Our Objective

Method: External Parallel Sources

Studying parallels within Talmudic literature is not the final word on the subject. Regarding the content of the laws and concepts presented in the sayings of Tanna’im and Amora’im, parallel sources can sometimes be found in the nonrabbinic Jewish writings that have survived from the Second Temple period. Comparing those to the rabbinic sources sometime assists us in establishing the historical dimension of the Talmudic sources and the changes in older materials  that took place over time. On many topics, studying non-Jewish sources can also advance our understanding of the work of our own sages in the context of the wider world of antiquity. When we explore the material culture, the social life, and the languages of the surrounding cultures, we find that some words we know are on loan from other languages and even that certain rabbinic legal concepts and institutions have their roots in a cultural tradition common to many peoples. Talmudic teaching itself tells us that much was to be learned from the practices of other peoples: “It has been taught: ‘You shall not learn to do [—i.e., to perform—the ... practices of those nations]” [Deut. 18:10] – but you may learn [in order] to understand and teach” (Babylonian Talmud, Avoda Zara 43 b and parallel passages).