Sources and Interpretations

Lawrence H. Schiffman is Global Distinguished Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University. He is author of numerous books and articles on ancient Judaism including, most recently, The Temple Scroll (with A.D. Gross, Brill, 2021).

• PrefaceAcknowledgmentsPart1 Ancient Jewish History1 The Conversion of the Royal House of Adiabene in Josephus and Rabbinic Sources2 Politics and Religion: Do They Mix? The Patriarch and His Court in Roman Palestine3 Historical Perspectives on Dissent and Disobedience: Jews against Jews in Late Antiquity4 Models of Community in the Ancient Jewish WorldPart2 The Bible in Jewish Tradition5 What Is a Jewish Biblical Text?6 The Term and Concept of Torah7 The Rabbinic View of Prophecy and Prophets8 “A Fence around the Torah”: Rabbinic Strategies for Policing the Canon9 Translation as Commentary: Targum, Midrash, and Talmud10 The Reception of the Bible in Ancient JudaismPart3 Jewish Thought11 The Rabbinic Understanding of Covenant12 Second Temple Period Rationales for the Torah’s Commandments13 Commandment or Emotion? Love of God, Family, and Humanity in Classical Judaism14 War in Jewish Apocalyptic Thought15 Messianism and Apocalypticism in Rabbinic Texts16 Exegesis and Polemic: Rabbinic Responses to Antisemitism17 Monarchy and Polity: Systems of Government in Jewish TraditionPart4 Jewish Law18 Was There a Galilean Halakhah?19 The Samaritans in Tannaitic Halakhah20 The Samaritans in Amoraic Halakhah21 Conversion to Judaism in Tannaitic Halakhah22 Talmudic Monetary Theory: Currency in Rabbinic HalakhahPart5 The Dead Sea Scrolls and Rabbinic Halakhah23 Jewish Law in the Hasmonean Period24 The Temple Scroll and the Systems of Jewish Law of the Second Temple Period25 The Dead Sea Scrolls and Rabbinic Halakhah26 Disputes in Tannaitic Literature in Light of the Judean Desert Scrolls27 “Of the Making of Books”: Rabbinic Scribal Arts in Light of the Dead Sea ScrollsPart6 Judean Desert Texts28 On the Edge of the Diaspora: Jews in the Dead Sea Region in the First Two Centuries CE29 Witnesses and Signatures in the Hebrew and Aramaic Documents from the Bar Kokhba Caves30 Reflections on the Deeds of Sale from the Judean Desert in Light of Rabbinic LiteraturePart7 Judaism and Early Christianity31 Biblical Exegesis in the Passion Narratives and the Dead Sea Scrolls32 Jewish Law in the Gospels in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls33 The New Testament as a Source for the History of Jewish Law34 The Bleeding Woman in Mark, Matthew, and Luke: Perspectives from Qumran and Rabbinic Literature35 The Halakhic Response of the Rabbis to the Rise of ChristianityPart8 Faith, Worship, and Liturgy36 Jewish Spirituality in the Bible and Second Temple Literature37 The Importance of the Temple for Ancient Jews38 The Early History of Public Torah Reading39 The Hafṭarah: A Historical Introduction40 Additions to Birkat Yoṣer for Sabbath41 Minḥah: A Halakhic and Historical Analysis42 From Observation to Calculation: The Development of the Rabbinic Lunar Calendar43 History and Liturgy: The Evolution of Multiple Prayer RitesPart9 Apocalypticism, Magic, and Mysticism44 2 Enoch and Halakhah45 3 Enoch and the Enoch Tradition46 A Forty-two-letter Divine Name in the Aramaic Magic Bowls47 The Recall of Rabbi Neḥuniah ben Ha-Qanah from Ecstasy in the Hekhalot RabbatiPart10 Rabbis and Scholars48 The Vilna Gaon’s Methods for the Textual Criticism of Rabbinic Literature49 The Rebbe as a Torah Scholar: Synthesis and Unity50 Viktor Aptowitzer: Tradition, Haskalah, and Wissenschaft51 The Pharisees Revisited: Louis Finkelstein on the Second Temple PeriodBibliographyIndex