ABSTRACT
A question awaiting systematic study concerns the meaning of the simple fact that throughout Rabbinic literature, numerous sayings are assigned to named masters. All rabbinic documents are anonymous, and all of them include vast numbers of compositions bearing no assignments; none of the compositions of which a document is comprised is assigned to a named author; no document bears a dependable attribution to a specific person. The sages of Rabbinic documents have opinions, but no biography; many individuals play critical roles in the formation of the several documentary statements, but no individual is accorded a fully articulated individuality, either as to his life, or as to his philosophy or theology. The purpose of the sages who in the aggregate created the canonical writings of the Judaism of the dual Torah is served by not specifying differentiating traits such as time, place, and identity of the author or the authorship.
