Concept tag
#talmud
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Why did the rabbis write down the opinions they voted against?
I run a Talmud study group on Tuesday nights, and every year someone new asks the same thing: why does the text keep the losing side? When a law is decided, why preserve, often at length, the arguments of the sages who…
Started by Eliana Halpern7 replies -
Keeping the losing opinion on the page: is disagreement inside a tradition as deep as disagreement between traditions?
In my Tuesday Talmud study group we recently read the story in tractate Eruvin about the houses of Hillel and Shammai, who argued for years until a heavenly voice declared that "these and these are the words of the living God", and…
Started by Eliana Halpern5 replies -
“Seventy faces” and “no verse leaves its plain sense”: the rabbis held both at once
This tripped up my Tuesday study group last month and I have not stopped thinking about it. On one side, there is the midrashic saying that the Torah has seventy faces. A verse can bear many readings, and the tradition records them…
Started by Eliana Halpern4 replies -
These and these: what Talmudic argument can teach us about disagreeing with a peer
Philosophers ask whether you should change your mind when an equally capable person disagrees. The rabbis built a whole culture around a different answer.
Started by Eliana HalpernReply first (no replies yet)