Rabbinic Literature: An Essential Guide

Rabbinic Literature: An Essential Guide. By Jacob Neusner. Nashville: Abingdon, 2005, 164 pp., $16.00 paper.

Neusner's book is a valuable introductory guide for novices entering the world of rabbinic literature. The first chapter briefly defines rabbinic literature and its significance both for general interest and most importantly for Christian studies. Chapters 2 through 4 form the majority of the text and survey the various rabbinic works of antiquity (up through ca. 600). The main goal of these three chapters is to describe the overarching message of the compilers of each work in its final form. The final two chapters briefly seek to demonstrate the relationships between rabbinic literature and Hebrew Scripture, on the one hand, and Christian Scripture, on the other. The appendix consists of a chart listing each of the divisions and tractates of the Mishnah and indicating which ones are treated in the Tosefta and in the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds.

Chapter 2 introduces the reader to the concept of the oral tradition (oral Torah) by surveying two works, one of the tractates of the Talmud, Abot, "The Fathers," and a later reworking of the same, known as Abot d'Rabbi Nathan, "The Fathers according to Rabbi Nathan." Chapter 3 treats halakhic (legal) works. Beginning with the Mishnah, Neusner gives a valuable overview of each of the six orders, showing how each contributes to the main message of the Mishnah and how each of the 62 tractates relates to that order (pp. 23-30). Next, he treats in turn the Tosefta and the two Talmuds. Finally, he turns to the verse-by-verse commentaries: to Exodus, Mekhilta attributed to Rabbi Ishmael, to Leviticus, Sifra, and the two Sifres, to Numbers and Deuteronomy. Chapter 4 treats aggadic (theological) works, organized around Scripture. Here he treats the commentaries: first, Genesis Rabbah and Leviticus Rabbah, organized around Scripture; then Pesiqta deRab Kahana, organized around the lectionary cycle of the festivals; and, finally, Lamentations Rabbah, Song of Songs Rabbah, Ruth Rabbah and Esther Rabbah I.

Rabbinic works are clearly composite, but it must be agreed that the compilers of each composition had a purpose in arrangement. As Neusner notes, the purpose is not expressed explicitly but must be gleaned from reading the finished product itself. Neusner is careful to distinguish the intent of the original sayings and the intent of the final compilers (p. 159, n. 3; cf. p. 75). In chapters 2-4, Neusner delineates the similarities and differences of each work's message and structure and compares them to one another. For Lamentations Rabbah (pp. 97-102) and Ruth Rabbah (pp. 109-14) he offers a précis of the entire work. Along the way, he provides a few key examples to illustrate.

Chapter 5, "Rabbinic Literature and the Hebrew Scriptures," is quite amazing. In a mere fifteen pages Neusner constructs a coherent theology of Aggadah and Halakhah in all of rabbinic literature. He does this by identifying three theological points of all of the Aggadah. Under each point he lists a total of nine categories formulated in Halakhah, listing under each the tractates dealing with that point. The Halakhah is then summarized as three motifs (pp. 134-35).

Chapter 6, "Rabbinic Literature and the Christian Scriptures," is less ambitious. Though Neusner does not attempt to summarize all of Christian theology through ca. 600, he follows his diachronic approach by treating the writings of the NT and the early Christians as a whole. Then he illustrates how this approach can be used to compare Judaism and Christianity with aggadic and halakhic examples. The aggadic example compares the parable of the king who gave a marriage feast (Matt 22:1-14) to a similar parable attributed to Yohanan ben Zakkai (b. Shab. 153a; pp. 137-44). One may easily disagree with Neusner's analysis of Jesus' parable, but the approach is interesting for comparing the two systems.

Some might fault Neusner for not interacting with other literature. His sparse endnotes mostly offer a small bibliography of standard works on the subjects, including translations, but there is no discussion of the views of others. Further, most of the bibliographic entries are books by Neusner himself. This is somewhat to be expected, since a large part of his career has been devoted to publishing translations of rabbinic works, several of which have had no complete translation in any modern language. More thorough bibliographies and scholarly interaction, however, would have made the book less accessible to a reader new to the confusing world of rabbinic literature. The few other works that are mentioned do provide thorough bibliographies for students desiring to do more investigation.

At times Neusner is difficult to follow. One place this shows up is in his frequent classifications, which often do not seem parallel. For example, he categorizes Halakhah as legal material, as is commonly understood, by the meaning of the term. However, he classifies Aggadah (which means "narrative," or "lore," in his words) by his understanding of its nature, "theological" (cf. titles to chaps. 3 and 4 and pp. 19,74). Beginners would benefit by closer parallelism or explanations of such deviations.