ABSTRACT
Scholars have traditionally neglected or downplayed the importance of visuality and the visual in rabbinic texts and daily life. Yet closer studies of rabbinic corpora reveal the multiple and profound ways that rabbis regulated modes of seeing as a means to direct daily activities among rabbinic Jews and to circumscribe their relationships with Levantine and Babylonian cultures that encompassed them. This discussion uses several examples to demonstrate the significance of visuality in rabbinic corpora and its importance for decoding and illuminating more nuanced features of rabbinic life inside and outside of rabbis’ regional communities.
