Torah in Triclinia: The Rabbinic Banquet and the Significance of Architecture

In the study of early Judaism, spatiality has recently reemerged as a significant area of interest. The groundbreaking works that inform this new ‘‘spatial turn’’ continue to redefine the way to engage with the sources. One of the challenges facing such scholarship relates to the growing sense that, as far as the study of the built environment is concerned, disciplinary boundaries and their clearly differentiated methodologies often limit our ability to see the entire picture. Archaeology provides us with a valuable understanding of buildings’ chronology and style; history and anthropology penetrate the meaningful social and cultural dimensions of communal space; and the study of religious literature uncovers the legal and literary articulation of places in texts. However, scholarship that integrates these three perspectives is rare. Laura Nasrallah has recently made a similar argument in the context of early Christianity, writing: ‘‘Disciplinary boundaries, however, have impoverished the study of early Christianity and the study of classics, ancient history, and art and archaeology: we have not been able to recognize how themes such as power, justice, piety, and culture are part of far-ranging ancient conversations that are manifest not only in literature but also in archaeological remains.’’
The study of the rabbinic banquet is a case in point. Scholars from various disciplines have already demonstrated that the symposion, or its Roman parallel, the convivium, which frequently appears in rabbinic literature as an occasion for the sages’ socializing and study, had significant impact on rabbinic collegiate structures, dining procedures, ritual practices, and literary devices.8 Archaeologists have also brought to light a wide array of banquet halls (triclinia) from places of Jewish settlement in Late Antiquity.9 A comprehensive investigation of the rabbinic banquet, which takes into consideration all of these concerns, remains, however, a desideratum and would require an approach that accounted for their interdependence.