This book examines the nature of the extraordinary authority accorded in Judaism to the Sages of the first five centuries AD. These teachers occupy an unrivalled position in traditional Judaism, their statements serving as the basis for Halakhah, or Jewish law. Michael S. Berger makes a philosophical analysis of this notion of the Sages' authority. He shows that this authority is a complex notion, a single term that includes a range of claims and ideas, not all of which are neatly correlated or even integrated with one another.