[Avodah] Dr. Berkovits and R' Marc Angel

[David Riceman]

Michael Makovi (quoting RMDA) wrote:
> Rabbi Yehuda the Prince, in the mid-second century C.E., compiled the
> Mishnah, a record of the oral law up to his time. From then on, the
> mishnah became the central text in halakhah; rabbis no longer derived
> laws directly from the text of the Torah, but focused their studies
> and decisions on the texts of the Mishnah.

This is a gross oversimplification of a process that took many 
generations.  Certainly the Tosefta derives halacha primarily from 
psukim, and much of what the amoraim did was to provide Biblical 
justification for Tannaitic norms.  It's only in the time of the geonim 
that deriving halacha from psukim became rare.

David Riceman