11/6/2019: Mira Balberg (UCSD) - "Forgetting the Torah and Rabbinic Nostalgia for the Present"
Department: Jewish Studies
Date and Time: November 6, 2019 | 4:30 PM-6:00 PMEvent Location: HG 1010
Event Details
Mira Balberg (UC San Diego)
Forgetting the Torah and Rabbinic Nostalgia for the Present
Wednesday, November 6, 2019 at 4:30pm
Humanities Gateway 1010
The idea that the Torah was collectively forgotten in the past, or is destined to be forgotten in the future, is a recurring trope in the rabbinic literature of late antiquity. The talk explores the origins of this idea as well as its development and various uses in rabbinic literature. It proposes that the rabbis' engagement with the notion that the Torah is not eternal, but rather bound to be lost, offers a prism though which we can learn both of the rabbis' perception of history, and of their changing perceptions of their own role in history.