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Talmud (Biblical Studies)

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  1. Introduction
  2.  
  3. The term Talmud, derived from the Hebrew root למד/lmd (to learn), is a generic title applicable to two distinct but closely related anthological literary corpora, namely the Talmud Bavli, or the Babylonian Talmud, compiled between the 6th and 7th centuries CE and revised for some time thereafter, and the Talmud Yerushalmi, literally the Jerusalem Talmud, but more accurately known as the Palestinian Talmud, compiled between the 3rd and 5th centuries CE. Both Talmuds are arranged as exegetical commentaries on the Mishnah, the fundamental code of rabbinic law composed in Palestine during the early 3rd century CE. Although likely meant to function as aids to Mishnaic study, the finished products include extensive rabbinic texts and traditions of tangential relevance to their principal exegetical frameworks. The literary form of Talmud thus encompasses both the Mishnah itself and the diverse literary materials accrued in its discussion, collectively known as the Gemara (the completion). The influence of the Babylonian Talmud upon traditional Jewish thought and practice has brought the later of the two Talmudic corpora to the attention of generations of biblical scholars, who have mined its pages for insights as to the reception of the Hebrew Scriptures among the ancient rabbinic sages to whom its words are ascribed. Also of interest have been the Babylonian Talmud’s purported record of Jewish life and thought during the time of Jesus, long thought to bear witness to the intellectual world of the early Christians, as well as its occasional references to Jesus and his early followers, likewise thought to corroborate the narrative content of the New Testament. The Palestinian Talmud, leaner in its exposition of scriptural texts and traditionally held to lesser religious authority among Jewish readers, has attracted considerably less attention than its Babylonian counterpart. Recent studies, however, on the evolution of the Talmudic literary tradition have tended to locate both the Palestinian and Babylonian corpora amid a cultural continuum dating no earlier than the Mishnah. The perceived value, therefore, of either Talmudic corpus to the comparative study of early Christian life and thought is in need of serious critical reevaluation. Nevertheless, developments in the areas of theory and method now available to critical readers stand to reinforce the reputation of both Talmudic corpora as vital witnesses to Jewish practice and belief up to and including their respective eras of composition. This article will proceed on the aforesaid premises, relating the analytical parameters of contemporary Talmudic scholarship to the disciplinary interests of contemporary biblical scholarship.
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  5. Introductory Works
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  7. Academic introductions to the study of the Talmud generally appear within more comprehensive critical overviews of classical rabbinic literature and culture, among which the sources included here are recommended. Articles specific to the Talmud are included in Safrai, et al. 1987–2006 and Katz 2006 (cited under General Overviews). Hayes 2007, Goldenberg 2007, and Schiffman 1991 are introductory textbooks on early Judaism featuring extensive discussion of the rabbinic movement and its literature. Fonrobert and Jaffee 2007 and Strack and Stemberger 1996 offer more elaborate overviews of these topics better suited to advanced readers.
  8.  
  9. Fonrobert, Charlotte Elisheva, and Martin S. Jaffee, eds. The Cambridge Companion to the Talmud and Rabbinic Literature. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
  10. DOI: 10.1017/CCOL0521843901Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  11. A collection of articles addressing aspects of classical rabbinic thought and literary culture from a variety of contemporary social-, historical-, and literary-critical perspectives. An indispensable resource for novice readers seeking to know the realities behind the rhetorical worlds of the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds.
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  13. Goldenberg, Robert. The Origins of Judaism: From Canaan to the Rise of Islam. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
  14. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511818790Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  15. A fine introductory-level textbook situating the rise of the rabbinic movement within its broader near Eastern Jewish context. Includes extensive discussion of the Babylonian Talmud along with selections from its text.
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  17. Hayes, Christine Elizabeth. The Emergence of Judaism. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2007.
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  19. An accessible introductory-level textbook focusing on the origins of the rabbinic movement and its contributions to postclassical Judaism. Includes extensive discussion of the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds along with annotated selections from their texts and related rabbinic traditions. Reprinted in 2010 (Minneapolis: Fortress).
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  21. Katz, Steven T., ed. The Cambridge History of Judaism. Vol. 4, The Late Roman-Rabbinic Period. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
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  23. A compendious reference work featuring in-depth articles on all aspects of the Jewish experience in Late Antiquity, including but not limited to the formations of the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds.
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  25. Neusner, Jacob. Introduction to Rabbinic Literature. New York: Doubleday, 1994.
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  27. Following a general introduction to the rabbinic literary corpus, Neusner expounds his so-called documentary hypothesis, a controversial theory characterizing each component of the corpus as a univocal text documenting its author or authors’ singular conception of Judaism’s overarching religious system. Includes extensive selections from the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds and other rabbinic texts in English translation.
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  29. Safrai, Shmuel, Zeev Safrai, Joshua Schwartz, and Peter J. Tomson, eds. The Literature of the Sages. 2 vols. Assen, The Netherlands: Van Gorcum, 1987–2006.
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  31. A compendious reference work featuring in-depth articles on classical rabbinic texts and intellectual culture, including but not limited to the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds. Articles include extensive bibliographies and histories of prior research.
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  33. Schiffman, Lawrence H. From Text to Tradition: A History of Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism. Hoboken, NJ: Ktav, 1991.
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  35. An intermediate-level textbook situating the rise of the rabbinic movement within the continuum of Second Temple-era Jewish thought and practice. Accompanying primary texts, including but not limited to the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds, are provided in Schiffman 1998 (cited under Textual Selections). Recommended for readers with some prior experience in the study of Judaism.
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  37. Strack, H. L., and Günter Stemberger. Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash. 2d ed. Translated by Markus Bockmuehl. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996.
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  39. The most thoroughgoing academic introduction to the Talmud and classical rabbinic literature currently available. Includes summary treatments of topics in the early history of the rabbinic movement, the compositions and receptions of all major and minor rabbinic texts, and modern scholarship on said texts along with extensive bibliographies. Recommended for intermediate and advanced readers.
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  41. General Overviews
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  43. Introductory monographs on the Talmud tend to focus primarily on the Babylonian Talmud and are oriented toward applied study of its text within the context of traditional Judaism (see, e.g., Steinsaltz 2006). While instructive, Neusner 1983 and Neusner 1986 offer overarching interpretations of the two Talmuds as holistic expressions of their compilers’ respective religious systems, utilizing an empirical approach largely out of step with contemporary scholarship on classical rabbinic culture. Epstein 1962 is widely recognized as a groundbreaking contribution to critical Talmudic scholarship, although its date and its Hebrew-language idiom render it most beneficial for advanced readers. The introductory articles listed below— Goldberg 1987a, Goldberg 1987b, Kalmin 2006, and Moscovitz 2006—are less comprehensive but typically more accessible than the aforesaid monograph-length studies.
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  45. Epstein, J. N. Mevo’ot le-Sifrut ha-Amoraim: Introduction to Amoraitic Literature; Babylonian Talmud and Yerushalmi. Edited by E. Z. Melamed. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1962.
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  47. A classic methodological introduction to the study of the two Talmuds and related rabbinic texts of their era. Although the author’s analytical methods are somewhat dated, his masterful forensic description of the materials and critical discourses at issue remains a touchstone of modern Talmudic scholarship. All materials are presented in modern Hebrew. Highly recommended for intermediate and advanced readers.
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  49. Goldberg, Abraham. “The Babylonian Talmud.” In Oral Tora, Halakha, Mishna, Tosefta, Talmud, External Tractates. Vol. 1 of The Literature of the Sages. Edited by Shmuel Safrai, 323–345. Assen, The Netherlands: Van Gorcum, 1987a.
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  51. Presents a summary statement of the traditional Jewish understanding of the Babylonian Talmud as a Diasporic counterpart to the Palestinian Talmud, albeit with a longer history of scribal redaction. Although the author’s hesitance to acknowledge the dependence of the Babylonian text on the Palestinian text is in need of revision, his forensic account of the Talmudic corpus is generally reliable.
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  53. Goldberg, Abraham. “The Palestinian Talmud.” In Oral Tora, Halakha, Mishna, Tosefta, Talmud, External Tractates. Vol. 1 of The Literature of the Sages. Edited by Shmuel Safrai, 303–322. Assen, The Netherlands: Van Gorcum, 1987b.
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  55. Presents a summary statement of the traditional Jewish understanding of the Palestinian Talmud as the major literary repository for post-Mishnaic rabbinic legal traditions in Roman and Byzantine Palestine. Although some of the author’s assumptions vis-à-vis the precise dates and locations of its composition are in need of revision, his forensic description of the Talmudic corpus is generally reliable.
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  57. Kalmin, Richard. “The Formation and Character of the Babylonian Talmud.” In The Late Roman-Rabbinic Period.The Cambridge History of Judaism. Edited by Steven T. Katz, 840–876. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
  58. DOI: 10.1017/CHOL9780521772488Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  59. A survey of current scholarly opinions regarding the variegated origins and institutional settings of the Babylonian Talmud’s composition. Emphasizes recent scholarly refinements in historical-critical methodology, comparative analysis with the Palestinian Talmud and other rabbinic legal and exegetical traditions, and comparative analysis with non-Jewish cultures and cultural artifacts of late ancient Mesopotamia.
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  61. Moscovitz, Leib. “The Formation and Character of the Jerusalem Talmud.” In The Late Roman-Rabbinic Period. Vol. 4 of The Cambridge History of Judaism. Edited by Steven T. Katz, 663–677. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
  62. DOI: 10.1017/CHOL9780521772488Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  63. A survey of current scholarly opinions regarding the variegated origins and institutional settings of the Palestinian Talmud’s composition. Emphasizes recent scholarly refinements in historical-critical methodology, comparative analysis with the Babylonian Talmud and other rabbinic legal and exegetical traditions, and comparative analysis with non-Jewish cultures and cultural artifacts of Roman-Byzantine Palestine.
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  65. Neusner, Jacob. Judaism in Society: The Evidence of the Yerushalmi: Toward the Natural History of a Religion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983.
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  67. An effort to read the variegated contents of the Palestinian Talmud as documentary witnesses to a coherent and self-contained theology of Judaism current to late Roman-Byzantine Palestine. Includes extensive textual selections and analysis. Although helpful as a key to Talmudic theology, the author’s idiosyncratic perspective should be considered with caution.
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  69. Neusner, Jacob. Judaism: The Classical Statement: The Evidence of the Bavli. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986.
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  71. An effort to read the varied contents of the Babylonian Talmud as witnesses to a coherent and self-contained theology of Judaism current to late ancient Mesopotamia and distinct from that of the Palestinian Talmud. Includes extensive textual selections accompanied and analysis. Although helpful as a key to Talmudic theology, the author’s idiosyncratic perspective should be considered with caution.
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  73. Steinsaltz, Adin. The Essential Talmud. Rev. ed. New York: Basic Books, 2006.
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  75. A learned and accessible introduction to the Babylonian Talmud covering its contents, its form, its history, approaches to its study, and its contributions to the Jewish religious and intellectual traditions. Light on citations and bibliography, the book should be used as a primer on the legacy of the Talmud and the role of Talmudic scholasticism in contemporary Jewish practice and belief.
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  77. Reference Works
  78.  
  79. The resources included here are recommended primarily for readers possessing basic literacy in Aramaic or Hebrew. The concordances Kosovsky 1976–1983, Kosovsky 1954–1989, and Kosovsky 1979–2004 are helpful aids for locating references to key Talmudic terminologies and personalities, while Frank 1994, Jastrow 1886–1903, Kohut 1878–1892, Krauss 1898–1899, Sokoloff 2002, and Sperber 1984 are dictionaries that provide translations and tools for lexical analysis. The English-language index Retter 2011, although less technical in nature than the aforesaid resources, should be accessible to readers of all skill levels.
  80.  
  81. Frank, Yitzḥak. The Practical Talmud Dictionary. 2d ed. Jerusalem: Ariel Institute, 1994.
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  83. An accessible guide to Talmudic study, including introductory materials, Aramaic-Hebrew-English lexicon, and appendices addressing key abbreviations, acronyms, weights, measures, coins, and numerals. Highly recommended for novice readers.
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  85. Jastrow, Marcus. Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature. 2 vols. New York: Putnam, 1886–1903.
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  87. A comprehensive Aramaic/Hebrew-to-English dictionary covering the entirety of the classical rabbinic literary corpus, including the two Talmuds. Includes extensive cross-referencing of lexical exempla. Recommended for general reference only. Readers interested in critical language study are referred to the more recent works, Sokoloff 2002 and Sperber 1984. Reprinted frequently since initial publication.
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  89. Kohut, Alexander, ed. Sefer ’Arukh ha-Shalem: Aruch Completum sive lexicon vocabula et res, quae in libris Targumicis, Talmudicis et Midraschicis continentur, explicans auctore Nathane filio Jechielis. 8 vols. Vienna: Brög, 1878–1892.
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  91. A revised and supplemented edition of the classical Sefer he-’Arukh (The arranged book) of Nathan ben Jehiel of Rome (b. 1035–d. 1106), the first comprehensive critical lexicon of the Talmud and related rabbinic texts. Kohut updates Jehiel’s text with materials culled from the Musaf (Supplement) of Benjamin Musaphia (b. 1606–d. 1675) as well as his own lexicographical research. Written in the classical Hebrew idiom of the original ’Arukh, Kohut’s edition is a valuable resource for advanced readers.
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  93. Kosovsky, Binyamin. Otsar Shemot le-Talmud Bavli: Thesaurus Nominum quae in Talmude Babilonico Reperiuntur. 5 vols. Jerusalem: Ministry of Education and Culture, 1976–1983.
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  95. A comprehensive onomasticon or index of proper names in the Babylonian Talmud supplementing Kasovsky and Kasovsky 1954–1989. Supplementary materials are in modern Hebrew. Published in conjunction with the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (New York).
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  97. Kosovsky, Chayim Yehoshua, and Binyamin Kasovsky. Otsar Leshon ha-Talmud: Concordantiae Verborum quae in Talmude Babilonico Reperiuntur. 42 vols. Jerusalem: Ministry of Education and Culture, 1954–1989.
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  99. A comprehensive lexical concordance of the Babylonian Talmud based on the Venice Bomberg text. Includes index of scriptural references (Vol. 42, edited by Eliyahu Kasovsky). Supplementary materials are in modern Hebrew. Published in conjunction with the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (New York).
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  101. Kosovsky, Moshe. Otsar Leshon Talmud Yerushalmi: Concordance to the Talmud Yerushalmi (Palestinian Talmud). 10 vols. Jerusalem: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1979–2004.
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  103. A comprehensive lexical concordance of the Palestinian Talmud based on the Venice Bomberg text. Includes indices of proper names (Vol. 9) and scriptural references (Vol. 10). Supplementary materials are in modern Hebrew. Published in conjunction with the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (New York).
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  105. Krauss, Samuel. Griechische und lateinische Lehnwörter im Talmud, Midrasch und Targum. 2 vols. Berlin: Calvary, 1898–1899.
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  107. A compendious key to Greek and Latin loanwords appearing in transliteration in Talmudic and related rabbinic texts. Includes German translation and analysis of selected terms. Although more comprehensive in scope, Krauss’s knowledge of Greek and Latin lexicography lacks the precision of Sperber 1984. A useful resource nevertheless.
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  109. Retter, Daniel. HaMafteach: Talmud Bavli Indexed Reference Guide. New York: Feldheim, 2011.
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  111. A comprehensive English-language index of names, places, and topics in the Babylonian Talmud. An invaluable reference tool.
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  113. Sokoloff, Michael, ed. A Dictionary of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic. Ramat-Gan, Israel: Bar-Ilan University Press, 2002.
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  115. A comprehensive Aramaic-to-English dictionary covering the Babylonian Talmud and related Mesopotamian Jewish textual evidences. Includes tools for comparative linguistic analysis and extensive cross-referencing of lexical exempla. Published in conjunction with Johns Hopkins University Press. See also Sokoloff’s Dictionary of Jewish Palestinian Aramaic (2002).
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  117. Sperber, Daniel. A Dictionary of Greek and Latin Legal Terms in Rabbinic Literature. Ramat-Gan, Israel: Bar-Ilan University Press, 1984.
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  119. A helpful guide to frequently occurring Greek and Latin loanwords in classical rabbinic texts, including but not limited to the two Talmuds. Includes definitions of original Greek and Latin terminologies and cross-referencing of lexical exempla within the classical rabbinic literary corpus.
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  121. Bibliographies
  122.  
  123. The most comprehensive bibliographies currently available are Bokser 1979 and Goodblatt 1979, now updated in Goodblatt 2010. Schürer 1973–1987 and Strack and Stemberger 1996 offer more succinct but no less helpful bibliographical overviews. While arguably less advantageous for topically specific Talmudic researches, the compendious Index of Articles on Jewish Studies (RAMBI) features continual updates and is freely available on the Internet. The periodically updated Index of References Dealing with Talmudic Literature, (Saul Lieberman Institute of Talmud Research 2003), a database on CD-ROM, has the added advantage of indexing monograph-length studies. Krupp 1987 provides a helpful list of resources for archival study of Talmudic texts.
  124.  
  125. Bokser, Baruch M. “An Annotated Bibliographical Guide to the Study of the Palestinian Talmud.” In Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt. Vol. 2.19.2. Edited by Hildegard Temporini and Wolfgang Haase, 139–256. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1979.
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  127. A comprehensive, classified bibliographical essay on the Palestinian Talmud with extensive annotations. This resource is especially useful for research on Jewish reception history and early modern scholarship. Reprinted in The Study of Ancient Judaism. Vol. 2, The Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds, edited by Jacob Neusner (New York: Ktav, 1981), pp. 1–119.
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  129. Goodblatt, David. “The Babylonian Talmud.” In Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt. Vol. 2.19.2. Edited by Hildegard Temporini and Wolfgang Haase, 257–336. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1979.
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  131. A comprehensive, classified bibliographical essay on the Babylonian Talmud with extensive annotations. This resource is especially useful for research on Jewish reception history and early modern scholarship. Reprinted in The Study of Ancient Judaism. Vol. 2, The Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds, edited by Jacob Neusner (New York: Ktav, 1981), pp. 120–199.
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  133. Goodblatt, David. “A Generation of Talmud Studies.” In The Talmud in Its Iranian Context. Edited by Carol Bakhos and M. Rahim Shayegan, 1–20. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2010.
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  135. An up-to-date bibliographical essay on trends in critical scholarship since the publication of Bokser 1979 and Goodblatt 1979. A fine orientation to contemporary research on the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds.
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  137. Index of Articles on Jewish Studies.
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  139. The Index of Articles on Jewish Studies (RAMBI) is maintained by the National Library of Israel. This bibliographic database catalogues scholarly periodicals and collections of essays on all subjects of Jewish interest, including but not limited to the two Talmuds and related topics in classical rabbinic literature and culture. The multilingual user interface accommodates multiple search parameters. An invaluable research tool.
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  141. Krupp, Michael. “Manuscripts of the Babylonian Talmud.” In Oral Tora, Halakha, Mishna, Tosefta, Talmud, External Tractates.Vol. 1 of The Literature of the Sages. Edited by Shmuel Safrai, 346–366. Assen, The Netherlands: Van Gorcum, 1987.
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  143. Catalogues and describes major and minor medieval manuscripts of the Babylonian Talmud. A useful resource for text-critical study.
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  145. Saul Lieberman Institute of Talmud Research. Index of References Dealing with Talmudic Literature. CD-ROM. New York: Saul Lieberman Institute of Talmud Research of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 2003.
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  147. A CD-ROM database of scholarly books and articles dealing with Talmudic texts and related rabbinic evidences. Provides links to relevant primary texts to facilitate research. Updates to database available for a one-time subscription fee.
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  149. Schürer, Emil. The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ. 3 vols. Revised and edited by Géza Vermes, Fergus Millar, Martin Goodman, Matthew Black, and Pamela Vermes. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1973–1987.
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  151. This comprehensive reference work, although updated since its original 1885–1891 publication, remains most useful as a bibliographical guide to early modern scholarship on ancient Judaism. Discussion of the two Talmuds appears in Volume 1, pp. 70–90, and intermittently throughout.
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  153. Strack, H. L., and Günter Stemberger. Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash. Translated by Markus Bockmuehl. 2d ed. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996.
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  155. This comprehensive resource includes extensive methodological introductions and bibliographies for major aspects of critical research on both the Palestinian Talmud (pp. 164–189) and the Babylonian Talmud (pp. 190–224). Highly recommended for intermediate and advanced readers.
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  157. Texts and Textual Criticism
  158.  
  159. Standard texts of the Palestinian Talmud are based on the Venice Bomberg edition of 1523–1524, as reproduced in the Krotoszyn edition of 1866 and the Vilnius (Vilna) edition of 1922. Standard texts of the Babylonian Talmud are based on the Venice Bomberg edition of 1520–1523 (2nd ed., 1531), as reproduced in the Vilnius edition of 1880–1886. Facsimile reprints of the Krotoszyn and the two Vilnius editions are widely available on the Hebrew book market. The Bomberg editions serve as the base texts of the Global Jewish Database (Responsa Project) of Bar-Ilan University, The Complete Israeli Talmud (Institute for the Complete Israeli Talmud 1972–), Steinsaltz 1967–2010, and Steinsaltz 1987. These editions, the first Talmudic texts to appear in print, were based on obscure manuscript sources that no longer should be considered authoritative in view of the range of medieval manuscripts and other textual traditions now known to exhibit extensive variant readings, including but not limited to passages revised and/or excised by Bomberg’s editors for fear of Christian censorship (see In Christianity). Many of these variations are catalogued in Rabbinovicz 1868–1897. A critical edition of the Palestinian Talmud is available in Sussman 2001, and a synoptic edition comparing major manuscripts is in Schäfer and Becker 1991–2001. Although a complete critical edition of the Babylonian Talmud has yet to appear, the synoptic edition of The Sol and Evelyn Henkind Talmud Text Databank offers readers vital tools for text-critical analysis.
  160.  
  161. Bar-Ilan University. Global Jewish Database (Responsa Project). 20th ed. DVD-ROM. Ramat-Gan, Israel: Bar-Ilan University, 2012.
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  163. This DVD-ROM database includes searchable Hebrew and Aramaic texts of major Jewish religious treatises including the standard Vilnius texts of the two Talmuds and other classical rabbinic works. Features limited hypertext abilities for cross-referencing scriptural quotations. Also available as a subscription-based online database with multilingual user interface. Recommended for advanced users.
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  165. Institute for the Complete Israeli Talmud. The Complete Israeli Talmud. Jerusalem: Institute for the Complete Israeli Talmud/Yad HaRav Herzog, 1972–.
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  167. Also known as Diqduqe Soferim ha-Shalem (“The Complete Diqduqe Soferim”) in reference to Rabbinovicz 1868–1897. An ongoing series of reprints of the Vilnius edition of the Babylonian Talmud accompanied by critical apparatuses listing selected textual variants from major and minor medieval manuscripts and rabbinic commentaries. Publication of tractates in the Mishnaic order of Nashim is complete. Publication of tractates in the Mishnaic order of Zeraim is currently underway.
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  169. Rabbinovicz, Raphael N. Diqduqe Soferim: Variae Lectiones in Mischnam et in Talmud Babylonicum. 16 vols. Munich: Huber & Zupnik, 1868–1897.
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  171. A thorough register of variant readings between the Vilnius text and major medieval manuscripts of the Babylonian Talmud. Primary texts are in Aramaic with supplementary materials in Hebrew. The author produced no volumes for tractates in the Mishnaic order of Nashim. Reprinted in 12 vols. (New York, 1960).
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  173. Schäfer, Peter, and Hans-Jürgen Becker, eds. Synopse zum Talmud Yerushalmi. 4 vols. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 1991–2001.
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  175. A complete synoptic edition of the standard printed text of the Palestinian Talmud alongside major and minor medieval manuscripts. Corresponding Aramaic texts are arranged in parallel columns for easy comparison.
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  177. The Sol and Evelyn Henkind Talmud Text Databank.
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  179. A subscription-based online database with multilingual user interface providing transcriptions of the standard printed text of the Babylonian Talmud along with major and minor medieval manuscripts. All texts are in Aramaic. Recommended for advanced users.
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  181. Steinsaltz, Adin, ed. Talmud Bavli. 44 vols. Jerusalem: Israel Institute for Talmudic Publications/Milta, 1967–2010.
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  183. A complete edition of the Babylonian Talmud based on the Vilnius text and featuring punctuation of the Aramaic text, brief Hebrew-language commentary, and selective textual emendations culled from manuscript variants. Some volumes available in English. A comprehensive new English edition is currently in publication (Steinsaltz 2012, cited under Translations). Highly recommended for novice readers.
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  185. Steinsaltz, Adin, ed. Talmud Yerushalmi: Masekhet Pe’ah. Jerusalem: Israel Institute for Talmudic Publications/Milta, 1987.
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  187. A planned edition of the Palestinian Talmud based on the Vilnius text and featuring punctuation of the Aramaic text, brief Hebrew-language commentary, and selective textual emendations in view of major manuscript variants. The only tractate currently in print is Peah, for which the Babylonian Talmud lacks an equivalent.
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  189. Sussmann, Yaacov, ed. Talmud Yerushalmi: According to Ms. Or. 4720 (Scal 3) of the Leiden University Library with Restorations and Corrections. Jerusalem: Academy of the Hebrew Language, 2001.
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  191. A transcription of the Leiden manuscript of the Palestinian Talmud, the only medieval edition currently known to preserve the Talmudic text in its entirety, with critical corrections and notes. Includes a detailed introduction in modern Hebrew.
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  193. Translations
  194.  
  195. The following recommendations focus on major English-language resources, except where indicated. References to texts and resources in other languages can be found in the works listed under Bibliographies. Epstein 1935–1959, Guggenheimer 2000–, Steinsaltz 1989–1999, and Steinsaltz 2012– present Aramaic texts accompanied by translations, with brief but effective explanatory notes. Avemarie, et al. 1975–; and Neusner 1982–1993 are more succinct, presenting only translations and limited text-critical commentary.
  196.  
  197. Avemarie, Friedrich, Hans-Jürgen Becker, Martin Hengel, Frowald Gil Hüttenmeister, and Peter Schäfer, eds. Übersetzung des Talmud Yerushalmi. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 1975–.
  198. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  199. An ongoing German-language translation of the Palestinian Talmud incorporating critical insights culled from various printed and scribal textual evidences. Translations are accompanied by critical notes, intermittent annotations, scriptural references, and indices. Recommended for advanced readers.
  200. Find this resource:
  201. Epstein, Isidore, ed. The Babylonian Talmud. 35 vols. London: Soncino, 1935–1959.
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  203. The Soncino edition of the Babylonian Talmud is the most widely cited and most widely available English-language version currently available. The British-inflected translation is based on the standard Vilnius edition and presented with facsimile reproductions of that edition, along with helpful annotations and scriptural references. Complete with index volume. Recommended for readers of all skill levels.
  204. Find this resource:
  205. Guggenheimer, Heinrich W. The Jerusalem Talmud: Edition, Translation, and Commentary. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2000–.
  206. DOI: 10.1515/9783110800487Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  207. This ongoing series presents a newly edited text of the Palestinian Talmud based on the standard Vilnius edition along with an accessible American English translation, intermittent annotations, scriptural references, and indices. The edition is complete for the Mishnaic orders of Zeraim, Nashim, and Neziqin. Production of volumes in the Mishnaic order of Moed is currently underway.
  208. Find this resource:
  209. Neusner, Jacob. The Talmud of the Land of Israel: A Preliminary Translation and Explanation. 35 vols. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982–1993.
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  211. A complete English translation of the Palestinian Talmud. Translations are presented in hypothetical schematic outlines with occasional form-critical commentary. Text is based on the standard Vilnius edition. Text-critical annotation is sparse and translation technique utilitarian. Scriptural citations appear in parentheses within the body of the Talmudic text. No Aramaic-language texts or resources are provided. See also Neusner’s The Talmud of Babylonia: An American Translation (1984–1995).
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  213. The Soncino Talmud. DVD-ROM. Chicago: Davka, 2010.
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  215. A DVD-ROM database containing the complete digitized Aramaic text of the Vilnius edition of the Babylonian Talmud along with the translation and supplementary materials of the Soncino edition (see Epstein 1935–1959). Also includes enhanced facsimiles of the original Vilnius text. Digitized texts are searchable and include hypertext links to scriptural references. Available for Windows and Macintosh. A useful resource for intermediate and advanced readers.
  216. Find this resource:
  217. Steinsaltz, Adin. The Talmud: The Steinsaltz Edition. Translated and edited by Israel V. Berman. 21 vols. New York: Random House, 1989–1999.
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  219. Selected tractates of the Babylonian Talmud in a lucid American English translation based on the author’s Hebrew-language edition (Steinsaltz 1967–2010, cited under Texts and Textual Criticism). Translations and generous annotations are presented alongside punctuated Aramaic texts. Designed for applied Talmudic study but recommended for novice critical readers as well. Volumes in this closed series cover Taanit, Ketubot, Bava Metzia, Sanhedrin, and Menahot.
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  221. Steinsaltz, Adin (Even-Israel). The Koren Talmud Bavli. Jerusalem: Koren, 2012–.
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  223. An ongoing series of the complete Babylonian Talmud in a lucid English translation based on the author’s Hebrew-language edition (Steinsaltz 1967–2010, cited under Texts and Textual Criticism). Translations and generous annotations are presented alongside punctuated Aramaic texts. Designed for applied Talmudic study but recommended for novice critical readers as well. The complete set is scheduled for publication by 2020.
  224. Find this resource:
  225. Textual Selections
  226.  
  227. The resources included here present selected Talmudic texts in English translation. All are recommended for novice and intermediate-level readers. Bokser and Bokser 1989, Stemberger 2008, and Solomon 2009 are well suited for readers seeking general overviews of the Talmud and its contents, while Rubenstein 2002 and Schiffman 1998 are better oriented toward study of major Talmudic topics and literary themes.
  228.  
  229. Bokser, Ben Zion, and Baruch M. Bokser, eds. The Talmud: Selected Writings. New York: Paulist, 1989.
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  231. This book offers readers a primer on classical rabbinic Judaism as seen through the lens of the Babylonian Talmud. Topics addressed include rabbinic law, scriptural exegesis, marriage, prayer, spirituality, and theology. Includes topical index.
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  233. Rubenstein, Jeffrey L., ed. Rabbinic Stories. New York: Paulist, 2002.
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  235. This book offers readers selections of rabbinic narrative exegesis highlighting the folkloric element of the Talmudic genre. Texts are culled from the two Talmuds and a variety of other classical rabbinic works. Topics addressed include rabbinic ethics, scriptural exegesis, historiography, and theodicy. Includes topical index. An engaging and highly recommended resource.
  236. Find this resource:
  237. Schiffman, Lawrence H., ed. Texts and Traditions: A Source Reader for the Study of Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism. Hoboken, NJ: Ktav, 1998.
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  239. Selections from the two Talmuds abound in this voluminous collection of primary texts on ancient Judaism, particularly in section 12 (“The Sea of the Talmud”), pp. 619–670.
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  241. Solomon, Norman, ed. The Talmud: A Selection. London: Penguin, 2009.
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  243. Focusing on the Babylonian Talmud, this volume offers readers selections from every tractate of every Mishnaic order, accompanied by brief annotations, an introductory overview of the Talmud’s history, appendices with aids for Talmudic study, and topical and scriptural indices. Comprehensive and lucidly presented, this book is an indispensable teaching tool. Highly recommended.
  244. Find this resource:
  245. Stemberger, Günter. Der Talmud: Einführung, Texte, Erläuterungen. 4th ed. Munich: Beck, 2008.
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  247. A selection of Talmudic texts in German translation with accompanying commentary. Texts are arranged by form (legal and narrative) and literary genre. Includes extensive introductory materials on Talmudic literature and classical rabbinic culture and an illuminating discussion of the Talmud’s history of reception.
  248. Find this resource:
  249. Commentaries
  250.  
  251. Traditional Talmudic commentaries tend to focus solely on the Babylonian Talmud and to be geared toward applied religious study, such as Meiri 1995 (and see cf. Bokser 1979 and Goodblatt 1979, both cited under Bibliographies, for further examples). Compare Ilan 2008–, which emulates the traditional style, albeit from a decidedly modern feminist perspective. While some of the editions cited under Translations include intermittent critical commentary, dedicated academic commentaries are rare. Halivni 1968– offers valuable text-critical insights, while Neusner 1994–1999 and Neusner 1998–1999 offer form-critical insights.
  252.  
  253. Halivni, David Weiss. Meqorot u-Masorot. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1968–.
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  255. An ongoing series of text-critical commentaries on the Babylonian Talmud, reconstructing its proposed textual sources. Features regular reference to parallel texts in the Palestinian Talmud and other classical rabbinic treatises. Volumes in print cover the entire Mishnaic order of Nashim, tractates Shabbat, Eruvin, Pesahim, Yoma, Hagigah, Bava Qamma, Bava Metzia, and Bava Batra. Commentary and supplementary materials are in modern Hebrew. Recommended for advanced readers.
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  257. Ilan, Tal, ed. A Feminist Commentary on the Babylonian Talmud. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2008–.
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  259. An ongoing series of exegetical commentaries analyzing selected passages from the Babylonian Talmud from contemporary feminist and otherwise gendered perspectives of the order typically marginalized by the androcentric authors of the Mishnah and Gemara. Volumes in print include tractates Sukkah, Betzah, and Taanit, all in the Mishnaic order of Moed, as well as volumes of critical essays introducing the project and forthcoming entries in the Mishnaic order of Qodashim. See also Ilan, et al. 2007, cited under Gender and Sexuality.
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  261. Meiri, Menahem ben Solomon. Bet ha-Beḥirah: Beth Habehira; Commentarius in Tractatum Talmudicum. Edited by Kalman Schlesinger, et al. 20 vols. Jerusalem: Institute for the Complete Israeli Talmud/Yad Harav Herzog, 1995.
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  263. Compiled by the 13th-century Catalan rabbi Menahem Meiri, Bet ha-Beḥirah (The house of choice) is a digest of postclassical rabbinic commentaries on the Babylonian Talmud. Intended to summarize the Talmud’s contents for practical religious application, it remains widely read in traditional Jewish academic circles to this day. This edition transcribes the received Hebrew text of Meiri’s work with intermittent annotation listing significant manuscript variants.
  264. Find this resource:
  265. Neusner, Jacob. The Talmud of Babylonia: An Academic Commentary. 36 vols. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1994–1999.
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  267. A comprehensive form-critical commentary on the Babylonian Talmud based on Neusner 1982–1993, cited under Translations.
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  269. Neusner, Jacob. The Talmud of the Land of Israel: An Academic Commentary to the Second, Third, and Fourth Divisions. 28 vols. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1998–1999.
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  271. A form-critical commentary on the Palestinian Talmud based on Neusner 1982–1993, cited under Translations. Series includes only tractates in the Mishnaic orders of Moed, Nashim, and Neziqin.
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  273. Composition
  274.  
  275. Where the assumption that the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds developed through independent traditions of Mishnaic jurisprudence was once commonplace, recent studies on their contexts and means of composition have served to situate the two Talmuds within a common creative milieu. That milieu encompassed the diverse temporal and cultural world of the Amoraim, the 3rd to 5th century rabbinic sages to whose intellectual schools the majorities of both the Talmuds are ascribed. Except where noted (i.e., Neusner 1993, cited under Comparative Studies), the studies included in the subsections below largely adhere to the revised analytical assumption that the two Talmuds were composed in sequence, with the Palestinian version predating and sometimes informing the content and form of the Babylonian. As for the latter, the once commonplace assumption that the form of the Babylonian Talmud was dictated by the Amoraim has since given way to more complex theories of textual evolution ceding greater creative credit to the Saboraim of the 6th and 7th centuries (see, e.g., Kalmin 1989, cited under Babylonian Talmud), or to later anonymous rabbinic editors up to the age of the Geonim, around the early 9th century (see, e.g., the papers collected in Rubenstein 2005, cited under Babylonian Talmud). It is in view of the latter discussion that the more technical studies referenced below typically operate. Novice readers are therefore advised to consult the resources cited under General Overviews for convenient summaries of these critical interpretive debates.
  276.  
  277. Palestinian Talmud
  278.  
  279. Although the textual practices that contributed to the formation of the Palestinian Talmud are more obscure than those of the Babylonian Talmud, the theoretical work of Lieberman 2008 (originally published in 1934) has contributed much to this effort. See also Jaffee 2001 for a major methodological study speaking to the methods of literary production current to the Talmud’s age of composition.
  280.  
  281. Jaffee, Martin S. Torah in the Mouth: Writing and Oral Tradition in Palestinian Judaism, 200 BCE–400 CE. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
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  283. An engaging study of the written and oral literary cultures of Palestinian Jewry in the formative age of the rabbinic movement. Offers readers an enlightening prelude to the composition of the Palestinian Talmud marrying traditional and contemporary approaches toward reconstructing the origins of early rabbinic texts.
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  285. Lieberman, Saul. Hayerushalmi Kiphshuto: A Commentary Based on Manuscripts of the Yerushalmi and Works of the Rishonim and Midrashim in Mss. and Rare Editions. 3d ed. New York and Jerusalem: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 2008.
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  287. Originally published in 1934, this commentary on selected tractates of the Palestinian Talmud includes a fine introduction outlining the author’s influential text-critical approach toward retrieving its sources and describing its editorial emendations through comparative analysis of said sources (pp. 15–21). Covers tractates Shabbat, Eruvin, and Pesahim in the Mishnaic order of Moed. Commentary and supplementary materials are in Hebrew. An essential resource for advanced readers.
  288. Find this resource:
  289. Babylonian Talmud
  290.  
  291. Where some contemporary commentators,, such as Yaakov Elman, have sought to defend the traditional notion that the Babylonian Talmud was largely produced in oral-cultural reception of its components over the centuries preceding its production(see Elman 1994), the current critical consensus attributes the greater part of its production to multiple and complex processes of textual transmission. Methodological studies such as Freidman 2000, Friedman 2010, Hauptman 1988, and Kalmin 1989, as well as those collected in Rubenstein 2005, offer insights into these processes as well as the debates surrounding their contemporary critical reconstruction.
  292.  
  293. Elman, Yaakov. Authority and Tradition: Toseftan Baraitot in Talmudic Babylonia. New York: Yeshiva University Press, 1994.
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  295. A major study arguing for the diversified oral transmission of nonrecorded Tannaitic or pre-Talmudic rabbinic legal traditions prior to their incorporation into the Babylonian Talmud. Cf. Hauptman 1988 and Friedman 2000 for studies situating these developments in more literarily-fixed textual traditions.
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  297. Friedman, Shamma. “Uncovering Literary Dependencies in the Talmudic Corpus.” In The Synoptic Problem in Rabbinic Literature. Edited by Shaye J. D. Cohen, 35–57. Providence, RI: Brown Judaic Studies, 2000.
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  299. An accessible case study demonstrating the author’s text-critical approach to assessing the utilization and ostensibly deliberate editorial adaptation of Tannaitic or pre-Talmudic legal rabbinic texts in the Babylonian Talmud. Cf. Elman 1994 for a more traditional approach situating these developments in oral-cultural contexts.
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  301. Friedman, Shamma. Sugyot be-Heker ha-Talmud ha-Bavli: Asufat meḥḳarim be-ʻinyane mivneh herkev u-nosaḥ. New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 2010.
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  303. A collection of the author’s highly sophisticated studies on the textual mechanics and text-critical analysis of the Babylonian Talmud. All materials are in modern Hebrew. Recommended for advanced readers.
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  305. Hauptman, Judith. Development of the Talmudic Sugya: Relationship between Tannaitic and Amoraic Sources. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1988.
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  307. A thoroughgoing treatment of the utilization and literary development of Tannaitic or pre-Talmudic rabbinic legal and narrative texts and traditions in the Babylonian Talmud. A fine resource for readers seeking to trace the evolution of rabbinic scriptural exegesis from the Mishnah to the Talmud. Cf. Elman 1994 for a more traditional approach situating these developments in oral-cultural contexts.
  308. Find this resource:
  309. Kalmin, Richard. The Redaction of the Babylonian Talmud: Amoraic or Saboraic? Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 1989.
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  311. An attempt to date the composition of the Babylonian Talmud on the basis of statistical analyses of its citations of relatively late rabbinic sages and the unique lexical forms associated with them. Concludes that the Talmud achieved its approximate received form during the age of the Saboraim and without significant editorial input by the Stammaim, the anonymous scribal editors proposed by Halivni and his followers.
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  313. Rubenstein, Jeffrey L., ed. Creation and Composition: The Contribution of the Bavli Redactors (Stammaim) to the Aggada. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2005.
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  315. A collection of articles by various authors presenting diverse methodological statements and case studies probing the questions of when, where, and by whose hands the Babylonian Talmud achieved its received form. Halivni’s “Aspects of the Formation of the Talmud” (pp. 339–360) offers an accessible English-language introduction to analytical methods and assumptions informing the author’s text-critical commentary on the Babylonian Talmud (Halivni 1968–, cited under Commentaries). An instructive resource for comparison of current analytical approaches.
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  317. Comparative Studies
  318.  
  319. The following studies compare the two Talmuds for the sake of determining their interrelationship, or a lack thereof. Where Neusner 1993 upholds the traditional notion that the two textual corpora were produced independently of one another, Goldenberg 2000, Hayes 1997, Gray 2005, and Kalmin 1994 speak to the emerging critical consensus positing the later Babylonian text as having been modeled in part on its Palestinian predecessor.
  320.  
  321. Goldenberg, Robert. “Is ‘the Talmud’ a Document?” In The Synoptic Problem in Rabbinic Literature. Edited by Shaye J. D. Cohen, 3–10. Providence, RI: Brown Judaic Studies, 2000.
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  323. A methodological critique of Neusner’s construction of the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds as independent textual corpora and unique statements of their respective authors’ interpretations of the Mishnah and its religious system. Cf. Neusner 1993.
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  325. Gray, Alyssa M. A Talmud in Exile: The Influence of Yerushalmi Avodah Zarah on the Formation of Bavli Avodah Zarah. Providence, RI: Brown Judaic Studies, 2005.
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  327. A comprehensive effort to demonstrate the textual affinities between a major tractate of the Babylonian Talmud and its alleged Palestinian antecedent. Recommended for intermediate readers seeking an accessible point of entry into comparative textual analysis of the two Talmuds.
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  329. Hayes, Christine. Between the Babylonian and Palestinian Talmuds: Accounting for Halakhic Differences in Selected Sugyot from Tractate Avodah Zarah. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.
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  331. An important study demonstrating the propensity of the authors of the Babylonian Talmud to adapt older Palestinian texts and traditions to meet the unique rhetorical needs of their legal discourse. A lucid and accessible exercise in comparative analysis of the two Talmuds. Highly recommended for intermediate and advanced readers.
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  333. Kalmin, Richard. Sages, Stories, Authors, and Editors in Rabbinic Babylonia. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1994.
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  335. A collection of studies illustrating the tendency of the Babylonian Amoraim to appropriate and adapt Palestinian narrative traditions to their native literary and linguistic idioms. Offers an introduction to the author’s preferred method of comparative literary analysis arguably more accessible than (Kalmin 1989, cited under Babylonian Talmud).
  336. Find this resource:
  337. Neusner, Jacob. The Bavli’s Unique Voice: A Systematic Comparison of the Talmud of Babylonia and the Talmud of the Land of Israel. 7 vols. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1993.
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  339. An exhaustive argument against the emerging critical consensus positing the dependency of the Babylonian Talmud upon the Palestinian. Against this view, the author characterizes each Talmud as a coherent and irreducible reading of the Mishnah designed to promote the uniquely conceived religious program or “Judaism” of its respective author or authorship group. Cf. Goldenberg 2000 for a constructive critique of this approach.
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  341. Historical Contexts
  342.  
  343. Although the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds are widely acknowledged to share a common intellectual history, the disparate temporal and geographical situations of their compositions demand careful consideration of their distinctive rhetorical and exegetical agendas. The Palestinian Talmud mainly took shape in the largely Jewish social environs of Roman Palestine, while the Babylonian Talmud was produced amid a minority Jewish population in Sasanian Mesopotamia. The conditions of Jewish life under Roman rule, therefore, undoubtedly impacted the content and form of the Palestinian Talmud, while the conditions of Jewish life under Persian rule likewise impacted the Babylonian. Consequently, the following entries are classified by literary corpus, although several deal with topics bridging the historical contexts of both Talmuds: Gafni 1997, Goodblatt 1994, Hirshman 2009, Kalmin 2006, Lieberman 1994, and Oppenheimer 2005. See also the studies cited under Talmudic Historiography.
  344.  
  345. Gafni, Isaiah M. Land, Center and Diaspora: Jewish Constructs in Late Antiquity. Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997.
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  347. An essential study on perceptions of sacred geography in classical rabbinic culture. Focuses on Palestine but with frequent reference to cultural exchanges with Jewish population centers in Babylonia and elsewhere in the Mediterranean Diaspora.
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  349. Goodblatt, David. The Monarchic Principle: Studies in Jewish Self-Government in Antiquity. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 1994.
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  351. A study on the origin and development of Jewish communal governance in Roman Palestine as seen primarily through the lens of the rabbinic literary tradition. While focusing on the office of the Roman-appointed Jewish Patriarch, the author also addresses the parallel evolution of the Persian-appointed Jewish Exilarch.
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  353. Hirshman, Marc. The Stabilization of Rabbinic Culture, 100 C.E.–350 C.E.: Texts on Education and Their Late Antique Context. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
  354. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195387742.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  355. A study of the origins of the rabbinic movement focusing on the development and popular diffusion of Jewish religious education. Includes extensive citation of the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds among other classical rabbinic texts documenting the practice of Torah study in Roman Palestine.
  356. Find this resource:
  357. Kalmin, Richard. Jewish Babylonia between Persia and Roman Palestine. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
  358. DOI: 10.1093/0195306198.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  359. A creative and thought-provoking study on the reception and literary reinvention of Palestinian rabbinic texts and other Jewish narrative traditions in the Babylonian Talmud. The author assumes a conservative stance on the impact of Persian imperial culture in line with his view of the Babylonian Talmud as a literary corpus closely modeled on its Palestinian antecedent (see Kalmin 1989, cited under Babylonian Talmud and Kalmin 1994, cited under Comparative Studies).
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  361. Lieberman, Saul. Greek in Jewish Palestine/Hellenism in Jewish Palestine. New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1994.
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  363. Originally published in 1942 and 1950, these seminal studies represent two of the most influential critical attempts to read the works of the rabbinic sages against their classical Hellenistic and Roman backdrops. Although the author’s methodology is somewhat dated, his impetus to correlate Talmudic and Greco-Roman literary evidences remains a benchmark of contemporary scholarship.
  364. Find this resource:
  365. Oppenheimer, Aharon. Between Rome and Babylon: Studies in Jewish Leadership and Society. Edited by Nili Oppenheimer. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2005.
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  367. A collection of articles on Jewish demographics and communal organization in Roman Palestine and Sasanian Babylonia as seen through the lens of the rabbinic literary tradition. Although the author typically invests a rather high degree of documentary quality in the Talmudic evidences at issue, his integrative application of nonrabbinic sources generally lends credibility to his interpretations of the former.
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  369. Palestinian Talmud
  370.  
  371. While the scholarly literature on Jewish life and culture in Roman Palestine is vast, the following studies represent efforts to assess these subjects primarily through the lens of the Talmudic tradition. Alon 1980–1984, Lapin 2012, and Schwartz 2001, as well as the studies collected in Hezser 2010, offer dedicated historical studies incorporating data from a variety of non-Talmudic sources. Hezser 1997, Miller 2006, and Schwartz 2010, as well as the studies collected in Schäfer, et al. 1998–2000, deal with notable issues in the critical social-scientific study of the rabbinic movement in Palestine during the era of the Talmud’s composition.
  372.  
  373. Alon, Gedaliah. The Jews in Their Land in the Talmudic Age (70–640 C.E.). 2 vols. Translated by Gershon Levi. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1980–1984.
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  375. A classic, if somewhat dated, study corralling a wide range of textual evidences in the service of a comprehensive portrait of Jewish life in Roman Palestine. The author’s positivistic interpretation of rabbinic sources lends his account a heavy rabbinic bias, arguably to the heuristic disadvantage of nonrabbinic ways of Jewish life.
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  377. Hezser, Catherine. The Social Structure of the Rabbinic Movement in Roman Palestine. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 1997.
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  379. This book offers a comprehensive and intricately detailed study of rabbinic social activity in Roman Palestine, highlighting the interaction of rabbinic sages with one another, with other Jews, with local non-Jews, with Diaspora communities, with Roman officials, and so forth. The author argues for a fairly limited measure of rabbinic influence on Jewish popular culture during the Talmudic era. Cf. Miller 2006 for an alternative approach to this key question.
  380. Find this resource:
  381. Hezser, Catherine, ed. The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Daily Life in Roman Palestine. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
  382. DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199216437.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  383. A collection of topical studies on Jewish life and culture in Roman Palestine during the Talmudic era. Covers topics such as social, economic, domestic, and legal history; religion; education; leisure; the development of the synagogue; and the Jewish clash with local pagan and Christian cultures. A valuable reference work.
  384. Find this resource:
  385. Lapin, Hayim. Rabbis as Romans: The Rabbinic Movement in Palestine, 100–400 CE. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
  386. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195179309.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  387. An important study on the early history of the rabbinic movement, situating its development within the cultural framework of provincial Palestine. Emphasizing the privileged roles of the rabbinic sages as Roman subjects and citizens as well as their discontentment with Roman rule, the author makes the case for reading the Palestinian Talmud and related texts as products of a uniquely nuanced Jewish age.
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  389. Miller, Stuart S. Sages and Commoners in Late Antique ‘Ereẓ Israel: A Philological Inquiry into Local Traditions in Talmud Yerushalmi. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2006.
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  391. A compendious and carefully crafted effort to locate the authorship of the Palestinian Talmud on the basis of its citations of local traditions pertaining to select cities and towns of the Galilee region of northern Palestine and its vicinity. Against Hezser 1997 and others, the author argues for a considerable measure of rabbinic influence on Jewish society, if largely restricted to locales with especially prominent rabbinic populations.
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  393. Schäfer, Peter, and Catherine Hezser, eds. The Talmud Yerushalmi and Graeco-Roman Culture. 3 vols. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 1998–2000.
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  395. A series of case studies predicated on reading the Palestinian Talmud and related textual evidences against their Hellenistic and Roman contexts. Supplemented with topical and scriptural indices, these volumes are indispensable resources for the contemporary critical study of the rabbinic movement in Roman Palestine.
  396. Find this resource:
  397. Schwartz, Seth. Imperialism and Jewish Society, 200 B.C.E. to 640 C.E. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001.
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  399. A major study on the impact of imperial culture on Jewish life and thought in Roman Palestine. Includes extensive discussion of the rabbinic movement and the dynamic evolution of its popular influence based on critical analyses of the Palestinian Talmud and related texts. Essential reading.
  400. Find this resource:
  401. Schwartz, Seth. Were the Jews a Mediterranean Society? Reciprocity and Solidarity in Ancient Judaism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010.
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  403. A critical study of Jewish social relations in Hellenistic and Roman Palestine, emphasizing the commonality of Jewish practice with the cultural conventions of neighboring societies. Includes extensive discussion of rabbinic social values in the Palestinian Talmud (pp. 110–165).
  404. Find this resource:
  405. Babylonian Talmud
  406.  
  407. Due to the scarcity of literary and material evidences at our disposal, the study of Jewish life and culture in Sasanian Babylonia is largely dependent on data culled from the Babylonian Talmud. Gafni 1990, Gafni 2006, and Goodblatt 1975 represent exemplary efforts to mobilize the Talmudic text in the service of social-scientific analysis, while the compendious study Neusner 1965–1970 capably situates the Talmudic evidence within the broader Mesopotamian cultural landscape attested in non-Jewish sources of the Talmudic age. Elman 2007 and Secunda 2010, as well as the studies collected in Bakhos and Shayegan 2010, propose to shed further light on the Babylonian Talmud’s context on the basis of comparative evidence drawn from later Persian or Iranian literary sources, entailing a potentially constructive if methodologically tentative new analytical framework.
  408.  
  409. Bakhos, Carol, and M. Rahim Shayegan, eds. The Talmud in Its Iranian Context. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2010.
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  411. A collection of articles analyzing the Babylonian Talmud in view of its allusions to the dominant cultures of Sasanian Persia. Topics covered include rabbinic knowledge of Persian law, popular religion, scholastic culture, and imperial history. See also Elman 2007 and Secunda 2010.
  412. Find this resource:
  413. Elman, Yaakov. “Middle Persian Culture and Babylonian Sages: Accommodation and Resistance in the Shaping of Rabbinic Legal Tradition.” In The Cambridge Companion to the Talmud and Rabbinic Literature. Edited by Charlotte Elisheva Fonrobert and Martin S. Jaffee, 165–197. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
  414. DOI: 10.1017/CCOL0521843901Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  415. An overview of issues concerning the analysis of the Babylonian Talmud in light of classical Persian texts and culture, focusing on the social conditions of Jewish jurisprudence in postclassical Mesopotamia. See also Bakhos and Shayegan 2010 and Secunda 2010.
  416. Find this resource:
  417. Gafni, Isaiah M. Yehude Bavel bi-Tekufat ha-Talmud. Jerusalem: Zalman Shazar Center, 1990.
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  419. A comprehensive history of Jewish civilization in Parthian and Sasanian Babylonia as seen through the lens of the Babylonian Talmud and related textual and material evidences. Written in modern Hebrew. See Gafni 2006 for an English-language summary statement.
  420. Find this resource:
  421. Gafni, Isaiah M. “The Political, Social, and Economic History of Babylonian Jewry, 224–638 CE.” In The Late Roman-Rabbinic Period. Vol. 4 of The Cambridge History of Judaism. Edited by Steven T. Katz, 792–820. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
  422. DOI: 10.1017/CHOL9780521772488Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  423. A summary overview of Jewish civilization in Parthian and Sasanian Babylonia as seen through the lens of the Babylonian Talmud and related textual and material evidences. Highly recommended for novice readers.
  424. Find this resource:
  425. Goodblatt, David. Rabbinic Instruction in Sasanian Babylonia. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1975.
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  427. A historical study of rabbinic scholasticism, education, and popular instruction in Sasanian Babylonia as depicted in the Babylonian Talmud and related textual evidences. Recommended for advanced readers.
  428. Find this resource:
  429. Neusner, Jacob. A History of the Jews in Babylonia. 5 vols. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1965–1970.
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  431. A voluminous history of Jewish civilization in Parthian and Sasanian Babylonia, including extensive documentation and textual selections from the Babylonian Talmud. Although the author’s historical positivism dates his work, his careful comparative analysis of parallel Talmudic texts remains a vital methodological tool.
  432. Find this resource:
  433. Secunda, Shai. “Reading the Talmud in Iran: Hermeneutical Frameworks for the Contextual Study of the Babylonian Talmud.” Jewish Quarterly Review 100.2 (2010): 310–342.
  434. DOI: 10.1353/jqr.0.0081Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  435. A methodological essay arguing for the advantage of comparative analysis between the Babylonian Talmud and classical Persian texts. A fine introduction to an emerging discipline in the field of critical Talmudic scholarship. See also Bakhos and Shayegan 2010 and Elman 2007.
  436. Find this resource:
  437. Talmudic Jurisprudence
  438.  
  439. The occurrence and function of scriptural allusions in Talmudic literature is an area of critical study generally subsumed under the study of midrash, or rabbinic scriptural exegesis. The Talmudic genre is characterized by extensive use of the midrashic literary forms halakhah (the way), or legal exegesis, and aggadah (telling), or narrative exegesis. Yet the distinction between legal and narrative exegesis is descriptive rather than prescriptive. The following entries, therefore, deal chiefly with methodological issues in the study of Talmudic halakhah, the midrashic form most characteristic of the Talmudic genre, albeit not to the exclusion of related aggadic traditions. Ben-Menahem 2006, Halivni 1986, and Moscovitz 2002 deal with the technical elements of Talmudic legal discourse, including its textual and hermeneutical mechanics. The essays collected in Hezser 2003 probe the objective realities of rabbinic jurisprudence in Roman Palestine and Sasanian Babylonia, highlighting the impact of non-Jewish laws and legal systems on the Talmudic legal imagination. Berkowitz 2006, Gafni 2007, Halberstam 2010, Hidary 2010, and Wimpfheimer 2011 assume theoretical viewpoints on the function of Talmudic legal exegesis in view of its limited practical applicability.
  440.  
  441. Ben-Menahem, Hanina. “Talmudic Law: A Jurisprudential Perspective.” In The Late Roman-Rabbinic Period. Vol. 4 of The Cambridge History of Judaism. Edited by Steven T. Katz, 877–898. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
  442. DOI: 10.1017/CHOL9780521772488Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  443. An attempt to characterize Talmudic legal exegesis as a mode of academic discourse. Acknowledging the limited capacity of the rabbinic sages to regulate their societies according to the terms of the Torah, the author construes their complex legal discussion as theoretical exercises in religious jurisprudence.
  444. Find this resource:
  445. Berkowitz, Beth A. Execution and Invention: Death Penalty Discourse in Early Rabbinic and Christian Cultures. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
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  447. A judicious effort to situate the abstract Talmudic legal discourses on capital punishment in their varied socio-rhetorical contexts. Focusing on the Palestinian Talmud, the author proposes to read the Talmudic law as an expression of resistance against the severity of the Roman imperial law to which Jewish and Christian legislators of the Talmudic age were actually subject.
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  449. Gafni, Isaiah. “Rabbinic Historiography and Representations of the Past.” In The Cambridge Companion to the Talmud and Rabbinic Literature. Edited by Charlotte Elisheva Fonrobert and Martin S. Jaffee, 295–312. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
  450. DOI: 10.1017/CCOL0521843901Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  451. A methodological essay on the critical assessment of Talmudic narrative traditions concerning events and personages of the Israelite and Jewish past. Addressing the key rabbinic concepts of periodization and causality, the author argues that fairly idealized historical consciousness of the sages had a subtle but significant effect on their approaches to present-day halakhic jurisprudence.
  452. Find this resource:
  453. Halberstam, Chaya T. Law and Truth in Biblical and Rabbinic Literature. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010.
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  455. Offering a philosophical perspective on classical rabbinic legal exegesis, this book examines questions of truth and justice in Talmudic jurisprudence. The author emphasizes the tendency of the sages to challenge the moral absolutes of the Torah by virtue of their legislative indeterminacy in matters of personal ownership and culpability.
  456. Find this resource:
  457. Halivni, David Weiss. Midrash, Mishnah, and Gemara: The Jewish Predilection for Justified Law. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1986.
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  459. This book attempts to trace the evolution of legal dialectic from its origins in early rabbinic scriptural exegesis to its role as the primary mode of religious instruction in the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds. An accessible English-language overview of the author’s text-critical approach to the Babylonian Talmud (see Halivni 1968–, cited under Commentaries).
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  461. Hezser, Catherine, ed. Rabbinic Law in Its Roman and Near Eastern Context. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2003.
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  463. A collection of articles on the varied historical contexts of Talmudic legal exegesis. Studies focus on the commonalities and disparities between the rhetorical ambit of rabbinic legislation and the parameters of its implementation in the actual legal arenas of Roman Palestine and Sasanian Babylonia.
  464. Find this resource:
  465. Hidary, Richard. Dispute for the Sake of Heaven: Legal Pluralism in the Talmud. Providence, RI: Brown Judaic Studies. 2010.
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  467. A study of rabbinic attitudes toward religious diversity within Judaism from the abstract perspective of Talmudic jurisprudence. Assuming a somewhat apologetic objective, the author highlights the social challenges faced by the rabbinic sages in attempting to address the incidence of Jewish practices and beliefs at odds with their own and yet within tolerable limits thereof.
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  469. Moscovitz, Leib. Talmudic Reasoning: From Casuistics to Conceptualization. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2002.
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  471. A sophisticated effort to read Talmudic discourse from a rigorously structuralist analytical perspective. Assuming the operation of a synthetic intellectual process between the lines of the Babylonian Talmud, the author reads its legal abstracts as conceptual or symbolic expressions of its authors’ deeper theological concerns. Recommended for advanced readers.
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  473. Wimpfheimer, Barry S. Narrating the Law: A Poetics of Talmudic Legal Stories. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011.
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  475. A creative attempt to describe Talmudic legal discourse as a distinctive type of narrative exegesis depicting the social dynamics of classical rabbinic scholastic culture. Focusing on the Babylonian Talmud, the author analyzes select passages from literary-critical perspectives emphasizing their underlying rhetorical concerns over their overt legislative agendas. A stimulating read.
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  477. Talmudic Culture
  478.  
  479. Given the wide range of topics and source materials covered in its pages, it is often difficult to categorize the Talmud’s discourses as formal examples of exegesis. The flexible nature of their discourse allowed the rabbis and their literary executors to inscribe the Talmud with materials nominally tied to their readings of the Hebrew Scriptures yet also rooted in the common sensibilities and social conventions of their environments. Today, therefore, scholars presuming to analyze elements of rabbinic thought and practice expressed in Talmudic texts propose to describe their objects of inquiry as elements of the Talmud’s culture. This open-ended categorization allows contemporary readers the latitude to discern coherent patterns of thought within the Talmudic corpus without imposing artificial epistemological boundaries. The following topics should therefore be taken not as strict generic distinctions but merely as guidelines for further investigation.
  480.  
  481. Folklore
  482.  
  483. Much of what is typically classified as Talmudic narrative exegesis or aggadah is not scriptural exegesis per se but material better described as folklore, or stories involving biblical and rabbinic personalities. Although much of this content originated in earlier midrashic texts, the following studies address examples of rabbinic lore originating within the Talmudic corpus, and often as a function of their Talmudic literary forms. Kalmin 1999 and Fishbane 2003 highlight the unique characteristics of Babylonian narrative exegesis in view of selected examples of context-specific developments of earlier Palestinian materials. Rubenstein 1999, Rubenstein 2003, and Rubenstein 2010 offer accessible case studies demonstrating the merits of reading the Babylonian Talmud as a decidedly late composition relative to the texts and traditions.
  484.  
  485. Fishbane, Michael A. Biblical Myth and Rabbinic Mythmaking. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
  486. DOI: 10.1093/0198267339.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  487. A text-critical study on the reception and interpretation of Israelite mythology in classical and postclassical rabbinic sources. Focusing on the creation narrative, the divine combat myth, and related testimonies, the author offers a comprehensive critical account of the multifarious influences of these legendary scriptural motifs on Talmudic and early Kabbalistic thought.
  488. Find this resource:
  489. Kalmin, Richard. The Sage in Jewish Society of Late Antiquity. London: Routledge, 1999.
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  491. Contrasting rabbinic self-perceptions in Roman Palestine and Sasanian Babylonia, this study offers a unique perspective on the disparate social conditions mediating the depiction of Israel’s past and present in the two Talmuds and related texts. An enlightening demonstration of the unique exegetical features of Talmudic aggadah or narrative midrash amid the broader generic category.
  492. Find this resource:
  493. Rubenstein, Jeffrey L. Talmudic Stories: Narrative Art, Composition, and Culture. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.
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  495. An engaging, highly readable introduction to the text-critical analysis of Talmudic narratives or stories involving rabbinic sages. Focusing primarily on the Babylonian Talmud, the author advances Halivni’s theory of a Stammaitic or anonymous editorial stratum, although not to the exclusion of alternative theories involving its use of earlier Palestinian sources. Recommended for readers of all skill levels.
  496. Find this resource:
  497. Rubenstein, Jeffrey L. The Culture of the Babylonian Talmud. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003.
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  499. A companion volume to Rubenstein 1999, examining Babylonian rabbinic culture in light of text-critical analyses of the redacted Babylonian Talmud and its source materials. Major topics covered include rabbinic education, social values, and heresiology.
  500. Find this resource:
  501. Rubenstein, Jeffrey L. Stories of the Babylonian Talmud. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010.
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  503. A companion volume to Rubenstein 1999 and Rubenstein 2003, highlighting Talmudic narratives concerning discipleship, collegiality, and leadership in the rabbinic academy, as well as astrology, theodicy, and divine revelation.
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  505. Gender and Sexuality
  506.  
  507. Contemporary critical scholarship on the Talmud and rabbinic culture more generally tends to be especially critical of the tendency of the sages to think and to write on behalf of a privileged male elite; that is, to speak to their own disciples rather than to the Jewish people on the whole. This unfortunate ancient tendency has had the effect of silencing the voices and marginalizing the needs of those contemporary readers not disposed to consent to the rabbis’ typically androcentric and heterosexual perspective. Cohen 1998 and Fonrobert 2000 represent contemporary efforts to deconstruct this phenomenon. Boyarin 1993 and Ilan, et al. 2007 attempt to recover alternatively gendered perspectives in the Talmud’s pages.
  508.  
  509. Boyarin, Daniel. Carnal Israel: Reading Sex in Talmudic Culture. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.
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  511. A literary-critical study of gender and sexuality in Talmudic and related texts. Assesses rabbinic discourses on women in the Hebrew Scriptures and ancient Jewish society in view of the traditional, androcentric anthropologies of Judaism understood by their authors. A thought-provoking and highly recommended work.
  512. Find this resource:
  513. Cohen, Aryeh. Rereading Talmud: Gender, Law and the Poetics of Sugyot. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1998.
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  515. An admirable, if challenging, attempt to read the Babylonian Talmud through the analytical lens of postmodern literary theory. Focusing on the structure of the Talmudic sugya, or literary subunit, the author proposes to discern coherence in the text’s generically variegated legal and narrative contents in view of their shared literary functions within the solipsistic cultural context of the Babylonian rabbinic academies.
  516. Find this resource:
  517. Fonrobert, Charlotte Elisheva. Menstrual Purity: Rabbinic and Christian Reconstructions of Biblical Gender. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2000.
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  519. A critical study of rabbinic attitudes toward women and gender in view of the Talmudic laws of the niddah, or the woman in menstruation. Drawing upon biblical traditions and contemporary Christian discourses, the author argues that the rabbis utilized the concept of ritual purity as a rhetorical apparatus for excluding women from their intellectual circles and limiting their activity to the domestic realm. Essential reading.
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  521. Ilan, Tal, Tamara Or, Dorothea M. Salzer, Christiane Steuer and Irina Wandrey, eds. A Feminist Commentary on the Babylonian Talmud: Introduction and Studies. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2007.
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  523. A collection of articles on women and women’s issues in the historical-critical and contemporary theological interpretation of the Babylonian Talmud and related texts. Meant as an introductory companion to the series Ilan 2008–, cited under Commentaries.
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  525. Theology and Philosophy
  526.  
  527. The terms “theology” and “philosophy” are problematic when applied to the Talmud, as the rabbinic sages made no such distinctions in reference to their variegated discourses. As aspects, however, of their intellectual culture, the categories of theology and philosophy are instructive nonetheless. The following studies, therefore, offer insight onto both philosophical and theological issues in the study of Talmudic and related rabbinic texts. In the absence of a definitive historical-critical study on these subjects, Urbach 1975 represents the most comprehensive effort to date to expound upon the range of intellectual constructs and ritual activities typifying classical rabbinic culture as a phenomenon distinct from general Jewish thought and practice in Antiquity. See, however, Kraemer 1990, Jacobs 2005, and Maccoby 2002 for more recent and more methodologically current efforts toward similar ends. Heinemann 1977, Kraemer 1996, Rosen-Zvi 2011 offer key case studies on the internal evolution of rabbinic thought. Boyarin 2009 and Howland 2011 attempt to situate the intellectual culture of the Babylonian sages in their wider Hellenistic cultural milieu.
  528.  
  529. Boyarin, Daniel. Socrates and the Fat Rabbis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009.
  530. DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226069180.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  531. An attempt to situate the philosophical discourses of the Babylonian Talmud in the context of the uninhibited Hellenistic intellectual culture of late ancient Mesopotamia. The author’s literary-critical analysis proceeds on the premise of reading the Talmud largely as a reflection of the values and social conventions of its anonymous editors. An engaging read, if often abstract.
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  533. Heinemann, Joseph. Prayer in the Talmud: Forms and Patterns. Translated by Richard S. Sarason. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1977.
  534. DOI: 10.1515/9783110842449Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  535. A classic study of prayers and liturgical forms in Talmudic and related texts. In addition to tracing the development of prayer in classical rabbinic culture, the author exposits at length the theologies and ritual functions of rabbinic liturgy in view of its diverse institutional settings. Essential reading.
  536. Find this resource:
  537. Howland, Jacob. Plato and the Talmud. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
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  539. A literary comparison of select Talmudic ethical expressions with major patterns of thought in Plato’s Apology and Euthyphro. Relies mainly on narrative sequences drawn from the Babylonian Talmud, with minimal contextual or text-critical concern. Interesting but methodologically questionable. See Boyarin 2009 for a more methodologically rigorous effort toward similar ends.
  540. Find this resource:
  541. Jacobs, Louis. Rabbinic Thought in the Talmud. London: Vallentine Mitchell, 2005.
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  543. A collection of studies examining issues in the formation and interpretation of the Babylonian Talmud in traditional and contemporary Jewish religious contexts. Includes several case studies offering accessible exercises in applied theological analysis of Talmudic texts. A fine primer for novice readers.
  544. Find this resource:
  545. Kraemer, David. The Mind of the Talmud: An Intellectual History of the Bavli. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.
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  547. An introduction to the Babylonian Talmud focusing on its philosophical program. Major topics covered include language, rhetoric, and argumentation; the application of reason in scriptural interpretation; and the theological relativism that ensues. Recommended for readers seeking to understand Talmudic philosophy in its native theological terms.
  548. Find this resource:
  549. Kraemer, David. Reading the Rabbis: The Talmud as Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.
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  551. A series of insightful literary-critical studies on key topics in Talmudic theology. Areas addressed include the Torah and its religious authority, the rabbinic rhetoric of scriptural innovation, doctrinal pluralism, women, gender, and human suffering. Recommended for reading in dialogue with Kraemer 1990.
  552. Find this resource:
  553. Maccoby, Hyam. The Philosophy of the Talmud. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2002.
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  555. An attempt to retrieve a systematic moral philosophy of the Babylonian Talmud speaking to contemporary egalitarian social values. Eloquent but light on critical philological research, this book is recommended for readers seeking a decidedly postmodern take on classical rabbinic theology.
  556. Find this resource:
  557. Rosen-Zvi, Ishay. Demonic Desires: “Yetzer Harah” and the Problem of Evil in Late Antiquity. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011.
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  559. A wide-ranging study on the origins of the rabbinic concept of yetzer harah (the evil urge) and its connotations as to the classical Jewish doctrine of free will. Includes extensive discussion of the function of the principles of good and evil in the theological anthropologies of the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds.
  560. Find this resource:
  561. Urbach, Ephraim E. The Sages: Their Concepts and Beliefs. 2 vols. Translated by Israel Abrahams. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1975.
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  563. This classic study on rabbinic thought and practice tends to favor a synchronous approach, reading Talmudic and related texts of various dates and locations as univocal testaments to a homogenous religious culture. Although some of the author’s critical assumptions are in need of revision, his adroitness with the materials and concepts at issue sustains the relevance of his work in contemporary conversation.
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  565. New Testament and Early Christianity
  566.  
  567. Although rabbinic allusions to the New Testament are sparse and largely limited to the Babylonian Talmud, the prospect of reading the gospels in light of these allusions has long been a subject of critical interest, as seen in Catchpole 1971. More recent studies, such as Boyarin 2004 Schäfer 2007, and Zellentin 2011, reverse this anachronistic analytical premise, demonstrating the propensity of the rabbinic sages to respond to utilize persons and themes from the New Testament in their critiques of Christianity. Burns 2011 and the essays collected in Bieringer, et al. 2010 offer critical approaches to reading the rabbinic texts, including but not limited to Talmudic texts in light of the New Testament.
  568.  
  569. Bieringer, Reimund, Florentino Garcia Martinez, Didier Pollefeyt, and Peter J. Tomson, eds. The New Testament and Rabbinic Literature. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2010.
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  571. A collection of articles on and involving the application of classical rabbinic texts, including but not limited to Talmudic texts to the critical interpretation of the New Testament. The introductory essay by William Horbury (“The New Testament and Rabbinic Study: A Historical Sketch,” pp. 1–40) is essential reading on the subject.
  572. Find this resource:
  573. Boyarin, Daniel. Border Lines: The Partition of Judaeo-Christianity. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004.
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  575. A critically lauded and highly engaging effort to probe the influence of Christianity and Christian theology on classical rabbinic thought and practice. Among other theses, the author proposes to read the incipient program of Jewish orthodoxy inscribed upon the Babylonian Talmud as an emulation of the regulatory Christian orthodoxy that had since come to relieve Palestinian Jewry of its collective religious resolve.
  576. Find this resource:
  577. Burns, Joshua Ezra. “Rabbinic Literature: New Testament.” In The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Books of the Bible. Vol. 2. Edited by Michael D. Coogan, 247–256. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
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  579. A concise methodological essay addressing the relationship between the New Testament and the classical rabbinic literary tradition. Topics covered include comparison of exegetical techniques and motifs and the function of anti-Christian polemic in Talmudic literature.
  580. Find this resource:
  581. Catchpole, David R. The Trial of Jesus: A Study in the Gospels and Jewish Historiography from 1770 to the Present Day. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1971.
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  583. A review of early modern scholarship proposing to corroborate the historicity of Jesus’ trial and execution on the basis of Talmudic and related rabbinic legal texts. A methodologically rigorous and uncompromising critical take on a controversial area of scholarly interest.
  584. Find this resource:
  585. Schäfer, Peter. Jesus in the Talmud. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007.
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  587. A comprehensive critical look at the classical rabbinic polemic against Jesus and his early followers in view of contemporary methodological advances in the study of the Babylonian Talmud and related literature. Essential reading for students of the New Testament and early Jewish-Christian relations.
  588. Find this resource:
  589. Zellentin, Holger M. Rabbinic Parodies of Jewish and Christian Literature. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2011.
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  591. A literary-critical study on the functions of humor and parody in classical rabbinic texts, including but not limited to the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds. Includes extensive discussion of Talmudic texts alluding to Jesus and the gospels.
  592. Find this resource:
  593. Talmudic Historiography
  594.  
  595. The recent advances in the scientific analysis of Talmudic texts outlined in the Composition section have fostered the revitalization of the formerly neglected field of Talmudic historiography. The capacity of contemporary researchers to draw sound historical data from texts not meant to function as historical documents hinges on the supposition that these literary artifacts preserve genuine witnesses to the various Jewish cultures in which they were produced. Eliav 2002, Goodblatt 1980, and Schwartz 2003 offer methodological statements and case studies. Goodman and Alexander 2010 and Lapin 2001 exemplify the pitfalls of prior scholarship in this arena as well as the potential advantages of its continued development and implementation. See also the studies cited under Historical Contexts.
  596.  
  597. Eliav, Yaron Z. “Realia, Daily Life, and the Transmission of Local Stories during the Talmudic Period.” In What Athens Has to Do with Jerusalem: Essays on Classical, Jewish, and Early Christian Art and Archaeology in Honor of Gideon Foerster. Edited by Leonard V. Rutgers, 235–265. Leuven, Belgium: Peeters, 2002.
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  599. A clear, concise methodological essay demonstrating the value of archeological data toward the critical interpretation of folkloric traditions pertaining to everyday life in Roman Palestine in the two Talmuds and related midrashic literature.
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  601. Goodblatt, David. “Towards the Rehabilitation of Talmudic History.” In History of Judaism: The Next Ten Years. Edited by Baruch M. Bokser, 31–44. Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1980.
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  603. A seminal essay on the use of Talmudic sources in the reconstruction of Jewish life and thought in Late Antiquity. Addresses the root causes of the state of discontentment with Talmudic historiography still prevalent in some quarters of the academy.
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  605. Goodman, Martin, and Philip Alexander, eds. Rabbinic Texts and the History of Late-Roman Palestine. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
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  607. An important collection of essays outlining major issues and prospects in the historiographical application of classical rabbinic texts, including but not limited to the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds. Contributions include extensive coverage of current methodological debates as well as firmly established critical approaches involving comparative literary analysis and archeological science.
  608. Find this resource:
  609. Lapin, Hayim. Economy, Geography, and Provincial History in Later Roman Palestine. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2001.
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  611. An ambitious exercise in Talmudic historiography employing the Palestinian Talmud and related texts as primary sources for the history of Galilean Jewry and their neighbors in provincial Palestine. Utilizing advanced models for economic, sociographical, and archeological analysis, the author attempts to paint a comprehensive portrait of a region and its people generally obscured in the popular reception of the texts at issue. Recommended for advanced readers.
  612. Find this resource:
  613. Schwartz, Seth. “Historiography on the Jews in the ‘Talmudic Period’ (70–640 CE).” In The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Studies. Edited by Martin Goodman, 79–114. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
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  615. A critical but considerate overview of the history of modern scholarship on histories of the Jews written on the basis of Talmudic and related rabbinic texts. The author attempts to account for the evolution of the discipline from the historical naiveté of the 19th century through its subsequent neglect and ultimate resuscitation in the 20th century. Highly recommended for newcomers to the field of critical Talmudic scholarship.
  616. Find this resource:
  617. Reception
  618.  
  619. To address the full scope of the Talmud’s influence would be a task of monumental proportions. The studies, therefore, included here represent only some of the recent critical efforts to trace the Talmud’s reception in postclassical Jewish and Christian settings. Contemporary studies on the Talmud’s place in the Jewish religious tradition tend to focus on specific contexts of its practical interpretation. The influence of the Talmud on Christianity is a phenomenon far easier to document inasmuch as it traditionally occurred within the limited and now largely forgotten context of the Christian theological polemic against Judaism. See, however, Raz-Krakotzin 2007 (cited under In Christianity) for discussion of an episode in the Talmud’s Christian reception with more enduring social and theological implications.
  620.  
  621. In Judaism
  622.  
  623. Brody 1998, Fishman 2011, and Halivni 1991 focus on the early reception of the Babylonian Talmud and its emergence as the foundational religious text of postclassical Judaism. Halbertal 1997, Harris 1995, and Jacobs 2000, while discussing the Talmud’s history of reception, also examine issues in the application of the Talmudic tradition in contemporary Jewish life and thought. Dolgolpolski 2009 and Ouaknin 1995 present the Talmud’s philosophy from distinctly modern perspectives, attempting to characterize its native intellectual mien in post-structuralist terms. The studies collected in Mintz and Goldstein 2005 offer a comprehensive range of topics involving the Talmud’s past, present, and future reception.
  624.  
  625. Brody, Robert. The Geonim of Babylonia and the Shaping of Medieval Jewish Culture. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998.
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  627. An encyclopedic study of the diffusion of the Babylonian Talmud in the Islamic world of the early Middle Ages. Tracing the developments that would result in its advancement to the forefront of the medieval Jewish intellectual tradition, the author paints a vivid portrait of the Talmud in its pivotal first phase of popular reception. Highly recommended for advanced readers.
  628. Find this resource:
  629. Dolgolpolski, Sergey. What is Talmud? The Art of Disagreement. New York: Fordham University Press, 2009.
  630. DOI: 10.5422/fso/9780823229345.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  631. A thoughtful and highly inventive attempt to integrate the dialectics of the Babylonian Talmud within the metaphysical map of post-Heideggerian philosophy. The author plots his methodology in terms appropriated from the 15th-century Spanish rabbi Isaac Canpanton, an early advocate of reading the Talmud as a document of philosophical disagreement rather than a statement of systematic doctrine.
  632. Find this resource:
  633. Fishman, Talya. Becoming the People of the Talmud: Oral Torah as Written Tradition in Medieval Jewish Cultures. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011.
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  635. A fascinating survey of Jewish usages of the Babylonian Talmud in medieval Europe. The author focuses on the multifaceted transition of the Talmudic text from its oral transmission in Islamic Babylonia to its textual transmission in Muslim and Christian lands removed from its original realm of religious authority.
  636. Find this resource:
  637. Halbertal, Moshe. People of the Book: Canon, Meaning, and Authority. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997.
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  639. A study on the evolutionary arcs of the Babylonian Talmud and related classical rabbinic texts within traditional Jewish thought and practice. Comparing the reception of these texts to that of the Hebrew Bible, the author focuses on their de facto canonization as sacred Jewish writ during the medieval and early modern periods. A fine introductory survey of the Talmud’s history of Jewish reception.
  640. Find this resource:
  641. Halivni, David Weiss. Peshat and Derash: Plain and Applied Meaning in Rabbinic Exegesis. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.
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  643. An intellectual history of traditional Jewish scriptural exegesis focusing on the varied reception of Talmudic hermeneutics in medieval Europe. The author deftly moves from the decline in popularity of the Babylonian Talmud’s multivalent readings of Hebrew scriptural legislation to the emergence of applied exegesis as the predominant mode of legal discourse in classical Talmudic responsa literature.
  644. Find this resource:
  645. Harris, Jay M. How Do We Know This? Midrash and the Fragmentation of Modern Judaism. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995.
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  647. A study on the post-Enlightenment destabilization of the Babylonian Talmud’s traditionally held exegetical authority and its impact on modern Jewish attitudes toward Talmudic ritual law, or halakhah. A captivating inquiry into the varieties of status in the reception of the Talmud among contemporary Jewish denominations.
  648. Find this resource:
  649. Jacobs, Louis. A Tree of Life: Diversity, Flexibility, and Creativity in Jewish Law. 2d ed. Oxford: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2000.
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  651. An accessible overview of the multifarious influence of the Talmudic law or halakhah on traditional Jewish life and thought. Assuming a moderately apologetic stance, the author argues for the adoption of a liberal, egalitarian understanding of Talmudic halakhah in contemporary Jewish practice. Recommended for intermediate readers.
  652. Find this resource:
  653. Mintz, Sharon Liberman, and Gabriel M. Goldstein, eds. Printing the Talmud: From Bomberg to Schottenstein. New York: Yeshiva University Museum, 2005.
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  655. A collection of essays on the reception and production of Talmudic texts in Jewish and Christian contexts from Antiquity to the present day. Well illustrated and presented in easily digestible units, this resource is highly recommended for novice readers.
  656. Find this resource:
  657. Ouaknin, Marc-Alain. The Burnt Book: Reading the Talmud. Translated by Llewellyn Brown. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995.
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  659. A comprehensive post-structuralist reading of the Babylonian Talmud. Attempting a philosophical synthesis of the Talmud’s dialectics, the author draws heavily upon the Hebraic musings of such influential 20th-literary theorists as Emmanuel Lévinas, Martin Buber, and Jacques Derrida. A creative, if challenging, case for the advantage of Talmudic study in the secular academy.
  660. Find this resource:
  661. In Christianity
  662.  
  663. Although the Talmud has never been supposed an authoritative text in the Christian religious tradition, its use by Christian critics of Judaism has shaped popular perceptions of the Talmud for generations. Cohen 1999, Krauss 1995, and Maccoby 1982 document encounters between Christian and Jewish thought, as well as actual Christian and Jewish thinkers, involving debates over the tolerability of the Talmud in medieval Christian society. Burnett 1996 and Sutcliffe 2003 address the evolution of this argument in the early modern age as seen through its adoption by the Christian Hebraists, scholars of Judaism in the scientific vein of the European Enlightenment. Raz-Krakotzin 2007 deals with a rare but highly influential nexus of cooperation between the Christian publishers and Jewish editors who collaborated on the first printed editions of the two Talmuds and related rabbinic treatises.
  664.  
  665. Burnett, Stephen G. Christian Hebraism in the Reformation Era (1500–1660): Authors, Books, and the Transmission of Jewish Learning. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2012.
  666. DOI: 10.1163/9789004222496Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  667. A critical overview and bibliographical guide to Christian Hebraism, or the study of the Babylonian Talmud and related classical rabbinic texts among European Christian theologians of the early modern era. The author analyzes the emergence of this highly prejudicial scholarly discipline in its Catholic and Protestant contexts as well as its effects on shaping subsequent European academic discourse on Judaism and the Jewish people. A key introduction to a fascinating and underappreciated chapter in the history of Talmudic scholarship.
  668. Find this resource:
  669. Cohen, Jeremy. Living Letters of the Law: Ideas of the Jew in Medieval Christianity. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.
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  671. A study of popular theological attitudes toward Jews and Judaism in medieval European Christianity. Includes extensive discussion of Christian conceptions (and misconceptions) of the origins and nature of the Babylonian Talmud and the impact of these beliefs on social relations between Christians and Jews.
  672. Find this resource:
  673. Krauss, Samuel. The Jewish-Christian Controversy from the Earliest Times to 1789. Vol. 1, History. Edited by William Horbury. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 1995.
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  675. A handbook on Jewish-Christian relations from Antiquity through the early modern period. Well organized and well documented, this book details in brief major theological and public controversies over the Talmud and its Jewish use in Christian society. Recommended for advanced readers.
  676. Find this resource:
  677. Maccoby, Hyam. Judaism on Trial: Jewish-Christian Disputations in the Middle Ages. Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1982.
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  679. An accessible, if occasionally polemical, study of selected public religious debates involving the Talmud during the High Middle Ages. Includes extensive selections of Latin and Hebrew primary sources in lucid English translation. Recommended for intermediate readers.
  680. Find this resource:
  681. Raz-Krakotzin, Amnon. The Censor, the Editor, and the Text: The Catholic Church and the Shaping of the Jewish Canon in the Sixteenth Century. Translated by Jackie Feldman. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007.
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  683. A powerful study on the effects of ecclesiastical censorship on the earliest printings of the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds and related rabbinic texts. Considering the implications of a sanitized, obliging Talmudic tradition on subsequent generations of Jewish readers, the author argues for the profound influence of Christian censorship on the shaping of contemporary Jewish attitudes toward Christianity and its adherents.
  684. Find this resource:
  685. Sutcliffe, Adam. Judaism and Enlightenment. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
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  687. A survey of Christian attitudes toward Jews and Judaism during the European Enlightenment. The author frequently touches upon the Talmud and its supposed influence on contemporary Jewish life and thought among secular and secularizing Christians, highlighting its alternating status as an object of theological dissent.
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