Introduction to Rabbinic Literature

New York: Doubleday, 1994. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Good/Good. xxxi, [1], 720 pages. Footnotes. General Index. Index to Texts. DJ has some wear and soiling. Some soiling to page edges. This is one of the Anchor Bible Reference Library series. Jacob Neusner (July 28, 1932 - October 8, 2016) was an American academic scholar of Judaism. He was named as one of the most published authors in history, having written or edited more than 900 books. Neusner's research centered on rabbinic Judaism of the Mishnaic and Talmudic eras. His work focused on bringing the study of rabbinical text into nonreligious educational institutions and treating them as non-religious documents. He was a pioneer in the application of "form criticism" approach to Rabbinic texts. Much of Neusner's work focused on deconstructing the prevailing approach that viewed Rabbinic Judaism as a single religious movement within which the various Rabbinic texts were produced. In contrast, Neusner viewed each rabbinic document as an individual piece of evidence that can only shed light on the more local Judaisms of such specific document's place of origin and the specific Judaism of the author. His 1981 book Judaism: The Evidence of the Mishnah is the classic statement of his work and the first of many comparable volumes on the other documents of the rabbinic canon. Neusner's five-volume History of the Jews in Babylonia, published between 1965-1969, is said to be the first to consider the Babylonian Talmud in its Iranian context. Neusner studied Persian and Middle Persian to do so. Neusner, with his contemporaries, translated into English nearly the entire Rabbinic canon. The rabbis are as important today as they were two thousand years ago, at the dawn of the literature that came to be named after them. The Mishnah, the Tosefta, the Talmuds, the collections of Midrash, and other writings ascribed to the ancient rabbis -- the oral Torah -- were gradually produced between the first and the seventh century of the Common Era. What began as comments and decisions on practical matters made by the rabbis were eventually written down and preserved. Over time, the literature grew and constantly changed, eventually evolving into a widely diverse collection of material. Regardless of what form it took, rabbinic literature guided and shaped Jewish life. Opening the vast pages of rabbinic literature is like entering a conversation already in progress. To understand and appreciate what is going on, some basic things about the content, purpose, and context of the speakers need to be known. `In "Introduction to Rabbinic Literature", legendary author and teacher Jacob Neusner distills a lifetime of scholarship on the essence of what has been received from the rabbis. This book gives readers everything they need to know to understand rabbinic literature. It explores the formative age and the forces that gave rise to rabbinic literature, and tells in a simple, straightforward way what these documents are, where to find them, how to read them, and why their content matters. Best of all, Neusner masterfully covers all this in one relatively compact volume that novice and expert both can appreciate.