Introduction to Rabbinic Literature
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
In Introduction to Rabbinic Literature, legendary author and teacher Jacob Neusner distills a lifetime of scholarship into the essence of what has been received from the rabbis. This book gives readers everything they need to know to understand rabbinic literature. It explores the formative age and the forces that gave rise to rabbinic literature, and tells in a simple, straightforward way what these documents are, where to find them, how to read them, and why their content matters. Best of all, Neusner masterfully covers all this in one relatively compact volume that both novice and expert can appreciate.
In the Logos edition, this volume is enhanced by amazing functionality. Important terms link to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a wealth of other resources in your digital library. Perform powerful searches to find exactly what you’re looking for. Take the discussion with you using tablet and mobile apps. With Logos Bible Software, the most efficient and comprehensive research tools are in one place, so you get the most out of your study.
If you like this title be sure to check out the Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library (29 vols.).
- Provides insight and knowledge of rabbinic literature
- Explores the formative age and the forces that gave rise to rabbinic literature
- Discusses what the rabbinic documents are, where to find them, how to read them, and why their content matters
- Rabbinic Literature as a Whole
- Distinguishing Documents by Distinctive Characteristics: Rhetoric and Topic
- Documentary Coherence and Differentiation: The Four Logics of Coherent Discourse in Rabbinic Literature
- The Dialectical Argument in Rabbinic Literature
- The Mishnah
- The Tosefta
- The Talmud of the Land of Israel
- The Talmud of Babylonia
- Midrash: Writing with Scripture
- Mekhilta Attributed to R. Ishmael (Exodus)
- Sifra (Leviticus)
- Sifré to Numbers
- Sifré to Deuteronomy
- Genesis Rabbah
- Leviticus Rabbah
- Pesiqta deRab Kahana
- Pesiqta Rabbati
- Song of Songs Rabbah
- Ruth Rabbah
- Lamentations Rabbati
- Esther Rabbah Part One
- Rabbinic Literature and Individual Sages: Writing Without Authors
- Tractate Abot (The Fathers)
- Abot deRabbi Nathan (The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan)
- “The Targumim in the Context of Rabbinic Literature” by Paul V. McCracken Flesher
- Rabbinic Literature and the Formation of Judaism
Top Highlights
“A simple definition follows from what has been said. Rabbinic literature is the corpus of writing produced in the first seven centuries c.e. by sages who claimed to stand in the chain of tradition from Sinai and uniquely to possess the oral part of the Torah, revealed by God to Moses at Sinai for oral formulation and oral transmission, in addition to the written part of the Torah possessed by all Israel.” (Page 8)
“In the Judaism of the dual Torah, the Torah is set forth and preserved in three media, (1) a book, the Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament, (2) a memorized oral tradition, first written down in the Mishnah, ca. a.d. 200, and other ancient documents, and (3) the model of a sage who embodies in the here and now the paradigm of Moses, called a rabbi.” (Page 5)
“the fusion of Mishnah and Scripture exegesis in a single compilation” (Page 13)
“No single, unitary, linear ‘Judaism’ ever existed, from the beginnings to the present, defining an ‘orthodoxy” (Pages 5–6)
“formed the climax and conclusion of the entire canon and defined this Judaism from its time to the present” (Page 13)
Jacob Neusner is one of the world's preeminent authorities on Judaism in the first centuries C.E., and holds the position of Distinguished Research Professor of Religious Studies at the University of South Florida in Tampa, where he resides. He was ordained a rabbi by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and has published more than five hundred books on Judaism, including, The Mishnah: A New Translation, The Babylonian Talmud: A Translation and Commentary, and was editor of the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud Collection (50 vols.).