Rabbinics in the New Encyclopaedia Judaica

Abstract

There have been significant advances in almost every branch of rabbinic scholarship since the publication of the first edition of Encyclopaedia Judaica (hereafter: EJ1). It was the task of the contributors to Encyclopaedia Judaica's second edition (hereafter: EJ2) to summarize these advances in a concise yet comprehensive fashion. My role as reviewer is to highlight the advances mentioned in EJ2, to supplement each entry with scholarship that was not mentioned, and, on occasion, critique the style and/or substance of an entry. The latter is done with the full knowledge that it is no easy task to write an encyclopedia entry. The author must navigate the treacherous waters between the Scylla of excessive brevity and the Charybdis of information overload. Furthermore, it is a challenge to be current with all the literature on a given topic; as soon as one completes an entry new scholarship renders it incomplete, if not obsolete. To some extent I face these same challenges as a reviewer. I have done my best, therefore, to be fair to the authors of EJ2 even in those cases where I feel that their efforts have not produced the ideal results.