the Literature of Sages: A Re Visioning: 16

This volume abandons the document-based approach of standard introductions and investigates aggregates of classical rabbinic texts through three broad perspectives – intertextuality, east and west, halakhah and aggadah – generating fresh insights that will reset the scholarly agenda. This volume presents the major works of classical rabbinic Judaism as inter-related aggregates analyzed through three central themes. Part 1, “Intertextuality,” investigates the multi-directional relationships among and between rabbinic texts and nonrabbinic Jewish sources. Part 2, “East and West” explores the impact on rabbinic texts of the cultures of the Hellenistic, Roman, and Christian West and the Sasanian East. Part 3, “Halakha and Aggada,” interrogates the relationship of law and narrative in rabbinic sources. This bold volume uncovers alliances and ruptures -- textual, cultural, and generic -- obscured by document-based approaches to rabbinic literature. "This important book presents a series of new introductions to rabbinic literature." Ishay Rosen-Zvi, Tel Aviv University, BMCR 2024.10.05.