Beauty or Beast?
The Pedagogical Function of Metaphor and Emotion in Midrashim on the Law of the Lovely Captive
In: Journal of Ancient JudaismSearch for other papers by Ari Mermelstein in
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This article explores the role that emotion plays in rabbinic interpretations of the law of the captive woman. Discrete “emotional communities” establish “feeling rules” through which they broadcast their ideal emotional world and the values associated with it. Different midrashim, employing rich metaphors, agree that the feeling rule in the law of the captive seeks to elicit disgust from the captor. That emotion emphasizes the otherness of its object and thereby affects the power relations that obtain between subject and object. Midrashic sources disagree, however, over whether the captor’s disgust response will motivate him to jettison the captive. At issue is the identity of the powerful party confronting the captor: a gentile plot that disgust could help him neutralize or an evil inclination which it could not. If the captor marries his captive, he will experience hate, an emotion that will confirm the otherness that he earlier failed to recognize.
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| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 320 | 75 | 7 |
| Full Text Views | 9 | 1 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 22 | 1 | 0 |
Beauty or Beast?
The Pedagogical Function of Metaphor and Emotion in Midrashim on the Law of the Lovely Captive
In: Journal of Ancient JudaismSearch for other papers by Ari Mermelstein in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
This article explores the role that emotion plays in rabbinic interpretations of the law of the captive woman. Discrete “emotional communities” establish “feeling rules” through which they broadcast their ideal emotional world and the values associated with it. Different midrashim, employing rich metaphors, agree that the feeling rule in the law of the captive seeks to elicit disgust from the captor. That emotion emphasizes the otherness of its object and thereby affects the power relations that obtain between subject and object. Midrashic sources disagree, however, over whether the captor’s disgust response will motivate him to jettison the captive. At issue is the identity of the powerful party confronting the captor: a gentile plot that disgust could help him neutralize or an evil inclination which it could not. If the captor marries his captive, he will experience hate, an emotion that will confirm the otherness that he earlier failed to recognize.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 320 | 75 | 7 |
| Full Text Views | 9 | 1 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 22 | 1 | 0 |
