ABSTRACT
Jonathan Z. Smith famously outlined two central goals of Religious Studies-to make the familiar strange and the strange familiar. To many, rabbinic literature is indeed very strange. Written and compiled by ancient rabbis and for ancient rabbis, these texts presume the audience's fluency in the Hebrew Bible, as well as distinctively rabbinic forms of argumentation, interpretation, and reasoning. Classical rabbinic literature fleshes out gemilut hasadim and elevates its significance. Reading classical rabbinic texts through the lenses of traditional interpreters, such as the eleventh-century French commentator Rashi, gives the impression that gemilut hasadim is purely altruistic and selfless, providing no benefit to the performer. In early rabbinic literature, gemilut hasadim primarily refers to actions between humans. The Tannaim conceptualize gemilut hasadim as a broad ethical category, including as yet undefined acts. The standard understanding of gemilut hasadim in rabbinic literature is that it consists of acts that are selfless, performed and modeled by God, and are specific and concrete.
