Ephraim E. Urbach's "The Sages: Their Concepts and Beliefs" is a massive work of over 1100 pages, which at times seems all too brief. (Not so much at other times, of course.) The Kindle edition is a (mostly) well-executed alternative to the significantly more expensive hardcover edition which is also available. (It is also less expensive than the used copies offered on Amazon and elsewhere.) A notable feature of the Kindle edition is the preservation of the original page breaks, with the page numbers in nice bright red -- a blessing for anyone tracing quotations from, planning to quote Urbach, or using the indexes.
The book covers several centuries of Jewish lore, as recorded in the Mishnah (a codification of legal rulings and debates), the Talmud (the Mishnah with interpretive comments and debates by later sages), and early Midrash (homiletic expositions of Scripture), plus other sources, such Philo of Alexandria, Josephus, some of the pseudepigrapha, and those portions of the Dead Sea Scrolls published through the 1960s. The focus is, of course, on "the Wise," in the form of the recognized rabbinic teachers, the Sages of the title.
Some readers may find troubling Urbach's assumption that the religious teachings and practices reported by literature developed over time, and that some teachers were comparatively innovative, while others were decidedly more conservative. However, Urbach not only makes the assumption, he demonstrates its usefulness in understanding the ancient and medieval texts by showing that different chronological layers (identifiable by the periods to which the various named figure belonged) also show consistent shifts in terminology, and in the kinds of issues addressed.
The book is arranged as surveys on what might broadly be called theological topics. (Not a category of traditional Jewish thought during the centuries covered.) Urbach sifts through variants and parallel texts, trying to establish chronological stages in the opinions and arguments. Much of the detailed argument, especially regarding textual evidence, is relegated to the extensive notes, but Urbach does try to justify his interpretations, and not only when they run counter to the "accepted wisdom."
Depending on the edition and binding (paperback or hardcover), Urbach's "The Sages" has a shipping weight (according to Amazon) of 2.3 to 4.4 pounds -- a hefty brick of a book in any print format. That is one reason I am pleased to be re-reading it (for, I think, the third time around) in the 2006 Varda Press edition on a Kindle App, rather than, say, the 1987 Harvard University Press paperback, or the original, two-volume, hardcover edition of the translation.
The present Varda Press incarnation is not without an annoying flaw in the front-matter; a rather mysterious stray citation of "London, England," after the translator's name on the title page! (I suspect this was carried over from the Harvard U.P. imprint, where it went at the bottom of the page.) But an examination of a significant chunk of the main text just looking for typos, and for other misplaced text, turned up no other problems. I haven't noted obvious errors in a much larger block of text and notes, running to several hundred pages of each -- although of course problems with citations beyond very familiar Biblical and Rabbinic texts, and a small amount of secondary literature, would probably escape my notice.
Anyone using the book as part of a personal or formal educational program (as a opposed to a general reader) will want to have ready access to the endnotes. The first edition had them in the second volume, which was handy; it could be kept open to the appropriate page. Jumping back and forth with the hyperlinks is easy, although I find it disruptive to following Urbach's arguments. The best approach I've found (for a computer app version of Kindle) is to open the book in both the main application and the Cloud Reader, and set one of them to keep the notes pages displayed. (Of course, you have to remember not to let the Kindle software synch the two, or you may have to struggle to find your place in the main text!)
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