To those not entirely at home in the Rabbinic literature—the library of law and theology produced in the first six centuries C.E. that has defined Judaism from then to now—the formative writings of Judaism prove at once alien and engaging. They are alien in topic, rhetoric, and logic of coherent discourse. They engage because all together they represent an alternative to the mythic monotheism—the monotheism of Scripture and its narrative—of Christianity (and Islam). The normative writings