The initial impetus for writing this book was the desire to understand more fully and completely the contribution of the redactors of the Talmud, the Stammaim. It was this desire to appreciate the redactors' innovations along with the indebtedness to their predecessors that made me reexamine the nature of both Midrashic and Mishnaic forms, place them in their proper historical perspective, and relate them to the source of all Jewish knowledge, the Bible.

Gunter Stemberger's revision of H. L. Strack's classic introduction to rabbinic literature, which appeared in its first English edition in 1991, was widely acclaimed. Gunter Stemberger and Markus Bockmuehl have now produced this updated edition, which is a significant revision (completed in 1996) of the 1991 volume. Following Strack's original outline, Stemberger discusses first the historical framework, the basic principles of rabbinic literature and hermeneutics and the most important Rabbis. The main part of the book is devoted to the Talmudic and Midrashic literature in the light of contemporary rabbinic research. The appendix includes a new section on electronic resources for the study of the Talmud and Midrash. The result is a comprehensive work of reference that no student of rabbinics can afford to be without.

An eminent authority on the Talmud offers here an analysis of classical rabbinic texts that illuminates the nature of Midrash, Mishnah, and Gemara, and highlights a fundamental characteristic of Jewish law. Midrash is firmly based on—draws its support from—Scripture. It thus projects the idea that law must be justified. The concept, David Weiss Halivni demonstrates, is at the heart of Jewish law and can be traced from the Bible (especially evident in Deuteronomy) through the classical commentaries of the Talmud. Only Mishnah is—like other ancient Near Eastern law—apodictic, recognizing no need for justification. But Midrash existed before Mishnah and its law served as grounding for the non-justificatory Mishnaic texts. Indeed, Halivni argues, Mishnah was a deviant form and consequently short-lived and never successfully revived, a response to particular religious and political conditions after the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. He chronicles the persistence of justificatory Midrash, the culmination of its development in Gemara in the fifth and sixth centuries, and its continuation down through the ages. David Weiss Halivni has given us a lucid and compelling picture of the several modes of rabbinic learning and disputation and their historical relation to one another.

Previously published: Edinburgh, Scotland: T&T Clark, 1991. With new introd.

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