The Stabilization of Rabbinic Culture, 100 C.E.-350 C.E. Texts on Education and Their Late Antique Context

Marc Hirshman*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Book/ReportBookpeer-review

29 Scopus citations

Abstract

Drawing on the great progress in Talmudic scholarship over the last century, this book is both an introduction to a close reading of rabbinic literature and a demonstration of the development of rabbinic thought on education in the first centuries of the Common Era. In Roman Palestine and Sasanid Persia, a small group of approximately 2,000 Jewish scholars and rabbis sustained a thriving national and educational culture. They procured loyalty to the national language and oversaw the retention of a national identity. This accomplishment was unique in the Roman Near East, and few physical artifacts remain. The scope of oral teaching, however, was vast and was committed to writing only in the high Middle Ages. The content of this oral tradition remains the staple of Jewish learning through modern times. Though oral learning was common in many ancient cultures, the Jewish approach has a different theoretical basis and different aims. The author explores the evolution and institutionalization of Jewish culture in both Babylonian and Palestinian sources. At its core, he argues, was the Jewish cultural thrust in the first centuries of the Common Era to preserve the language of its culture in its most pristine form. He traces and outlines the ideals and practices of rabbinic learning as presented in the relatively few extensive discussions of the subject in late antique rabbinic sources. This book is an attempt to characterize the unique approach to learning developed by the rabbinic leadership in late antiquity.

Original languageEnglish
PublisherOxford University Press
Number of pages208
ISBN (Electronic)9780199852581
ISBN (Print)9780195387742
DOIs
StatePublished - 3 Oct 2011

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2009 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.

Keywords

  • Common era
  • Jewish culture
  • Jewish scholars
  • Oral learning
  • Oral teaching
  • Rabbinic culture
  • Rabbinic literature
  • Rabbis
  • Roman palestine
  • Sasanid Persia

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