Babylonian Talmud Eruvin 54b-55a- Amoraic Pedagogy

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...

Genesis Rabbah 97-13- The Migration of the Sanhedrin

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...

Written and Oral Torah

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...

From Amoraic Interpretation to Talmudic Texts

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...