DEFINITIONS OF TERMS AND METHODOLOGICAL PROBLEMS

The period to which this volume is devoted, the late Roman rabbinic period, begins some years before the destruction of the Second Temple. However, the sources on which our discussion is to be based rarely permit a clear distinction between developments in the late Second Temple period and those of the early Temple period. Therefore, the period that is the subject of this article begins, approximately, with the return of the Jews to the land of Israel from their exile in Babylon. It concludes with the final redaction of the Babylonian Talmud, some time between the beginning of the sixth century CE and the end of the seventh. At times it will be necessary to refer to some material which is actually later than the end of the late Roman rabbinic period, when there is reason to think that the traditions found in the later literature actually reflect practices of the Late Roman-Rabbinic period – which have not been documented in the earlier sources.

Although most Jewish festivals are based on the Torah, a product of the biblical period, the Late Roman-Rabbinic period may be considered the formative period of these festivals, for we have little knowledge about details of their observance during the biblical period. The sages who lived in the Late Rabbinic period attempted to show that most of the details of the festival rituals were based on study of the biblical text, although some of these details were definitely presented as innovations of later periods.