The Aroma of Righteousness

Scent and Seduction in Rabbinic Life and Literature

Deborah A. Green

• Publisher: Penn State University Press
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9780271066233
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Jewish Theology

In The Aroma of Righteousness, Deborah Green explores images of perfume and incense in late Roman and early Byzantine Jewish literature. Using literary methods to illuminate the rabbinic literature, Green demonstrates the ways in which the rabbis' reading of biblical texts and their intimate experience with aromatics build and deepen their interpretations. The study uncovers the cultural associations that are evoked by perfume and incense in both the Hebrew Bible and midrashic texts and seeks to understand the cultural, theological, and experiential motivations and impulses that lie behind these interpretations. Green accomplishes this by examining the relationship between the textual traditions of the Hebrew Bible and Midrash, the surviving evidence from the material culture of Palestine in the late Roman and early Byzantine periods, and cultural evidence as described by the rabbis and other Roman authors.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Note on Style
• Chapter One-Tracking the Trail of Scent: An Introduction
• Chapter Two-The Aroma of Daily Life: Aromatics in Roman and Rabbinic Culture
• Chapter Three-Election and the Erotic: Biblical Portrayals of Perfume and Incense
• Chapter Four-Spicy Ideologies: Fragrance and Rabbinic Beliefs
• Chapter Five-Soothing Odors: Death, Suffering, and Sacrifice
• Chapter Six-Emphemerality and Fragrance: Desire for Divine Immanence
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Source Index
• General Index
• Back Cover