Review of Marks and Taussig (eds.), Meals in Early Judaism

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW:

Susan Marks, Hal Taussig (ed.), Meals in Early Judaism: Social Formation at the Table. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. Pp. xii, 204. ISBN 9781137372567. $90.00.

Reviewed by Raphael Magarik, University of California, Berkeley (rmagarik@berkeley.edu)

Preview

In studies of late Second Temple and Tannaitic period Judaism, interpreting formal ritual meals has led to important arguments about cultural difference and interchange. Was the Passover Seder, for instance, heavily influenced by Hellenistic symposia, as Seigfried Stein argued, or, as Baruch Bokser claimed, did it derive primarily from the elaboration of biblical traditions in the wake of the destruction of the Second Temple?

The edited collection Meals in Early Judaism: Social Formation at the Table reframes this argument about ritual origins and influence. Its essays argue that we should adopt an expansive approach to Jewish ritual meals, comparing them to Greco-Roman parallels but also viewing rabbinic texts together with Philo as components of a broader culture. Meals in Early Judaism also shifts the focus of ritual study from text to context. Rituals are embodied, physical processes which happen in specific times and places, the authors argue. Studying them as such contributes to our understanding of how early Jews used meals to construct their social identities.

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