in the Babylonian Talmud, because it often either draws on Jewish Pales-
tinian texts or simply interprets concepts non-literally (thereby suggesting
that the Babylonian predicament is not analogous to the Palestinian).
Mishnah Avodah Zarah’s five chapters treat Jewish-pagan relations dur-
ing the time of the pagan festivals. However, many of the regulations also
concern prohibited items that were part of more generalized commercial
enterprise as well, such as oil, food products, animals, weapons, and the
practice of midwifery. The first chapter alludes to the fair:
A town in which there is an idolatrous festival: outside it one is permit-
ted [to trade]. If there was an idolatrous festival outside, then, inside
trade is permitted. What about travelling? It is prohibited if the road leads
only to the idolatrous place; but if you can go somewhere else, using that
road, the road is permitted. A town which has an idolatrous festival, and
there are stores with wreaths adorning them, but there are some with-
out wreaths—[what is the ruling?]. This was a case in Bet-Shean, and
the Sages said: the wreathed stores are prohibited and those without are
permitted [trade]. (Mishnah1:4)Z. Safrai (1984) claims that (pagan) fairs are the referent of “a town in
which there is idolatry.” Other mishnayot,too, refer to the prohibition of trade
relations at times when pagans would be likely to use the goods acquired
for idol worship (Mishnah1:1–3). Safrai assumes that the Tosefta,which
introduces the term “fair” in no uncertain terms, functions as a gloss on the
Mishnah.The Jerusalem Talmud, however, recognizes the lacuna in the
text, and explicitly contextualizes the Mishnah:“Resh Lakish said we are
referring to a fair.” The Babylonian Talmud (Avodah Zarah11b) also records
the mention of the atlizaof Aza by Resh Lakish (third century Palestinian
Amora) as an example of this type of legal ruling.
Wreaths on stores were a characteristic feature of fairs in antiquity,
because it was this sign that advertised to the public the reduced level of
taxation such establishments offered. The tax paid, in these cases, went to
support the pagan deity that was being sponsored. Elmslie (1911) glosses:
“exaction of octroiduties, whereof a tithe goes to support the cult of the idol.”
Elmslie is uncertain whether this tax was paid at the market itself or at the
gate of the city. The Mishnah,according to Elmslie, suggests the latter.
TheTosefta(1:5ff) not only mentions the yaridbut also, in contrast to the
Mishnah,adopts a more permissive attitude toward it. Tosefta1:6, for instance,
permits trade with wreathed stores inside and outside the city of a fair. The
same text goes on to distinguish between a fair with idolatry and one that
is “permitted because [it is] a government-sponsored fair, one sponsored by
the capital city, or one sponsored by the leaders of the capital city.”
Is the Pagan Fair Fairly Dangerous? 77