One Goy, Multiple Language Games

This chapter analyzes the characteristic features of the goy as a specific type of other, in both its legal (halakhic) and homiletical (aggadic) manifestations, as well as the division of labor between these two genres of the rabbinic corpus. It reconstructs the goy as a figure and a discursive position, and examines the technology of separation associated with it in both legal (laws of idolatry; purity; pedigree; murder, theft, recovering lost items; etc.) and non-legal (embryology; eschatology; daily liturgy; homilies on the exodus and the Sinai covenant; etc.) domains. The chapter demonstrates the consolidation of the binary, total, individualized discursive formation of Jew-goy opposition, through each of these aspects, and traces the triadic structure in which the opposition is embedded in the aggadic discourse, with God serving as the mediating position between the two parties. Analyzing the different domains together exposes the depth and comprehensiveness of the new structure.