IDENTITY AND CULTURAL TRESPASSING: Rabbinic interpretations of cross-border interactions

Spatial and religious conceptualizations fundamentally shape socio-political identities, demonstrating borders’ intrinsic role in social structures. This study examines spatial manifestations of identity and cultural exchange through analysis of classical Jewish texts. These texts narrate scenarios of physical or cultural border-crossing, revealing the significance of space to socio-cultural relations. Jewish law and lore, like other religious frameworks, typically favor distinct spatial delineation and binary spatial-legal categorizations. However, religious-juridical analysis exposes sophisticated conceptualizations and surprising displays of spatial permeability and flexibility, as well as the power of cultural reinterpretation—challenging conventional assumptions about religious attitudes toward intercultural trespassing. Religious texts provide practical insights of cultural exchange that could surprisingly enhance modern discourse, which often struggles with reductive spatial conceptualizations.