The Open Canon On the Meaning of Halakhic Discourse

by Sagi, Avi

• ISBN13: 9780826496706
• ISBN10: 0826496709
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-02-20
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

In this groundbreaking study Avi Sagi outlines a broad spectrum of answers to important questions presented in Jewish literature, covering theological issues bearing on the meaning of the Torah and of revelation, as well as hermeneutical questions regarding understanding of the halakhic text. This is the first volume to attempt to provide a comprehensive map of the available views and theories concerning the theological, hermeneutical, and ontological meaning of dispute as a constitutive element of Halakhah. It offers an attentive reading of the texts and strives to present, clearly and exhaustively, the conscious account of Jewish tradition in general and of halakhic tradition in particular concerning the meaning of halakhic discourse.

Author Biography

Avi Sagi teaches at the Department of Philosophy of Bar-Han University, Israel, and is the founding director of its Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Hermeneutics and Cultural Studies. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, Israel.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. vii
Introduction	p. 1
The Monistic Outlook	p. 11
Preface	p. 13
Halakhah Follows Bet Hillel: The Rejected Option in Monism	p. 17
Why does Halakhah follow Bet Hillel?	p. 17
The rejected option as 'words of God'	p. 18
Monism: The 'Valid Decision' Concept	p. 31
Correspondence positions	p. 31
Approximative positions	p. 37
Acceptability as the criterion of the right decision	p. 41
Monism: Dispute and the Concept of Revelation	p. 54
The meaning of dispute	p. 54
Halakhic truth and revelation	p. 60
The Pluralistic Outlook	p. 67
Preface	p. 69
Revelation and Halakhic Pluralism	p. 71
The realistic model	p. 71
The anthropological model	p. 72
The authoritative model	p. 80
The Limits of Halakhic Pluralism and the Nature of Halakhic Inference	p. 88
The limits of halakhic pluralism	p. 88
The ontological status of halakhic decisions	p. 90
The validity of halakhic decisions and the minority position	p. 93
Halakhah Follows Bet Hillel: The Pluralistic Version	p. 100
Following the quantitative majority	p. 101
Bet Hillel's moral advantage	p. 105
The Harmonic Outlook	p. 109
Preface	p. 111
The Union of Opposites	p. 113
Zadok ha-Cohen of Lublin	p. 113
Judah Loew ben Bezalel	p. 114
Halakhah follows Bet Hillel: the harmonic version	p. 116
'Reality Knows No Opposites'	p. 119
These and These Are the Words of the Living God: Halakhic Values	p. 127
Preface	p. 129
The Religious Value of the Quest for Truth	p. 131
Isaac Jacob Reines	p. 131
Hayyim Hirschensohn	p. 135
Hayyim Volozhiner	p. 137
Monism and the value of the quest for truth	p. 141
The religious purpose of halakhic discourse	p. 143
'Torah Shall Go Forth Today... That Had Not Gone Forth Yesterday': The Value of Innovation	p. 146
Yom Tov Lipmann Muelhausen	p. 146
Hayyim b. Bezalel	p. 149
Moses Samuel Glasner	p. 153
The meaning of halakhic innovation	p. 158
On Dispute and Authority	p. 163
Preface	p. 165
Dispute in Halakhic Culture: Historical Phenomenon or Constitutive Element	p. 167
Dispute as a historical phenomenon	p. 167
Dispute as a constitutive element	p. 176
'These and these': between toleration and pluralism	p. 183
On Authority and the Duty of Obedience	p. 192
The epistemic model of halakhic authority	p. 192
The deontic model of halakhic authority	p. 200
Attempts to reach a balance	p. 205
Authority and the status of dispute	p. 207
Concluding thoughts	p. 210
Bibliography	p. 219
Index	p. 231
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