Reliable access to hygienic drinking water is often taken for granted by citizens of the modern developed world. Unexpected drought or disaster, however, challenges this presumption of ready access to potable water. Writing just before the dawn of the Anthropocene, Benjamin Franklin astutely observed that, “When the well's dry, we know the worth of water” (Poor Richard's Almanack, 1746). So essential for life is water that Genesis assumes it to exist prior to Creation, during which God commanded “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the water, and let it separate water from water” (Genesis 1:6). Thus, when drought and disaster strike, how are these events understood? And what role do humans play in causing, mitigating, and resolving such events?
In Power, Ethics, and Ecology in Jewish Late Antiquity, Julia Watts Belser wades into these morally and rhetorically complex waters. To do so, Belser focuses on Bavli Ta‘anit, “a tractate of the Babylonian Talmud that explicates the rabbinic ritual practice of communal fasting and prayer undertaken in response to drought and other crises” (3). In this endeavor, Belser faces a difficult task: in the sea of Talmud, Bavli Ta‘anit is hardly uncharted waters. To her merit, Belser manages to navigate her own path by setting her compass to explore how ethics and the burgeoning field of religion and ecology offer new insights into old discoveries.
In the introduction, Belser clearly articulates the importance of “rain as relationship” (1). For ancient Jews, drought was a moral crisis, not a “natural” disaster. In order to properly map the contours of this conception, Belser turns to two important methodologies: (a) ecocriticism, “a mode of literary criticism that analyzes the relationship between literature and the physical environment” (7); and (b) ethics, through which she emphasizes “the self-critical dimensions of rabbinic narrative,” and which “gives rise to a distinctive form of theological expression” (12). As an addendum to her introduction, Belser includes a brief introduction to the Babylonian Talmud aimed at those unfamiliar with the corpus (24–33). This excellent short survey is worth assigning to students in an introductory class on rabbinic literature.
Chapter 1 reminds us that, “Bavli Ta‘anit never articulates a distinct category of ‘nature,’ separate from and subjugated by God” (38); rather, rain is a means of divine communication. Thus, “Rain discloses moral meaning. Drought is both a material threat and a religious crisis” (57). To uncover this meaning, Bavli Ta‘anit “‘scripturalizes' the rain, using biblical verses to uncover the meaning of natural signs” (56).
Reading through these interpretive lenses, in chapter 2 Belser argues that “By emphasizing the difficulty of interpreting the created world, Bavli Ta‘anit develops a discourse of indeterminacy, hiddenness, and concealed meaning that destabilizes the nature of the observer's gaze” (60). The importance of the destabilization of the gaze underscores her assertion that “a critical ethical claim recurs throughout the tractate: apparent marks of status do not correlate clearly with personal virtue or divine favor” (68).
This destabilized gaze returns in chapter 3, where Belser examines how the tractate discusses the ambiguity of natural signs. In doing so, Bavli Ta‘anit “challenge[s] the claim that merit can reliably protect a person from danger” (5). It is here that Belser is at her best, showing how her methodological readings lead to complex and nuanced textual interpretations. For example, her concept of “performative perception” (“a sage's ability to shape the world through the interpretation—perhaps even the imposition—of meaning” [112]) buttresses her overarching argument about self-critical dimensions of rabbinic ethical and ecological discourse.
Chapters 4 and 5 grapple “with the limits and ethics of charismatic power” (150). Here, we encounter some of the tractate's most famous narratives, especially those of Honi the Circle-Maker. Using the rhetorical lens of parrhesia, “bold speech before a social superior for the sake of public good” (212), Belser argues that charismatic figures deploy such critical speech to critique and/or inspire change in God's (in)action. Further, in doing so, “the Bavli's narratives also critique rabbinic power and cast a critical light upon rabbinic ethical failings. The self-critical dimensions of the Bavli's discourse go hand-in-hand with the Bavli's investment in constructing rabbinic authority” (137). While Belser is correct in regard to rabbinic authority, I would have liked her to interact more deeply with scholarship on rabbinic authority (e.g., the work of Michael S. Berger, Christine Hayes, Avi Sagi). That being said, she offers many interesting new readings (e.g., on how to understand Honi's seventy-year sleep [165–166]).
Chapter 6 builds on the destabilized gaze, the ambiguity of signs, and the theme of self-critical ethical reflection in exploring narratives in which women and low-status men are divinely favored and/or perform miracles rather/better than members of the rabbinic class. “By celebrating such paradoxes of sanctity, Bavli Ta‘anit … develops a discourse of ‘concealed holiness' that showcases how unexpected figures prove to be loci of intense sanctity” (206–207). In sum, do not judge a book by its cover.
The conclusion summarizes the volume well, reminding the reader that “Bavli Ta‘anit's sugyot destabilize the straightforward link between ethical virtue and material good fortune and interject critical uncertainty into the moral meaning of drought and disaster” (213).
Reading this volume was both easy and enjoyable. At times, Belser's prose is poetic. (A rare statement for an academic tome!) In my duty as a reviewer, I offer two minor quibbles. First, the claims in the introduction (15–19) and on the dust jacket to offer “a new method for analyzing lengthy aggadic narrative cycles in the Babylonian Talmud” (15) are a bit overstated. Instead, I found the methodological insights from ecology and ethics to be more novel than her proposed reading method. And second, the author sometimes was too selective in the scholarship that she cited. This latter criticism speaks to the respect that I hold for her readings. She could have engaged in building more bridges, extending the scope of her sights (and insights). To offer two examples: there is significantly more work on astrology in rabbinic literature than she engages with on pp. 97–98, and scholars have a lot more to say about “the motif of women's beauty as a snare to (otherwise) righteous men” than she cites on p. 181. Instead of leaving her readers to build these bridges, she should have put on her hard hat and done this construction work herself. But these minor concerns aside, Belser's volume offers many fresh insights into an oft-studied tractate. While this book might focus on disaster, as a work of scholarship, it is in fact a success.
