BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Princeton University Humanities Council - ECPv6.15.16//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-WR-CALNAME:Princeton University Humanities Council
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://humanities.princeton.edu
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Princeton University Humanities Council
REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H
X-Robots-Tag:noindex
X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/New_York
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20240310T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20241103T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20250309T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20251102T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20260308T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20261101T060000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250212T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250212T180000
DTSTAMP:20260503T032154
CREATED:20250130T142129Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250130T142129Z
UID:68070-1739377800-1739383200@humanities.princeton.edu
SUMMARY:Mytelka Memorial Seminar – "A People Like a Donkey": Animalizing the Slave and Enslaving the Animal in Babylonian Talmud
DESCRIPTION:The Program in Judaic Studies’ hosting of this year’s Mytelka Scholar\, Beth Berkowitz\, continues with this seminar on Wednesday\, February 12. \nAristotle calls both animals and enslaved people “natural slaves.” Building on this tradition\, ancient Romans represented and treated slaves like animals. In this seminar\, we’ll explore how one late antique population\, the Rabbis\, create similar parallels between slaves and animals and to what effect. We’ll go back to biblical narrative to focus on the donkey who accompanies Abraham on his journey to sacrifice his son Isaac\, and we’ll trace from Palestinian midrash to the Babylonian Talmud a motif that equates Abraham’s donkey with the youths who accompany him. We’ll look at how the Talmud dispossesses both slaves and animals of genealogy: both are said to lack hayis\, or lineage. Through the lens of Orlando Patterson’s notions of social death and natal alienation\, we’ll consider the intersections between animalization and enslavement. \nAll University faculty\, researchers\, staff\, and students are welcome to attend\, but space is limited – please RSVP to judaic@princeton.edu. Refreshments will be available. \nMore about Beth Berkowitz \nBeth A. Berkowitz is Ingeborg Rennert Chair of Jewish Studies and Professor in the Department of Religion at Barnard College. She is the author of Execution and Invention: Death Penalty Discourse in Early Rabbinic and Christian Cultures (Oxford University Press\, 2006); Defining Jewish Difference: From Antiquity to the Present (Cambridge University Press\, 2012); and Animals and Animality in the Babylonian Talmud (Cambridge University Press\, 2018). She is co-editor of Religious Studies and Rabbinics: A Conversation (Routledge\, 2017). She has published articles in the Journal for the American Academy of Religion\, Journal of Jewish Studies\, Jewish Quarterly Review\, Journal of Ancient Judaism\, Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities\, AJS Review\, and Biblical Interpretation. Her area of specialization is classical rabbinic literature\, and her interests include critical animal studies\, Jewish difference\, and Bible reception history. Her book What Animals Teach Us about Families: Four Biblical Laws and Their Rabbinic Readings\, forthcoming with University of California Press\, is a study of the four laws in the Hebrew Bible that feature the parent-child relationship in animals.
URL:https://humanities.princeton.edu/event/mytelka-memorial-seminar-a-people-like-a-donkey-animalizing-the-slave-and-enslaving-the-animal-in-babylonian-talmud/
LOCATION:203 Scheide Caldwell House
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://humanities.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Mytelka-Berkowitz-drawing.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Margo Bresnen":MAILTO:mbresnen@princeton.edu
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR