Sources: Mishnah (edited ~200 AD); Talmud Yerushalmi (~400 AD); Talmud Bavli (~500 AD); Midrash collections; Maimonides, Mishneh Torah; Karo, Shulchan Aruch.

Rabbinic Judaism is the form of Judaism that emerges from the catastrophe of 70 AD and has defined Jewish life ever since. Its founding insight — attributed to Yochanan ben Zakkai — is that Torah study, prayer, and acts of loving-kindness replace Temple sacrifice as the means of atonement and as the locus of divine encounter. The rabbi (teacher, not priest) replaces the kohen (priest) as the central religious authority. Key institutions: (1) The Oral Torah — the rabbinic claim that alongside the written Torah, God gave Moses an oral Torah transmitted through an unbroken chain (Avot 1:1: Moses → Joshua → Elders → Prophets → Great Assembly → Pharisees → rabbis); (2) The Mishnah (~200 AD, edited by Rabbi Judah HaNasi) — the first written codification of oral law, organized topically into six orders (sedarim); (3) The two Talmuds — expansive commentaries on the Mishnah; (4) Midrash — narrative and legal biblical interpretation; (5) The responsa tradition — rabbis across centuries answering legal questions in writing. Rabbinic Judaism’s portability — requiring no Temple, no land, no priesthood, no state — explains its survival across 2,000 years of diaspora and persecution.