The Travels of the Rabbis and the Rabbinic Horizons of the Inhabited World

Eyal Ben-Eliyahu

doi:10.1515/9783110588774-009

The Travels of the Rabbis and the Rabbinic Horizons of the Inhabited World

Eyal Ben-Eliyahu

Department of Jewish History

University of Haifa

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review

Abstract

This essay charts and suggests a possible explanation for a shift in the rabbinic perception of the inhabited world. Apparently until the Bar-Kokhba revolt rabbis traveled both to the East and the West, but after the revolt their geographical focus became more restricted. An examination of reported rabbinic travels, as compared to Second Temple ‘maps, ’ and rabbinic interpretations of the biblical ‘Table of Nations’ indicates a significant lessening of rabbinic interest in the West. This narrowing may be connected to rabbinic Judaism’s general retreat from, and diminished concern and connections with the Western world, as compared with their political activity in the earlier Hellenistic-Jewish period.

Original language	American English
Title of host publication	Maps and Travel in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period
Subtitle of host publication	Knowledge, Imagination, and Visual Culture
Publisher	de Gruyter
Pages	221-231
Number of pages	11
ISBN (Electronic)	9783110588774
ISBN (Print)	9783110587333
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110588774-009
State	Published - 1 Jan 2019

Keywords

mental map
rabbinic journeys
rabbinic literature
‘Table of Nations’

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

General Arts and Humanities

Access to Document

10.1515/9783110588774-009

Cite this

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The Travels of the Rabbis and the Rabbinic Horizons of the Inhabited World

Abstract

Keywords

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

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