Research Interests

Rabbinic Literature, Second Temple Literature, History of Judaism in Antiquity, Dead Sea Scrolls, Early Christianity, Syriac Christianity, Gospels in a Jewish Setting, Hermeneutics, Gender and Sexuality, Propaganda Studies, Trauma Studies, Rhetorical Criticism

The Matthean Antitheses and Early Rabbinic Literature

I am currently working on a book length analysis of the Matthean Antitheses from the Sermon on the Mount in light of early rabbinic literature (Matt. 5:21-48). This work includes three chapters on the content of the antitheses as well as chapters on their structure and form. To date, I have published a series of three journal articles (“Rebuke, Lending, and Love: An Early Exegetical Tradition on Leviticus 19:17–18,” “Murder, Anger, and Altars: The First Matthean Antithesis in Light of Exodus 21:14 and its Early Rabbinic Interpretation,” and “The Structure of the Matthean Antitheses in Light of Second Temple and Rabbinic Sources”) that form the basis of my argument.

The Dangerous Duty of Rebuke

My book, The Dangerous Duty of Rebuke: Leviticus 19:17 in Early Jewish and Christian Interpretation (Brill 2018), traces the reception history of the commandment of “rebuke” found in Leviticus 19:17 (“Do not hate your brother in your heart, rebuke your fellow but do not incur sin”) in Jewish and Christian sources from the Bible through the early Islamic period.  By focusing on the variety of reactions to the obligation of rebuke, I explore how early religious thinkers conceived of the nature of interpersonal responsibility and sought to construct the ideal ethical self.  I argue that we observe a chronological shift in the core question posed from how one should chastise others, to whether one can offer effective reproof, to whether one should engage in the performance of this activity.  Mapping these foundational debates onto the social, cultural, and political settings of their authors, this book charts a new path for conceptualizing the nature of religious ethics.

Beginning with a reader-reception interpretation of the rebuke commandment in its Levitical context, I demonstrate the ways in which the key ambiguities of this biblical obligation emerge as divisive tensions in the eyes of early exegetes.  This initial analysis sets the stages for the three major parts that follow.  The first part examines how Lev. 19:17 was received during the Second Temple and early Christian period.  Within this part, two chapters are dedicated to the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Gospels.  The first highlights the comparable ways in which they understand the private and public dimensions of reproof.  The second focuses on the opposing ways in which they negotiate communal boundaries through interpretation Lev. 19:17 in light of Lev. 19:18’s obligation to love one’s neighbor.  The third chapter surveys the ways in which the prohibition against slander raised by Lev. 19:16 impacts the interpretation of Lev. 19:17 within works of ethical exhortation including Proverbs, Ben Sira, and the Testament of Gad.

Part Two turns to the early rabbinic period (70-200 CE) where I argue that the tannaim problematize the obligation and performance of reproof as a dangerous practice which they believe themselves incapable of accomplishing properly.  I suggest that this reaction is closely related to their precarious social and political status as a loose association of figures vying for religious authority.  The final part moves to the later rabbinic period (200-800) and broadens the comparative perspective by introducing parallel discourses within monastic and early Islamic sources.  Christian monks and the rabbis of the Babylonian Talmud bring the duty of interpersonal responsibility into dialogue with the quest for humility.  Rejecting the other-oriented obligation of rebuke in favor of the self-focused pursuit of personal perfection, these religious figures call into question the value of chastisement in the construction of the ideal ethical individual.  In direct contrast to this outlook, the late rabbinic Midrash Tanhuma argues for the necessity of rebuke deriving from an inescapable mutual responsibility toward other people.  While the monastic and Talmudic rejection of rebuke aligns with contemporaneous ascetic aspirations, the dramatic shift in the Tanhuma can best be understood in relation to a growing valuation of confrontation and a comparable endorsement of correcting others attested in early Islamic literature.

Propaganda, Deception, and Censorship: The Rabbinic Production of Knowledge

My next research project explores the manifold ways through which the rabbis of late antiquity fabricate history and distort law. Drawing upon insights from propaganda studies, trauma theory and postcolonial theory, as well as rhetorical criticism, this project examines rabbinic literature as a microcosm for understanding the partisan construction and dissemination of knowledge in the ancient world.

This project integrates modern critical theory with rigorous close readings to uncover a darker side to the formation of rabbinic Judaism. My analysis begins at the end of a tractate devoted to laws of sexual infidelity in which references to the deaths of founding rabbis are interspersed into descriptions of the violent acts of the destruction of the Temple and the proliferation of murders, thereby turning their demise into a global trauma. Analysis of this section paves the way for an extensive survey of the subtle use of propaganda that permeates all of rabbinic literature. The latter half of this study discusses passages in which the rabbis explicitly recommend withholding information from the public as well as texts that actively censor received traditions in order to obfuscate their original purpose.