Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- The Babylonian Talmud: an introductory note
- 1 How much of the Babylonian Talmud is pseudepigraphic?
- 2 The Babylonian Talmud: an academic work
- 3 Rabbinic views on the order and authorship of the Biblical books
- 4 Literary analysis of the sugya in Bava Kama 11a-12b
- 5 Literary analysis of the sugya in Bava Kama 20a-21a
- 6 Literary analysis of the sugya on taking the blame on oneself
- 7 Literary analysis of the sugya of ‘half and half’
- 8 Rabbi Joshua b. Hananiah and the elders of the house of Athens
- 9 Bavli and Yerushalmi on Rabban Gamaliel and Rabbi Joshua
- 10 Bavli and Yerushalmi on Rabbi Dosa and the Sages
- 11 The Rabbi Banaah stories in Bava Batra 58a-b
- 12 The device of addehakhi, ‘just then’
- 13 Conclusion
- Glossary
- Notes
- Bibliography
The Babylonian Talmud: an introductory note
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- The Babylonian Talmud: an introductory note
- 1 How much of the Babylonian Talmud is pseudepigraphic?
- 2 The Babylonian Talmud: an academic work
- 3 Rabbinic views on the order and authorship of the Biblical books
- 4 Literary analysis of the sugya in Bava Kama 11a-12b
- 5 Literary analysis of the sugya in Bava Kama 20a-21a
- 6 Literary analysis of the sugya on taking the blame on oneself
- 7 Literary analysis of the sugya of ‘half and half’
- 8 Rabbi Joshua b. Hananiah and the elders of the house of Athens
- 9 Bavli and Yerushalmi on Rabban Gamaliel and Rabbi Joshua
- 10 Bavli and Yerushalmi on Rabbi Dosa and the Sages
- 11 The Rabbi Banaah stories in Bava Batra 58a-b
- 12 The device of addehakhi, ‘just then’
- 13 Conclusion
- Glossary
- Notes
- Bibliography
Summary
Although this book is a technical study of a complex literary work, it is hoped that it will be of interest to non-specialists in the field as well as to Talmudic scholars. This note provides a brief sketch of the background and the technical terms used for the benefit of readers who come to the subject without any prior knowledge.
In the scheme developed in Rabbinic Judaism, the doctrine of the Oral Torah (Torah she-be-'al peh) looms very large. According to this doctrine, Moses received at Sinai a detailed elaboration of the laws and doctrines contained in the Pentateuch, the Written Torah (Torah she-bikhetav). The Oral Torah embraces, too, the later teachings of the Sages and teachers of Israel as a continuing process. Especially during the first two centuries of the present era, the teachings of the Oral Torah were discussed and debated (an essential feature in the whole process at this period is argument on the correctness or incorrectness of this or that opinion) by the Tannaim (sing. Tanna, from the Aramaic root teni, ‘to teach’), although this name was only given to them later. In their own day the Tannaim were usually referred to as the Sages (ḥakhamim). Among the more important of the Tannaim were: the rival Houses of Hillel and Shammai; Rabban Johanan ben Zakkai; Rabbi Eliezer; Rabbi Joshua; Rabbi Akiba and his disciples, Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Judah, Rabbi Simeon; and, another Judah, Rabbi Judah the Prince.
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- Information
- Structure and Form in the Babylonian Talmud , pp. 1 - 5Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991