Slavery and Exile in the Book of Baruch

Abstract Words and images associated with the topic of slavery appear throughout the liturgical “book” of Baruch, helping to unify its diverse contents. Of particular interest is the manner in which the topic is employed to depict the degradations of exile as an historical, cultural, and political event, thereby creating conceptual spaces for recognizing and performing different exilic subjectivities. Inquiry along these lines also informs analysis of the work’s literary composition, most notably, by highlighting the programmatic nature of Bar 1:12, part of the cover letter that introduces the liturgy.