Contours of rabbinic study: an introduction -- Learning, speech, and thought in late antiquity -- Sifre Deuteronomy: the precariousness of oral Torah -- A talmudic primer on education (Eruvin 53a-55a) -- Cultures in conflict (Avoda zara 18b-19b) -- Education and accountability (Bava batra 20b-22a) -- Teaching with authority: a comparative view -- The stabilization of rabbinic culture
Summary
Drawing on the great progress in Talmudic scholarship over the last century, The Stabilization of Rabbinic Culture is both an introduction to a close reading of rabbinic literature and a demonstration of the development of rabbinic thought on education in the first centuries of the Common Era. In Roman Palestine and Sasanid Persia, a small group of approximately two thousand Jewish scholars and rabbis sustained a thriving national and educational culture. They procured loyalty to the national language and oversaw the retention of a national identity. This accomplishment was unique in the Roman
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 169-173) and indexes
