Recherche – Detailansicht

Ausgabe:

Juni/2022

Spalte:

547–549

Kategorie:

Judaistik

Autor/Hrsg.:

Balberg, Mira, and Haim Weiss

Titel/Untertitel:

When Near Becomes Far. Old Age in Rabbinic Literature.

Verlag:

Oxford u. a.: Oxford University Press 2021. X, 221 S. Geb. US$ 99,00. ISBN 9780197501481.

Rezensent:

Catherine Hezser

This excellent book provides the first proper study of old age in classical rabbinic literature, a topic that had been dealt with previously only in connection with the human life cycle and death and mourning. As an »excessive element« in mostly Babylonian Talmudic narratives of literary artistry (old) age provides a lens through which these texts can be read in innovative ways, revealing rabbis’ hopes and ideals as well as fears and prejudices. The authors – Mira Balberg and Haim Weis – show that »rabbinic texts in general and the Babylonian Talmud in particular offer some of the richest and most audacious observations on aging in ancient world literature« (3). Their cultural historical approach not only provides new perspectives on the ancient texts but also draws connections to modern literature and social scientific and psychological studies. By emphasizing the complex and diverse nature of rabbinic discourse on aging, they show that »estrangement, or defamiliarization« can reveal new meanings.
Altogether, old age is not dealt with very often in rabbinic texts and if it is mentioned, it is incidental to the story rather than its main focus. Linguistic markers such as zaqen/zeqenah, sav/saba, and qashish are unspecific and reveal »aging as a cultural construct« rather than a biological given and objective state (11). What therefore interests the authors is »old age as an object of rabbinic imagination and artistic expression« (7), a biosocial phenomenon that becomes meaningful in the depiction of social relations. Striking similarities to contemporary perceptions of older people become obvious: the association of an advanced age with a deterioration of the body, the social marginalization of the elderly, and generational conflicts.
The five chapters of the book deal with different aspects of the rabbinic depiction of aging, from the more private aspects of the body (chapter 1) to the family and household (chapter 2), the study house (chapters 3 and 4) and the public sphere (chapter 5). With few exceptions, the narratives under discussion feature old men and elders, with women being under-represented. The authors suggest that the zeqenah or post-menopausal woman was of no particular interest to rabbis and largely »invisible« in ancient Jewish society. Nevertheless, the question whether and to what extent old age was perceived differently for women would have benefitted from being explored more. Were women considered old at an earlier age than men? Was the crossing of normative boundaries associated more with older women than with men? Altogether, the authors identify »shifting boundaries between manhood and womanhood« (18) in old age, meaning that older women tend to be depicted as domineering and older men as effeminate.
As the first chapter (»Like Two Fountains: Fluidity, Sexuality, and the Aging Body«) indicates, both rabbinic and Roman society associated aging with internal and external physical deterioration and a decline of sexual desire and prowess. Since sexual prowess was a sign of manliness, an irreversible loss of masculinity was associated with old men. The chapter’s focus is on biblical and rabbinic depictions of the miraculous fertility of Sarah and Abraham, whom the Babylonian Talmud presents as rejuvenated even in their outward appearances, and on the eternally young king David, who was able to maintain his sexual prowess until his death. The biblical characters served rabbis to explore ideas of a »sexually potent old age« (53). The fantasy is disrupted, however, by aspects of the »grotesque body«: Sarah’s breasts are overflowing with milk »like two fountains« (BT B.Metzi’a. 87a) and David’s semen overflows (BT Sanh. 23a). These motifs indicate »rabbis’ inability to maintain a coherent image of a body that is both old and young« (54), that is, hybrid in Bakhtin’s terms.
The second chapter (»Squawk to Them Like Roosters: Aging Parents and Their Children«) examines inter-generational conflicts in relation to children’s duty to honour their parents. The focus here is on five stories in the Babylonian Talmud (BT Qidd. 30b–31b) that exemplify the unattainability of properly fulfilling the commandment and the violence and aggression that may emerge. Most of the stories feature mothers in relation to their sons. Since the sons are imagined as adults, the authors assume that the mothers are »old«, although the adjective is not used. The mothers’ behaviour transgresses normative gender boundaries. They appear as predecessors of »the madwoman in the attic« by humiliating their sons in the public sphere or expressing illicit sexual desires. The stories are »suggesting that aging fundamentally alters normative patterns of gendered parenthood« (62).
The focus of the third chapter (»I am Not Old: Age and Agelessness in the Study House«) are relations between young and old rabbis in the study house. The often discussed story about R. Gamliel’s deposition and R. Eleazar b. Azariah’s appointment as head (PT Ber. 4:1, 7c–d; BT Ber. 27b–28a) is looked at anew from the perspective of these scholars’ different ages. The rabbinic ethos of an »ageless so­ciety« of Torah scholars in which only intellectual acumen is taken into account is subverted in texts that reflect generational conflicts between younger and older sages and mental decline in elderly rabbis. The authors point to analogies in Greek and Roman literature. Since the focus is on Babylonian Talmudic stories, here and elsewhere the discussion would have profited from also considering the representation of old age in Zoroastrian texts of Sasanian Persia.
The fourth chapter (»Raise My Eyes for Me: Gazing at Old Age«) investigates »dynamics of honor and shame« in a narrative about the elderly R. Shmuel b.R. Yitzhaq, who allegedly danced before brides, and his younger colleague R. Zeira, who is humiliated by »emasculating praise« (BT Ket. 17a). The suggestion that R. Zeira distances himself from R. Shmuel because he himself »has an imperfect and atypical body« with »effeminate qualities« (137) seems rather forced, however. More convincing is the interpreta-tion of the story about the young R. Kahana and the old R. Yohanan (BT B. Qamma 116b–117b), which points to a reversal of power related to age.
The fifth and final chapter (»Running at Dusk: Anonymity and Identity in Old Age«) explores the literary device of the senex ex machina in the Babylonian Talmudic story about Shimon b. Yohai’s attempts to purify Tiberias (BT Shabb. 33b–34a). An anonymous »old man« appears at specific instances and leads Shimon »to take transformative action« (165). Elders’ alleged knowledge about local matters (in this case burial sites) is subverted here. In a »sense of confusion and unease« the old man’s words lead the rabbi astray. Rather than representing wisdom, the figure of the old man »functions as an agent of anarchy« here (178).
The book can be highly recommended to students and scholars of rabbinic literature, ancient Judaism, and cultural history.