About Us
The teachings of the Land of Israel are inexorably connected with the Jewish People and its Land. These native teachings imprinted by the Land of Israel are at the core of our Jewish Consciousnesses and are crucial instruments in raising our self awareness as a People and strengthening our ties with our Holy Land.
About Our Mission
The teachings of the Land of Israel are a source of a wealth of Jewish Wisdom and Ideas. As Jewish history progresses toward our ultimate redemption, opening up the hitherto closed doors of the teachings of the Land of Israel is a very crucial project. We are researching the halakha, hashkafa and character of the teachings of the Land of Israel and are bringing to light their rich and unique substance, ultimately giving them a prominence of their own. We are poised at making a mark on our People by producing and disseminating materials targeting all kinds of audiences, enriching and inspiring them in away appreciable by each one in their own way. From the broader audience to the Israeli legal system, the teachings of the Land of Israel have yet to make their contribution!
After spending many years in the study of the Talmud Yerushalmi and inquiring into its structure and composition I came to the realization that an entire field of Torah Study remains to be unveiled. The Gaon of Vilna once said that Messianic times will be marked by a renewed interest in the study and analysis of the Talmud Yerushalmi. The last few years of my own inquiry into the character of the Talmud Yerushalmi have yielded more than one thousand observations on phenomena related to the redaction, composition, and character of the Talmud Yerushalmi. These observations, combined with a continued study of the Talmud Yerushalmi can serve as the raw material for a myriad of studies each having the potential of bringing to light much important information about the Talmud Yerushalmi. Each study is just a piece of a much larger puzzle.
In order to realize this mission, Rabbi Michael Linetsky founded the Talmud Yerushalmi Institute with the help and guidance of Dr. Norman Lamm. Highlights of Studies that are currently in progress include Earlier Strata in the Talmud Yerushalmi, which researches the composition and various stages of the Talmud Yerushalmi. It also includes Textual Borrowings, which identifies and explores a variety of discourses which were evidently copied from one location and inserted into a completely different context where the discourse has a significantly different meaning. The study attempts to place the activity of the redactor/redactors within the history of the Talmud Yerushalmi based on their preference of avoiding tampering with the text at the expense of creating an extremely difficult to read pericope.
Board of Directors
Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm, Chancellor of Yeshiva University
Board of Directors Emeritus
Rabbi Michael Linetsky
Institute Founder & Board President
Dr. Joshua Weiss, PhD
Treasurer
Steering Committee
Rabbi Dr. Zvi Hirsch Weinreb
Executive Director Emeritus Orthodox Union
Rabbi Dr. Mordechai Cohen
Assistant Dean Bernard Revel Graduate School
Rabbi Shmuel Goldin
Former President, Rabbinical Council of America
Research Team
Rabbi Dr. Elazar Hurvitz
Halakhic, Midrashic & Geonic Literature & Genizah Research
Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Milgram
Talmud and Rabbinics
Rabbi Daniel Z. Feldman
Rosh Yeshiva at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary
In The Press
The Talmud Yerushalmi Institute’s Board President and Founder, Michael Linetsky, is a contributing author on the Jewish Press.