The Amoraim made use of various techniques to impart the oral Torah to their students. Most prominent was simple repetition. To aid in memorizing, since the oral Torah was transmitted and taught through an oral process, mnemonic devices and other formulations were used. R. Pereda had a pupil whom he taught his lesson four hundred times […]
The various locations of the Sanhedrin are linked with the verse in Genesis which locates the tribe of Zebulun by the seashore. Genesis Rabbah, a midrash on Genesis edited in the fifth century C.E., locates the resting place of the Sanhedrin in Zebulun’s territory in Sepphoris but was also aware that it later moved to […]
Lawrence H. Schiffman, From Text to Tradition, Ktav Publishing House, Hoboken, NJ, 1991. One of the basic premises on which the tradition of the tannaim was based was the concept of the two Torahs, oral and written, which, the rabbis believed, had been given by God to Moses on Sinai. According to the rabbinic view, the two […]
The oldest known Talmudic inscription The synagogue of Rehov was excavated by Fanny Vitto of the then-Israel Department of Antiquities and Museums between 1974-80. The synagogue of Rehov was built in three phases, consisting of a 4th century basilica, enlarged in the 5th-6th centuries, and destroyed as it was being enlarged and renovated during the […]
The earliest manuscripts of Rabbinic literature date to the middle ages, hundreds of years after many of the cardinal documents of the “Oral Torah” were initially promulgated. For example, the Mishnah, the basic document of the Rabbinic corpus, was completed around 200 CE. Fragments of the Mishnah that date to the 9 th -12 th centuries CE were […]
Excerpted from Lawrence H. Schiffman, From Text to Tradition, Ktav Publishing House, Hoboken, NJ, 1991. The Talmuds (Gemaras) are complicated texts, originally constructed orally as part of the study sessions of the amoraim. These study sessions were organized around the formal curriculum provided by the mishnaic tractates. Different tractates were selected for detailed study in Palestine and Babylonia, […]
Excerpted from Lawrence H. Schiffman, From Text to Tradition, Ktav Publishing House, Hoboken, NJ, 1991. The two Talmuds, the Palestinian and the Babylonian, emerged after centuries of debate, study, and clarification. In each country, groups of amoraim labored to understand and develop the traditions they had received from their tannaitic forebears. Even the most cursory examination of the […]
From Text to Tradition Amoraic Schools From Amoraic Interpretation to Talmudic Texts Primary sources Genesis Rabbah 97-13- The Migration of the Sanhedrin Babylonian Talmud Eruvin 54b-55a- Amoraic Pedagogy Secondary sources Steven Fine. The Rehov Synagogue Inscriptions- The Earliest Preserved Text of the Talmudic Literature. Images The Rehov Synagogue Inscription, details Jewish laws for the Sabbatical […]