The Review of Rabbinic Judaism

Book excerpt: The "Review of Rabbinic Judaism," the first and only annual to focus upon Rabbinic Judaism in particular, will publish principal articles, essays on method and criticism, systematic debates ("Auseindersetzungen"), occasional notes, long book reviews, reviews of issues of scholarly journals, assessments of textbooks and instructional materials, and other media of academic discourse, scholarly and educational alike. The "Review" fills the gap in the study of Judaism, which is left by the prevailing division of Rabbinic Judaism among the standard historical periods (ancient, medieval, modern) that in fact do not apply; and by the common treatment of the Judaism in bits and pieces (philosophy, mysticism, law homiletics, institutional history, for example). No annual in "Jewish studies" focuses upon the study of religion, let alone upon the single most important Judaism of all time.