This term, first used by medieval commentators (see Zimmerman, p. 27, note 6), is, itself, an inaccuracy: Rabbi Zera merely describes a stringent practice which Babylonian Jewish women had taken upon themselves. Thus, the correct[…]
Religious tradition is adept at adaptation. The Babylonian Talmud, in particular, through analogy, and succinct comparison, draws the newcomer in and naturalizes it. The transformation of Hanukkah, as attested in the Babylonian Talmud, serves as[…]
The Babylonian tradition involved only one light. The tradition of gradually increasing or decreasing the number of candles lit in the course of the eight days of Hanukkah, ascribed to the schools of Hillel and[…]
Judging from the volume and innovative quality of source material in the Babylonian Talmud in contrast with the rest of the rabbinic corpora, the Babylonian contribution would appear to have been quite decisive in shaping[…]
The rabbinic sources on Hanukkah, which are not numerous, are unevenly dispersed among the classical legal compendia. The earliest rabbinic legal works, the Mishna and Tosefta, that contain tractates on many of the festivals lack[…]
It is exceedingly difficult to differentiate on formal or stylistic grounds among the layers of the Mishnah, which is the document of rabbinic Judaism first brought to redaction. The two Talmuds then lay matters out[…]
In discussing the use of אני in TL, it is necessary to distinguish between אני אומר used in contradiction, and שאני אומר used to introduce a reason for an opinion. The second of these is[…]
Leviticus Rabbah 32:5 (M. Margoliot ed., Jerusalem 1958, vol. 4, p. 747) lists four things on account of which the Israelites were redeemed: Name, language, wicked speech (leshon ha-ra), and sexual licentiousness; the Venice 1566[…]
…Sometimes in TL, the relationship to a particular day appears (when the elements are not connected by relationship to a single man, nor by a common subject) as the essential connective element of a relatively[…]
Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, was the Jewish governor of biblical Judah. He was set in place by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar following his conquest of Judah and destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 586 BCE.[…]