Socrates and the Fat Rabbis

by Daniel Boyarin

What kind of literature is the Talmud? To answer this question, Daniel Boyarin looks to an unlikely the dialogues of Plato. In these ancient texts he finds similarities, both in their combination of various genres and topics and in their dialogic structure. But Boyarin goes beyond these structural similarities, arguing also for a cultural relationship.

In Socrates and the Fat Rabbis , Boyarin suggests that both the Platonic and the talmudic dialogues are not dialogic at all. Using Michael Bakhtin’s notion of represented dialogue and real dialogism, Boyarin demonstrates, through multiple close readings, that the give-and-take in these texts is actually much closer to a monologue in spirit. At the same time, he shows that there is a dialogism in both texts on a deeper structural level between a voice of philosophical or religious dead seriousness and a voice from within that mocks that very high solemnity at the same time. Boyarin ultimately singles out Menippean satire as the most important genre through which to understand both the Talmud and Plato, emphasizing their seriocomic peculiarity.

An innovative advancement in rabbinic studies, as well as a bold and controversial new way of reading Plato, Socrates and the Fat Rabbis makes a major contribution to scholarship on thought and culture of the ancient Mediterranean.

Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy, Ebooks, Religion, Jewish

388 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Daniel Boyarin, Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture and rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley, is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships. His books include A Radical Jew, Border Lines, and Socrates and the Fat Rabbis. He lives in Berkeley, California.

Reviews

[Sarah Barnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was just ok. The initial premise that the fantastic biographies in the Talmud are part of a larger Hellenistic tradition of Menippean satire is very interesting indeed. I honestly don't know anything about Plato so I found the chapters about his dialogues informative. But there just wasn't much to say about the Talmud after stating that the grotesque and carnival stories interspersed in the halakhic portions is meant as an internal critique of the entire Rabbinic system. That's it. But Boryarin just says it over and over to fill up the chapters about the Bavli. Interesting idea, but it got too repetitive, probably could have been an article instead of an entire book.