Viewed as ideal types, the Halakhah defines the norm, setting forth what is obligatory, the Aggadah, specifies what exceeds the norm and goes beyond the measure of the law. The striking differences of style and substance that differentiate the two categories of discourse present the question of how they intersect in a single coherent statement, a system that holds together its two distinct media of thought and expression. When we have in hand systematic data on how Aggadah contributes to the Halakhah, and where Halakhah serves the purposes of the Aggadah, we find possible the logical next step: where do the two intersect, and at what points do the respective complexes of category-formations stand autonomous of one another, and that leads to the question: how do Aggadah and Halakhah constitute a coherent religious structure and make in common a single systemic statement? Where, within the formative literature of Normative Judaism, they join together, what affect the one exercises upon the other, and how the whole - Rabbinic Judaism - exceeds and transcends the sum of the parts - the Halakhah, the Aggadah - is spelled out.

Addressed to Jews and non-Jews alike, though aware that these two reader groups were likelyn to approach the book with very different presuppositions, Daiches sets out to define Judaism in relation to philosophy, to explain Kant's philosophy through the superiority of halakhah, defend a biblically based Jewish interpretation of history, and champion Judaism as a religion of freedom guaranteed by halakhah (Jewish law).

How does the inner logic of the Aggadah, its narrative and theology (whether systematic or merely episodic) match the deepest rationality of the Halakhah, its norms and foci and points of tension and remission of tension? The answer emerges from the comparison and contrast of the large, organizing aggregates of the Halakhah and of the Aggadah. The Halakhic and the Aggadic category formations are explained fully. In the Mishnah-Tosefta-Yerushalmi-Bavli we have the best of all possible Halakhic category-formations for the purpose of defining the structure of Israel's inner life, the social order of the kingdom of priests and the holy people that God had in mind in bringing Israel into being. In the Rabbah-midrash compilations and their companions, we have the best of all possible Aggadic category formations for the purpose of narrating the working of the system of Israel's public life, the story of that kingdom of priests and holy people in history. These are presented in two distinct exercises, deductive and inductive. The dual discourse tells a continuous story.

Review This collection of papers from the Academy for Jewish Philosophy...is striking evidence to the fact that Jewish philosophy is alive and well....Read and enjoy!>>>> (Paul M. Van Buren Shofar) ...a welcome addition to the somewhat scanty corpus of contemporary Jewish philosophy.>>>> (Shofar) ...a welcome addition to the somewhat scanty corpus of contemporary Jewish philosophy. (Shofar) This collection of papers from the Academy for Jewish Philosophy...is striking evidence to the fact that Jewish philosophy is alive and well....Read and enjoy! (Paul M. Van Buren Shofar) Product Description This book brings together for the first time a collection of essays by some of the most distinguished contemporary Jewish philosophers on issues such as the nature of Jewish philosophy from the perspectives of general philosophy, classical Jewish philosophy and Jewish law, the role of reason and revelation as authority in Judaism, and the impact of contemporary philosophy of history and language on Judaism. The book is a living record of the revitalization of Jewish philosophy in the post-Holocaust world. Co-published with Studies in Judaism. About the Author Norbert M. Samuelson is Associate Professor of Religion at Temple University.

Examines the evolution of the concept that Moses received two versions of the Torah at Sinai, one written and one oral, and that the oral version has been passed down, mouth-to-mouth, to the present day. Follows the chain of documents on the written side, looks at how the two Torah differ, and compares how the difference has been understood in various contexts. No index or bibliography. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

Since the late 1700s, when the Jewish community ceased to be a semiautonomous political unit in Western Europe and the United States and individual Jews became integrated-culturally, socially, and politically-into broader society, questions surrounding Jewish status and identity have occupied a prominent and contentious place in Jewish legal discourse. This book examines a wide array of legal opinions written by nineteenth- and twentieth-century orthodox rabbis in Europe, the United States, and Israel. It argues that these rabbis' divergent positions-based on the same legal precedents-demonstr.