D. Kraemer (Jewish Theological Seminary, New York): Competing Jewish Homelands: Babylon and the Land of Israel in Rabbinic Discourse

The rabbis of “Talmudic” Babylonia recognized the elevated status of the Holy Land they had inherited from earlier Jewish tradition, but they refused to grant that ascendency in the “here and now.” In this paper, Kraemer will illustrate how Babylonian rabbis overturned the inherited hierarchy, claiming for themselves virtually full prerogative and even superiority in the things that matter most in the life of a Jew, insisting on the full legitimacy of the long-time Jewish homeland that was Babylon.