The Talmud's Theological Language-game: A Philosophical Discourse Analysis

by Borowitz, Eugene B.

• ISBN13: 9780791467015
• ISBN10: 0791467015
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-04-30
• Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr

Summary

In this pioneering effort, noted Jewish philosopher Eugene B. Borowitz opens up the rules by which the language-game of aggadic discourse is carried on in the Talmud, the foundational document of rabbinic and all later Judaism. These findings are compared with the aggadah (the realm in which almost all explicit statements about classic Jewish religious belief occur) of some other early rabbinic writings. Two issues drive Borowitz's inquiry: What, if anything, constrains the unprecedented freedom of this realm? and How might one positively characterize the aggadah? Borowitz introduces us to the rabbis not only in their amazing profundity, but also in their unguarded humanity. He concludes with a reflection on how this old Jewish language-game should influence contemporary Jewish thought, and, perhaps, other religious thought as well. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Eugene B. Borowitz is Distinguished University Professor and the Sigmund L. Falk Distinguished Professor of Education and Jewish Religious Thought at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Part One. Entering the Maze of Rabbinic Diction
Introduction to a Religious Puzzle	1	(6)
1. What Is the Aggadah Problem?	7	(24)
Part Two. Scrutinizing Talmudic Aggadah at Three Levels
2. The Surface Characteristics	31	(18)
3. The Substantive Concerns	49	(18)
4. The "Logic"	67	(16)
5. Does Extending the Sample Alter the Findings?	83	(32)
Part Three. The Limits and Nature of Aggadah
6. Is Aggadic Discourse Self-Limiting?	115	(30)
7. Positively, What Is Aggadah?	145	(34)
8. Reconstruing the Aggadah Problem	179	(12)
Afterwords
Can We Theologize as the Rabbis Did?	191	(2)
On Concluding	193	(2)
Notes	195	(86)
Bibliography of Works Cited	281	(12)
COMPILED BY TINA WEISS
Index of Text Citations	293	(14)
Index of Subjects and Proper Names	307