Law and Self-Knowledge in the Talmud

'In Law and Self-Knowledge in the Talmud, Ayelet Hoffmann Libson insightfully links the Talmudic rabbis' accommodation of subjectivity in the law to a surprising willingness to limit their own power. An erudite and persuasive challenge to prevailing Foucauldian accounts of the rabbinic project.' Christine Hayes, Yale University, Connecticut 'In this extraordinary, subtle book, the history of consciousness meets scholarly Talmudic analysis. The results are illuminating to both fields, as Libson reveals new perspectives on important Jewish legal problems while deepening our understanding of spiritual and ritual self-scrutiny in late antiquity. Law and Self-Knowledge in the Talmud will repay close reading by scholars of religion, law, consciousness, and the interplay between the three.' Noah Feldman, Harvard University Law School, Massachusetts 'This is a vitally important book. It enters into an important conversation/controversy with a major new thought and demonstrates the validity of that thought as well. The controversy is whether or not there was a turn in the conception of the 'individual' in rabbinic literature. Joshua Levinson has argued for a significant turn towards interiority and a self from biblical to rabbinic literature, while Ishay Rosen-Zvi has argued on the basis of Palestinian rabbinic literature that this is a misreading. In this book, the author makes a stunning contribution by showing that both are right (and both wrong). There is such a turn; it takes place, however, according to Libson, in amoraic Babylonia. This conclusion, it cannot be emphasized enough, is of major significance for the interpretation of the history of Jewish ideas. The book is marked by extraordinary sophistication both with respect to the sensitive historicizing interpretation of rabbinic texts as well as the infrequent but always judicious reference to both comparative and theoretical texts.' Daniel Boyarin, University of California, Berkeley 'In Law and Self-Knowledge in the Talmud, Ayelet Hoffmann Libson insightfully links the Talmudic rabbis' accommodation of subjectivity in the law to a surprising willingness to limit their own power. An erudite and persuasive challenge to prevailing Foucauldian accounts of the rabbinic project.' Christine Hayes, Yale University, Connecticut 'In this extraordinary, subtle book, the history of consciousness meets scholarly Talmudic analysis. The results are illuminating to both fields, as Libson reveals new perspectives on important Jewish legal problems while deepening our understanding of spiritual and ritual self-scrutiny in late antiquity. Law and Self-Knowledge in the Talmud will repay close reading by scholars of religion, law, consciousness, and the interplay between the three.' Noah Feldman, Harvard University Law School, Massachusetts 'This is a vitally important book. It enters into an important conversation/controversy with a major new thought and demonstrates the validity of that thought as well. The controversy is whether or not there was a turn in the conception of the 'individual' in rabbinic literature. Joshua Levinson has argued for a significant turn towards interiority and a self from biblical to rabbinic literature, while Ishay Rosen-Zvi has argued on the basis of Palestinian rabbinic literature that this is a misreading. In this book, the author makes a stunning contribution by showing that both are right (and both wrong). There is such a turn; it takes place, however, according to Libson, in amoraic Babylonia. This conclusion, it cannot be emphasized enough, is of major significance for the interpretation of the history of Jewish ideas. The book is marked by extraordinary sophistication both with respect to the sensitive historicizing interpretation of rabbinic texts as well as the infrequent but always judicious reference to both comparative and theoretical texts.' Daniel Boyarin, University of California, Berkeley