Javascript must be enabled to continue!

rabbis

The term “rabbis” generally refers to Jewish scholars and ritual specialists who flourished in Palestine and Babylonia, from the late 1st to the 6th centuries ce . Although some evidence for rabbis exists outside literary texts, most of our knowledge derives from rabbinic or Talmudic literature itself. This literature is undoubtedly rich, but also produced by and for a community of insiders. This makes drawing historiographical (especially chronological or biographical) conclusions problematic. Traditionally and in some older scholarship, rabbis were viewed as the leadership of the Jewish people, at least in Palestine and Mesopotamia, and were often thought to derive their authority from formal or informal imperial mandate. A more common view today recognizes that rabbis were a numerically small group with little or no official power, although there remains considerable debate over how influential or representative of a wider population rabbis may have been.

Oxford University Press

Hayim Lapin

Oxford Classical Dictionary

2016

Title: rabbis

Description:

The term “rabbis” generally refers to Jewish scholars and ritual specialists who flourished in Palestine and Babylonia, from the late 1st to the 6th centuries ce .

Although some evidence for rabbis exists outside literary texts, most of our knowledge derives from rabbinic or Talmudic literature itself.

This literature is undoubtedly rich, but also produced by and for a community of insiders.

This makes drawing historiographical (especially chronological or biographical) conclusions problematic.

Traditionally and in some older scholarship, rabbis were viewed as the leadership of the Jewish people, at least in Palestine and Mesopotamia, and were often thought to derive their authority from formal or informal imperial mandate.

A more common view today recognizes that rabbis were a numerically small group with little or no official power, although there remains considerable debate over how influential or representative of a wider population rabbis may have been.

Back

Related Results

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 Mos...

Enchanting Rabbis: Contest Narratives between Rabbis and Magicians in Late Antiquity

"Sorcerers," said R. Yochanan, "contradict the heavenly household" and oppose the divine will. So begins one of the major Talmudic discussions of magic (bSan 67b). This conception ...

Adam

This chapter argues that it is not only the angels who are perceived as dangerous competitors with God—the same holds true for Adam, the first man, who, according to some midrashim...

Rabbis Jeremy Collick, David Goldberg, Harry Jacobi, Ernst Stein and Charles Wallach

Founded in 1956, Leo Baeck College is a relatively young institution in the world of rabbinic seminaries, yet it has been in existence long enough to witness the passing of a numbe...

Creating American Reform Judaism

Isaac Mayer Wise (1819–1900), founder of the major institutions of Reform Judaism in America, was a man of his time — a pioneer in a pioneer’s world. When he came to America from h...

Synagogue Art and the Rabbis in Late Antiquity

This article considers the relationship of synagogue art from the third century C. E. onward to the rabbinic literature of the first millennium C. E. A number of central and promin...

The Missing Rabbis of Eastern Europe

This chapter examines the east European rabbinate. The rabbinate in modern eastern Europe was not significantly different from the rabbinate in other Ashkenazi Jewish communities u...

Prophetic Disappointment and Ideological Change among Israeli Settlers’ Rabbis: The Case of Rabbis Yehuda Amital and Shmuel Tal

In this article, I examine the role of prophetic disappointment in creating ideological change. I discuss the response of two Orthodox rabbis, Rabbi Yehuda Amital (1924–2010) and R...

Email:
Password:

Email: