Jacob Neusner

Wherever Jews have settled and whatever languages they spoke, they created a community with a single set of common values. One law, one theology defined the community throughout their many migrations. A single book explains how this came about—the Talmud. By re-framing the Torah through sustained argument and analysis, the Talmud encourages the reader to actively apply reason and practice logic. Renowned scholar Jacob Neusner introduces readers to the Talmud, defining it, explaining its historical context, and illustrating why it remains relevant today. Neusner's The Talmud: What It Is and What It Says invites readers to engage with the text, and emphasizes that the Talmud will continue to be an important cultural guidebook for Jewish life through the next millennium.

A theological system and structure form foundations of, and are realized in detail by, the Rabbinic Midrash. That system, comprised by active category formations, turns facts into knowledge and knowledge into propositions of a theological character. The structure embodies the paradigm that solves new problems. So, the Rabbinic Midrash exegesis pertaining to theological matters proves coherent. Rabbinic Midrash follows a cogent theological program and sets forth an orderly theological construction. This work defines the principal parts of the theological system that animated the Rabbinic sages encounter with Scripture as embodied in the Rabbinic Midrash; and shows how these parts form a theological system.

This sourcebook collects and classifies how Israelite Scripture was received and recast in the language community that produced the dual Torah of Judaism. It is well known that verses of prophecy figure as proof-texts in Rabbinic exegesis of scriptural narratives, but to what end, and with what larger concept in mind? With extensive translation and documentation, author Jacob Neusner uses the case of Jeremiah in the Rabbinic canon of the formative age to examine the Rabbinic document's response to the prophetic ones in terms of how they select, explain, and utilize the language of Scripture. The book also explores how one particular kind of ancient Israelite Scripture, the prophetic books, found a place in the new language community formed by the Rabbinic sages and documented in their canon from the Mishnah (ca. 200 C. E.), through the Talmud of Babylonia, a.k.a. the Bavli (ca. 600 C. E.).

What purpose information? Facing a vast corpus of facts, the heirs of the Mishnah answered this question by showing the cogency of data. They adopted analytical templates that transcended details and transformed the Mishnah's collection of topical expositions into a system of law. This was accomplished in the Bavli, the Talmud of Babylonia, which systematized and imposed an orderly program on the numerous subjects treated by the Mishnah. The Bavli follows a limited repertoire of analytical procedures, and so in parsing the law it often says the same thing about many things. Four templates govern, two form clear patterns from the data and two use various analytical arguments to transform these patterns into generalizations. Two types of analytical arguments, dialectical or moving and formal or static, join the exegetical analyses of clarification and contextualization. The systematization of the law proceeded in four steps. First, the words, phrases, principles, and authorities of the Mishnah were clarified in a uniform manner, following a rigid pattern. Second, the laws of the Mishnah were harmonized and shown to be coherent. Third, the laws were exhibited to showcase their dynamic quality, which was conveyed through disputation. Fourth, the dialectical argument extended through many topics. In this book, the author systematically defines and classifies these four analytical initiatives of the Bavli.

In the Mishnah (ca. 200 C. E.), the Tosefta (ca. 300 C. E.), and the commentaries that joined them-the Yerushalmi, the Talmud of the Land of Israel (ca. 400) and the Bavli, and the Talmud of Babylonia (ca. 600)-the law of Judaism is outlined topic by topic. The exposition of these topics, however, is shaped in part by a generic analytical program. The hermeneutics of the Halakhah of the formative canon guides the Rabbinic sages to say the same thing about many things. Specifically, issues of a patterned analytical character guide the presentation, so that most topics in some measure, and some topics in paramount measure, serve to illustrate ubiquitous, generic problems of thought or intellectual templates. Two generative problems, found in four intellectual templates, predominate: [1] intentionality and concomitantly, [2] teleology, [3] resolution of doubts and concomitantly, [4] the classification of mixtures. The second and fourth templates form subsets of the first and the third. In this project, author Jacob Neusner identifies the occurrences of the four intellectual templates and shows, in complete detail, where and how the same problems recur time and again.

This work follows the single tractate, Moed Qatan, in its passage through the principal documents of formative Judaism_the Mishnah (200 C. E.), Tosefta (300 C. E.), Yerushalmi (400 C. E.), and Bavli (600 C. E.). Author Jacob Neusner presents a systematic account of the Halakhah in its documentary unfolding from beginning to end. In acute detail, the study illustrates the comparison between the documents by showing each individual document's treatment of the same topic.

No generation in the history of Jewry has been so roundly, universally condemned by posterity as that of Yohanan ben Zakkai. A crisis was taking place in Palestine - a conflict between the Romans' need for expanding their empire, trade, and strategic locale, and the Jews' need for continuing to serve God with their laws and their holy land. Beginning with the destruction by the Romans of the second temple in A. D. 70, we have a continuing picture of Pharisee Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, leader of Jewish reconstruction and founder of contemporary Judaism as we know it today: how the Torah affected Yohanan's education, war activities, social problems, and theological issues. Especially important to Jews and Christians alike is the picture of Pharisees and Pharisaism that emerges and the enlightening story of what happened to the many Jews of this first-century who did not become Christians. First-Century Judaism in Crisis is a popularized version of the author's prize-winning biography of Yohanan ben Zakkai (Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1970). Jacob Neusner is Research Professor of Religion and Theology at Bard College and Senior Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard. He has published more than 900 books and unnumbered articles, both scholarly and academic, popular and journalistic, and is the most published humanities scholar in the world. He has been awarded nine honorary degrees, including seven US and European honorary doctorates. He received his A. B. from Harvard College in 1953, his Ph. D. from Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary in 1961, and Rabbinical Ordination and the degree of Master of Hebrew Letters from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1960. Neusner is editor of the 'Encyclopedia of Judaism' (Brill, 1999. I-III) and its Supplements; Chair of the Editorial Board of 'The Review of Rabbinic Judaism, ' and Editor in Chief of 'The Brill Reference Library of Judaism', both published by E. J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands. He is editor of 'Studies in Judaism', University Press of America. Neusner resides with his wife in Rhinebeck, New York. They have a daughter, three sons and three daughters-in-law, six granddaughters and two grandsons.

Jacob Neusner is Research Professor of Religion and Theology at Bard College and Senior Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard. He has published more than 900 books and unnumbered articles, both scholarly and academic, popular and journalistic, and is the most published humanities scholar in the world. He has been awarded nine honorary degrees, including seven US and European honorary doctorates. He received his A. B. from Harvard College in 1953, his Ph. D. from Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary in 1961, and Rabbinical Ordination and the degree of Master of Hebrew Letters from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1960. Neusner is editor of the 'Encyclopedia of Judaism' (Brill, 1999. I-III) and its Supplements; Chair of the Editorial Board of 'The Review of Rabbinic Judaism, ' and Editor in Chief of 'The Brill Reference Library of Judaism', both published by E. J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands. He is editor of 'Studies in Judaism', University Press of America. Neusner resides with his wife in Rhinebeck, New York. They have a daughter, three sons and three daughters-in-law, six granddaughters and two grandsons.

Orthodox Judaism as it has been known through the medieval and modern world covers the period from approximately 100 B. C. E to 640 C. E. It was during this period that the Babylonian Talmud came to prominence through the efforts of the Babylonian rabbinic schools. The Talmud continues to govern the life of traditional Jewry, orthodox and conservative, throughout the world and to provide important guidance for reform Jews as well. Because of the Talmud's continuing influence, an understanding of this period is crucial to any understanding of present-day Judaism. Dr. Neusner centers his study on three key words applied to rabbinic Judaism: power - the way in which one man caused another to do his will; myth - the stories people told and the beliefs they held to account for and justify the power-relationships they experienced; and function - how things worked. This important book deals with complex materials in a clear, nontechnical manner that will prove useful to those persons who are not familiar with Hebraic studies. Jacob Neusner is Research Professor of Religion and Theology at Bard College and Senior Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard. He has published more than 900 books and unnumbered articles, both scholarly and academic, popular and journalistic, and is the most published humanities scholar in the world. He has been awarded nine honorary degrees, including seven US and European honorary doctorates. He received his A. B. from Harvard College in 1953, his Ph. D. from Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary in 1961, and Rabbinical Ordination and the degree of Master of Hebrew Letters from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1960. Neusner is editor of the 'Encyclopedia of Judaism' (Brill, 1999. I-III) and its Supplements; Chair of the Editorial Board of 'The Review of Rabbinic Judaism, ' and Editor in Chief of 'The Brill Reference Library of Judaism', both published by E. J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands. He is editor of 'Studies in Judaism', University Press of America. Neusner resides with his wife in Rhinebeck, New York. They have a daughter, three sons and three daughters-in-law, six granddaughters and two grandsons.

Laws, or Halakhah, and narratives, or Aggadah, comprises the Torah. Halakhah, normative law, makes the same statement in terms of behavior that Aggadah, in its systematic and abstract mode, makes in terms of beliefs. The Halakhic theology focuses on the interior existence of Israelite. In this sourcebook, author Jacob Neusner derives from details of legal expositions some of the Halakhah's theological propositions, in order to show how normative laws of conduct express the narrative monotheism of the Torah. An introductory overview of the Halakhic theological program, seen through topical expositions of law, briefly compares Halakhic texts with Aggadic theological programs.

The documentary reading of the Rabbinic canon continues to create engaging questions and interesting problems for study. This collection of essays and book reviews represents two years of work from 2003 to 2005 focused on the Rabbinic canon. The collection is divided into four main groups. The first set of essays represents examples of historical and history-of-religion questions precipitated by the documentary perspective. The second group of essays focuses on the treatment of 56 B. C. E., 70 C. E., and 132-135 C. E. in successive canonical compilations. This section compares and contrasts Rabbinic and Christian writings on the same topic, Halakhic and Aggadic documents on the same topic, the theological description of a Rabbinic document, and various historical problems. The third set of essays deals with the history of law, and the fourth section includes several freestanding essays and six book reviews.

Implicit norms of law and theology governed in Rabbinic Judaism from the onset of its canon in the Mishnah (concluded at ca. 200) to its climax in the Talmud of Babylonia four centuries later. These norms of conviction and conception prevailed in a complete system, which was logically present, if not fully realized, from the very beginning of the canon. Norms of belief, not only behavior, governed in the canonical documents of Rabbinic Judaism and defined its orthodoxy and its heterodoxy. This book proves that proposition by asking, what are the theological premises of the documents upon which the Rabbinic canon was built and do these premises cohere in a tight theological system? The Implicit Norms of Rabbinic Judaism answers this question by identifying the principles that had to govern in order for a given composition to be articulated or a particular composite to be assembled. Those premises at the foundations of the canonical documents prove not episodic, but coherent. The documents speak, so it is universally maintained, for the community of the Rabbinic sages that sponsored them. Hence the premises and presuppositions of a document represent the consensus of the Rabbinic sages: the implicit norms of attitude and action. Canonical orthodoxy and heresy come to definition in those norms. How individuals conformed, and what institutions functioned to enforce conformity, do not figure into this account. It suffices to show that orthodoxy and heresy constituted native categories of the Rabbinic system of thought inherent in principal documents of the canon.

Judaism's two native categories, narrative theology and law (also known as parable and praxis or Aggadah and Halakhah) form two distinct modes of discourse. The one expounds norms of attitude and belief, the other, norms of action and behavior. Each possesses its own modes of thought, topical program, and medium for expression. Joined together, they create a remarkably coherent statement. Any understanding of Rabbinic Judaism depends on a theory of how these two modes of thought and expression relate to form a single cogent system. In Praxis and Parable, author Jacob Neusner explores how that single topic "the morality and law of the animal kingdom" in the Rabbinic canon of the formative age, like all other ubiquitous topics encompassed in that canon, produces two distinct vocabularies of analysis. These distinct realms of thought and speech on the same subject yield two separate classifications of the order of nature and society. How these two mediums of expressions intersect and diverge in a single case permits the general characterization of the two Judaic modes of discourse. The general characterization of the interplay of Halakhah and Aggadah defines the interior dynamics of Rabbinic Judaism and forms the principal task of systemic analysis of that Judaism. In the Rabbinic manner, this book works from the case to the rule.

The destruction of the First Temple (586 B. C. E.), destruction of the Second Temple (70 C. E.), and the defeat of the Bar Kokhba (132-135 C. E.) are discussed in great detail in the covenantal theology of the Torah and Scripture. In this new work, Jacob Neusner uses extensive textual evidence to explore the importance of the second temple's destruction and the aforementioned events in the creation of Rabbinic Judaism. Neusner ultimately proposes that the destruction of the second temple merely reinforced the existing theological system, which posed the following choice: keep the Torah and prosper, or rebel against the Torah and suffer God's wrath. This detailed analysis is an important new exploration into the foundations of Rabbinic Judaism.

Jacob Neusner is Research Professor of Religion and Theology at Bard College and Senior Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard. He has published more than 900 books and unnumbered articles, both scholarly and academic, popular and journalistic, and is the most published humanities scholar in the world. He has been awarded nine honorary degrees, including seven US and European honorary doctorates. He received his A. B. from Harvard College in 1953, his Ph. D. from Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary in 1961, and Rabbinical Ordination and the degree of Master of Hebrew Letters from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1960. Neusner is editor of the 'Encyclopedia of Judaism' (Brill, 1999. I-III) and its Supplements; Chair of the Editorial Board of 'The Review of Rabbinic Judaism, ' and Editor in Chief of 'The Brill Reference Library of Judaism', both published by E. J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands. He is editor of 'Studies in Judaism', University Press of America. Neusner resides with his wife in Rhinebeck, New York. They have a daughter, three sons and three daughters-in-law, six granddaughters and two grandsons.

Jacob Neusner is Research Professor of Religion and Theology at Bard College and Senior Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard. He has published more than 900 books and unnumbered articles, both scholarly and academic, popular and journalistic, and is the most published humanities scholar in the world. He has been awarded nine honorary degrees, including seven US and European honorary doctorates. He received his A. B. from Harvard College in 1953, his Ph. D. from Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary in 1961, and Rabbinical Ordination and the degree of Master of Hebrew Letters from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1960. Neusner is editor of the 'Encyclopedia of Judaism' (Brill, 1999. I-III) and its Supplements; Chair of the Editorial Board of 'The Review of Rabbinic Judaism, ' and Editor in Chief of 'The Brill Reference Library of Judaism', both published by E. J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands. He is editor of 'Studies in Judaism', University Press of America. Neusner resides with his wife in Rhinebeck, New York. They have a daughter, three sons and three daughters-in-law, six granddaughters and two grandsons.

Jacob Neusner is Research Professor of Religion and Theology at Bard College and Senior Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard. He has published more than 900 books and unnumbered articles, both scholarly and academic, popular and journalistic, and is the most published humanities scholar in the world. He has been awarded nine honorary degrees, including seven US and European honorary doctorates. He received his A. B. from Harvard College in 1953, his Ph. D. from Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary in 1961, and Rabbinical Ordination and the degree of Master of Hebrew Letters from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1960. Neusner is editor of the 'Encyclopedia of Judaism' (Brill, 1999. I-III) and its Supplements; Chair of the Editorial Board of 'The Review of Rabbinic Judaism, ' and Editor in Chief of 'The Brill Reference Library of Judaism', both published by E. J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands. He is editor of 'Studies in Judaism', University Press of America. Neusner resides with his wife in Rhinebeck, New York. They have a daughter, three sons and three daughters-in-law, six granddaughters and two grandsons.

After publishing a number of books in the history, literature, social thought, history of religion, and theology of formative Judaism, in the first six centuries C. E., Neusner explains the principal stages in the unfolding of his oeuvre. He introduces the documentary reading of the canonical components, one by one. He proceeds to the description, analysis, and interpretation of religious systems that comprise Rabbinic Judaism. He then sets forth the documentary history of the formation of Rabbinic Judaism in antiquity, its transformation from a philosophical to a religious system for Israel?s social order. From that diachronic perspective turns to the generative logic that transcends the diachronic narrative and imposes synchrony upon the whole. That marks a shift to a synchronic perspective, now spelling out the theological outcome of the entire venture: how the whole holds together in a coherent and logical way.

The first group of essays in Judaism in Monologue and Dialogue raises issues concerning the religious tradition of Judaism: what is normative in ethics; what it means to "be religious" or practice Judaism in the context of the Judaism defined in its own native categories; and the interior life of Judaic religiosity. The second set of essays examines relationships between the communities of Judaism and those of Christianity.