Midrash and Multiplicity.

• Author: Radwin, Ariella
• Position: Book review

Midrash and Multiplicity: Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer and the Renewal of Rabbinic Interpretive Culture. By STEVEN DANIEL SACKS. Studi Judaica, vol. 48. Berlin: WALTER DE GRUYTER. 2009. Pp. ix + 182. member of84.07.

Midrash and Mulitiplicity addresses itself to the perplexing nature of Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer (PRE). In particular. Sacks' work addresses the question: how is PRE both like and unlike classical rabbinic literature? Although tradition had long considered the work to he part of the rabbinic canon, the past two centuries of scholarship have drawn attention to its various unusual characteristics, including novel themes, forms of expression. and structure. Against this background, Sacks work comes to give us an updated view of PRE's role in the continuous Jewish legal and midrashic tradition.

Not that his estimation equivocates. Most of all. Sacks conies to argue just how much PRE is like other rabbinic midrash. Even where it fails to look similar in form or content, it is similar in purpose: to receive, transmit, and transform scriptural interpretation. This particular triad of activity is exceedingly important to Sacks' point. He terms this type of active engagement "tradition building," and it. becomes the central lens for his assessment of PRE's "belonging" in the rabbinic canon.

Sacks' "tradition-building" approach allows for an understanding of fluid literary engagement, rather than viewing PRE as "edited," "forged," or "rewritten." in turn, a more multi-faceted understanding of PRE emerges. While previous scholars have marshaled tremendous effort to present a coherent answer to the question "what is this work?" Sacks presents a convincing answer: it is many things. Nowhere is this more persuasive than in the first chapter, where Sacks attempts to demarcate the structuring elements of the work itself. Sacks argues that just as PRE's engagement with the rabbinic and scriptural traditions is multi-faceted, so too are its literary forms. Narrative, lists, themes, and analogies are all structuring elements in a sort of literary matrix that shapes the work. According to Sacks, although none of these models is the predominant architect of the shape of the work, all of these models are native forms to the rabbinic enterprise.

The first chapter having established a concept of the literary structure, the second chapter engages the question of pseudepigraphy and authorship. Sacks laments that the mere fact of being attributed to R. Eliezer...