Abstract
Tannaitic compositions include midrashim that focus on shalom (peace) and its significance. Since the word shalom appears in numerous contexts in the Tanak, the sages were able to develop various ideas, depending on their preferences, from an array of biblical verses. Despite having been composed under Roman rule, these shalom midrashim make no mention of Rome. Thus, scholars who have studied these sources have given scant attention to this broader framework. However, peace played a crucial role in Roman imperial ideology, where Rome is presented bringing peace to the empire. In this article, I analyze these midrashim and other Tannaitic passages and examine their relationship with Roman notions of peace. I show that this material conveys a latent dialogue with the ideology related to pax Romana and how the Roman conceptualization of peace appears to have influenced rabbinic approaches to shalom.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 223-251 |
| Number of pages | 29 |
| Journal | Journal for the Study of Judaism |
| Volume | 50 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2019 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:Copyright © 2018 by Koninklijke Brill NV.
Funding
For an example of praise: Aelius Aristides, Or. 26, and critique: Tacitus, Agr. 30.4-5; see also Wengst, Pax Romana, 19-26 for praises and 52-53 for a critique of this peace. This research was funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Program (FP/2007-2013)/ERC Grant Agreement no. 614 424. It was conducted within the framework of the ERC project JUDAISM AND ROME, under the auspices of the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) and Aix-Marseille University, UMR 7297 TDMAM (Aix-en-Provence, France). The research was also made possible by a grant from the Israeli Science Foundation (ISF grant no. 1991/16). I extend thanks to Menachem Ben Shalom, Galit Hasan-Rokem, Geoffrey Herman, Marc Hirshman, Doron Wilfand, and to fellow ERC scholars—Katell Berthelot, Kimberley Fowler and Marie Roux—for reading an earlier draft of this paper (in part or in its entirety), for our discussions of this subject, and for their helpful suggestions. I also thank Avner Traub for helping me to access materials that are not available in Jerusalem, and to Hannah Cornwell, Guy Darshan and Yakir Paz for their advice.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Seventh Framework Programme | 614 424, FP/2007-2013 |
| European Commission | |
| Israel Science Foundation | 1991/16 |
Keywords
- Priestly Benediction
- minim
- pax Romana
- pax concordia
- pax deorum
- peace
- shalom