Soviet Views of Talmudic Judaism: Five Papers by Yu. A. Solodukho in English Translation [Studies in Judaism in Late Antiquity from the First to the Seventh Century, Vol. No. 2]
Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1973. First edition. Hardcover. Quarto. XII, [2], 110pp. Original red cloth with gold lettering on spine and front cover. Publisher's logo on front board and title page. Devotion to the study of the Babylonian Talmud, a document of law and theology completed in the seventh century A.D. and thereafter the primary and authoritative source of Judaic legal and moral teachings, was one of the distinctive traits of Russian Jewry before 1917. The five papers contained in this volume show part of what was accomplished after that time by a Talmudist who was also trained in Soviet historical sciences and Marxist theory. The papers are important for three reasons. First, they contain important insights and critical perspectives hitherto unavailbale to Western scholarship in the history of Judaism in late antiquity. Second, they underline the importance of introducing into the study of Talmudic and other ancient legal literature a concern for the economic foundations of the laws. Third, they provide a glimpse into the mind of a segment of the Soviet Jewish community during its long period of silence, specifically, the segment which evidently attempted to reach an accomodation between the classical Judaic heritage, on the one hand, and the new modes of thought and expression under Soviet Communism, on the other. Solodukho made the effort both to preserve the traditions of Talmudic learning acquired in his youth and to master and make use of the Marxist hermeneutic which came to dominance in his mature years. The five papers contained in this volume are the following: 1) Slavery in the Hebrew society of Iraq and Syria in the second through fifth centuries A.D.; 2) On the question of the social structure of Iraq in the third to the fifth centuries A.D.; 3 ) The Mazdak movement and rebellion of the Hebrew population of Iraq in the first half of the sixth century A.D.; 4) The Persian administrative-legal, socio-economic, and everyday lexicon in the Jewish-Iraqi literary monuments of the Sasanian period; 5) Concerning certain Persian borrowings in the Babylonian Gemara. Ex-library copy with sticker remnants at tail of spine and library stamp on front free endpaper and half-title (Hebrew Union College). Binding in overall good+, interior in very good condition. g+ to vg. Item #38258
Price: $65.00