Abstinence and Holiness, Embracing Self-Deprivation: Reading Tractate Nazir in the Babylonian Talmud

By Joshua A. Fogel

The Babylonian Talmud is a product of late antique rabbinical discourse and debate. It is an immense, complex, multi-volume work divided by topics into tractates which are written in a mixture of Hebrew and Aramaic. Tractate Nazir deals with a person (male or female) who basically assumes three abstentions for a defined period of time: no wine or product of the grapevine, no cutting of bodily hair, and no contact with a human corpse. The practice itself is controversial within Judaism. Nonetheless, virtually every conceivable factor involved in a vow to be a nazir is debated by the rabbis in this tractate and in great detail. This volume is arranged by Talmudic folio pages and is aimed at explaining the intricacies of the original text. It may be read on its own and in conjunction with the tractate itself as an aid to understanding.

• Language: English
• Publisher: RowmanLittlefield
• Release date: Dec 15, 2023
• ISBN: 9780761874140

Joshua A. Fogel

Joshua A. Fogel is Canada Research Chair and Professor of History at York University. He is the author of many books, including Articulating the Sinosphere: Sino-Japanese Relations in Space and Time and Japanese Historiography and the Gold Seal of 57 CE: Relic, Text, Object, Fake. He is also the editor of The Nanjing Massacre in History and Historiography and the online journal Sino-Japanese Studies.

Book preview