Shamma Friedman

Shamma Friedman (born March 8, 1937) is a scholar of rabbinic literature and is Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS).

[1] He was first exposed to Talmud study by Professor Nahum Sarna, who taught a group of students tractate Beitza one summer.

[2] After high school, Friedman attended the University of Pennsylvania (BA and Phi Beta Kappa, 1958) and Gratz College (BHL, 1958).

He continued his studies at JTS where he was ordained as a rabbi (1964) and received the first PhD in Talmud (1966) granted by the institution with his thesis, “The Commentary of R. Jonatan haKohen of Lunel on Bava Kamma,” under the supervision of Prof. Haim Zalman Dimitrovsky.

Among his teachers at The Jewish Theological Seminary, it was Prof. Saul Lieberman, doyen of academic talmudists of the twentieth century, who influenced Friedman most.

[8] At Bar Ilan University, where he taught in the Talmud Department, Friedman founded the site, Primary Textual Witnesses to Tannaitic Literature.

[9] Friedman has published over one hundred and fifty articles in the field of Talmudic philology and source criticism, and Hebrew and Aramaic Linguistics, as well as seven books.

[10] [11] In his research, Friedman has been a pioneer in the writing of critical commentaries, from the analysis of an individual sugya (passage) to complete chapters of Talmud.