תלמוד כפרפורמנס: סוגיית ״קרות הגבר״ (בבלי יומא כ ע״ב - כא ע״א)

This article sheds a new light on the performative qualities of theBabylonian Talmud, through an analysis of one sugiya in tractate Yoma.At the center of the sugiya on the “cockcrow” (Yoma 20b-21a) there is adispute between Rav and R. Shila on the right way to translate the wordgever in the Mishnah (Yoma 1:8). After revealing the vocal features ofthis sugiya, and the many ways in which voice functions in it, weexplicate its meta-performative nature, i.e. the manners in which it pointsto its own vocal performance. The discussion about voices (animalistic,human and cosmic) serves the sugiya to explicate the Temple ritual, butalso as a key to the ritual of study in the house of study itself.Through a close textual analysis of the sugiya, its Palestinian sourcesand Babylonian elaborations, we offer a larger argument regarding thenature of the Bavli as a performative text. The Babylonian sugiya pointsto previous performances (both of the Temple and of the study house),but at the same time aims at future performances of its own study. It thus activates various circles of performance, and the movement betweenthem is one of the formative foundations of Talmudic study