Halakhic Hermeneutics

by Jacob Neusner

Overview

This book presents an inductive account, through systematic inquiry into data, of the hermeneutics of the principal documents of Rabbinic Judaism. It undertakes a hypothetical-logical reconstruction of the thought-processes that generated the category-formations of the Halakhah, that is, the exegesis of the hermeneutics of Halakhic exegesis. To do so, Neusner asks whether a determinate theory of interpretation guides the sages in their exposition of the topics, the category-formations, of Rabbinic Judaism in the documents that expound those formations. His answer is, a hermeneutics of comparison and contrast yielding a hierarchical classification of data governs the selection of data and the interpretation thereof for the entire corpus of category-formations of the Halakhah. Hence 'Halakhic hermeneutics' here bears the primary meaning, 'a hermeneutics of analogical-contrastive analysis.'

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761825289
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	04/29/2003
Series:	Studies in Judaism
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	328
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

Jacob Neusner is Research Professor of Religion and Theology at Bard College and Senior Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard. He also is a Member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey, and Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University, England.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Preface; Introduction; Tractate Sukkah; Tractate Qiddushin; Tractate Abodah Zarah; Tractate Keritot; Tractate Parah; Tractate Miqvaot; The Generic Hermeneutics of the Halakhah