This book considers care for the poor in the earliest rabbinical (“Tannaitic”) literature from Roman Palestine (the writers and editors are known as “Tannaim”) in the third century c.e. Gardner argues that charity assumed a new connection with righteousness in Tannaitic literature, laying the groundwork for later Jewish literature that takes charity as a central concern. Furthermore, he argues that Tannaitic discussions about charity employ a host of economic metaphors and frameworks that should be understood within larger rabbinical discussions about money.
Gardner primarily employs literary and historical analyses, offering new readings of Tannaitic texts and reconstructing ancient history from those readings, but he puts these traditional methods into a rich interdisciplinary discussion, illuminating his readings with insights from numerous other disciplines. Gardner turns to ethical scholarship about justice; numismatic research about coinage in Roman Palestine; and insights from social psychology, sociology, studies of philanthropy, and behavioral...