by hadassah | Feb 22, 2016 | Amoraim
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...
by hadassah | Feb 22, 2016 | Amoraim
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...
by hadassah | Nov 3, 2008 | Amoraim
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...
by hadassah | Sep 23, 2008 | Amoraim, Byzantine Period
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...
by hadassah | Sep 23, 2008 | Amoraim
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...
by hadassah | Apr 9, 2008 | Amoraim
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...