGINS AND DIFFUSION 229 The Mishnah’s main deviation from the Pentateuch’s redistributive pro- gra mis in its d ...

230 CHAPTER EIGHT charity in their town give it to the poor of their town; in another town, they giveittothepoorofthattown.”This ...

THE SYNAGOGUE: ORIGINS AND DIFFUSION 231 Taanit1),andtheceremonyofsupplicationistobegracedbythethepresence of the patriarch and ...

232 CHAPTER EIGHT If the commentators were right to read this Mishnah as alocus classicusof the legal principlema’alin baqodesh ...

THE SYNAGOGUE: ORIGINS AND DIFFUSION 233 synagogue is holier than the privately owned.^56 The Talmudim and the com- mentators we ...

234 CHAPTER EIGHT as aninterpretationoftheMishnahbutasa practicalapproachtocommunal ownership, is obvious.^59 It may generally b ...

THE SYNAGOGUE: ORIGINS AND DIFFUSION 235 “They may sell the synagogue only on the condition that the new owners must returnitond ...

236 CHAPTER EIGHT and practices, and rabbinic formalism. This is true also of M. Megillah 3. ThoughnolawintheMishnahcontradictst ...

THE SYNAGOGUE: ORIGINS AND DIFFUSION 237 Maimonides, and surely deserves serious consideration, but it is hard to avoid the feel ...

238 CHAPTER EIGHT The holiness of places outside the temple “needs to be activated....The Rabbispreservedtheideaofsacredspaceina ...

THE SYNAGOGUE: ORIGINS AND DIFFUSION 239 cise pronunciation of Hebrew), obviously not an option in the synagogues of Haifa, Beth ...

NINE JUDAIZATION T HE DIFFUSION of the synagogue is evidence for judaization .By this I mean the reemergence of some version—alt ...

JUDAIZATION 241 century Torah reading was widespread as part of the synagogue service, though there is no way of knowing if it w ...

242 CHAPTER NINE uncommon before the fifth century for synagogues to be built with fixed Torah shrines, many older synagogues we ...

JUDAIZATION 243 to act also as translator: “just as the Torah was given through an intermediary, so it must also be read through ...

244 CHAPTER NINE of the Bet Leontis, or the gladiator on the floor of the Meroth synagogue,^10 images not uncommon in domestic d ...

JUDAIZATION 245 of parts of the later repertoire is over the ark of the synagogue of Dura Europos, constructed in 244C.E .A bit ...