Social Justice in Rabbinic Judaism

2019 ◽  
pp. 536-552
Author(s):  
Tzvi Novick
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Rabbinic Judaism ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Methodological Challenges ◽  
Law And Ethics

The category of social justice can be understood to encompass both protection of the vulnerable from abuse and support for the poor (charity). The chapter surveys aspects of social justice, conceived in these broad terms, in the classical rabbinic corpus (c. second to sixth centuriesce). After reviewing methodological challenges, important contributions, and scholarly lacunae, the chapter turns to the conceptualization of charity in rabbinic literature, and the light that rabbinic literature sheds on charity practices in Jewish late antiquity. The final section examines rabbinic interpretation of biblical verses mandating protection of the vulnerable from abuse, with particular attention to the liminal status of such provisions between law and ethics.

Let Them Eat Fish: Food for the Poor in Early Rabbinic Judaism

2014 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 250-270
Author(s):  
Gregg E. Gardner
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Fish Food ◽  
Rabbinic Judaism ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Tiered System ◽  
Social Separation ◽  
Material Requirements

Abstract Recent scholarship has shown how investigations into food and poverty contribute to our understanding of late-antique Judaism and Christianity. These areas of inquiry overlap in the study of charity, as providing food was the preeminent way to support the poor. What foods and foodways do the earliest texts of rabbinic Judaism prescribe for the poor? This article examines Tannaitic discussions of the foods that should be given as charity, reading these texts within their literary and historical contexts. I find that they prescribe a two-tiered system whereby foods for the week aim to meet the poor’s biological needs, while those for the Sabbath fulfill religious requirements. These rabbinic instructions, however, also reinforce social separation and deepen the poor’s sense of exclusion. This article contributes to scholarship on poverty and charity in late antiquity, the use of food in the construction of rabbinic identity, and the tensions that arise from establishing material requirements for religious observances.

Why care for the poor? The role of almsgiving in Jerome’s asceticism

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey D. Dunn
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Rhetorical Strategies ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Scholarly Projects

AbstractThe question of Christian almsgiving in late antiquity is one that has received fresh treatment recently in Richard D. Finn’s monograph, and the issue of wealth and poverty in this period is the subject of a number of current international scholarly projects. This paper considers the place of almsgiving in Jerome’s vision of asceticism found in his advice to wealthy Christians. When one reads Jerome’s letters to Furia (Epistula 54), Lucinius (Epistula 71), Oceanus (Epistula 77), Salvina (Epistula 79), Eustochium (Epistula 108), Julian (Epistula 118), Ageruchia (Epistula 123), and Demetrias (Epistula 130), where the parable of the wily manager (Luke 16:9 in particular) is employed, as well as in other letters containing ascetical advice that do not employ the parable, it would be easy to conclude that the purpose of almsgiving for Jerome was soteriological self-interest. It will be argued here that to reach such a conclusion would be to fail to appreciate his rhetorical strategies employed in these letters addressed to wealthy Christians. Jerome’s vitriolic treatise Contra Vigilantium, written for a different kind of audience and with a different purpose in mind, as recently investigated by David G. Hunter, also contains references to almsgiving. In it the poor are not simply the objects enabling the wealthy to be saved but are considered in terms of social justice and equity as subjects whose needs must be addressed.

Inscriptions, Synagogues and Rabbis in Late Antique Palestine

2011 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-277
Author(s):  
Fergus Millar
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Medieval Manuscripts ◽  
Rabbinic Judaism ◽  
Written Form ◽  
Epigraphic Evidence ◽  
A Current

AbstractThe numerous works of “rabbinic” literature composed in Palestine in Late Antiquity, all of which are preserved only in medieval manuscripts, offer immense possibilities for the historian, but also present extremely perplexing problems. What are their dates, and when did each come to be expressed in a consistent written form? If we cannot be sure about the attribution of sayings to individual named rabbis, how can we relate the material to any intelligible period or social context? In this situation, it is natural and right to turn to contemporary evidence, archaeological, iconographic and epigraphic. The primary archaeological evidence is provided by the large (and increasing) number of excavated synagogues. But, it has been argued, rabbinic texts are not centrally concerned with synagogues or the congregations which met in them. So perhaps “rabbinic Judaism” and “synagogal Judaism” are two separate systems. Alternatively, the epigraphic evidence attests individuals who are given the title “rabbi,” and these inscriptions, on stone or mosaic, include some which derive from synagogues. But perhaps “rabbi,” in this context, was merely a current honorific term, and these are not the “real” rabbis of the texts? It will be argued that this distinction is gratuitous, and that in any case the largest and most important synagogue-inscription, that from Rehov, both is “rabbinic” in itself and mentions rabbis as religious experts.

A Politics of Witnessing: Definitional Ceremony as Social Justice Work in Academia

2020 ◽  
pp. 194084472096820
Author(s):  
Sarah Strauven
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Public Engagement ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Qualitative Inquiry ◽  
Australian Case ◽  
Narrative Practice ◽  
Work First

The work outlined in this article has in part evolved as a response to Mr. Behrouz Boochani’s call to academics to engage with his work. First, I propose academics consider a form of public engagement drawn from narrative practice as social justice work in academia. In the next section, I illustrate my argument with an Australian case by discussing (a) a peaceful resistance undertaken by the refugees on Manus Island through the lens of definitional ceremony, (b) a public witnessing response by Dr. Surma to the written account of Mr. Boochani of the resistance, and (c) his reply to this act of witnessing. I complement this with my own response to both scholars on account of witnessing their exchanges. In the final section of this article, I articulate in more detail how this proposition of conceiving social justice work in academia is based on a politics of witnessing and acknowledgment. I argue that its epistemological and ontological dimensions hold promise for post-qualitative inquiry and that narrative practices more generally, can assist us in performing relationally situated research.

From learning to labour to custody for the precariat

Ethnography ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 531-547 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ove Sernhede
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Young People ◽  
Crucial Importance ◽  
Compulsory School ◽  
High Rise ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Large Groups

The globally reported riots in the poor high-rise suburbs of Sweden’s metropolitan districts in 2013 were stark manifestations of the increased social and economic inequality of the past 30 years. Large groups of young adults acted out their unarticulated claims for social justice. In the light of the riots, it is relevant to ask whether any trace of resistance or protest can be found in the compulsory school where the young people from these neighbourhoods spend their days. The ethnography sampled for the article comes from two public schools in two poor, multi-ethnic, high-rise neighbourhoods on the outskirts of Gothenburg. The article argues that the theoretical and methodological concepts and perspectives developed by Willis still is of crucial importance to any investigation aimed at understanding the presence or absence of resistance in contemporary Swedish schools.

scholarly journals KONSEP HAK MILIK DALAM EKONOMI ISLAM

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-207
Author(s):  
AN Ras Try Astuti ◽  
Andi Faisal
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Economic System ◽  
The Other ◽  
Private Ownership ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The World ◽  
Joint Ownership ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Individual

Capitalism as an economic system that is implemented by most countries in the world today, in fact it gave birth to injustice and social inequalityare increasingly out of control. Social and economic inequalities are felt both between countries (developed and developing countries) as well as insociety itself (the rich minority and the poor majority). The condition is born from the practice of departing from faulty assumptions about the man. In capitalism the individual to own property released uncontrollably, causing a social imbalance. On the other hand, Islam never given a state model that guarantees fair distribution of ownership for all members of society, ie at the time of the Prophet Muhammad established the Islamic government in Medina. In Islam, the private ownership of property was also recognized but not absolute like capitalism. Islam also recognizes the forms of joint ownership for the benefit of society and acknowledges the ownership of the state that aims to create a balance and social justice.

scholarly journals “To Evangelize the Poor”

Lumen et Vita ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 21-28
Author(s):  
James E. Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
The Poor

In this essay, I will examine the scriptural basis for Origen’s interpretation of Luke 4:18-19 as an allusion to Jesus’ identity as savior, not as a call to social justice. I argue that this interpretation is consistent with the intentions of the gospel writer. The essay begins with an analysis of the gospel writer’s redaction of Mark 1 in Luke 3-5. Based on that redaction, I hypothesize that Luke intends to emphasize Jesus’s identity with the anointed one mentioned in Isaiah 61:1-2. This excerpt from Isaiah not only gives Luke 4:18-19 its Christological significance but also clarifies Luke’s understanding of poverty in relation to the Gospel. I then examine Origen’s application of the Lucan passage for his pastoral purposes. To conclude, I suggest that we, like Luke and Origen, read Scripture Christocentrically in order to better facilitate the church’s encounter with Christ during the liturgy.  

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