“My Children, Read This Passage Every Year”: Composition and Meaning in Pesikta de-Rav Kahana by Arnon Atzmon (review)

Abstract

robust cultural contextualization of hospitality within the Christian, Roman, or Sasanian worlds. To be sure, Kiperwasser introduces these other cultural contexts in a number of instances (such as bathhouse etiquette [68–69], perceptions of dancing [87], and parallels to Greek tales [159]); but, given the importance of assumptions surrounding the roles of host and guest for the book’s analysis as a whole, treatment of other ancient attitudes toward hospitality would have made the author’s reading of the rabbinic examples more compelling. The second underdeveloped dimension is that, at times, Kiperwasser does not connect the dots between the quoted passages and the author’s interpretation. For example, although the work engages with theories of humor (e.g., 40–42 and 75–77), episodes assumed to be humorous are not always demonstrated to be so (e.g., 164–65). Likewise, at times Kiperwasser moves swiftly from an elucidating summary of a narrative to its theoretical implications without fully linking the concrete episode and the abstract conclusions. These gaps leave some analyses open to ambiguity and debate. Going West presents us with the first systematic study of intrarabbinic hospitality narratives. Weaving together narratological, theoretical, and cultural lenses, Kiperwasser provides the reader with helpful insights into the relationship between rabbis of these different geographic centers and, more importantly, with a nuanced conception of the role of internal Others for defining the rabbinic self. This work is a welcome contribution to the study of interactions between the two main talmudic centers of rabbinic activity and the nature of identity construction of religious elites in antiquity.