Winter 1984 - 1985 - Quarterly Review

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
A GUIDE TO SOME SOURCES OF JEWISH THOUGHT
Classics of Jewish Law
Mishnah, edited and translated by Philip Blackman, New York: Judaica Press, 1964, 7
volumes. The work is the earliest collection (ca. 200) of rabbinic law which covers both civil
and religious legislation in Judaism.
The Talmud (referred to in the article as BT, Babylonian Talmud), edited by Isadore
Epstein, London: Soncino, 37 volumes. The Talmud is the great compendium of law and
lore which has generated most of traditional Jewish thought and literature. It developed
over the 3-7th centuries.
Classical Homiletic Sources
Mekilta, translated by Jacob Z. Lauterbach, Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1949,
3 volumes. An early legal and homiletical work on the Book of Exodus. Other such works
exist for Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, but, unfortunately, are not translated into
English.
Midrash Rabbah, edited and translated by H. Freedman and Maurice Simon, London:
Soncino, 1977, 5 volumes. Short homiletical sources arranged verse by verse for the entire
Pentateuch.
Pesikta Rabbati, translated by William G. Braude, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968.
Homiletical discourses for feasts, fasts, and special sabbaths.
Classics of Jewish Mysticism and Hassidism
Zohar (The Book of Splendor), translated by Harry Sperling and Maurice Simon, London:
Soncino, 1931-34, 5 volumes. A Jewish mystical commentary and interpretation of the
Pentateuch. Attributed to an early Jewish teacher, R. Simeon b. Yohai, late second century.
Actually written by Moses de Leon, 13th century, in Spain.
Souls on Fire, Elie Wiesel, New York: Random House, 1972. Portraits and stories by the
great hassidic teachers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Hassidism was an
emotional and charismatic renewal of Judaism based on many of the teachings of Jewish
mysticism. It began in the mid-eighteenth century.
Tales of the Hassidim, MartinBuber, New York: Schocken Books, 1971. Buber's biographical
introductions and presentation of the tales of the Early Masters and Later Masters of the
Hasidic movement is a classic, though Buber's interpretation of the tales is selective. A rich
and beautiful resource.
Classical Jewish Philosophical Works
The Book of Beliefs and Opinions, Saadyah Gaon, translated by Samuel Rosenblatt, New
Haven: Yale University Press, 1948. A tenth-century scholar's treatment of the major
theological and philosophical issues of Judaism and its doctrines.
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