The Halakhah constitutes a coherent construction comprised by category-formations defined by topics purposively amplified. These category-formations everywhere pursue a cogent analytical program, addressing diverse subjects, treated systematically, a single set of questions of definition and analysis. Is Scripture the origin of the Halakhic system, which defines the norms of Judaism? At stake is not the starting point of discrete bits of legal data. At issue is the origin of the comprehensive structure comprised by the Halakhic category-formations, by these topics and no others. Scripture forms the natural starting point for any inquiry into the origins of Judaism. So it is quite natural to treat Scripture as the base-line and the Halakhic category-formations as the variable when seeking the origin of the system. But what happens when, as in this project, we treat the system as the base-line and Scripture as the variable? Then we see that the Halakhic system viewed as a coherent statement does not originate in Scripture. Important parts of that statement do, important parts do not. But the system viewed whole does not.

Assessed against comparable documents of Scripture and the Qumran library, the Mishnah shows itself as a triumph of imagination. It exhibits remarkable capacity to think in new and astonishing ways about familiar things. This study compares the Mishnah to four biblical codes and two codes found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. The comparison provides perspective upon the uniqueness of the Mishnah in its Israelite context of Scripture and tradition. Linked to Scripture and in dialogue with Scripture, the Mishnah struck out in new paths altogether from those set forth by Scripture's codes and those that imitated them. The capacity to think in fresh ways about the Scripture's own imperatives and their implications attests to the validity of Rabbinic imagination that reaches concrete expression in the Mishnah, a triumph of reconstruction and creative recapitulation.

Neusner (Bard College), the compiler of The Halakhah: An Encyclopedia of the Law of Judaism (1999), compares and contrasts selections of Scripture to study relationships between the normative rules in the written religious laws of the Pentateuch (the first five books of Scripture) and those set forth in the oral Torah of Mishnah-Yershalmi-Bavli. The four relationships to propositional category-formations analyzed are: dependent, with Halakhah amplifying the Scripture's laws; autonomous; interstitial, though derivative; and interstitial but original. There is no index. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).

Part one of a three part set of monographs on the coherence of Rabbinic Judaism in its literature: In the Rabbinic literature of late antiquity disputes and alternative interpretations of a common datum form a medium of expressing coherence. The print edition is available as a set of two volumes (9789004142312).

Bringing nearly fifty years of research to bear on these fundamental questions, Jacob Neusner challenges his readers to face the difficult, often unasked or neglected questions about the nature, background, and purposes of Rabbinic Judaism and rewards them with an enriched understanding and a stronger foundation for tackling the even more elusive questions concerning the theology of formative Judaism."--BOOK JACKET.

Neusner argues that the Judaism that emerged in late antiquity experimented with solutions to a critical and enduring issue of culture that continues to engage humanity - the crisis provoked by calamity. Exemplified in our time by the German war against the Jews from 1933-1945, in antiquity calamity took the form of the destruction in 70 C.E. of the Temple of Jerusalem and the cessation of its sacrifices, putting an end to the cultic calendar by which people had measured the passage of time in the heavens and maintained their relationship with God on earth. Resolution of this crisis required a radical solution, the reversion to prophecy, which had as a consequence restoration of world order Judaism as we know it responded then and continues to respond now to the paramount problem of that day and ours - the end of the old order and the advent of the new.