Formation of the Babylonian Talmud

"David Weiss Halivni is one of the world's preeminent Talmudists, and Jeffrey Rubenstein has done a real service in making Halivni's pioneering analyses accessible to a new audience. For anyone interested in the formation of the Talmud, this is the book." --Shaye J.D. Cohen, Littauer Professor of Hebrew Literature and Philosophy, Harvard University
"This volume brings to the reader a systematic statement of the results of more than a half-century of pioneering Talmudic research by Professor David Weiss Halivni. His work has literally changed our understanding of the evolution of the Talmud in Late Antiquity. This volume will open the eyes of scholars and students to the complex inner literary-historical dialectic that produced this classic of Jewish and world civilization." --Lawrence H. Schiffman, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, Yeshiva University; Ethel and Irvin A. Edelman Professor Emeritus of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, New York University
"David Weiss Halivni's revolutionary theories on the formation of the Babylonian Talmud and his critical methodology for distinguishing early and late sources have profoundly shaped the course of academic Talmudic studies in America and abroad. In this clear and elegant English translation, readers encounter a consummate Talmudist whose views on the crucial role of the Stammaim, based on detailed analysis of vast swaths of text, transformed a field and continue to occupy a central place in the critical study of the Bavli." --Christine Hayes, Weis Professor of Classical Judaica, Yale University