Oral Transmission of Knowledge as Rabbinic Sacrament: An Overlooked Aspect of Discipleship in Oral Torah

Introduction: Rabbinic Sacramentalism? It is no news to announce that in rabbinic Judaism learning and study are holy, even sanctifying activities. But what is gained by asserting, as I do in the title of this essay, that aspects of classical rabbinic learning, particularly its insistence on the oral mastery of textual material, are usefully described as not merely 'sanctifying' but 'sacramental' acts? It would seem that to speak of any aspect of rabbinic Judaism in terms of sacramentalism is to confuse the boundaries between rabbinic/Judaic piety and the rather distinct ritual piety of what ultimately became orthodox Christianity. Yet that is precisely my plan. More than a few scholars in recent years have argued that the clean line distinguishing rabbinic Judaism from the early patristic traditions of Christianity is rather more the making of modern scholarship than it is a fact of life 'on the ground' in late Antiquity. I share their stance. The point of the present essay, however, is not to sow confusion about the boundaries between Christianity and Judaism in the early centuries of the Common Era. Rather, it is to clarify ways in which