Introduction

Abstract

Abstract This book explores the degree to which and the manner in which legal differences between the two Talmuds may be utilized for the purposes of historical reconstruction of talmudic culture. The vast complex of Jewish religious and civil law at the close of late antiquity is contained in two great collective works: the Babylonian Talmud (the Bavli) and its smaller, more concise counterpart, the Palestinian Talmud (the Yerushalmi). At the base of the two Talmuds stands the Mishnah, a legal compendium edited, it is thought, by Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi around 220 C.E. and containing the traditions of Palestinian sages (tannaim; sing.= tanna) who flourished after the destruction of the temple until the early third century. The Mishnah is one of the earliest formulations of what came to be known as the Oral Torah 1 and was studied and transmitted as the accompaniment to and (in a very broad sense) interpretation of the Written Torah, or Hebrew Bible. In the amoraic period, which followed upon the close of the Mishnah, rabbinic sages (amoraim; sing. amora) in both Palestine and Babylonia devoted themselves to the study and interpretation of this authoritative body of religious and civil law. The traditions generated by these sages were ultimately woven together into the superstructures of commentary and argument (gemara) found in the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds (Mishnah + gemara commentary= Talmud). Since scholars traveled between the two centers, traditions and teachings of Palestinian sages were transmitted to Babylonia and are found on nearly every page of the Babylonian Talmud, while Babylonian teachings were transmitted to Palestine and are to be found in the Palestinian Talmud. Yet, perhaps not surprisingly, despite their common point of departure (the Mishnah) and the exchange of legal traditions, the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds feature many differences in their discussion and interpretation of Jewish religious and civil law (halakhah). How are these differences to be explained?