Thesiss

This dissertation looks at the ways in which the Tannaitic Sages portrayed and discussed non-Jewish ritual. Although this has been traditionally characterized as "idolatry," this dissertation argues that that is not a category which would have been applied by the Sages of the Mi…

The legacy of the Hebrew Bible and the backdrop of the surrounding cultures among which the rabbis lived served as the prevailing contexts in which the rabbis of the tannaitic period formulated their views on almost every subject. With regard to some subjects, some combination o…