Description: Within traditional Judaism, religious piety and intensity,
representing the earnest and passionate desire to serve God, is often
expressed in both the strictest observance of halakhah, Jewish law,
and in practices above and beyond the demands of the law. The second
such behavior is termed "super-erogatory," meaning "going beyond what
is commanded or required." While it is discussed often in the Talmud,
there is little attention given in the secondary literature to the
rabbis' critique of self-imposed religious stringency. Piety and
Fanaticism Rabbinic Criticism of Religious Stringency opens a
discussion of the Talmudic rabbis' views. Piety and Fanaticism
focuses its discussion on self-imposed stringency, which goes beyond
the recommendations of a specific halakhic ruling, and evaluates the
rabbis' decisions as to when super-erogation by an individual was
generally permitted and when it was criticized. Also addressed is to
what extent the rabbis' considered kavvana, or why an individual
chose to take on a specific stringency, in their criticism of such
behavior. Weinstein considers the political and economic differences
in Palestine and Babylon to explain differences in the rabbinic
opinions of the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds. The historical
development of Talmudic passages has been analyzed to discover the
various layers of text and place them in proper historical context.
The author also examines the relationship between Judaism and other
religions of the Talmudic periodspecifically early Christianity,
which venerated practices that were regarded as super-erogatory by
Judaism. |