Rabbinic Judaism: Space and Place
In the aftermath of the conquest of the Holy Land by the Romans and their destruction of the Jerusalem Temple, Jews were faced with a world in existential chaos—both they and their God were rendered homeless. In a religious tradition that equated Divine approval with peaceful dwelling on the Land, this situation was intolerable. In response, the Rabbis sought to build new “structures,” new homes for both God and Israel. Rabbinic Judaism: Space and Place offers the first comprehensive study of spatiality in rabbinic Judaism, exploring how the Rabbis reoriented the Jewish relationship with space and place following the conquest and destruction.
Dr. David Kraemer is the Joseph J. and Dora Abbell Librarian and a professor of Talmud and Rabbinics at The Jewish Theological Seminary. In his scholarship, Dr. Kraemer is particularly interested in literary analysis of rabbinic literature, rabbinic ritual, and the social and religious history of Jews in late antiquity.
