Ger: deterritorialized immigrant in talmudic exile.

This essay reflects on the cross-border performance of the ger in the basic rabbinic text, the Talmud. It looks at ways in which the ger opens up inside the Talmudic texture a space of reflection on the borders of the rabbinic socio-political project, i.e. 'Israel'. The immigrant ger, initially an outsider, is unveiled as a paradigm of the rabbinic subject. The guiding question concerns the nature of the space in which the cross-border event of the ger takes place, namely the topo-logy of rabbinic Israel. The basic observation is the shift from biblical territorial narrative to deterritorialized Talmud. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]