The Formation of the Talmud : Scholarship and Politics in Yitzhak Isaac Halevy’s Dorot Harishonim Frontmatter Foreword Acknowledgments Contents Introduction Chapter 1 Y.I. Halevy: The Traditionalist in a Time of Change Chapter 2 Halevy and the Historiography of the Talmud Chapter 3 Halevy the Historian of the Talmud Chapter 4 Halevy and the Politics of the Talmud Conclusion Appendix The Formation of the Talmud according to Halevy Bibliography Citation Index Subject name Index This book examines the talmudic writings politics and ideology of Y.I. Halevy (1847 1914) one of the most influential representatives of the pre war eastern European Orthodox Jewish community. It analyzes Halevy’s historical model of the formation of the Babylonian Talmud which he argued was edited by an academy of rabbis beginning in the fourth century and ending by the sixth century. Halevys model also served as a blueprint for the rabbinic council of Agudath Israel the Orthodox political body in whose founding he played a leading role. Foreword by Jay M. Harris Harry Austryn Wolfson Professor of Jewish Studies at Harvard University and the author of How Do We Know This Midrash and the Fragmentation of Modern Judaism among other works