"Who were the men who wrote the Talmud? They were members of that political/religious formation reviled by Jesus and his followers, the Pharisees. … The rule-based Judaism that developed in the post-biblical period, in the writing of the Mishnah and Gemara, was the product, in part, of thought often associated with the Pharisees. To better understand Rabbinic Judaism, it is necessary to understand them."