The Hermeneutics of Rabbinic Category Formations

The Hermeneutics of Rabbinic Category Formations Synopsis

This work sets forth a theory of how Rabbinic Halakhic category-formations are articulated. One can now reconstruct the processes of thought that yield for the Halakhic category-formations, the hermeneutics that govern the selection of data for a given category-formation and determines how those data are to be interpreted. Not only so, but that theory encompasses three quite distinct sources for the definition and articulation of a given category-formation: Scripture, a hermeneutics generic to all Halakhic category-formations, and a hermeneutics particular to the category-formation at hand.

Presented in the shank of this book are sample studies that show how the distinction between generic and particular hermeneutics for a Halakhic category-formation accounts for the character of the Halakhah as spelled out by the Mishnah-Tosefta-Yerushalmi-Bavli, which is to say, the Halakhah in its initial and normative statement.