[Avodah] Ahab

[Daniel M. Israel via Avodah]

On Dec 3, 2015, at 9:00 AM, Micha Berger <micha at aishdas.org> wrote:
> Although I do agree
> that those who believe that "Moavi velo Moavis" was a new derashah by
> Boaz's court (eg the Rambam) should have no problem believing Ezra's BD
> set up a new derashah about inheritence. Or at least accept it as a
> non-heretical possibility.

Except that “moavi velo moavis” doesn’t come up that often.  In any case, I see no reason to pin the hypothetical change on Ezra’s BD specifically.  The question for me is: should we expect that there were major changes of this sort which happened long pre-Gemara, and which we have no record of?

> I think the cries of heresy come from those who assume a different
> mechanism for the change, like Document Hypothesis ideas about the age
> of the pasuq.

I don’t think the DH is relevant here.  The pasuk is hardly a clear proof without a menorah from the Gemara.  The problematic (heretical?) position seems to be that halacha didn’t really work like that back then, and the rabbis of that time changed a lot of things willy-nilly.

> But in any case, I thought the topic RSG questioned was about the change
> of the meaning of the colloquialism "Jewish" when speaking of the period
> before Matan Torah than after.

I wasn’t trying to go after RSG.  But he did mention a takanna of Ezra’s BD.  Obviously, the question of how “Jewishness” and intermarriage worked pre-matan Torah is complicated, and not a proof for what followed.

--
Daniel M. Israel
dmi1 at cornell.edu