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Index
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Preface
1 - History: The World in Which the Talmud Came Into Being
Who Speaks through the Talmud?
The Age and Location that Produced the Talmud
The Impact of the Destruction of the Temple in 70 CE and of the Failure of Efforts to Rebuild It
The Formation of Judaism in a Voluntary Community, No Longer as a Political State
2 - What Is the Mishnah?
Israelite Law Codes before the Mishnah
Comparing the Mishnah to the Covenant Code, Exodus 20:22–23:22
Damages Done by the Pit
Damages Done by the Crop-Destroying Beast
Damages Done by Fire
What Marks the Mishnah as a Unique Code of the Law of Judaism?
The Mishnah’s Indicative Traits: Topical Cogency and Comprehensiveness
The Contents of the Mishnah and of the Halakhah
The Mishnah’s Philosophy of Israel’s Social Order
Emphases and Silences: Omitted Divisions and Topics
Extension, Amplification, and Syllogistic Character: [1] From Cases to Rules
Extension, Amplification, and Syllogistic Character [2]: From Rules to Generalizations
ENDNOTES
3 - What Is the Gemara?
Dispute, Debate, Argument: The Unique Trait of the Gemara
The Balanced, Fair Argument: Both Sides Address a Single Issue in Common and Each Gets Its Say
The Moving, or Dialectical, Argument of the Bavli
Why Dialectics Was the Chosen Medium of Thought and Expression for the Mishnah’s Heirs and Continuators in the Gemara
An Example of a Dialectical Argument
Scripture’s Way of Saying through Narrative What the Mishnah Says through an Abstract Case
The Importance of the Dialectical Argument in the Gemara
ENDNOTES
4 - The Two Talmuds
The Talmud of the Land of Israel and the Talmud of Babylonia
The Bavli and the Yerushalmi Compared: Mishnah Tractate Moed Qatan Chapter 1
The Program of the Two Talmuds
When Do the Two Talmuds Speak for Themselves, Not for the Mishnah?
What the Two Talmuds Have in Common
The Two Talmuds Compared in Detail
Contrasting the Two Talmuds: How the Bavli Differs from the Yerushalmi
What Marks the Bavli as Unique?
Why the Bavli Won
5 - How Is the Talmud Part of the Torah?
The Urgent Question of the Talmud
The Talmud’s Provision of Proof Texts from Scripture for the Law of the Mishnah
Tractate Abot and the Origins of the Law of the Mishnah in a Chain of Tradition
The Claim of the Mishnah’s Deriving from Oral Tradition
The Mishnah as Part of the Torah: An Explicit Claim
6 - How Is the Sage Part of the Torah?
“The Torah Is not in Heaven”
The Sage as the Living Torah
How the Talmud Represents Holy Men
Composites Focused upon Individual Sages
The Sage and the Torah
ENDNOTES
7 - How Does the Talmud Present God?
The Talmuds’ Theological Consensus, Expressed in Law and Lore
Mythic Monotheism in Theory
How the Talmud Portrays God’s Justice
Measure for Measure
Justifying God
Resurrection of the Dead: The Final Solution
Glossary
Sources of the Rabbinic Texts
Index
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