אמונות ודעות של חז"ל - טקסטים וקורפוסים יהודיים ונוצריים, קשרים והקשרים: בעקבות מפעלו המדעי של א"א אורבך

This article deals with the achievements of Ephraim E. Urbach’s seminal studies of the Sages’ concepts and beliefs and of Judeo-Christian polemics in antiquity, as well as the problems inherent in any construction of concepts and beliefs out of the diverse material scattered in rabbinic literature. Following Urbach, it is demonstrated in the present article that rabbinic aggadic assertions should be read together with the Jewish literature of the Second Temple period and ancient Christian writings. However, Urbach’s assumption that the development of the Sages’ concepts and beliefs can be explained on the basis of historical events is challenged.
The first section of the article sketches Urbach’s assumptions and the reservations embedded in his enterprise aiming at the depicting the historical development of the rabbis’ beliefs and elucidating the Judeo-Christian polemic. The second section of the article investigates three rabbinic concepts discussed in Urbach’s oeuvre: (1) Gevurah; (2) Shekhinah; (3) Jerusalem that is Above. Aspects of these concepts are studied afresh and the way they are construed by Urbach is considered. It may be seen time and again that these concepts are documented prior to the historical events or situations to which they are supposedly reacting, according to Urbach and other scholars. This is not surprising, since the statements of the rabbis often reflect earlier traditions. A comparative reading of rabbinic assertions and parallels in Jewish and Christian corpora demonstrates the complex interrelationship of terminology, the resolution of internal tensions of ideas, interreligious influence, and interreligious polemics. The meaning of the transmitted traditions is often transmuted according to their contexts in the various corpora.