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