The achievement of a lifetime from one of today's most eminent Judaic scholars--a landmark commentary on the history of rabbinical teachings in the Christian era: the Mishnah, the Tosefta, the Talmuds, and more.

Jacob Neusner is Research Professor of Religion and Theology at Bard College and Senior Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard. He has published more than 900 books and unnumbered articles, both scholarly and academic and popular and journalistic, and is the most published humanities scholar in the world. He has been awarded nine honorary degrees, including seven US and European honorary doctorates. He received his AB from Harvard College in 1953, his PhD from Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary in 1961, and rabbinical ordination and the degree of Master of Hebrew Letters from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1960. Neusner is editor of the 'Encyclopedia of Judaism' (Brill, 1999. I-III) and its Supplements; Chair of the Editorial Board of 'The Review of Rabbinic Judaism, ' and Editor in Chief of 'The Brill Reference Library of Judaism', both published by E. J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands. He is editor of 'Studies in Judaism', University Press of America. Neusner resides with his wife in Rhinebeck, New York. They have a daughter, three sons and three daughters-in-law, six granddaughters and two grandsons.

Jacob Neusner has published more than 1000 books and articles, scholarly and academic, popular and journalistic, and is one of the most published humanities scholars in the world. Over a period of fifty years he has made significant, insightful and challenging contributions to the study of Rabbinic Judaism, particularly in the disciplines covered in the three volumes which make up Neusner on Judaism: the study of history (volume 1), literature (volume 2), and religion and theology (volume 3). These unique volumes of selective writings by Jacob Neusner, with new introductions by the author, offer scholars an invaluable resource in the field of Judaic Studies.

Book by Neusner, Jacob

Neusner relates the formative stage of Judaism to that of Christianity. Neusner cevers the subject - historicaly - not theoloically - and so places the formation of Judaism into its broader context. First, the text presents how Judaism, as we know it, came into being. Second, the author demonstrates how any religion can be studied in its historical formation. In addition. From testament to Torah presents an excellent account of Judaism's Talmudic period.

Discusses Christianity's rise to power in the 4th century, with concomitant Jewish powerlessness, as decisive factors in forming Torah Judaism, which was the Jewish way of life until the impact of secularism. Ch. 6 (pp. 225-253), "Zionism: Reversion to an Invented Past, " stresses Jewish self-emancipation as a response to the failure of Europe's promise to emancipate the Jews. Zionism called for a Jewish state, where all Jews could live and be free of antisemitism. Claims that history proved that Zionism was right regarding the danger that led to the Holocaust; thus, Zionism increasingly gained adherents, especially after World War II. Ch. 7 (pp. 254-284), "The American Judaism of Holocaust and Redemption, " focuses on the centrality of the "myth" that connects the Holocaust and the State of Israel. Against the background of American antisemitism in the 1930s-40s and the lethal Nazi antisemitism, stresses how third-generation Jewish Americans construct their identity and way of life. American Jews accept their Jewishness, since antisemitism has proved there is no escape from being a Jew. After the Holocaust, American Jews view themselves as being among the "saved" but do not believe they need to make aliyah, as the Zionist response to antisemitism requires. Instead, they busy themselves with sacred activities related to surviving as Jews, especially preserving Israel as a refuge from antisemitism.

In this clearly written book, Jacob Neusner answers the central questions about the world of Judaism in which Christianity was born. He gives an overview of the history and religion of Israel and an analysis of the Judaic legacy as it endured among those who did not become Christians. He also discusses the troubling issue of the Pharisees and investigates the identity of the "historical Hillel." This accessible book aims to speak directly to every student who is concerned with both the early and contemporary meanings of the Jewish and Christian faiths.

The renewed perception of Judaism's influenceJudaism today is too often thought to represent a religious backwater, a highly particularistic, religion with its own esoteric tales and traditions, practices and norms. First Christians, then Jews themselves, have succumbed to this characterization, resulting in dismissal of Judaism's universal religious significance. Bereft of its religious import, Judaism is increasingly thought merely an ethnic designationand a quickly dissipating one at that. Neusner pleas for vindication of "the universal character and appeal of Judaic monotheism in the mainstream of humanity." Of the three great monotheistic religions, only Judaism has survived without political power, military might, or great numbers of adherents and has done so because its method and message aim to persuade the world of God's dominion and the marks of God's rule.

About the Author Jacob Neusner is Research Professor of Religion and Theology Bard College Annandale-on-Hudson, NY.

The latest in Jacob Neusner's informative series on the theology and hermeneutics of Rabbinical Judaism, The Emergence of Judaism offers insight into the development of Judaism in antiquity. Based on the author's lectures, this volume focuses on the social setting of Judaism, the Babylonian Talmud, and the Bavli.

Neusner introduces the reader to selections from all the documents of the Torah and Scripture that define the canon of Judaism in its formative stage.

"The Theology of the Oral Torah demonstrates the cogency and inner rationality of the classical statement of Judaism in the Oral Torah, bringing a theological assessment to bear on the whole of rabbinic literature. Jacob Neusner shows how the proposition that God is One and all-powerful but also merciful and just defines the system and structure of rabbinic Judaism ; He argues that in working this proposition out in rich detail the classical texts generate the central rabbinic problem: how can the conflicting traits inherent in the proposition be resolved?"--Jacket

"The book is carefully organized and provides a clear, well-structured, and lucid expression of its theses." -- Dr. Marvin Fox, Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Brandeis University The Mishnah is the first canonical writing of Judaism after the Hebrew Scriptures of ancient Israel (the Old Testament) and the foundation of the two Talmuds and of all Judaism thereafter. According to eminent religion scholar Jacob Neusner, the key to understanding the Mishnah is to read it as philosophy, in accord with the generally accepted understanding of philosophy in its time and place. In Judaism as Philosophy, Neusner studies a large sample of evidence, meticulously translated and carefully explained, and identifies the philosophical side of the Mishnah's system, method, and message alike. The philosophical tradition in which the Mishnah takes its place, Neusner explains, utilizes the Aristotelian method of hierarchical classification to demonstrate the proposition (important to Middle Platonism and profoundly expressed by Plotinus) that many things really form a single thing: many species, a single genus; many genera, an encompassing, well-crafted and cogent whole. Through the systematic and orderly hierarchical classification of the things of nature, the framers of the Mishnah illustrate the ultimate unity of all being emanating from the One on high. Arguing that the document's writers chose a legal form for a philosophical proposition, this book completely changes a centuries-old way of reading the Mishnah. Judaism emerges as a sustained demonstration of the unity of all being under one God. "What is the next phase in this ongoing history of the formation of Judaism in theclassical period[?]... The analysis of the philosophical character of the Mishnah places into perspective what I believe to be the character of the first phase, and therefore points toward the development of the second and third phases, of the Judaism of the Dual Torah. The entire characterization of the first phase of the Judaism of the Dual Torah, that is, the system attested by the Mishnah in particular, rests upon the results of this book and its two companions, on economics and politics respectively."--from the Preface

"While every history of ancient Judaism and Christianity gives a detailed picture of the Pharisees, none systematically and critically analyzes the traits and tendencies of the discrete sources combined to form such an account. Consequently, we have many theories but few facts, sophisticated theologies but uncritical, naive histories of Pharisaism which yield heated arguments unillumined by disciplined, reasoned understanding. Progress in the study of the growth of Pharisaic Judaism before 70 A.D. will depend upon the accumulation of detailed knowledge and a determined effort to cease theorizing about the age. We must honestly attempt to understand not only what was going on in the first century, but also - and most crucially - how and whether we know anything at all about what was going on. "Here you are invited to share the painful task of assessing difficult sources and criticizing the nature of extant information about the Pharisees before 70 A.D.. At the outset, you may learn more than you wanted to know about the Pharisees, but the real reward of your labor ought to be mature skepticism about the nature of historical knowledge." from the Preface

Jacob Neusner, a noted scholar and prolific author on Jewish literature, history, and religion, believes that Jews and Christians do well to seek in their encounter with the teachings of the living God, the wisdom, imagination, and insight of the ages. "In this book," he writes in the Preface, "I want to contribute some modest measure of my own faith, Judaism, as that faith may add to the faith of our Christian neighbors, for all of us now dwell together in the new catacomb, the darkness of disdain for our common faith in one God, creator of heaven and earth, judge of all humankind. This is a book of religious faith."

Describes and contrasts how two major religions approached the problem of writing down the traditions of the ages. Just before 700 A. D., Judaic sages compiled the Talmud of Babylonia; just after 800 A. D., Zoroastrian priests compiled the Pahlavi books. In both cases, the projects codified thought and became authorities for the later development of the religions. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

The only English-language translation of the Tosefta ("supplement"), which contains explanations and discussion not included in the Mishnah and is organized according to the same six divisions. Materials in the Tosefta are attributed to rabbinic authorities in the first and second centuries C.E., the same ones cited in the Mishnah, and as such the Tosefta is crucial to the study of formative rabbinic Judaism and early Christianity. This two-volume edition, by renowned rabbinic scholar Jacob Neusner, contains the complete text of the original six-volume set. The following features enhance the usefulness of this new the text is continuously paginated, with a new preface, a single general index, and a full index of biblical and talmudic references.

During the formative age of Judaism, the first seven centuries CE, the great rabbis thought deeply about beginnings in light of endings. They imposed upon their sequential reading of each passage the accumulated results of their reflection about all passages. Thus, they encompassed Scripture, so as to describe the world as God had intended it to be.This act of intellect resulted in two distinct, ahistorical media of thought and expression, the Halakhah, law, and Aggadah, lore. The author provides three systematic accounts of the Halakhic reading, and two Aggadic accounts. The Halakhic accounts cover [1] Work and Rest, [2] Ownership and Possession, Eden and the Land, and [3] Ownership and Possession in the Household. The Aggadic accounts pertain to [1] the Six Days of Creation, and [2] Adam and Eve.

The Talmud - the Mishnah, a philosophical law code, and the Gemara, a dialectical commentary upon the Mishnah - works by translating principal modes of Western philosophy and science into the analysis of the rules of rationality governing the rules of humble, everyday reality. Science, in particular the method of hierarchical classification characteristic of natural history, supplies the method of making connections and drawing conclusions to the Mishnah, the law-code that forms the foundation-document of the Talmud, as Neusner demonstrated in his "Judaism as Philosophy. The Method and Message of the Mishnah," Here he proceeds to show how philosophy, specifically dialectical analysis, defines the logic of the Gemara and guides the writers of the Gemara's compositions and the compilers of its composites in their analysis and amplification of some of the topical presentations, or tractates, of the Mishnah.