May 29, 2022
The Mishnah is the first great product of the rabbis. Traditionally it was codified around 200 CE by Rabbi Yehuda haNasi. It appears from nowhere. The Mishnah bears no resemblance to anything in the Tanakh/Old Testament, nor in the vast Jewish apocalyptic literature of preceding centuries.
May 8, 2022
The origins of the rabbis, dated to the second century CE, are shrouded in fog, for reasons we do not understand. Why did the Jews cease writing histories after the year 100? Why do we have no histories from the Babylonian Jews. Where did the Mishnah, the foundational document of Rabbinic thought, dome from? I...