Confronting the Legacies of Esau and Amalek: Historical Criticism, Jewish Extremist Violence, and Decolonial Judaism Open Access
Strater, Adam Thomas (Spring 2022)
Abstract
The figures or tropes of Esau, Edom, and Amalek have been a violent presence in the Jewish psyche for millennia. This dissertation shows how writers have used Esau, Edom, and Amalek throughout the majority of Jewish literary history as “othering” mechanisms to justify violence, real or symbolic, toward perceived “others.” Judahites in the Late Iron Age II period, then Judeans in the Second Temple period, and finally Jews from the rabbinic period to the present, created violent representations of their particular others by depicting them as Esau, Edom, and/or Amalek. By outlining the trajectory of how writers have depicted Esau, Edom, and Amalek, the dissertation highlights the ubiquity of these representations and confronts the inherent violence of associating these biblical characters with living people and communities. Lastly, by confronting the violence associated with Esau, Edom, and Amalek, the dissertation models another tactic for Jewish peacebuilders to use in their efforts to promote peace.
The method for this dissertation is highly interdisciplinary as it draws from both Hebrew Bible scholarship and Ethics. The project can be split conceptually into two halves. The first half consists of chapters one and two, in which the focus is on historical criticism of biblical, pseudepigraphic, and rabbinic texts and their depictions of Esau, Edom, and Amalek. The second half consists of chapters three and four, which are focused on how the subfields of Jewish Ethics and Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding (RCP) can be used to analyze contemporary Jewish uses of Esau, Edom, and Amalek. The dissertation ends by proposing a new “decolonial” reading of Esau, Edom, and Amalek influenced by Jewish Ethics and RCP that promotes Jewish self-reflection rather than violent othering. What unites the two halves is that they both explore the concept of the “other” by using Esau, Edom, and Amalek as litmus tests to show how one's political status, one’s sense of religious identity, and one’s construction of the other change in relation to one another.
Table of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction – 1
Outline and Structure of the Dissertation – 3
An Introductory Note on Violence – 6
Chapter 1 – Esau, Edom, and Amalek as Cyphers for the Edomites and Idumeans in
Iron Age Judah and Second Temple Judea – 9
Esau and Edom in Ancient History and in the Hebrew Bible – 11
Esau and Edom in Second Temple History and Literature – 36
Amalek in the Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Literature – 55
Conclusion: The Esau, Edom, and Amalek Motifs as Markers of Identity in the
Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Literature – 72
Chapter 2 – Israel Against Empire: Esau, Edom, and Amalek as Cyphers for Rome in
Rabbinic Literature – 75
The Succession of Gentile Occupation in the Levant – 78
Esau-Edom and Amalek and the De-Escalation of Direct Violence in Rabbinic
Literature – 109
Conclusion – 136
Chapter 3 – Esau and Amalek in Contemporary Orthodox Jewish Ideology and
Extremist Discourse – 138
Esau-Edom and Amalek in Contemporary Orthodox Judaism – 139
Esau and Amalek in Kahanist Nationalism – 149
Summary and Conclusions: Esau-Edom and Amalek and their Legacies in Kahanist
Violence – 177
Chapter 4 – Confronting the Violent Legacies of Esau-Edom and Amalek: Jewish
Cultural Violence and forming Multidirectional Memory – 179
Analysis: Jewish Historiography and Cultural Violence – 180
Response: Multidirectional Memory and Jewish Critical Caretaking – 187
Conclusion – 214
Conclusion – 217
Bibliography – 222
About this Dissertation
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