Marc Hirshman holds the Mandel Chair for Jewish Education at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is academic chair of the Melton Center for Jewish Education. He is also the academic head of the Center for the Study of the Land of Israel at the Yitzchak Ben Zvi Institute.

This lucid and thoughtful book is the first extensive investigation into attitudes towards Torah-study and educational practice in rabbinic Judaism. In a series of close analyses, Marc Hirshman expertly leads his readers through a number of important and complex passages in rabbinic literature, thereby exposing them not only to the rabbis' ideas but to their ways of thinking, and to how the rabbis wished to inculcate their students with those paths to knowledge.

• Preface ; 1. Contours of Rabbinic Study: An Introduction ; 2. Learning, Speech and Thought in Late Antiquity ; 3. Sifre Deuteronomy: The Precariousness of Oral Torah ; 4. A Talmudic Primer on Education (Eruvin 53a-55a) ; 5. Cultures in Conflict (Avoda Zara 18b-19b) ; 6. Education and Accountability: (Bava Batra 20b-22a ) ; 7. Teaching with Authority: A Comparative View ; 8. The Stabilization of Rabbinic Culture ; Appendix I: A Survey of Secondary Literature on Education and Literacy in Rabbinic Literature ; Appendix II: Portraits of Jewish Sages Engaged in Study ; Bibliography ; Index

Marc Hirshman holds the Mandel Chair for Jewish Education at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is academic chair of the Melton Center for Jewish Education. He is also the academic head of the Center for the Study of the Land of Israel at the Yitzchak Ben Zvi Institute.

This lucid and thoughtful book is the first extensive investigation into attitudes towards Torah-study and educational practice in rabbinic Judaism. In a series of close analyses, Marc Hirshman expertly leads his readers through a number of important and complex passages in rabbinic literature, thereby exposing them not only to the rabbis' ideas but to their ways of thinking, and to how the rabbis wished to inculcate their students with those paths to knowledge.

• Preface ; 1. Contours of Rabbinic Study: An Introduction ; 2. Learning, Speech and Thought in Late Antiquity ; 3. Sifre Deuteronomy: The Precariousness of Oral Torah ; 4. A Talmudic Primer on Education (Eruvin 53a-55a) ; 5. Cultures in Conflict (Avoda Zara 18b-19b) ; 6. Education and Accountability: (Bava Batra 20b-22a ) ; 7. Teaching with Authority: A Comparative View ; 8. The Stabilization of Rabbinic Culture ; Appendix I: A Survey of Secondary Literature on Education and Literacy in Rabbinic Literature ; Appendix II: Portraits of Jewish Sages Engaged in Study ; Bibliography ; Index