His Dor Dor We-Dorshaw
Weiss's most important production, through which he acquired great renown, is his Dor Dor we-Dorshaw, a work in five volumes. As its German title, Zur Geschichte der Jüdischen Tradition, shows, it is a history of the Halakha, or oral law, from Biblical times until the expulsion of the Jews from Spain at the end of the 15th century. The first volume (1871) covers the history from the inception of the oral law to the destruction of the Second Temple; vol. ii. (1876) treats of the tannaitic period until the conclusion of the Mishnah; vol. iii. (1883), of the amoraic period till the completion of the Babylonian Talmud; vol. iv. (1887), of the geonic period until the end of the fifth millennium (= the middle of the 13th century); and vol. v., of the period of the casuists ("poseḳim") until the composition of the Shulḥan 'Aruk.
As the oral law is in reality the interpretation of the Pentateuch, Weiss thinks that it originated immediately after the redaction of the latter by Moses. The apparent divergencies in the Pentateuch and the various books of the Prophets (as the well-known differences between the books of Ezekiel and Leviticus, and many others) are due only to different interpretations of the Pentateuch in different epochs. It will be seen that Weiss defended the unity of the Pentateuch and vindicated the authorship of Moses. But he believed that Moses himself followed certain traditions current in his time, as it is said that Abraham observed God's commandments and laws (Gen. xxvi. 5). He asserted also that while the Pentateuch contains no simple repetitions of the laws, it contains additions which amplify or limit the commandments laid down in the earlier books. In the second volume Weiss gives the history of the Mekhilta, Sifra, Sifre, and Mishnah. This volume contains also monographs on the Tannaim which are invaluable to the Talmudic student; without concealing the failings of some, he defends them, especially the patriarchs, against the charges of Schorr and others. In the third volume much space is devoted to the Aggada and the aggadists, and the author does not endeavor to find apologies for those seemingly strange passages in this part of the Talmud which serve as pretexts for those who seek to detract from its value. But he points out the many edifying sentences that are scattered throughout the Aggada, and quotes a great number of them.
As was to be expected, this work, adopted by the majority of Haskalah Talmudic scholars as the standard history of the oral law, called forth replies from some dissenters. Isaac Halevy is known to have written his Dorot ha-Rishonim against Weiss's Dor (mainly in notes at the end of the sixth vol.), and Eleazar Zarkes published a criticism of the work in Keneset ha-Gedolah (iv., part 2, pp. 65 et seq.). Simḥah Edelmann issued a small pamphlet entitled Ma'amar Doreshe Reshumot (Warsaw, 1893), in which he endeavored to make evident Weiss's mistakes, and Simḥah Weissmann, in his pamphlet Teshubot u-Ma'anot Nimraẓot, did not even abstain from personalities. Y. Lifshitz wrote a refutation "Dor Yesharim" that received approbations from major Chareidi figures such as Chaim Ozer Grodzinski.
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