The Weakness of Mind: Dialogue, Conflict, and Ambiguity in Talmudic Stories
This article examines the "act of reading" of three talmudic stories that narrate a conflict between rabbis, at the center of which a dramatic dialogue takes place. The dialogue functions as a multigap space, the narrative conflict being based on communication gaps between the parties, and...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2025
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| In: |
AJS review
Year: 2025, Volume: 49, Issue: 1, Pages: 83-108 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Talmud
/ Story
/ Dialogue
/ Conflict
/ Hermeneutics
|
| RelBib Classification: | BH Judaism |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This article examines the "act of reading" of three talmudic stories that narrate a conflict between rabbis, at the center of which a dramatic dialogue takes place. The dialogue functions as a multigap space, the narrative conflict being based on communication gaps between the parties, and on their failure to understand each other. The question of intention constitutes a central and permanent gap that can be filled in two contradictory ways, and choosing each one of them leads to a completely different understanding of the conflict and its development. This ambiguity exists between the text and the reader, and simultaneously between the characters themselves. Therefore, the act of reading these stories functions as a frustrating illustration of communicative-interpretive gaps that underlie the interpersonal conflict between the characters, and allows for direct contact between the experience of the reader and that of the characters., Abstract:, This article examines the "act of reading" of three talmudic stories that narrate a conflict between rabbis, at the center of which a dramatic dialogue takes place. The dialogue functions as a multigap space, the narrative conflict being based on communication gaps between the parties, and on their failure to understand each other. The question of intention constitutes a central and permanent gap that can be filled in two contradictory ways, and choosing each one of them leads to a completely different understanding of the conflict and its development. This ambiguity exists between the text and the reader, and simultaneously between the characters themselves. Therefore, the act of reading these stories functions as a frustrating illustration of communicative-interpretive gaps that underlie the interpersonal conflict between the characters, and allows for direct contact between the experience of the reader and that of the characters. |
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| ISSN: | 1475-4541 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Association for Jewish Studies, AJS review
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1353/ajs.2025.a958078 |
