One of the most widely told stories in all of rabbinic literature focuses on the wickedness of the emperor Titus, his blasphemy and execution through the agency of a lowly gnat. My current research focuses on these tales, the storytellers and their audiences within the frame of Roman culture. Rabbinic sources preserve the voice of a people defeated and forcibly integrated into Roman imperial culture; the tales of Titus and the Gnat a unique window into the experience of one of Rome’s conquered peoples. Material evidence is essential to this project, both as the “props” referenced by the storytellers and the “sets” in which the stories take place. This cultural history breaks down the lines separating “literary” and “material” evidence, presenting a more integrative approach to the primary sources.
The Babylonian Talmud (Ber. 7a) records a remarkable recollection of Rabbi Yishmael ben Elisha in which he has a dialogue with G-d in the holy of holies. The dialogue concludes with an enigmatic nod of the head by G-d. The purpose of this paper is to highlight just how rare and strange this divine nod is in rabbinic literature. We then argue that this nod is to be understood in terms of a renowned episode in the Iliad where Zeus nods his head as a vow and a commitment to Thetis. This Homeric episode is associated with Pheidias’ statue of Zeus – One of the seven wonders of the ancient world and is oft mentioned in Greek and Roman literature, thus establishing it as a well-known episode which the rabbis most probably also recognized. We end with tracing this nod all the way into late medieval Ashkenazic Hassidic poetry.
The miraculous sleep (ATU 766) is a well-known, recurring tale-type observed in Abrahamic folktales since the Second Temple period. This paper compares variants of ATU 766 on three levels of analysis: as a popular tale in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim writings from late antiquity and early medieval times; as a Jewish rendition; and as a multiple tale-type in rabbinic literature. The analysis will contemplate the validity and use of syntactic methods in folklore studies to analyze midrash. The paper introduces a new theoretical perspective for critical reading of rabbinic fiction, using the notions of tale-type, ecotype, conglomerate, and motif as discourse formations of different scales.
