The collection of stories and commentaries collected in The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan is structured as a long commentary on an earlier book called, The Saying of the Fathers. According to that book, the rabbis of the year 200 C.E. have preserved legal traditions given to Moses by God, but never written down. The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan starts out with Moses and works its way down to the rabbis of the year 200 C.E. and tells more stories about them than the earlier work did, which basically only quoted some of their more famous sayings. In the Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan, the sayings from the earlier work are in capital letters, and everything else is addition.
1. On pages 8-26 (most of Chapter 1 and all of Chapter 2), we have a lengthy commentary on the idea that rabbis should "make a hedge around the Torah." Adam made a bad "hedge," but Moses and the prophets made good hedges. What does it mean "to make a hedge" around the words of God? Why is it necessary? How should one do it correctly?
2. In Chapter 4 we find a discussion of Torah, Temple sacrifice, and acts of loving-kindness. What is the compiler of the stories trying to say in this chapter? What roles do Torah and loving-kindness play after the destruction of the Temple by the Romans? And how does the compiler of these stories try to demonstrate his claim? What does the "study of Torah" mean from the evidence of how the Torah is used in this chapter?
3. What sort of person should a rabbi be, according to what you have read? Use examples of sayings as well as stories about the rabbis themselves. What role does a rabbi play in relation to other rabbis? in relation to Israel as a whole?