R. Kiperwasser (Hebrew Univ.): Mother, Stepmother, and Symbolic Violence: Land of Israel and Babylonia in Rabbinic Traditions

In this paper, I examine the rabbinic usage of the "mother/stepmother" metaphor when the sages reflect on the migration from Diaspora to the Land of Israel. In the rhetoric of the Palestinian rabbis, this linguistic construction contributed to the idea that migration to Holy Land was superior to remaining in the Diaspora. However, in the texts of their Babylonian colleagues the metaphor was altered so that it emerged as more sympathetic towards the Diaspora. Dialectical nuances between these two groups sometimes play a role in the shaping of Otherness markers and help draw the border between them. Using P. Bourdieu's terminology, the "mother/stepmother" metaphor in these different literary traditions expresses a clash between the owners of symbolic capital and the applicants for their share in it. The paper aims to shed light on the processes of shaping two types of rabbinic identity.