The theme of this book is how a remarkable authorship set forth a distinctive solution to a long-standing problem in the theology, literature, and law of the Judaism of the Dual Torah. The problem was posed by the character and standing of the Mishnah. From the moment of its promulgation as the basis for the law of Judaism, the Mishnah was represented as authoritative. Therefore, in the context of the life of Israel, the Mishnah enjoyed its standing as torah, divine revelation, which yet was clearly not like The Torah revealed by God to Moses at Sinai. To that problem there were two solutions: the successor documents that undertook the exegesis, amplification, and application of the Mishnah and that presented by the authorship of Sifra. The solution proposed by the successor authorities to the Mishnah, in Tosefta, ca. A.D. 300, the Talmud of the Land of Israel or Yerushalmi, ca. A.D. 400, and the Talmud of Babylonia or Bavli, ca. A.D. 600, was to treat the word or conception, torah, as a common noun, signifying, among other things, process, status, or classification. Then the Mishnah found ample place for itself within the capacious classification, torah.

The solution proposed by the authorship of Sifra was to treat the word, torah, as solely a proper noun, The Torah, but also to insist that the Mishnah found a fully legitimate position within The Torah.