The Literature of the Sages: Second Part: Midrash and Targum, Liturgy, Poetry, Mysticism, Contracts, Inscriptions, Ancient Science and the Languages of ... Period of the Second Temple and the Talmud)

This long-awaited companion volume to The Literature of the Sages , First Part (Fortress Press, 1987) brings to completion Section II of the renowned Compendia series. The Literature of the Sages, Second Part, explores the literary creation of thousands of ancient Jewish teachers, the often- anonymous Sages of late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Essays by premier scholars provide a careful and succinct analysis of the content and character of various documents, their textual and literary forms, with particular attention to the ongoing discovery and publication of new textual material. Incorporating groundbreaking developments in research, these essays give a comprehensive presentation published here for the first time. This volume will prove an important reference work for all students of ancient Judaism, the origins of Jewish tradition, and the Jewish background of Christianity. The literary creation of the ancient Jewish teachers or Sages - also ­called rabbinic literature - consists of the teachings of thousands of Sages, many of them anonymous. For a long period, their teachings existed orally, which implied a great deal of flexibility in arrangement and form. Only gradually, as parts of this amorphous oral tradition became fixed, was the literature written down, a process that began in the third century C.E. and continued into the Middle Ages. Thus the documents of ­rabbinic literature are the result of a remarkably long and complex process of creation and editing. This long-awaited companion volume to 'The Literature of the Sages, First Part' (1987) gives a careful and succinct analysis both of the content and specific nature of the various documents, and of their textual and literary forms, paying special attention to the continuing discovery and publication of new textual material. Incorporating ground-breaking developments in research, these essays give a comprehensive presentation published here for the first time. 'The Literature of the Sages, Second Part' is an important reference work for all students of ancient Judaism, as well as for those interested in the origins of Jewish tradition and the Jewish background of Christianity Contents......Page 5 Foreword......Page 9 Introduction......Page 11 Note on Orthography and Acknowledgments......Page 17 Section One: Midrash and Targum......Page 19 1. The Halakhic Midrashim, by Menahem I. Kahana......Page 21 2. Aggadic Midrash, by Marc Hirshman......Page 125 3. The Works of Aggadic Midrash and the Esther Midrashim, by Myron B. Lerner......Page 151 4. Seder Olam, by Chaim Milikowsky......Page 249 Appendix: The Scroll of Antiochos and the Scroll of Fasts, by Zeev Safrai......Page 256 5. The Targums as Part of Rabbinic Literature, by Zeev Safrai......Page 261 Section Two: Liturgy, Poetry, Mysticism......Page 297 6. Prayers and Berakhot, by Joseph Tabory......Page 299 7. The Passover Haggada, by Joseph Tabory......Page 345 8. Megillat Taanit - The Scroll of Fasting, by Vered Noam......Page 357 9. Piyyut, by Ezra Fleischer......Page 381 10. 'Syriac for Dirges, Hebrew for Speech' - Ancient Jewish Poetry in Aramaic and Hebrew, by Joseph Yahalom......Page 393 11. Mystical Texts, by Michael D. Swartz......Page 411 Section Three: Contracts, Inscriptions, Ancient Science......Page 439 12. Contracts: Rabbinic Literature and Ancient Jewish Documents, by Mordechai A. Friedman......Page 441 13. Jewish Inscriptions and Their Use, by Jonathan J. Price and Haggai Misgav......Page 479 14. Medical Interest in Ancient Rabbinic Literature, by Samuel S. Kottek......Page 503 15. Geography and Cosmography in Talmudic Literature, by Zeev Safrai......Page 515 16. Biology in Rabbinic Literature: Fact and Folklore, by Abraham Ofir Shemesh......Page 527 17. The Sages and the Occult, by Yuval Harari......Page 539 Section Four: The Languages of Rabbinic Literature......Page 583 18. Mishnaic Hebrew: An Introductory Survey, by Moshe Bar-As her......Page 585 19. The Aramaic of the Talmudic Period, by Yohanan Breuer......Page 615 20. Rabbinic Knowledge of Greek, by Daniel Sperber......Page 645 Abbreviations......Page 659 Cumulative Bibliography......Page 663 Untitled......Page 729 1st pt. 1st pt. -- editor, Shmuel Safrai. -- 2nd pt. 1st pt.-- editor, Shmuel Safrai.-- 2nd pt.-- edited by Shmuel Safrai ... [et al.].