ABSTRACT
After the destruction of the Jewish temple in Ad 70, the rabbinic movement became dominant in Judaism, and its world-views and attitudes became the foundation of all later developments. The bearers of the rabbinic tradition were at first a group of teachers in Palestine, the so-called tannaim. They were active from the destruction of the temple until c. Ad 200. The tannaim were followed by another group of teachers, the amoraim, who lived both in Palestine and Mesopotamia. The teachings of the tannaim are mostly in Hebrew, whereas the amoraim used both Hebrew and Aramaic. The main rabbinic (tannaitic and amoraitic) documents are codified from c. Ad 200 and onwards. Rabbinic teaching is at this stage found as commentaries to Biblical texts, midrash, or in discussions about the practical performance of the commandments. Even though the earliest rabbinic document, the Mishnah, is codified around Ad 200, and most of the material is found in much younger texts, the contents are often old, going back even to pre-tannaitic times.
