ABSTRACT
The historical evidence provided by Talmudic statements or stories rarely takes the form of straightforward descriptions of institutions, personalities, and events. In exploiting Talmudic traditions as historical evidence, it is necessary to explain their moral, didactic, theological, or polemical significance. What societal “itch” are the authors attempting to scratch, what intra-rabbinic problems are they addressing, what issues motivate them to formulate the tradition in a particular way and to build the story around protagonists deriving from a particular time and place?
