Between the Babylonian and Palestinian Talmuds

by Christine Elizabeth Hayes

The historical value of talmudic texts is a contested issue in modern talmudic studies. Historians regularly utilize legal differences between the Talmuds of Palestine (edited c. 370 C.E.) and Babylonian (edited c. 650 C.E.) to assist in the reconstruction of Jewish history in the two centers. However, while some halakhic differences may be the result of external influences (cultural or regional differences between Persian Babylon and Roman or Byzantine Palestine) others are the product of internal factors (textual, hermeneutical, and dialectical). In her important study, Christine Hayes critiques a historical approach that posits external explanations for divergences between the two Talmuds without paying sufficient attention to internal factors. Hayes demonstrates through a careful analysis of parallel passages from Bavli and Yerushalmi Avodah Zarah, that textual, hermeneutical, and dialectical factors frequently generate halakhic difference between the Talmuds. Nonetheless, Hayes ar