Daily Archives: September 21, 2009

More or Less Authoritative

Jacob Neusner, Invitation to Midrash: The Workings of Rabbinic Bible Interpretation (Atlanta: Scholars, 1998) 49. …the Talmud of the land of Israel, subordinate as it is to the Mishnah, regards the Mishnah as subordinate to, and contingent upon, Scripture. The … Continue reading

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For Whom Were the Midrashim?

Richard Sarason, “Toward a New Agendum for the Study of Rabbinic Midrashic Literature,” Studies in Aggadah, Targum and Jewish Liturgy in Memory of Joseph Heinemann, ed. Jakob Petuchowski and Ezra Fleischer (Jerusalem, 1981) 66. More fundamentally at issue here between … Continue reading

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Hillel on Self-Interest and Altruism

Jacob Neusner, Invitation to Midrash: The Workings of Rabbinic Bible Interpretation (Atlanta: Scholars, 1998) 10. Pirke Avoth is a part of the Mishnah dating to 250 C.E. It quotes Hillel (first century C.E.): If I am not for myself, who … Continue reading

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