Avot Reconsidered: Rethinking Rabbinic Judaism

The opening passage of tractate Avot and its claim that all of the rabbinic tradition goes back to the revelation to Moses at Sinai is frequently seen as the manifesto of rabbinic Judaism. In this paper I seek to challenge this widespread view by suggesting that Avot stems from one circle of rabbini...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Schremer, Adiel (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Penn Press 2015
In: The Jewish quarterly review
Year: 2015, Volume: 105, Issue: 3, Pages: 287-311
Further subjects:B Divine Law
B Words of Torah
B Rabbinic Judaism
B Rabbi Eliezer
B tractate Avot
B Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai
B rabbinic law
B revelation at Sinai
B Words of Scribes
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Summary:The opening passage of tractate Avot and its claim that all of the rabbinic tradition goes back to the revelation to Moses at Sinai is frequently seen as the manifesto of rabbinic Judaism. In this paper I seek to challenge this widespread view by suggesting that Avot stems from one circle of rabbinic Judaism, which was related to Rabbi Eliezer or his followers, and it reflects specifically the ideology of that group. Indeed, a close reading of the opening passage of the Tosefta, tractate Eduyot, may suggest that the claim that all of the rabbinic tradition is rooted in Sinai was rejected by the “mainstream” of rabbinic circles in second century Palestine, that is, the rabbinic circles that produced the Mishnah and the Tosefta.
ISSN:1553-0604
Contains:Enthalten in: The Jewish quarterly review
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1353/jqr.2015.0016