Three Questions of Formative Judaism
Three Questions of Formative Judaism

Author: Jacob Neusner

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2021-10-01

Total Pages: 286

ISBN-13: 9004494197

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The academic study of Judaism requires a systematic inquiry into the history, literature, and religion—and eventually the theology—as revealed in the historical documents themselves. Under this premise, Three Questions of Formative Judaism encounters the canonical writings of Judaism in the context of their creation at a certain time and place. How something is said thus becomes as important as what is said. Bringing nearly fifty years of research to bear on these fundamental questions, Jacob Neusner challenges his readers to face the difficult, often unasked or neglected questions about the nature, background, and purposes of Rabbinic Judaism and rewards them with an enriched understanding and a stronger foundation for tackling the even more elusive questions concerning the theology of formative Judaism. This publication has also been published in paperback, please click here for details.

A Theological Commentary to the Midrash
A Theological Commentary to the Midrash

Author: Jacob Neusner

Publisher: University Press of America

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 9780761820512

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In this final volume of A Theological Commentary to the Midrash, Jacob Neusner presents both what is common to the animating theology of Rabbinic Judaism in all its documentary components, and what is unique to Mekhilta, attributed to R. Ishmael. Neusner alleges that each Rabbinic document has its particular problem to solve, a problem set forth by the book of Scripture upon which it is focused, around which it is organized.

Reading Scripture with the Rabbis
Reading Scripture with the Rabbis

Author: Jacob Neusner

Publisher: Studies in Judaism

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13:

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This anthology illustrates how Judaism's classical rabbis of the first seven centuries of the Common Era read the ancient Israelite scriptures. It presents, in particular, a selection of writings that show what happens to the five books of Moses at the hands of the Rabbinical sages of the formative age of Judaism. Each Midrash-compilation takes up a book of Scripture and systematically expounds the message that the Rabbis derive from that particular book. No statement by the rabbis of the meaning of a biblical book emerges as a mere paraphrase of the plain sense of Scripture itself. The compiler introduces the Rabbinic reading of the Five books of Moses, Genesis through Genesis Rabbah, Exodus through Mekhilta attributed to R. Ishmael, Leviticus through Leviticus Rabbah, Numbers through Sifré to Numbers, and Deuteronomy through Sifré to Deuteronomy. Genesis Rabbah shows how the rabbis found in the book of Genesis lessons of history realized in their own times. That approach to Scripture will not surprise Bible-believing Christians. Mekhilta attributed to R. Ishmael shows how the Ten Commandments are expounded in an inclusive spirit, so that the Commandments cover important aspects of everyday life. Leviticus Rabbah shows how the rabbis found in the laws of animal sacrifice lessons of both history and morality, once more an approach Christians will find congenial. The book of Numbers illustrates how the ancient rabbis read Scripture in such a way as to validate and justify rules that on the surface do not seem valid and just at all. In the case I have chosen, the treatment of the wife accused of infidelity, Numbers Chpater Five, the law of the Mishnah and the Tosefta affords to the accused wife rights that Scripture does not on the surface provide for her. We consider both the legal and the exegetical treatment of the topic, with its emphasis, for both norms of conduct and norms of conviction, upon God's justice. The book of Deuteronomy at Chapter Thirty-Two contains Moses's profound reflection on the me