ABSTRACT
This chapter examines disability in the sources and traditions of rabbinic Judaism, a period that begins after the Roman destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 ce and extends to encompass the redaction of the Babylonian Talmud in the 6th or 7th century. During the rabbinic period, a small cadre of scholars and sages developed the foundational and formative sources of rabbinic Judaism, developing texts and traditions that remain central to most contemporary forms of Jewish practice. In its textual approach, rabbinic literature reveals both conservative and innovative impulses. Rabbinic texts are often framed as exegesis and interpretation of the Hebrew Bible, and rabbinic literature operates in large part through the citation and interpretation of the oral traditions of earlier generations. Though rabbinic texts constantly situate themselves in relation to earlier sources of authority, rabbinic interpretation is often profoundly innovative – articulating novel approaches to law and ritual that adapt tradition to new circumstances, as well as expressing through narrative and story a range of complex and often contradictory approaches to religious thought and ethics.
