In this volume, Dr. Neusner explores the history of religious ideas and writings, focusing first on the idea of history, and second, on the conception of a foundation document comprising the Pentateuch and the Mishnah. He then moves on to an interpretation of the implications, for the history of Judaism, of the distinctive and particular character of an important document, Sifra, a sustained address to the book of Leviticus by sages of the fourth or fifth century. ^BContents:: Part I: The Idea of History in Formative Judaism; Part II: "The Constitution" of the Judaism of the Dual Torah; Part III: Ethics or Ontology in Formative Judaism; Part IV: From Text to Matrix in the Case of Sifra; Part V: The University as Locus for Studying the Formative Age of Judaism.
