What Kallah Rabbati Teaches Us about the Redaction of the Talmud

Abstract

Kallah Rabbati is a little-known late amoraic (c. 350–400 CE) rabbinic text with a close relationship to the Babylonian Talmud. Passages in Kallah Rabbati parallel passages in the Talmud with variations that expose the redactional process of both texts. How the Talmud was redacted is one of the enigmas of Talmudic studies. To date, that analysis has been tautological: deciphering how the Talmud was edited from data gathered exclusively from the Talmud itself. This study shows that Kallah Rabbati can be an invaluable aid in uncovering that process, pointing to the transmitters as having played a crucial role in the editing of some Talmudic passages and even at times comprising its anonymous voice.