Purity and Identity in Ancient Judaism

Yair Furstenberg is Associate Professor of Talmud at Hebrew University, where he serves as chair of the department. Among his publications are Jewish Martyrdom in Antiquity: From the Books of Maccabees to the Babylonian Talmud and the edited volume Jewish and Christian Communal Identities in the Roman World.

• PrefaceNote on Translations and EditionsList of AbbreviationsIntroduction: From Pharisees to RabbisPart One: The Varieties of Purity1. Biblical Foundations, New Conception2. Exclusive Paths to Purity from Qumran to JesusPart Two: Communal Identities3. The Purity of the Pharisees4. Outsider Impurity and the Forms of Judean Sectarianism5. Inclusion and MarginalizationPart Three: Tradition and Invention6. Changing Social Contexts7. The End of PurityEpilogue: The Rabbinic Movement within Shifting Religious CulturesNotesBibliographyIndex

"In a masterful, erudite, and lucidly written study, Yair Furstenberg explores the development of perceptions and practices of ritual purity from the Second Temple Period to the Rabbinic era as prisms through which fundamental issues of identity and community were negotiated during this tumultuous time. The book expertly and convincingly demonstrates the value of careful textual inquiry for the construction of a social history, as it uncovers the multiple and rich layers of ideas, concerns, and cultural and religious challenges that are hidden in one of the most fascinating sets of texts from Jewish antiquity."—Mira Balberg, author of Purity, Body, and Self in Early Rabbinic Literature"This book is not for the faint- hearted. The heart of the book are rich discussions of halachah found in the Dead Sea Scrolls and tannaitic literature. The author's erudition will interest scholars of Second Temple purity, but it is unlikely to fundamentally change the way we use Rabbinic halachic literature and the Dead Sea Scrolls, at least for this reader. To his credit, Furstenberg reminds us that Jews of antiquity differ from Jews of today, especially in how they lived their Judaism. Issues of purity and impurity pervasively occupied Second Temple Jews and are essential to understanding this period."—Rabbi Matthew A. Kraus, CCAR Journal: The Reform Jewish Quarterly