The authors reached back into history to understand the reasons and methods brilliant rabbis and Talmudic scholars abandoned the Holy Land, both physically and spiritually, to settle in what came to be known as the lands of the Diaspora. This dramatic exodus was contrary to the biblical injunction that all Jews must live in the land of Israel. The Battle of the Two Talmuds explains in great detail how the Babylonian scholars created their own interpretation of the Torah that grew to take precedence over that of the Jerusalem scholars. This book shows that all human beings are subject in various ways to power, glory, and guilt. It was power, glory, and guilt that has effected the tradition and scholarship of Judaism for the past 2,000 years. The reader learns how these qualities intertwined in a positive way to make Judaism an enduring and vibrant religion.

In this book, Hayes addresses the central concern in talmudic studies over the genesis of halakhic (legal) divergence between the Talmuds produced by the Palestinian rabbinic community (c. 370 C.E.) and the Babylonian rabbinic community (c. 650 C.E.). Hayes analyzes selected divergences between parallel passages of the two Talmuds. Proceeding on a case-by-case basis, she considers whether external influences (cultural or regional differences), internal factors (textual, hermeneutical, or dialectical), or some intersection of the two best accounts for the differences.

This innovative study sees the relationship between Athens and Jerusalem through the lens of the Platonic dialogues and the Talmud. Howland argues that these texts are animated by comparable conceptions of the proper roles of inquiry and reasoned debate in religious life, and by a profound awareness of the limits of our understanding of things divine. Insightful readings of Plato's Apology, Euthyphro and chapter three of tractate Ta'anit explore the relationship of prophets and philosophers, fathers and sons, and gods and men (among other themes), bringing to light the tension between rational inquiry and faith that is essential to the speeches and deeds of both Socrates and the Talmudic sages. In reflecting on the pedagogy of these texts, Howland shows in detail how Talmudic aggadah and Platonic drama and narrative speak to different sorts of readers in seeking mimetically to convey the living ethos of rabbinic Judaism and Socratic philosophising.

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.

The Babylonian Talmud, a postbiblical Jewish text that is part scripture and part commentary, is an unlikely bestseller. Written in a hybrid of Hebrew and Aramaic, it is often ambiguous to the point of incomprehension, and its subject matter reflects a narrow scholasticism that should hardly have broad appeal. Yet the Talmud has remained in print for centuries and is more popular today than ever. Barry Scott Wimpfheimer tells the remarkable story of this ancient Jewish book and explains why it has endured for almost two millennia.0Providing a concise biography of this quintessential work of rabbinic Judaism, Wimpfheimer takes readers from the Talmud's prehistory in biblical and second-temple Judaism to its present-day use as a source of religious ideology, a model of different modes of rationality, and a totem of cultural identity. He describes the book's origins and structure, its centrality to Jewish law, its mixed reception history, and its golden renaissance in modernity. He explains why reading the Talmud can feel like being swept up in a river or lost in a maze, and why the Talmud has come to be venerated--but also excoriated and maligned-in the centuries since it first appeared.0An incomparable introduction to a work of literature that has lived a full and varied life, this accessible book shows why the Talmud is at once a received source of traditional teachings, a touchstone of cultural authority, and a powerful symbol of Jewishness for both supporters and critics.