Chapter 3-C Sources of Judaism- Rabbinical Literature
by Dr. Sarah Imhof
In almost all of its manifestations, Judaism has a strong textual tradition. The texts of Rabbinic literature (generally, those written between the second and ninth century in Palestine and Babylon) serve as the texts that have shaped the Judaism seen today. Unlike Karaite Jews, who upheld the authority of the Bible but did not accept the additional rabbinic teachings, rabbinic sages and their followers recorded the “Oral Law,” or complement and commentary to the “Written Law,” or Torah. Hermann Strack and Gunter Stemberger’s Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash serves as the canonical reference book for rabbinic texts, including chronological, geographical, and archaeological information about each text. Charlotte Fonrobert’s Cambridge Companion to the Talmud and Rabbinic Literature collects scholarly essays on various rabbinic texts and their social and historical context.
Often scholars and religious readers alike divide the content of rabbinic texts into two genres: halakhah, or law, and aggadah, or narrative. While religious practitioners often emphasized the former because of its applicability to everyday life, over recent decades, scholars have come to pay additional attention to the latter to explore rabbinic culture, values, and language.
The Mishnah, the first collection of rabbinic Judaism, was likely compiled in the early third century ce and is traditionally attributed to Rabbi Judah the Prince, although scholars find little evidence to support this claim. Herbert Danby’s translation, although old, remains useful; Jacob Neusner’s translation uses more contemporary English language, but has received criticism from other scholars. The work itself contains six sections or “orders,” each of which presents rabbinic commentary on Biblical material. Book-length studies of rabbinics do not often focus exclusively on the Mishnah, but of those that do, Neusner’s The Mishnah: An Introduction serves as a clear gateway, and Judith Romney Wegner’s Chattel or Person? represents an example of a thematic study in its discussion of the Mishnah’s treatment of women.
The Palestinian Talmud, also known as the Jerusalem Talmud and Talmud Yerushalmi, redacted in the fourth or fifth century ce in Palestine, collects rabbinic commentaries on the Mishnah in order to expand and apply its religious material. The text reproduces a small section of Mishnah and then prints additional, often extensive, rabbinic discussion related to the Mishnaic material. The Yerushalmi’s style can be fragmentary or elliptical at times, and did not ascend to the place of religious authority that its later Babylonian counterpart reached. Nevertheless, the two can be fruitfully compared, as Christine Hayes demonstrates in Between the Babylonian and Palestinian Talmuds.
The most significant and voluminous rabbinic text is the Babylonian Talmud. It follows the same format as the Yerushalmi, but it is more extensive and contains commentary on more Mishnaic selections. As its name indicates, it was redacted in Babylonia, also known as Persia, in the sixth or seventh century. The Steinsaltz translation of the Talmud is common, and the Schottenstein Talmud Bavli with facing Hebrew and English is an excellent, if occasionally religiously ideological, resource. Jeffrey Rubenstein’s Talmudic Stories and Stories of the Babylonian Talmud deal with linguistic and cultural thematics within the Talmudic corpus. Daniel Boyarin’s Carnal Israel and Jonathan Schofer’s Confronting Vulnerability analyze the Talmudic constructions of bodies and sexuality. Talya Fishman demonstrates the Talmud’s lasting legacy and formative power as she traces the readers and interpreters of Talmud into the Middle Ages in her Becoming the People of the Talmud.
Other rabbinic sources, called Midrash, while somewhat less authoritative in subsequent religious communities, continue to interest both scholars and practitioners. Azzan Yadin’s Scripture as logos represents the less common emphasis of halakhah in midrash. Most midrashim contain primarily aggadah and have therefore attracted academic commentators interested in language, narrative, and culture. Judah Goldin’s The Song at the Sea is a classic, and in many ways, marked the beginning of the field of the literary study of Midrash. Steven Fraade’s From Tradition to Commentary concentrates on literary and textual issues in the midrashic text Sifre to Deuteronomy. Daniel Boyarin’s Intertextuality and the Reading of Midrash and David Stern’s Parables in Midrash and Midrash and Theory represent similar, though by no means identical, contemporary approaches to literary theory and Midrash. Susan Handelman’s controversial Slayers of Moses explicitly joins postmodern theories of textuality and rabbinic texts. Judith Baskin presents an encyclopedic look at the portrayal of women across rabbinic sources in her Midrashic Women.
The twelfth and thirteenth century emergence of Kabbalah, a mystical trend within Judaism, marked the addition of a religiously authoritative corpus. The Bahir, whose final version was created in the thirteenth century, represents the earliest kabbalistic text. Aryeh Kaplan has translated the esoteric and stylized Aramaic into Sefer ha Bahir. The Zohar, the major text of Kabbalah, appeared later in thirteenth century Spain. Scholars agree that Moses de Leon wrote the Zohar, although tradition and Leon himself attributed it to rabbinic sage Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Daniel Matt’s translation is essential. His introduction volume, also entitled Zohar, and Pinchas Giller’s Reading the Zohar provide helpful guides to the esoteric and obscure text and traditions in the Zohar. Arthur Green’s accessible A Guide to the Zohar is more theological and aimed at contemporary Jewish communities. In On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead Gershom Scholem, the most famous scholar of mysticism, discusses recurring symbolism and concepts in Kabbalah. Moshe Idel’s Kabbalah and other works analyze the textual traditions of Jewish mystical piety. Lawrence Fine’s Physician of the Soul describes the world and life of sixteenth century mystic Isaac Luria, whose influence shaped subsequent kabbalistic interpretation, theology, and practice. Elliot Wolfson’s Through a Speculum that Shines and Language, Eros, Being both use a variety of methodologies from textual analysis to philosophy to unpack kabbalistic hermeneutics and approaches to gender and representation.
Kabbalah and its traditions, however, did not exist in a vacuum. Medieval Jewish philosophical traditions, exemplified by Maimonides, emphasized rationality. Isadore Twersky’s Introduction to the Code of Maimonides provides background and relationships of this intellectual trend. While some scholars have seen Kabbalah as simply a negative response to this rational trend, Gershom Scholem and others have shown Kabbalah’s relationship to earlier Jewish mysticism. Barry Holtz collects tiny representative pieces of these traditions, from the Torah to rabbinic literature to mysticism, to show the varieties of Jewish textuality in Back to the Sources.
3C Sources of Judaism – Rabbinical Literature
Recommended Reading
Baskin, Judith Reesa.
Midrashic Women: Formations of the Feminine in Rabbinic Literature
Published by University Press of New England for Brandeis University, c1994.
Boyarin, Daniel.
Carnal Isræl: Reading Sex in Talmudic Culture
University of California Press, 1993.
Boyarin, Daniel.
Intertextuality and the Reading of Midrash (Indiana Studies in Biblical Literature)
Indiana University Press, c1990.
Danby, Herbert.
The Clarendon Press, 1933.
Fine, Lawrence.
Stanford University Press, 2003.
Fishman, Talya.
Becoming the People of the Talmud: Oral Torah as Written Tradition in Medieval Jewish Cultures
University of Pennsylvania Press, c2011.
Fonrobert, Charlotte E.
The Cambridge Companion to the Talmud and Rabbinic Literature
Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Fraade, Steven, D.
From Tradition to Commentary: Torah and Its Interpretation in the Midrash Sifre to Deuteronomy
State University of New York Press, 1991.
Giller, Pinchas.
Reading the Zohar: The Sacred Text of the Kabbalah
Oxford University Press, 2001.
Goldin, Judah.
The Song at the Sea: Being a Commentary on a Commentary in Two Parts
Yale University Press, 1971.
Green, Arthur.
Stanford University Press, 2004.
Handelman, Susan.
State University of New York Press, c1982.
Hayes, Christine.
Between the Babylonian and Palestinian Talmuds
Oxford University Press, 1997.
Holtz, Barry W.
Back To The Sources: Reading the Classic Jewish Texts
Summit Books, 1984.
Idel, Moshe.
Yale University Press, 1988.
Kaplan, Aryeh.
Sefer ha-Bahir. Jason Aronson, 1995
Matt, Daniel C.
Zohar: The Book of Enlightenment
Paulist Press, 1983.
Neusner, Jacob.
The Mishnah: A New Translation
Yale University Press, 1988.
Neusner, Jacob.
The Mishnah: A New Translation
Jason Aronson, 1989.
Rubenstein, Jeffrey L.
Stories of the Babylonian Talmud
Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010.
Rubenstein, Jeffrey L.
Talmudic Stories: Narrative Art, Composition, and Culture
Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.
Schofer, Jonathan Wyn.
Confronting Vulnerability: The Body and the Divine in Rabbinic Ethics
The University of Chicago Press, 2010.
Scholem, Gershom Gerhard.
On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead : Basic Concepts I the Kabbalah
Schoken Books, 1991.
Steinsaltz, Adin.
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Random House, 1989-c1998.
Stern, David.
Midrash and Theory: Ancient Jewish Exegesis and Contempory Literary Studies
Northwestern University Press, 1996.
Stern, David.
Parables in Midrash: Narrative and Exegesis in Rabbinic Literature
Harvard University Press, 1991.
Strack, Hermann Leberecht and Stemberger, Gunter.
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Fortress Press, 1992.
Twersky, Isadore.
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Wegner, Judith Romney.
Chattel or Person?: The Status of Women in the Mishnah
Oxford University Press, 1988.
Wolfson, Elliot R.
Language, Eros, Being: Kabbalistic Hermeneutics and Poetic Imagination
Fordham University Press, 2005.
Wolfson, Elliot R.
Through a Speculum That Shines
Princeton University Press, 1994.
Yadin, Azzan.
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004.
3C Sources of Judaism – Rabbinical Literature
Additional Reading
Avery-Peck, Alan J.
The Mishnah in Contemporary Perspective
Brill, 2006.
Bader, Gershom.
The Encyclopedia of Talmudic Sages
Jason Aronson, 1988.
Berger, Michael S.
Rabbinic Authority : The Authority of the Talmudic Sages
Oxford University Press, 1998.
Bleich, J. David.
Contemporary Halakhic Problems
KTAV Publishing House, 1977-1995.
Braude, William G.
Pesikta Rabbati: Discourses for Feasts, Fasts, and Special Sabbaths, Volume 2
Yale University Press, 1968.
Brody, Robert.
The Geonim of Babylonia and the Shaping of Medieval Jewish Culture
Yale University Press, 1998.
Bronner, Leila Leah.
From Eve to Esther: Rabbinic Reconstructions of Biblical Women
Westminster John Knox Press, 1994.
Brooks, Roger.
The Spirit of the Ten Commandments: Shattering the Myth of Rabbinic Legalism
.Harper & Row, 1990.
Cohen, A.
Everyman's Talmud: The Major Teachings of the Rabbinic Sages
Schocken Books, 1975.
Cordovero, Moses Ben Jacob.
Moses Cordovero's Introduction to Kabbalah: An Annotated Translation of His or Ne'Erav
Michael Scharf Pub. Trust of Yeshiva Univ. Press, 1994.
Davila, James R.
Descenders to the Chariot: The People Behind the Hekhalot Literature
Brill, 2001.
Dolgopolski, Sergey.
What Is Talmud?: The Art of Disagreement
Fordham University Press, 2009.
Dweck, Yaacob.
Princeton University Press, c2011.
Elior, Rachel.
The Three Temples: On the Emergence of Jewish Mysticism
Littman Library of Jewish Civilization.
Feldman, Ron H.
Fundamentals of Jewish Mysticism and Kabbalah
Crossing Press, 1999.
Fine, Lawrence.
Paulist Press, 1984.
Giller, Pinchas.
The Enlightened Will Shine: Symbolization and Theurgy in the Later Strata of the Zohar
State University of New York Press, 1993.
Goldin, Judah.
Studies in Midrash and Related Literature
Jewish Publication Society, 1988.
Goldman, Solomon.
University of Chicago Press, 1956.
Gordis, Robert.
The Dynamics of Judaism: A Study in Jewish Law
Indiana University Press, 1990.
Green, Arthur.
Devotion and Commandment: The Faith of Abraham in the Hasidic Imagination
Union College Press, 1989.
Green, Arthur.
Keter: The Crown of God in Early Jewish Mysticism
Princeton University Press, 1997.
Greenspahn, Frederick E.
Jewish Mysticism and Kabbalah: New Insights and Scholarship
New York University Press, c2011.
Halamish, Mosheh.
An Introduction to the Kabbalah
State University of New York Press, 1999.
Halberstam, Chaya T.
Law and Truth in Biblical and Rabbinic Literature
Indiana University Press, c2009.
Hellner-Eshed, Melila.
A River Flows from Eden: The Language of Mystical Experience in the Zohar
Stanford University Press, c2009.
Heschel, Abraham Joshua.
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Continuum, 2005.
Hooke, S. H.,
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SCM Press, 1956.
Idel, Moshe.
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Yale University Press, c2002.
Idel, Moshe.
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Central European University Press, 2005.
Idel, Moshe.
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Idel, Moshe.
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Idel, Moshe.
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Idel, Moshe.
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State University of New York Press, 1988.
Instone-Brewer, David.
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Eerdmans, c2004.
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University of Pennsylvania Press, c2009.
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Kraemer, David Charles.
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Published for the Littman Library by Oxford University, 1989.
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Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1993.
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Making God's Word Work: A Guide to the Mishnah
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Neusner, Jacob. The Law Behind the Laws: The Bavli's Essential Discourse. Scholars Press, 1992.
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J. Aronson, 1990.
Neusner, Jacob.
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Fortress Press, 1987.
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The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization.
Oesterley, W. O. E.
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B. Franklin, 1973.
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Pava, Moses L.
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KTAV Publishing House, 1997.
Petuchowski, Jakob Josef.
Basic Books, 1970.
Rosen, Jonathan.
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Farrar, Straus And Giroux, 2000.
Rubenstein, Jeffrey L.
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Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003.
Runes, Dagobert D.
Wisdom Library, 1956.
Samely, Alexander.
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Michael Scharf Publication Trust of Yeshiva University.
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University of Wisconsin Press, c2004.
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State University of New York Press, c2010.