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35 - Torah in rabbinic thought: the theology of learning

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
Marc Hirshman
Edited by
Steven T. Katz
Marc Hirshman
Affiliation:
The Melton Center of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Steven T. Katz
Affiliation:
Boston University
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Summary

INTRODUCTION

Rabbinic literature is a complex anthology of more than half a millennium of Jewish thought, stretching from the sparse statements of the last two centuries BCE to the ample oeuvre of the first five centuries of the Common Era. All of the collections of rabbinic literature underwent a process of editing, some more refined, as that of the Mishnah and the Babylonian Talmud, some less so, as in the case of the Jerusalem Talmud. An attempt to pursue a developmental, historical view of rabbinic thought is still beyond our grasp, as the complexities of the predominantly oral transmission and later written preservation still baffle and stymie scholarship. We will select the most powerful expressions of various rabbinic positions on the meaning and significance of the Torah and Torah study, culled from the classical period of rabbinic literature (tannaitic, until 250 ce; amoraic, from 250 to 500 ce). These sources will be amplified by selections from contemporaneous Graeco-Roman and Christian literature on the one hand and by modern critical scholarship on the other.

It is fair to say that among the rabbinic Sages, Torah study was accorded the highest status as a commandment, first among equals, both as a vehicle for religious knowledge and for religious self-fulfillment. The primacy of Torah in rabbinic thought is a widely recognized and well-documented phenomenon, which is epitomized in the famous exegesis of Jeremiah 16.11: “and they forsook Me and did not keep My law (torati).

Keywords

GodRabbinic literatureJewish peopleoral lawTorah study
Type
Chapter
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The Cambridge History of Judaism , pp. 899 - 924
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

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