Concepts of Scripture in the Schools of Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Ishmael 63- Menachem Fisch, Rational Rabbis: Science and Talmudic Culture (Bloom-
ington: Indiana University Press, 1997), 106. - For an example of a laudatory response to this enterprise, see Rabbi Tarfon’s
reaction, discussed earlier. For an example of a critical response, see my discussion
of Rabbi Eleazar ben Azaria’s response to Rabbi Akiva in Sifra Tzav pereq 11.4, in
Yadin, “Resistance to Midrash,” 54 – 57.