Interrogating Witness Interrogation: Susanna, Mishna Sanhedrin 5:2 and Mishna Ketubot 1

• In Event: Compelling Reading: Access, Discipline, and Marginality in Reading Rabbinic Texts

Abstract

Halberstam will read Mishnah Sanhedrin 5:2 in which R. Yohanan b. Zakkai is explicitly praised for interrogating witnesses down to the level of “the thickness of fig stems.” In reading this mishnah alongside the non-canonical story of Susanna, a link that has been noted by scholars, she traces a lineage of witness interrogation that centers on patriarchal protection of the vulnerable (in the case of Susanna, a vulnerable woman who has been sexually harassed by esteemed members of her own community). Halberstam asks whether this mode of intensive interrogation protects the vulnerable or, rather, undercuts a different approach in which they may be thought of as having the authority to speak for themselves and to be believed. Lehman’s response will bring texts from Mishnah Ketubot where interrogation revolves around a bride’s virginity, a status that is difficult to prove and where women, according to some authorities are believed.

Author

• Chaya Halberstam, King's University College, University of Western Ontario