Overview
In his brilliant introduction on the Mishnah, Jacob Neusner asks: How do you read a book that does not identify its author, tell you where it comes from, or explain why it was written – a book without a preface? And how do you identify a book with neither a beginning nor end, lacking table of contents and title? The answer is you just begin and let the author of the book lead you by paying attention to the information that the author does give, to the signals that the writer sets out. As Neusner goes on to explain, the Mishnah portrays the world in a special way, in a kind of code that makes it a difficult work for the modern reader to understand. Without knowing how to decode the Mishnah, we may read its works without receiving its message. Neusner, one of the world’s foremost Mishnaic scholars, demonstrated that the Mishnah’s own internal logic and structure form a solid foundation on which to build an understanding of this vitally important Jewish work. Using examples of how the Mishnah’s language, logic, and discourse associate and categorize behaviors, events, and objects, Neusner opens the Mishnah to readers who would not otherwise be able to grasp its most fundamental concepts. Since the Mishnah forms the basis of both the Babylonian and the Palestinian Talmuds (which are, in Neusner’s elegant terms, “the core curriculum of Judaism as a living religion”), study of the Mishnah is essential to an understanding of Judaism. Drawing on his own new translation of the Mishnah and displaying the enthusiastic dedication that has sparked a whole new body of Mishnaic research, Neusner allows readers with no previous background to join Jews who have studied, analyzed, and delighted in the wisdom of Mishnah for centuries. In addition to giving us a thorough exploration of the Mishnah’s language, contents, organization, and inner logic, Neusner also provides us with a broad understanding of how it communicated its own world view – its vision of both the concrete an spiritual worlds. The Mishnah: An Introduction gives us a tour of this sacred Jewish text, shedding light on its many facets – from its view of life to its conception of God and His relation to our world.
Full Product Details
Author: Jacob Neusner ,
Abraham Joshua Heschel
Publisher: Jason Aronson Publishers
Imprint: Jason Aronson Publishers
Dimensions:
Width: 16.30cm
, Height: 2.50cm
, Length: 23.60cm
Weight: 0.567kg
ISBN: 9780876688762
ISBN 10: 0876688768
Pages: 235
Publication Date: 01 December 1988
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
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Reviews
For 70 years I have studied Mishnah virtually every day of my life. Yet there is hardly a page in Professor Neusner's monumental work, The Mishah: An Introduction, that did not reveal for me a new and often exciting insight. -Emanuel Rackman Chancellor, Bar-Ilan University -- Rabbi Emanuel Rackman, Bar-Ilan University Professor Neusner offers us far more than an introduction to the Mishnah. With the patience and shrewdness of a detective, he guides the reader through the text to uncover the presuppositions and intentions of its unknown authors. Neusner is a master teacher. He goes to the text itself and under his skillful, inductive probings, allows it to reveal its autonomous logic. Following him, the reader gains insight into the interdependence of 'ethos, ethics, and ethnos' that supports the intellectual structures of Mishnah Judaism. -Harold M. Schulweis Rabbi, Valley Beth Shalom, Encino, California -- Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis This is a great book, a major contribution of exceptional magnitude to Jewish learning and to the scientific study of religion. As a remarkable introduction to the Mishnah, it is yet another tribute to Jacob Neusner as the mature Herculean scholar who revolutionized rabbinic scholarship in the twentieth century. In it he soars to new heights of brilliance as an interpreter of the rabbinic mind, and as a writer of unusual beauty and style, as a prophetic voice in the wilderness. -Samson H. Levey Professor, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion -- Samson H. Levey, Professor of Rabbinics & Jewish Religious Thought, Hebrew Union College, Los Angeles
Author Information
About the Author Jacob Neusner is a member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University and the Ungerleider Distinguished Scholar of Judiac Studies at Brown University. The author of over 300 books on Judaism that have been translated into many languages, Dr. Neusner holds nine honorary degrees and has lectured throughout the world.
