Time and Life Cycle in Talmud and Midrash

Focusing on the concepts of time and the life cycle, this collection of articles examines Jewish life in the Talmudic period through the lens of Jewish law and custom of the time. The essays are the work of Nissan Rubin (one of them written in collaboration with Admiel Kosman) and come together to present the cultural perspective of the sages and scholars who produced the stepping-stones of Jewish life and custom. By using a structural approach, Rubin is able to identify processes of long-term change in a society that remains largely traditional and stable. Symbolic analysis supplies an additional dimension to these studies, enabling the reader to experience the cultural subtexts.

Nissan Rubin (Ph.D. Bar-Ilan University, 1977) is Professor Emeritus, Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Bar-Ilan University. His published books include: Research Methods in Social Science - Strategy, Design and Measurement. Tel-Aviv: Dekel, 1978 (with Ernest Krausz and Steven H. Miller), The Beginning of Life: Rites of Birth, Circumcision and Redemption of the First-Born in the Talmud and Midrash. Tel-Aviv: Ha-Kibbutz Ha-Meuchad, 1995 The End of Life: Rites of Burial and Mourning in the Talmud and Midrash. Tel-Aviv: Ha-Kibbutz Ha- Meuchad, 1988 and The Joy of Life: Rites of Betrothal and Marriage in the Talmud and Midrash. Tel-Aviv: Ha-Kibbutz Ha-Meuchad, 2004.