Category Archives: Mishna

Naftali Cohn’s “The Memory of the Temple and the Making of the Rabbis”

Posted on January 23, 2013 by

In an attempt at remaining sane during the present Israeli election cycle, I found myself reading Naftali Cohn‘s The Memory of the Temple and the Making of the Rabbis (although given some of the rhetoric voiced here by wannabe politicians … Continue reading →

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The Afghani ‘Geniza’

Posted on May 1, 2012 by

A few months ago, news broke in the Israeli media of an important manuscript trove that was discovered in Afghanistan. A spate of articles appeared in the press, each one covering just a bit more than the one prior it. … Continue reading →

Posted in Events, Mishna, Piyut, Talk of the Town, Talmud in the News | Tagged , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Karaite Mishnah (and other friends too)

Posted on April 29, 2012 by

Ofra Tirosh-Becker, Rabbinic Excerpts in Medieval Karaite Literature, 2 Vols. Jerusalem: Mossad Bialik, 2012, 1219 pp., NIS 111. Everyone knows about the Karaites. They need little introduction: Ninth century Jews tired of geonic hegemony, going back to scripture to find law … Continue reading →

Posted in Dissertations, Mishna, Reviews | 3 Comments

The Safrai Revolution

Posted on October 2, 2011 by

We all have our coping mechanisms. I really do enjoy the soaring liturgy of Rosh Hashana, the tunes, the gravitas. But everyone has their limits. To get through the marathon sessions in shul, an interesting book is quite simply, indispensable. This holiday, it … Continue reading →

Posted in Mishna, Recent Publications | Tagged | 7 Comments

Protestant Mishnah

Posted on July 28, 2011 by

A serendipitous combination of circumstances brought Jonathan Z. Smith’s Drudgery Divine and Hanan Gafni’s Peshutah shel Mishnah to my shelf side by side. Gafni’s brand-new book, based on a dissertation written under the supervision of Jay Harris at Harvard, is written in beautiful … Continue reading →

Posted in Mishna, Reviews | Tagged , , | 26 Comments