Yaakov Sussmann

Yaakov Sussmann was born in Budapest, then in the Kingdom of Hungary, on 31 August 1931 (18 Elul 5691). Both of his parents came from rabbinic dynasties. His paternal grandfather was chief rabbi of Budapest, and through his mother he was a fifth-generation descendant of the Chatam Sofer, Rabbi Moses Sofer of Pressburg.

After the German occupation of Hungary in 1944, the family escaped on the Kastner train, which took its passengers through the Bergen-Belsen camp and on to Switzerland. In Switzerland he continued his religious education in yeshivas until the end of the war years.

In 1949 Sussmann immigrated to Israel and studied at the Hebron Yeshiva. A few years later he left the yeshiva path, taught at a primary school and completed his matriculation in 1954. He then enrolled at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, studying Talmud, Bible and the history of the Jewish people, and earned both his bachelor's and master's degrees with distinction.

His doctoral dissertation, "Babylonian Sugiyot to the Orders Zera'im and Tohorot", was supervised by Professor Ephraim Elimelech Urbach. The Academy of the Hebrew Language dates its submission to 1969, while the Hebrew University and most obituaries give 1970.

Sussmann taught in the Department of Talmud at the Hebrew University for decades. He was appointed associate professor in 1975 and full professor in 1980. He served as head of the Department of Talmud and, for three years, as head of the Institute of Jewish Studies. In 1980 to 1981 he was a fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Jerusalem in a research group on the methods and principles of scholarly editions of Talmudic texts.

His doctoral students included Vered Noam, Menahem Kister, Hananel Mack and Leib Moscovitz.

Sussmann's research covered the whole of Talmudic literature: tannaitic sources, the Babylonian Talmud, the Jerusalem Talmud, Midrash and the medieval commentators (Rishonim).

Searching libraries in Austria, Germany and Italy, he uncovered thousands of Talmudic fragments reused in book bindings, a body of material he named the "European Genizah". The most important finds were manuscripts of the "Sefer Yerushalmi".

Among his best known articles are a preliminary study of the halakhic mosaic inscription from the synagogue at Rehov in the Beit She'an Valley (Tarbiz, 1974), a study of the baraita of the "boundaries of the Land of Israel" (Tarbiz, 1976), "The History of Halakha and the Dead Sea Scrolls" on the Qumran text 4QMMT (Tarbiz, 1989 to 1990), and "Oral Torah, Literally" (Mehqerei Talmud 3, 2005), which argued that the Mishnah remained an oral text in the Talmudic period.

Sussmann was a philologist first. He insisted that the history of rabbinic literature be reconstructed from the manuscripts themselves, and much of his life went into locating, describing and comparing them.

His most debated thesis concerned the oral nature of rabbinic tradition. In "Oral Torah, Literally" he argued that the Mishnah of Rabbi Judah the Prince continued to be learned and transmitted orally, preserved by professional reciters and constant repetition. The argument has shaped discussion of the subject ever since.

Sussmann lived for many years in the Ramat Denya neighbourhood of Jerusalem, where he remained until his death. Details of his immediate family were not made public in the obituaries published at the time of his death.

1990: elected an advisory member of the Academy of the Hebrew Language. 1997: Israel Prize for Talmudic Studies; became a full member of the Academy of the Hebrew Language. 2006: EMET Prize for Talmud, "for his inspirational and multifaceted contribution to the study of Talmudic literature, and for being a lodestone for scholars of the Talmud and the rabbinical literature in Israel and abroad." 2014: Honorary doctorate from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

Introduction to the Jerusalem Talmud according to the Leiden manuscript, Academy of the Hebrew Language edition (Jerusalem, 2001). Thesaurus of Talmudic Manuscripts (Otzar Kitvei ha-Yad ha-Talmudiyyim), 3 volumes, with Yoav Rosenthal and Aharon Shweka (Yad Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, 2012). 'Torah She-be'al Peh' Peshutah ke-Mashma'ah (Magnes Press, 2019). Ginzei HaYerushalmi, with Binyamin Elitzur (Yad Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, 2020). Studies in Talmudic Literature: Collected Articles, 2 volumes (Magnes Press, 2026). "The Talmudic Fragments of the 'European Genizah'", in a volume edited by Mauro Perani (Brill, 2022).

Sussmann is remembered as one of the central figures of academic Talmud study in Israel. His manuscript catalogues and editions remain standard tools, his students lead the field in Israeli universities, and his essay on the Oral Torah reached readers far beyond the academy. When Ginzei HaYerushalmi appeared in 2020, Yad Ben-Zvi and the Academy of the Hebrew Language marked it with a public evening chaired by his former student Vered Noam.

Yaakov Sussmann died in Jerusalem on Sunday 25 October 2026 (14 Marcheshvan 5787), aged 95. His death was announced by the Academy of the Hebrew Language and reported by Israel Hayom. The cause of death was not made public. According to Hebrew Wikipedia he was buried at Har HaMenuchot cemetery in Jerusalem.