Three Questions of Formative Judaism: History, Literature, and Religion

THREE QUESTIONS OF FORMATIVE IUDAISM: History, Literature, and Religion......Page 4
Contents......Page 8
Preface......Page 16
1. Settled Issues, Neglected Question in the Study of Formative Judaism......Page 24
I . Settled Issues: 1. From Judaism to Judaisms......Page 25
II. Setded Issues: 2. From History to Religion......Page 31
III. Neglected Questions: 1. Dating Documents......Page 38
IV. Neglected Questions: 2. Exegesis of the Talmud of Babylonia (the Bavli)......Page 40
I. Defining the Historical Question of Rabbinic Judaism......Page 47
II. An Interior Perspective: 1. The Scriptural Roots of Rabbinic Judaism......Page 56
III. An Interior Perspective: 2. The Documentary History of Ideas......Page 64
IV. An Interior Perspective: 3. The Predocumentary History of Systems of Ideas......Page 68
V. An Exterior Perspective: 1. The Relationship between the Ideas That People Hold and the Social World in Which They Live......Page 76
VI. An Exterior Perspective: 2. The Extradocumentary Context of Ideas—Pagan......Page 82
VII. An Exterior Perspective: 3. The Extradocumentary Context of Ideas—Christian......Page 96
VIII. The Question of History: What Is Now at Stake?......Page 113
I. Defining the Literary Question of Rabbinic Judaism......Page 117
II. The Documentary Starting Point: The Distinctive, Indicative Traits of Documents......Page 119
III. The Documentary Context: Autonomy, Connection, Continuity......Page 122
A. Autonomy: Description of the Text on Its Own......Page 123
D. Imagining the Rabbinic Canon: Toward a General Theory......Page 124
IV. The Question of Literature: A. What Is at Stake in Establishing the Documentary Context? Learning How the Document Supplies Its Own Best Commentary......Page 128
A. The Case of the Mishnah......Page 129
D. The Division of Paragraphs into Sentences......Page 130
E. The Logic of Coherent Discourse: How Form Analysis Points to the Construction of Syllogisms, Yielding Cases Producing Rules......Page 131
F. How the Document Produces Its Own Best Commentary......Page 133
V. Nondocumentary Writing: Compositions and Composites of an Other-than-Documentary Venue......Page 134
A. How to Identify Nondocumentary Writing: The Starting Point......Page 140
B. Nondocumentary Writing: The Case of the Bavli......Page 142
C. Freestanding Pericopes Framed without Any Regard to Documentary Requirements......Page 145
D. The Hermeneutics of the Documentary Hypothesis......Page 146
VI. The Question of Literature: B. What Is at Stake in Identifying Other-than-Documentary Writing and Its Traits? The Predocumentary History of Rabbinic Judaism......Page 149
VII. The Question of Literature: C. Other-than-Documentary Writing: The Matter of Proportion and Purpose......Page 157
A. Documentary, Nondocumentary, and Extradocumentary Writing: The Case of Genesis Rabbah......Page 161
B. Do Nondocumentary Compositions Matter? 1. The Negligible Proportion of Freestanding Stories in Rabbinic Documents......Page 162
C. Do Nondocumentary Compositions Matter? 2. The Tangential Position, in Documentary Context, That Is Assigned to the Freestanding Composition......Page 163
A. A Fresh, Form-Analytical Exegesis of the Canonical Documents......Page 164
B. The Predocumentary History of the Ideas Set Forth in the Canonical Documents......Page 166
C. Validating the Documentary Reading of the Canon against the Nihilistic Denial That We Possess More than Compilations of Diverse Readings of This and That......Page 167
D. Where to Begin?......Page 168
I. Defining the Question of Religion for Rabbinic Judaism......Page 171
A. The Religious Study of Religion in the Case of Rabbinic Judaism......Page 174
B. The Religious Study of Religion: The Analytical Program......Page 177
C. The Historical Study of Religion and the Religious Study of Religion: The Differences......Page 179
II. An Interior Perspective: 1. The Category Formations of the System Viewed Whole—the Halakhah......Page 180
A. Unrealized Theories of the Halakhic Category Formation......Page 182
B. The Four Plausible Theories of Category Formation and the One That Was Chosen......Page 184
C. Testing the Null Hypothesis: The Expansion of the Halakhah—the Identification of New Topical or Analytical Category Formations......Page 192
D. The Rules of Choosing Topics......Page 197
E. Why This, Not That? The Premises and Goals of the Halakhah in Its Category Formations......Page 203
III. An Interior Perspective: 2. The Halakhic and Aggadic Category Formations in Comparison and Contrast......Page 206
A. The Uses of the Aggadah by the Halakhah......Page 209
1. Aggadic Compositions in Mishnah-Tosefta Taanit......Page 211
2. Aggadic Compositions in Yerushalmi Taanit......Page 218
3. Aggadic Compositions in Bavli Taanit......Page 219
4. The Aggadic Role in the Halakhic Discourse of Taanit......Page 228
C. Aggadic and Halakhic Incompatibility in Category Formations......Page 229
IV. An Exterior Perspective: The Comparative Study of Judaisms—the Category Formations of the Rabbinic System in Comparison and Contrast to Those of Other Judaic Systems......Page 232
A. Defining \"Israel\" in Systemic Context......Page 233
C. Israel in the Mishnah and Companion Documents......Page 234
D. Israel in the Second Phase in the Unfolding of Rabbinic Judaism: The Yerushalmi and Its Companions, the Rabbah-Midrash Compilations and the Bavli......Page 236
E. A Social Metaphor and a Field Theory of Society: Israel and the Social Contract—Comparing the Mishnah\'s and the Yerushalmi\'s Israel......Page 238
F. Israel and the Social Rules of Judaisms......Page 240
G. Reprise of the Matter of Self-Evidence......Page 250
V. The Question of Religion: What Is Now at Stake?......Page 252
2. The Beginning of the Critical Enterprise......Page 256
3. Literature......Page 257
4. History of Ideas, Law, and Literature......Page 261
5. Religion......Page 265
6. Talmudic Hermeneutics......Page 270
7. Constructive and Comparative Theology......Page 275
8. Exposition of Problems of Method and Auseinandersetzungen with Other Viewpoints......Page 277
9. Restatement of Results......Page 280
10. Toward the Creation of the New Academy: i. Scholarly Books Organized and Edited......Page 282
11. Toward the Creation of the New Academy: ii. Providing Textbooks for Undergraduate Instruction and Trade Books for the Public at Large......Page 284
12. Toward the Creation of the New Academy: iii. Facing the Future—Children\'s Textbooks......Page 287