In the Seat of Moses

“Jack Lightstone writes now as the experienced teacher to a diverse audience just beginning to be exposed to the early literary legal classics of rabbinic Judaism, the Mishnah, Tosefta, legal midrash, the Jerusalem Talmud, and the Babylonian Talmud. . . . With skill and sometimes even humor, In the Seat of Moses carefully, systematically, and engagingly breaks down the barriers by building the reader’s basic knowledge and familiarity with this literature’s most pervasive, core literary and rhetorical forms. In so doing, the book opens up a world of evidence from the early rabbis to the non-expert interested in early Judaism, early Christianity, the foundations of rabbinic Judaism, Greco-Roman culture and literature, or ancient law.”


—Simcha Fishbane, Graduate School of Jewish Studies, Touro College





“I wish this book had been available when I was a graduate student, but I’m grateful to have it even now. With the skill of a master teacher, Lightstone guides his readers into the arcane world of rabbinic legal discourse—from the Mishnah to the Babylonian Talmud—by identifying the literary patterns and rhetorical structures that undergird it. An invaluable vade mecum, for novice students and seasoned non-specialists alike.”


—Terence L. Donaldson, Wycliffe College, Toronto





“Drawing upon his own scholarship and years of teaching rabbinic literature to students, laypeople, and scholars in fields related to early rabbinic Judaism, such as early Christianity, emergent Islam, and Greco-Roman culture, Lightstone lays out with pedagogic skill the stylistic conventions of rabbinic literature, document by document. These analyses also enable readers to grasp the competencies and traits of mind nurtured by these works thereby also disclosing key features of the relational and institutional structures of the rabbis between the second and seventh centuries that fostered those developments.”


—Joel Gereboff, Arizona State University





“Jack Lightstone is at the top of his form as he guides the nonspecialized reader to a grasp of rabbinic literature in its multiple guises. Lightstone utilizes his considerable academic and pedagogical talent to create a lucid and cogent introduction to the complex and often daunting literary creations of the rabbis of late antiquity. In doing so, he contributes to a better, more nuanced comprehension of a crucial era in the history of Judaism.”


—Ira Robinson, Concordia Institute for Canadian Jewish Studies, Concordia University Montréal





“Jack Lightstone has written an eminently readable—and successful—teaching book for non-specialists introducing how to read early rabbinic literature: Mishnah, Tosefta, the halakic midrashim, and the two Talmuds. His thesis is that the key to understanding this literature, in each of its genres, is to master the highly formulaic rhetorical patterns that serve as signposts and structure the entire discourse. Specialists, too, will benefit from this book and can profitably use it in their teaching.”


—Richard S. Sarason, Pines School of Graduate Studies, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati