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Bene Pareza: A new talmudic lexeme

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2021

Amit Gvaryahu Open the ORCID record for Amit Gvaryahu [Opens in a new window]
Amit Gvaryahu*
Affiliation:
The Martin Buber Society of Fellows, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
*
[email protected]
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Abstract

The Persian lexeme pahrēz-, pahrēxtan (inf.), “to avoid, to abstain” and also “to care, to protect”, is found in Jewish, Christian, and Mandaic magical literature. It is also current in Mandaic works, and is found in some Geonic works in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic. It has not yet been found in the Babylonian Talmud itself. In this article I discuss a recently discovered occurrence of this word in a reconstructed codex of chapters of Babylonian Talmud, found in the Cairo Genizah (GM). I begin with a reading of the talmudic sugiya. I then discuss other uses of pahrēz in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic, in other dialects of Eastern Aramaic, and in Middle Persian. I end with a re-reading of the talmudic sugiya in GM in light of the meaning of pahrēz.

Keywords

TalmudLoanwordsAramaicMagicPersian
Type
Article
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 84 , Issue 2 , June 2021 , pp. 219 - 236
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of SOAS University of London

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