Foreigners and Their Food

David M. Freidenreich is the Pulver Family Associate Professor of Jewish Studies at Colby College and Director of its Jewish Studies program.

• List of Illustrations Preface Notes on Style and Abbreviations Part I. Introduction: Imagining Otherness 1. Good Fences Make Good Neighbors 2. "A People Made Holy to the LORD": Meals, Meat, and the Nature of Israel's Holiness in the Hebrew Bible Part II. Jewish Sources on Foreign Food Restrictions: Marking Otherness 3. "They Kept Themselves Apart in the Matter of Food": The Nature and Significance of Hellenistic Jewish Food Practices 4. "These Gentile Items Are Prohibited": The Foodstuffs of Foreigners in Early Rabbinic Literature 5. "How Nice Is This Bread!": Intersections of Talmudic Scholasticism and Foreign Food Restrictions Part III. Christian Sources on Foreign Food Restrictions: Defining Otherness 6. "No Distinction between Jew and Greek": The Roles of Food in Defining the Christ-believing Community 7. "Be on Your Guard against Food Offered to Idols": Eidolothuton and Early Christian Identity 8. "How Could Their Food Not Be Impure?": Jewish Food and the Definition of Christianity Part IV. Islamic Sources on Foreign Food Restrictions: Relativizing Otherness 9. "Eat the Permitted and Good Foods God Has Given You": Relativizing Communities in the Qur?an 10. "'Their Food' Means Their Meat": Sunni Discourse on Non-Muslim Acts of Animal Slaughter 11. "Only Monotheists May Be Entrusted with Slaughter": The Targets of Shi?i Foreign Food Restrictions Part V. Comparative Case Studies: Engaging Otherness 12. "Jewish Food": The Implications of Medieval Islamic and Christian Debates about the Definition of Judaism 13. Christians "Adhere to God's Book," but Muslims "Judaize": Islamic and Christian Classifications of One Another 14. "Idolaters Who Do Not Engage in Idolatry": Rabbinic Discourse about Muslims, Christians, and Wine Notes Works Cited Index

"A very fine study... Freidenreich's book ... is an important contribution that will prove valuable... A fascinating and useful examination." -- Irven M. Resnick H-Net Reviews "His insights into how food helps define our identities is fascinating ... It's impossible to do justice to Freidenreich's explanations." -- Rabbi Rachel Esserman The Reporter Group "[Freidenreich] coveys a meaningful message to all communitites that through dietary laws and restrictions we imagine ourselves and foreigners as others." -- Mehnaz M. Afridi Journal of American Academy of Religion