Julia Watts Belser's Books

Power, Ethics, and Ecology in Jewish Late Antiquity

Rabbinic Responses to Drought and Disaster

By: Julia Watts Belser

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Power, Ethics, and Ecology in Jewish Late Antiquity

Rabbinic Responses to Drought and Disaster

By: Julia Watts Belser

This book analyzes rabbinic responses to drought and disaster, revealing how the Talmudi grapples with problems of power, ethics, and ecology in Jewish late antiquity.

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Page Count

253

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1107113350

ISBN 13

9781107113350

Rabbinic Tales of Destruction

Gender, Sex, and Disability in the Ruins of Jerusalem

By: Julia Watts Belser

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Rabbinic Tales of Destruction

Gender, Sex, and Disability in the Ruins of Jerusalem

By: Julia Watts Belser

Rabbinic Tales of Destruction examines early Jewish accounts of the Roman conquest of Jerusalem from the perspective of the wounded body and the scarred land. Amidst stories saturated with sexual violence, enslavement, forced prostitution, disability, and bodily risk, the book argues that rabbinic narrative wrestles with the brutal body costs of Roman imperial domination. It brings disability studies, feminist theory, and new materialist ecological thought to accounts of rabbinic catastrophe, revealing how rabbinic discourses of gender, sexuality, and the body are shaped in the shadow of empire. Focusing on the Babylonian Talmud's longest account of the destruction of the Second Temple, the book reveals the distinctive sex and gender politics of Bavli Gittin. While Palestinian tales frequently castigate the "wayward woman" for sexual transgressions that imperil the nation, Bavli Gittin's stories resist portraying women's sexuality as a cause of catastrophe. Rather than castigate women's beauty as the cause of sexual sin, Bavli Gittin's tales express a strikingly egalitarian discourse that laments the vulnerability of both male and female bodies before the conqueror. Bavli Gittin's body politics align with a significant theological reorientation. Bavli Gittin does not explain catastrophe as divine chastisement. Instead of imagining God as the architect of Jewish suffering, it evokes God's empathy with the subjugated Jewish body and forges a sharp critique of empire. Its critical discourse aims to pierce the power politics of Roman conquest, to protest the brutality of imperial dominance, and to make plain the scar that Roman violence leaves upon Jewish flesh"--

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Page Count

281

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0190600470

ISBN 13

9780190600471

Rabbinic Tales of Destruction

Sex, Gender, and Disability in the Ruins of Jerusalem

By: Associate Professor of Jewish Studies Julia Watts Belser,Julia Watts Belser

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Rabbinic Tales of Destruction

Sex, Gender, and Disability in the Ruins of Jerusalem

By: Associate Professor of Jewish Studies Julia Watts Belser,Julia Watts Belser

Analyzing early Jewish accounts of the destruction of the Second Temple, Julia Watts Belser illuminates the brutal body costs of Roman conquest. Drawing on disability studies, feminist theory, and new materialist ecological thought, Belser reveals how rabbinic discourses of gender, sexuality, and the body are shaped in the shadow of empire

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Page Count

245

Publisher

Oxford University Press, USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

0190600497

ISBN 13

9780190600495

Rabbinic Tales of Destruction

Gender, Sex, and Disability in the Ruins of Jerusalem

By: Julia Watts Belser

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Rabbinic Tales of Destruction

Gender, Sex, and Disability in the Ruins of Jerusalem

By: Julia Watts Belser

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281

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Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0190600470

ISBN 13

9780190600471

Power, Ethics, and Ecology in Jewish Late Antiquity

Rabbinic Responses to Drought and Disaster

By: Julia Watts Belser

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Power, Ethics, and Ecology in Jewish Late Antiquity

Rabbinic Responses to Drought and Disaster

By: Julia Watts Belser

Rabbinic tales of drought, disaster, and charismatic holy men illuminate critical questions about power, ethics, and ecology in Jewish late antiquity. Through a sustained reading of the Babylonian Talmud's tractate on fasts in response to drought, this book shows how Bavli Taʿanit challenges Deuteronomy's claim that virtue can assure abundance and that misfortune is an unambiguous sign of divine rebuke. Employing a new method for analyzing lengthy talmudic narratives, Julia Watts Belser traces complex strands of aggadic dialectic to show how Bavli Taʿanit's redactors articulate a strikingly self-critical theological and ethical discourse. Bavli Taʿanit castigates rabbis for misuse of power, exposing the limits of their perception and critiquing prevailing obsessions with social status. But it also celebrates the possibilities of performative perception - the power of an adroit interpreter to transform events in the world and interpret crisis in a way that draws forth blessing.

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Page Count

423

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1316395650

ISBN 13

9781316395653

Loving Our Own Bones

Disability Wisdom and the Spiritual Subversiveness of Knowing Ourselves Whole

By: Julia Watts Belser

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Loving Our Own Bones

Disability Wisdom and the Spiritual Subversiveness of Knowing Ourselves Whole

By: Julia Watts Belser

A transformative spiritual companion and deep dive into disability politics that reimagines disability in the Bible and contemporary culture A 2024 National Jewish Book Award winner and essential read on disability, spirituality, and social justice “What’s wrong with you?” Scholar, activist, and rabbi Julia Watts Belser is all too familiar with this question. What’s wrong isn’t her wheelchair, though—it’s exclusion, objectification, pity, and disdain. Our attitudes about disability have such deep cultural roots that we almost forget their sources. But open the Bible and disability is everywhere. Moses believes his stutter renders him unable to answer God’s call. Jacob’s encounter with an angel leaves him changed not just spiritually but physically: he gains a limp. For centuries, these stories have been told and retold in ways that treat disability as a metaphor for spiritual incapacity or as a challenge to be overcome. Through fresh and unexpected readings of the Bible, Loving Our Own Bones instead paints a luminous portrait of what it means to be disabled and one of God’s beloved. Belser delves deep into sacred literature, braiding the insights of disabled, feminist, Black, and queer thinkers with her own experiences as a queer disabled Jewish feminist. She talks back to biblical commentators who traffic in disability stigma and shame. What unfolds is a profound gift of disability wisdom, a radical act of spiritual imagination that can guide us all toward a powerful reckoning with each other and with our bodies. Loving Our Own Bones invites readers to claim the power and promise of spiritual dissent, and to nourish their own souls through the revolutionary art of radical self-love.

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Page Count

290

Publisher

Beacon Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0807006750

ISBN 13

9780807006757

Book's by Julia Watts Belser

Power, Ethics, and Ecology in Jewish Late Antiquity

Power, Ethics, and Ecology in Jewish Late Antiquity

Rabbinic Tales of Destruction

Rabbinic Tales of Destruction

Rabbinic Tales of Destruction

Rabbinic Tales of Destruction

Rabbinic Tales of Destruction

Rabbinic Tales of Destruction

Power, Ethics, and Ecology in Jewish Late Antiquity

Power, Ethics, and Ecology in Jewish Late Antiquity

Loving Our Own Bones

Loving Our Own Bones

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