Rosenthal and Epstein Prize

If I had more time, like in this blog's heyday, I would describe last night's events at the big yearly Hebrew U Talmud department evening, along with the setting (stormy), food (glasses of ice water), and characters (...). But I cannot.

Prof. Henshke received the Rosenthal prize and spoke mainly about the development of the M. Pesahim concerning the commandment to expound ".ארמי עובד אבי" on the first night of Pesach. He unraveled the relationship between this M and a well known parallel in M. Bikkurim.

Hillel Gershuni, a student of mine, received the Epstein prize and spoke (to my great delight) about the relationship between the Moredet and its Sasanian parallel. This is something that Prof. Yaakov Elman has noted briefly, and Gershuni added another possibility*- that the institution of Iggeret Mered (a document about disobedience) which appears only in the Bavli and attributed (in the Yerushalmi) to Babylonian amoraim, is connected with a related Sasanian institution that requires this document to be drafted - and carefully so.

*Gershuni raised this as a possibility, and in general is less interested in influence than I am. But he used the opportunity to reflect upon two basic hermeneutical assumptions that often divide the field: Those who only consider influence if there is absolutely no possibility of internal development (Prof. Haym Soloveitchik has famously articulated this position), or those who see value in raising a possibility even if it cannot be proven beyond the shadow of a doubt.