Description
This collection includes a selection of some of the articles that Prof. Moshe Beer published in his lifetime. His research deals with the history of the Jewish people in the periods of the Second Temple, the Mishnah and the Talmud in Eretz Israel and Babylonia. He was one of the foremost scholars of this period
and his work contributed greatly to the understanding of the historical developments of this time. His research focused primarily on leadership and society in Jewish centers in Eretz Israel and in Babylonia in the Second Temple, Mishnah and Talmud Periods. He also studied other historical issues relevant to the period. His academic contribution is multifaceted and he paved new ways in research, founded on the work of former scholars, incorporating at the same time his own special social outlook.
His doctorate was based on the study of Jewish Babylonian leadership and he wrote two books on the subject: Babylonian Leadership in the Time of the Mishnah and the Talmud (Dvir, Tel Aviv 1970), a book for which he was awarded the Ben-Zvi Prize, and Babylonian Amoraim: Aspects of Economic Life (Bar-Ilan University Press 1974).
In 1956, one year after the establishment of Bar-Ilan Univesity, Prof. Hurgin invited Prof. Beer to set up the department of Jewish history. He taught in the department for the next thirty-seven years, until his retirement in 1993, and continued afterwards to instruct scholars specializing in this period.