11. The Rabbinization Tractates and the Propagation of Rabbinic Ideology in the Late Talmudic Period

Ron Naiweld examines the process of rabbinization in ‘The Rabbinization Tractates and the Propagation of Rabbinic Ideology in the Late Talmudic Period’. He identifies two interrelated aspects of this process: first, the rabbinization of the past, including the biblical past, and, second, the acceptance of rabbinic institutions as normative. Naiweld focuses on two texts that teach Jews how to think like rabbis, the extracanonical Talmudic tractate Kallah and the Sar ha-Torah section of Hekhalot Rabbati. He sees both texts as ideological tools intended to promote rabbinic thinking outside of the academy.