The Mind of the Talmud: An Intellectual History of the BavliThis critical study traces the development of the literary forms and conventions of the Babylonian Talmud, or Bavli, analyzing those forms as expressions of emergent rabbinic ideology. The Bavli, which evolved between the third and sixth centuries in Sasanian Iran (Babylonia), is the most comprehensive of all documents produced by rabbinic Jews in late antiquity. It became the authoritative legal source for medieval Judaism, and for some its opinions remain definitive today. Kraemer here examines the characteristic preference for argumentation and process over settled conclusions of the Bavli. By tracing the evolution of the argumentational style, he describes the distinct eras in the development of rabbinic Judaism in Babylonia. He then analyzes the meaning of the disputational form and concludes that the talmudic form implies the inaccessibility of perfect truth and that on account of this opinion, the pursuit of truth, in the characteristic talmudic concern for rabbinic process, becomes the ultimate act of rabbinic piety. |
Contents
| 3 | |
| 9 | |
2 A History of Amoraic Literary Expression | 26 |
3 The Preservation of Amoraic Argumentation | 50 |
4 The Bavli Considered as a Whole | 79 |
5 The Meaning of Argumentation | 99 |
6 The Bavli on Truth | 139 |
7 The Bavli in Comparative Perspective | 171 |
Notes | 191 |
Bibliography | 207 |
General Index | 213 |
Index to Primary Rabbinic Sources | 217 |
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The Mind of the Talmud: An Intellectual History of the Bavli David Charles Kraemer Limited preview - 1990 |
Common terms and phrases
Abbaye admit alternatives amoraic traditions amoraim analysis anonymous gemara approach Aramaic argu argumentational sequences Ashi assumes attributed authoritative authority Averroes Babylonian baraita Bavli Bokser brief traditions chapter claim commentary concern conclusion considered context deliberation dialogue discussion divine document evidence example explicit explicitly expression fact final formulation gemara halakha Halivni Hamnuna heavenly voice Hebrew Hillelites Ḥisda human reason Huna Ibid independent interpretation Jacob Neusner Jewish Jews Judah Judaism justification later attention literary meaning Meir Midrash Midrash Halakha Mishnah Mishnaic Naḥman narrative Nazir nazirite objections obviously opinion Oral Torah Pappa particular Perelman Pesaḥim philosophy Plato precise preservation proposed question quoted Rabba rabbinic Rava record Resh Laqish revelation sages School of Hillel School of Shammai scripture Shabbat Shammai speak stam statement steps story suggests Sukkah talmud torah tannaitic teach tion Torah study Tosefta tractates words Yerushalmi Yevamot Yohanan Yosef
Popular passages
Page 113 - It is because of the possibility of argumentation which provides reasons, but not compelling reasons, that it is possible to escape the dilemma: adherence to an objectively and universally valid truth, or recourse to suggestion and violence to secure acceptance for our opinions and decisions. The theory of argumentation will help to develop what a logic of value judgments has tried in vain to provide, namely the justification of the possibility of a human community in the sphere of action...
Page 186 - Know that our shunning the affirmation of the eternity of the world is not due to a text figuring in the Torah according to which the world has been produced in time. For the texts indicating that the world has been produced in time are not more numerous than those indicating that the deity is a body. Nor are the gates of figurative interpretation shut in our faces or impossible of access to us regarding the subject of the creation of the world in time.
Page 176 - If what every man believes as a result of perception is indeed to be true for him ; if, just as no one is to be a better judge of what another experiences, so no one is better entitled to consider whether what another thinks is true or false, and (as we have...
Page 157 - Make me a proselyte, on condition that you teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot.
Page 184 - There is a twofold mode of truth in what we profess about God. Some truths about God exceed all the ability of the human reason. Such is the truth that God is triune. But there are some truths which the natural reason also is able to reach.