A Short Survey of the Literature of Rabbinical and Mediaeval Judaism

The object of this volume is to provide moutline an introduction to the Hterature of post-Biblical Judaism. We wish to emphasise the fact that it is an outline, and nothing more, that has been attempted. The field is vast, and only a very broad survey has been possible. Many interesting tracts have perforce been passed over in silence, or dismissed with bare mention; and even when a subject seems to occupy, proportionately, a considerable space, e.: the general Historical Survey, it must be remembered that only the slightest treatment of the theme has been possible. Anything like an adequate exposition would have required several volumes. Our work is essentially an Introduction, in the elementary sense. We have in mind the needs of a very large body of readers to whom the whole field of later Jewish literature is absolutely unknown. We hope that this manual will open to them a new and fascinating field of study