What Does it Mean to Uproot a Radish?

• In Event: New Readings of Talmudic Phrases

Abstract

Two stories in the Babylonian Talmud have characters uprooting a radish to seemingly unrelated ends. Aher uproots radish in his interaction with the prostitute a Rebbi uporots a radish in his interaction with the Roman emperor Antoninus. This phrase only appears three times in the Babylonian Talmud and a source critical approach would seek to understand which location was the original source and why was the phrase co-opted by the others. A historical approach might consider what uprooting a radish might mean in the context of 5th century Babylonia. My paper explores what happens when we read the Bavli as a book in its final form, a book that contains phrases that carry symbolic weight within the confines of that book. What can such an approach teach us about the semiotics of the Bavli and how the Bavli conveys meaning to its implied reader?

author

• Zvi Septimus, Cornell University