The Babylonian Talmud is the principal surviving literary source for the Jewish communities in the Sasanian empire. As a result, scholarship has primarily focused on the rabbinic elite represented in and responsible for the Talmud. However, hundreds of Jewish magical amulets written on bowls provide access to the unknown lives and practices of Jews in the very cities in which the Babylonian rabbis flourished. Since their discovery, the magic bowls have largely been relegated to the domain of a “popular” and “syncretistic” culture. In a Zoom webinar on Monday, March 1, at 12:25 p.m. Avigail Manekin-Bamberger, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, will argue that the dichotomy between the world of the rabbis and that of the bowls is artificial and ultimately untenable. "The bowls provide a rare vantage point from which to enrich our knowledge of both rabbinic law and practice, ancient Jewish society, and the place of the rabbis within it," Manekin-Bamberger says. Registration at the link below is required to attend. More information at jewishstudies.cornell.edu
https://cornell.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_711fzbdsRNa_VIhz08TVeg
