Non­fic­tion

The Oral Law of Sinai: An Illus­trat­ed His­to­ry of the Mishnah

Rab­bi Ber­el Wein
  • Review
By – January 10, 2012
This attrac­tive, large for­mat, table top book pro­vides excel­lent intro­duc­to­ry biogra­phies of the per­son­al­i­ties that inhab­it the Mish­nah, the text that makes up the heart of the Tal­mud. The Mish­nah is a famous­ly atom­ized work, with quotes from rab­bis who lived in dis­parate loca­tions and cen­turies. Wein has suc­ceed­ed in pulling these fig­ures togeth­er and straight­en­ing them into a time­line that will help the read­er under­stand how Rab­binic Judaism devel­oped. 

More­over, he pro­vides hooks to Jew­ish and world his­to­ry along the way. Read­ers should be aware, how­ev­er, that the sources he uses are the Rab­bis them­selves and those seek­ing insights from schol­ar­ly ref­er­ences and con­tem­po­rary per­spec­tive might be disappointed.
Jeff Bogursky reads a lot, writes a lit­tle and talks quite a bit. He is a media exec­u­tive and expert in dig­i­tal media.

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