Follow the Wise: Studies in Jewish History and Culture in Honor of Lee I. Levine

602 Pages·2010·17.1 MB·English

by  Zeev Weiss

“Follow the Wise”
Lee I. Levine
“Follow the Wise”
Studies in Jewish History and Culture
in Honor of Lee I. Levine
Edited by
Z W , O i , J M , and s s
eev eiss ded rshai Odi agness eth chWartZ
Published for
the JeWish theOlOgical seMinary Of aMerica
and
the hebreW University Of JerUsaleM
by
e
isenbraUns
Winona Lake, Indiana
2010
© 2010 by Eisenbrauns Inc.
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America

www.eisenbrauns.com
Acknowledgments
The volume editors are grateful to the copy editors for their assistance: Israel Ronen
(Hebrew essays), Bev McCoy (English essays; Eisenbrauns), Hani Davis (Hebrew and
English essays), and Alan Cooper, provost of the Jewish Theological Seminary and editor
of JTS Press, for seeing this volume through every stage of the production process. The
publication of this volume was made possible thanks to the generous support of the Ruth
and David Amiran Foundation at the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University
of Jerusalem, and the Ben Zion Dinur Center for Research in the History of the Jewish
People at the Mandel Institute for Jewish Studies of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
“Follow the Wise” : studies in Jewish history and culture in honor of Lee I. Levine / edited by Zeev
Weiss . . . [et al.].
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-57506-200-6 (hardback : alk. paper)
1. Judaism—History—Post-exilic period, 586 b.c.–210 a.d. 2. Jews—History—586 b.c.–70
a.d. 3. Rabbinical literature—History and criticism. 4. Synagogues—Middle East—History.
5. Palestine—Antiquities. I. Levine, Lee I. II. Weiss, Zeev, 1959–
BM176.F65 2010
296.09′014—dc22
2010040186
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. †Ê
Contents
Biography of Lee I. Levine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Publications of Lee I. Levine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xii
Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxv
Part 1
hellenisM, christianity,
and JUdaisM
Hellenism and Judaism before and after World War II:
Two Case Studies—A. D. Momigliano and E. J. Bickerman . . . . . . . . 3
albert i. baUMgarten
The Name of the Ruse: The Toss of a Ring to Save Life and Honor . . . . . . . 25
shaye J. d. cOhen
Jesus and the Galilean Am ha-Aretz: A Reconsideration of an Old Problem . . 37
sean freyne
Hellenism and Judaism: Fluid Boundaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
erich s. grUen
Porphyry on Judaism: Some Observations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Pieter W. van der hOrst
The Bishops of Sepphoris: Christianity and Synagogue Iconography in the
Late Fourth and Early Fifth Centuries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
hillel i. neWMan
The Humanistic Evaluation of Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
e. P. sanders
Part 2
art and archaeOlOgy:
JerUsaleM and galilee
The Observance of Ritual Purity after 70 c.e.: A Reevaluation of the
Evidence in Light of Recent Archaeological Discoveries . . . . . . . . . 121
david aMit and yOnatan adler
v
vi Contents
The Tomb of Jason Reconsidered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
dan barag ל′′ז
The Hippo-Stadium /Amphitheater in Jerusalem. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
aMOs KlOner and sherry WhetstOne
Aramaic Ostraca of the Late Second Temple Period from a
Farmhouse North of Jerusalem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
rOnny reich and eli shUKrOn
An “Encore” on the Bar Kochba Tetradrachm:
A Re-vision of Interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
elisheva revel-neher
Burial Practices in Beth Sheʿarim and the Question of
Dating the Patriarchal Necropolis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Zeev Weiss
Part 3
the rabbis
Abbaye’s Family Origins: A Study in Rabbinic Genealogy. . . . . . . . . . . . 235
aarOn deMsKy
The Miracle of the Septuagint in Ancient Rabbinic and Christian Literature . 241
richard KalMin
The Rabbinic Class Revisited: Rabbis as Judges in Later Roman Palestine . . . 255
hayiM laPin
Rabbis, Preachers, and Aggadists: An Aspect of Jewish Culture in
Third- and Fourth-Century Palestine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
david levine
Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi and Babylonia: Ties and Tensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
aharOn OPPenheiMer
The Religious Orientation of Non-Rabbis in Second-Century Palestine:
A Rabbinic Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
adiel schreMer
Martyrdom, the Middle Way, and Mediocrity (Genesis Rabbah 82:8) . . . . . . 343
daniel r. schWartZ
Sinai—Mountain and Desert: The Desert Geography and
Theology of the Rabbis and Desert Fathers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
JOshUa schWartZ
Rabbinic and Roman Honor and Deference:
Y. Berakot 5.1, 9a, and Y. Bikkurim 3.3, 65c–d . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
seth schWartZ
Contents vii
Part 4
the ancient synagOgUe
The Dura-Europos Synagogue Wall Paintings: A Question of Origin
and Interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
rachel hachlili
Priests and Purity in the Dura-Europos Synagogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
JOdi Magness
The Problem of the Scarcity of Synagogues from 70 to ca. 250 c.e.:
The Case of Synagogue 1 at Nabratein (2nd–3rd Century c.e.) . . . . . . 435
eric M. Meyers
The Synagogue as Foe in Early Christian Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
leOnard v. rUtgers
Hebrew Section
Part 1
sages and Patriarchs
Epistles of the Patriarchs in Talmudic Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3*
isaiah gafni
On Aggadic Midrashim: Formation, Editing, Survival . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11*
MOshe david herr
Part 2
archaeOlOgy, art, and histOrical geOgraPhy
Gader, Migdal Gader, Hammat Gader: Historical and Geographical
Considerations in Interpreting a Talmudic Sugya in ʿErubin . . . . . . . . 41*
MOtti arad
The Zodiac and Helios in the Synagogue:
Between Paganism and Christianity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63*
rina talgaM
Was King Herod Indeed a Megalomaniac? In Light of Kasher and
Witztum’s New Book, King Herod: A Persecuted Persecutor . . . . . . . . . 81*
ehUd netZer
Is “Bezer in the Wilderness” (Deut 4:43) Bozrah (Bostra, Roman Arabia)?
On the Intricacies of a Rabbinic Tradition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93*
Oded irshai

Biography of Lee I. Levine
Lee Israel Levine was born on Feb. 1, 1939, in Bangor, Maine, to Rabbi Dr.
Harry O. H. Levine and Irene R. Levine (née Ginsburgh). He attended the Akiba
Academy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and a public high school in Steubenville,
Ohio, where his father served as a congregational rabbi. Summers were spent at
Camp Ramah.
Lee attended Columbia College in New York, majoring in philosophy. At the
same time, he studied in the undergraduate program at the Jewish Theological Semi-
nary, majoring in Talmud. He graduated from both institutions in 1961, earning a
B.A. from Columbia and a B.H.L. in Talmud from JTS. In June 1961, he married
Mira Karp of Buffalo, New York.
Lee and Mira spent the 1959–60 academic year at Machon Greenberg (Hayyim
Greenberg Institute for Teachers from the Diaspora) and the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem. From 1961 to 1965, Lee studied in the rabbinical program at the Jewish
Theological Seminary with the distinguished rabbis and scholars Saul Lieberman,
David Weiss Halivni, Moshe Zucker, and Gerson Cohen. He received his M.H.L. in
Talmud in 1963 and rabbinic ordination from JTS in 1965.
In 1963, Lee pursued his graduate studies in Jewish and Ancient History at Co-
lumbia University with Professors Gerson Cohen and Morton Smith. After receiving
his M.A. in 1966, he continued his doctoral studies under the mentorship of Cohen
and Smith and was awarded his Ph.D. in 1970. While researching his dissertation
on Caesarea under Roman Rule, he spent the 1968–69 academic year at the Institute
of Archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. During that year, Lee estab-
lished close ties with members of the Institute of Archaeology and Professor Yigael
Yadin, who recognized the need for an interdisciplinary approach that would give
graduate archaeology students a solid base in Jewish history and rabbinic sources to
supplement their archaeological training. He accepted Prof. Yadin’s invitation to re-
turn to Israel and teach at the Institute of Archaeology upon completion of his dis-
sertation. In the summer of 1971, Lee, Mira, and their growing family made ʿaliyah to
Israel. Their home is in Jerusalem to this day.
Lee was granted a joint appointment in the Institute of Archaeology and the
Department of Jewish History at the Hebrew University. In 1985, he was promoted
to the rank of Full Professor, and since 2003, he has held the Rev. Moses Bernard
Lauterman Family Chair in Classical Archaeology at the Hebrew University. Lee
ix