Abstract
The Fifth Passover Cup is mentioned in a textual variant of a baraita in Tractate Pesaḥim of the Babylonian Talmud (118a), attributed to Rabbi Ṭarfon and another anonymous Palestinian tanna. Scholars have demonstrated that the variant is primary in talmudic manuscripts and among the Babylonian Geonim. Following a nineteenth-century proposition of Isaac Baer Levinsohn, it is argued that the fifth cup was instituted in Babylonia due to concern for magical evil spirits aroused by even-numbered events [zugot]. Objections to Levinsohn’s theory can be allayed by critical source analysis: the Talmud’s attribution of the fifth cup to the Palestinian tanna Rabbi Ṭarfon in a baraita is pseudoepigraphic, based upon Rabbi Ṭarfon’s teaching regarding the recitation of Hallel ha-Gadol in Mishnah Ta‘anit 3:9. A special appendix is devoted to Levinsohn’s separate study on zugot in the ancient and medieval world.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 84-103 |
| Number of pages | 20 |
| Journal | European Journal of Jewish Studies |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2020
RAMBI Publications
- RAMBI Publications
- Jewish magic
- Levinsohn, Isaac Baer -- 1788-1860
- Passover -- Customs and practices
- Talmud Bavli -- Pesahim -- 118 -- Commentaries
- Tarfon -- -130 A.D