Rabbinic Sources

Abstract

The first and second centuries CE saw the flowering of classical Jewish teaching as expounded by the great rabbinic sages and their precursors (Hillel, Shammai). They were closely associated with the Pharisees as upholders of Jewish tradition against compromises with Greco-Roman ways. This early teaching forms the basis of the Mishnah, the collection of the earliest rabbinic oral law at the core of the Talmud. A “heavenly voice” (the Bat Kol) and other forms of individual divine guidance are not excluded, but the major role is given to scripture, the elders responsible for discernment, and the evolving body of decisions responding to new questions and conditions, “for the Law is not in heaven.” The age of the prophets was over, but God ’s presence (the Shekinah) remained in the life of the community with its teachers.