Uzi Leibner An Illustrated Midrash of Mekilta de R. Ishmael, Vayeḥi Beshalaḥ, 1 – Rabbis and the Jewish Community Revisited A major debate among scholars of Jewish History in the last generation has been the place of the rabbis in Jewish society of the Late Roman period. 1 Previ- ously, rabbis were commonly perceived as leaders having a major influence, or even control, over Jewish life. This point of view, however, has been seriously challenged in the past fifty years by scholars such as Erwin Goodenough, Mor- ton Smith, Jacob Neusner, and Seth Schwartz. 2 This relatively new school of thought regarded the rabbis as a marginal intellectual group having neither leadership positions nor any real influence over Jewish society. Rabbinic literature merely reflects the religious and intel- lectual world of a limited circle and not of the wider Jewish society. Accord- ingly, the average Jew did not necessarily follow the rabbis, and it is even doubtful if he was aware of rabbinic traditions and views. Support for this approach was found in remains from ancient synagogues, in which the art often does not seem to correspond with the rulings found in rabbinic literature. Synagogue art, however, sometimes presents an opposite perception of the rabbis when the finds seem to reflect their traditions. Of especial impor- tance are visual representations of biblical themes that do not accord their simple meaning, but rather are in line with midrashic interpretations. 3 Such 1 An extensive literature exists on this issue. See, for example, Lee I. Levine, The Rabbinic Class of Roman Palestine in Late Antiquity (Jerusalem, 1989), 98–195; Moshe D. Herr, “The Identity of the People of Israel during Second Temple Times and after Its Destruction: Continu- ity or Change? Trends in the Study of Jewish History of the Late Second Temple, Mishnah and Talmud Periods.” Cathedra 137 (2010), 27–62 (Hebrew). 2 See, for example, Erwin R. Goodenough, “The Rabbis and Jewish Art in the Greco-Roman Period.” HUCA 32 (1961): 269–79; Morton Smith, “Palestinian Judaism in the First Century.” In Israel: Its Role in Civilization, ed. Moshe Davis (New York, 1956), 67–81; Jacob Neusner, Reading and Believing: Ancient Judaism and Contemporary Gullibility , Brown Judaic Studies 113 (Atlanta, 1986). In a thought-provoking book, Seth Schwartz has suggested that after the Bar-Kokhba Revolt most Palestinian Jews assimilated into the surrounding culture of the Roman East, and only after the rise of imperial Christianity did the Jews revive themselves as a separate reli- gious entity. See his Imperialism and Jewish Society, 200 BCE to 640 CE (Princeton, NJ, 2001). 3 The richest example is, of course, the Dura Europos synagogue. See Carl H. Kraeling, The Excavations at Dura-Europos, vol. 8, pt. 1, The Synagogue (New Haven, 1956); Eleazar L. Sukenik, The Synagogue of Dura-Europos and Its Frescoes (Jerusalem, 1947) (Hebrew). See also the programmatic paper of Joseph Gutmann, “The Illustrated Midrash in the Dura Synagogue Paintings: A New Dimension for the Study of Judaism’, PAAJR 50 (1983), 91–104. Brought to you by | The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Authenticated | leibner1@gmail.com author's copy Download Date | 7/9/14 8:49 AM