The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

THE AGGADAH OF THE PALESTINIAN TARGUMS OF THE PENTATEUCH
AND RABBINIC AGGADAH:
SOME METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS*
Avigdor Shinan
An overall glance at the post-biblical literature bequeathed to us by
the Jewish people of antiquity reveals that it evolved mainly in the
twin pillars of that society: the synagogue and the academy (Bet
Midrash). 'Literature of the synagogue' is brought to our knowledge
by means of prayer and liturgical poetry, as well as the Targum and
different public sermons incorporated in rabbinic literature. 1
'Literature of the Bet Midrash' is eternalized primarily in the Mishnah
and Tosefta, the Talmud of Palestine and that of Babylonia and in a
wealth of midrashim from periods and kinds all and sundry.
Differentiating between the two groups of literature, synagogue and
Bet Midrash, and between the internal components of both, does not,
of course, stand upon the razor's edge, since they were created by the
same world of religious thought and orientation. Points of contact
draw them closer, by a variety of bonds are they linked together,
areas of interest overlap and interweave. Yet this differentiation has
much to offer as a working hypothesis, and all in all seems to be fairly
on target. My intention is to probe the questions of thematic affinities
between two specific clusters from the branches listed above, namely
the literature of the so-called 'Palestinian Targums' of the Pentateuch,
whose affiliation with the synagogue is well known, 2 and the literature
* I wish to express my thanks to Ann Brener for translating this paper from
Hebrew.
1. For the term 'Literature of the Synagogue' I am indebted to J. Heinemann
and JJ. Petuchowski, Literature of the Synagogue (New York, 1975).
2. See R. Syren, The Blessings in the Targums (Abo, 1986), pp. 157-60;
cf. R. Kasher, The Aramaic Targumim and their Sitz im Leben', in Proceedings of
the Ninth World Congress of Jewish Studies, Panel Sessions: Bible Studies
(Jerusalem, 1988), pp. 75-85.