Rabbinic Literature

The literary activity of the rabbis of antiquity, the formers of what has come to be known as “Rabbinic Judaism,” spans from the destruction of the Second Temple (70 ce) to the Moslem conquest. Law and ritual, alongside Bible exegesis, homilies, and stories, are all woven together in a set of Hebrew and Aramaic texts, generally representing the teachings of a closely knit group of rabbinic figures of Palestine and Babylonia. This rabbinic literature, also known as Talmudic literature, served as an authoritative foundation for all aspects of Jewish life and self- identity in the following generations. Because of the lack of external historical witnesses to rabbinic activity throughout the period, the culture, religion, and history of this influential group can be described on the basis of these anonymous and collective works only. Consequently, the story of this movement (if the rabbis are justifiably to be collectively labeled thus) is first and foremost a story of textual evolution: the amalgamation of oral traditions, the crystallization of separate texts, and their mutual relationship and transmission. In speaking of rabbinic Judaism, one refers first and foremost to study practices, transmission, and exegesis among these scholarly circles. At the same time, by disassembling this collective literature to its individual components, scholars have managed to reveal major legal and religious developments that reflect rabbinic responses to the rabbis’ changing social, political, and cultural environment. Different contexts echoed throughout different branches of rabbinic literature: Second Temple Judaism in the earliest layers; Roman authority in 2nd-century Tannaitic literature; the challenge of Christianity in the 3rd and 4th centuries; and the infiltration of Persian culture into Babylonian academies. Following the inevitable move outward from text to context, this article starts with a survey of rabbinic literary corpora. Next, it presents reading strategies for uncovering the original background and functions of these texts, and characterizes the rabbinic study culture that shaped them. Finally, one emerges from textual insularity to evaluate the status of the rabbis within Jewish society of antiquity, and their position in relation to the broader cultural environment.