Sources and Interpretations

Lawrence H. Schiffman is Global Distinguished Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University. He is author of numerous books and articles on ancient Judaism including, most recently, The Temple Scroll (with A.D. Gross, Brill, 2021).

Preface

Acknowledgments

Part1 Ancient Jewish History



1 The Conversion of the Royal House of Adiabene in Josephus and Rabbinic Sources



2 Politics and Religion: Do They Mix? The Patriarch and His Court in Roman Palestine



3 Historical Perspectives on Dissent and Disobedience: Jews against Jews in Late Antiquity



4 Models of Community in the Ancient Jewish World



Part2 The Bible in Jewish Tradition



5 What Is a Jewish Biblical Text?



6 The Term and Concept of Torah



7 The Rabbinic View of Prophecy and Prophets



8 “A Fence around the Torah”: Rabbinic Strategies for Policing the Canon



9 Translation as Commentary: Targum, Midrash, and Talmud



10 The Reception of the Bible in Ancient Judaism



Part3 Jewish Thought



11 The Rabbinic Understanding of Covenant



12 Second Temple Period Rationales for the Torah’s Commandments



13 Commandment or Emotion? Love of God, Family, and Humanity in Classical Judaism



14 War in Jewish Apocalyptic Thought



15 Messianism and Apocalypticism in Rabbinic Texts



16 Exegesis and Polemic: Rabbinic Responses to Antisemitism



17 Monarchy and Polity: Systems of Government in Jewish Tradition



Part4 Jewish Law



18 Was There a Galilean Halakhah?



19 The Samaritans in Tannaitic Halakhah



20 The Samaritans in Amoraic Halakhah



21 Conversion to Judaism in Tannaitic Halakhah



22 Talmudic Monetary Theory: Currency in Rabbinic Halakhah



Part5 The Dead Sea Scrolls and Rabbinic Halakhah



23 Jewish Law in the Hasmonean Period



24 The Temple Scroll and the Systems of Jewish Law of the Second Temple Period



25 The Dead Sea Scrolls and Rabbinic Halakhah



26 Disputes in Tannaitic Literature in Light of the Judean Desert Scrolls



27 “Of the Making of Books”: Rabbinic Scribal Arts in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls



Part6 Judean Desert Texts



28 On the Edge of the Diaspora: Jews in the Dead Sea Region in the First Two Centuries CE



29 Witnesses and Signatures in the Hebrew and Aramaic Documents from the Bar Kokhba Caves



30 Reflections on the Deeds of Sale from the Judean Desert in Light of Rabbinic Literature



Part7 Judaism and Early Christianity



31 Biblical Exegesis in the Passion Narratives and the Dead Sea Scrolls



32 Jewish Law in the Gospels in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls



33 The New Testament as a Source for the History of Jewish Law



34 The Bleeding Woman in Mark, Matthew, and Luke: Perspectives from Qumran and Rabbinic Literature



35 The Halakhic Response of the Rabbis to the Rise of Christianity



Part8 Faith, Worship, and Liturgy



36 Jewish Spirituality in the Bible and Second Temple Literature



37 The Importance of the Temple for Ancient Jews



38 The Early History of Public Torah Reading



39 The Hafṭarah: A Historical Introduction



40 Additions to Birkat Yoṣer for Sabbath



41 Minḥah: A Halakhic and Historical Analysis



42 From Observation to Calculation: The Development of the Rabbinic Lunar Calendar



43 History and Liturgy: The Evolution of Multiple Prayer Rites



Part9 Apocalypticism, Magic, and Mysticism



44 2 Enoch and Halakhah



45 3 Enoch and the Enoch Tradition



46 A Forty-two-letter Divine Name in the Aramaic Magic Bowls



47 The Recall of Rabbi Neḥuniah ben Ha-Qanah from Ecstasy in the Hekhalot Rabbati



Part10 Rabbis and Scholars



48 The Vilna Gaon’s Methods for the Textual Criticism of Rabbinic Literature



49 The Rebbe as a Torah Scholar: Synthesis and Unity



50 Viktor Aptowitzer: Tradition, Haskalah, and Wissenschaft



51 The Pharisees Revisited: Louis Finkelstein on the Second Temple Period



Bibliography

Index