Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash

by Hermann Leberecht Strack, Günter Stemberger

Günter Stemberger's revision of H. L. Strack's classic introduction to rabbinic literature, which appeared in its first English edition in 1991, was widely acclaimed.

Günter Stemberger and Markus Bockmuehl have now produced this updated edition. Following Strack's original outline, Stemberger discusses first the historical framework, the basic principles of rabbinic literature and hermeneutics and the most important Rabbis. The main part of the the book is devoted to the Talmudic and Midrashic literature in the light of contemporary rabbinic research. The appendix includes a new section on electronic resources for the study of the Talmud and Midrash.

Readers will note a number of significant changes. Most importantly, the present text substantially represents the eighth German edition published by Gunter Stemberger in 1992.

Genres: Judaism, Jewish, Religion, Nonfiction

433 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[فؤاد]

اطلاعات جزئی خیلی زیادی داشت، اما تخصصی تر از اون بود که به کار مطالعه از اول تا آخر بیاد. به نظر بیشتر باید به عنوان یه منبع به یه فصل به خصوصش مراجعه کرد. نه این که از اول شروع کنی بخونی تا آخر.

[Kirk Lowery]

If you're looking for a "first book" to read and don't already have a working knowledge of Hebrew and Aramaic (never mind Greek and Latin), don't start here. Rather, start with Jacob Neusner's Introduction to Rabbinic Literature.

I mean no disrespect to this marvelous reference book. If you are going to do serious, academic study of rabbinic literature, you must consult this book. But the book assumes a general knowledge of the Bible, the ancient and medieval worlds, and a familiarity with literary-critical methods of study. Otherwise, you're going to be lost. It's an "Introduction" in same genre as "Introductions" to the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament: questions of origin, history, authorship, manuscript witnesses to the text, literary genre and more. You should also have a general knowledge of the history of Judaism in its historical context.

A great value of the book is the detailed bibliography. In one sense, the book is an extended bibliographic essay on the Talmud and Midrash.

[Isaac Soon]

This book is an essential work for exploring rabbinic literature. Not only does it include a slough of important bibliographies for various topics throughout the Mishnah, Tosefta, PT, BT and Midrashim but it provides concise summaries of controversial and disputed aspects of various textual, historical and literary elements of all the above works. It provides a perfect summary for when you encounter a new particular rabbinic work (especially if it is Midrashim) and you can easily get up to date on various issues and particularities of the text in question.

[Brent Buttorff]

A dry but comprehensive introduction to many of the documents and surrounding arguments necessary to begin to understand Jewish literary criticism and the primary texts that are of interest to Rabbinic Judaism.

[Ari]

This is really an extremely useful book, however it is also completely academic. More footnotes than text. Fantastic for what it is, highly recommended.

[Denise Blumenfeld]

Excelente libro de investigación académica acerca de la literatura rabinica. Trae sus ediciones principales y debates en torno a sus compilaciones y escritura.
Muy recomendado para académicos.

[Rob Vanhoff]

A very helpful, although dated handbook for rabbinic literature. Be sure to get the Second Edition.

[Jonathan]

Very academic. But if you're looking for an overview of these sources and some of the academic views concerning them, it's great.