No work has informed Jewish life and history more than the Talmud. This
unique and vast collection of teachings and traditions contains within
it the intellectual output of hundreds of Jewish sages who considered
all aspects of an entire people's life from the Hellenistic period in
Palestine (c. 315 B.C.E.) until the end of the Sassanian era in
Babylonia (615 C.E.). This volume adds the insights of modern talmudic
scholarship and criticism to the growing number of more traditionally
oriented works that seek to open the talmudic heritage and tradition to
contemporary readers. These central essays provide a taste of the myriad
ways in which talmudic study can intersect with such diverse disciplines
as economics, history, ethics, law, literary criticism, and
philosophy.
Contributors: Baruch Micah Bokser, Boaz Cohen, Ari Elon, Meyer S.
Feldblum, Louis Ginzberg, Abraham Goldberg, Robert Goldenberg, Heinrich
Graetz, Louis Jacobs, David Kraemer, Geoffrey B. Levey, Aaron Levine,
Saul Lieberman, Jacob Neusner, Nahum Rakover, and David Weiss-Halivni.