Meta-Halakhah Logic, Intuition, and the

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PART I HALAKHAH AS PROCESS

1

(42)

1 THE CENTRAL PROBLEMS OF META-HALAKHAH

3

(12)

The Origins of Halakhah

3

(6)

No News Is Good News

4

(1)

The Need for Novelty

5

(2)

Moshe and Rabbi Akiva

7

(1)

Axioms and Theorems

8

(1)

Multiple Interpretations

9

(1)

The Purposes of Halakhah

9

(2)

The Problem of Autonomy

11

(4)

Coherence and Unpredictability

11

(2)

The "Living" Torah

13

(1)

Looking Ahead

13

(2)

2 THE FORMAL PROBLEM OF AUTONOMY AND ITS SOULTION

15

(18)

The Formal Problem of Autonomy

15

(3)

Randomness and Determinism

15

(2)

Overfitting and Underfitting

17

(1)

Minimal Description

18

(7)

Finite Strings

18

(2)

Infinite Strings

20

(2)

Modelability

22

(3)

Nonmodelability and Autonomy

25

(2)

Do Nonmodelable Phenomena Exist?

27

(3)

Church's Thesis

27

(1)

The Dogma of Artificial Intelligence

28

(2)

Intuition and Computation

30

(3)

Two Forms of Cognition

30

(2)

Intuition and Modelability

32

(1)

3 HALAKHAH AS AN AUTONOMOUS PROCESS

33

(10)

Halakhah and Nonmodelability

34

(3)

Autonomous Halakhah

34

(1)

Conventionalists and Realists

35

(2)

Modes of Creating Halakhah

37

(2)

Interpretation

38

(1)

Formalization

38

(1)

Decision Making

39

(1)

Progressive Formalization of Halakhah

39

(4)

Progess or Regress?

40

(1)

The Need to Overfit

40

(3)

II ORGINS OF HALAKHAH

43

(60)

4 PROPHECY AS INTERPRETATION

44

(15)

Written Torah and Oral Torah

45

(4)

The Open-Endedness of Oral Torah

45

(2)

Intuitive Understanding of Torah

47

(1)

Back in Rabbi Akiva's Study Hall

48

(1)

Otniel ben Knaz and the Beginning of Formalization

49

(3)

Restoration of "Forgotten" Laws

49

(1)

Collective Forgetfulness

50

(2)

Otniel's Role

52

(1)

The Role of the Prophet

52

(3)

Prophecy and Wisdom

53

(3)

Prophecy and Horaat Sha'ah

54

(1)

Haggai, Zekhariah, Malakhi, and the End of Prophecy

55

(4)

5 DERASHAH AS INTERPRETATION

59

(12)

Ezra and the Knesset ha-Gedolah

60

(2)

Restoration and Formalization

60

(1)

From Ideas to Text

61

(1)

Soferim

62

(4)

Soferim and Anshei Knesset ha-Gedolah

62

(1)

Midrash and Mishnah

63

(2)

Interpreting versus Establishing Halakhah

65

(1)

Transition: Hillel ha-Zaken

66

(5)

Hillel ha-Zaken and the Formalization of Halakhah

66

(1)

Hillel ha-Zaken and Derashot

66

(2)

Deriving Halakhah versus Justifying Halakhah

68

(3)

6 THE EMERGENCE AND RESOLUTION OF HALAKHAH DISPUTES

71

(22)

The Inevitability of Dispute

72

(1)

Healthy and Unhealthy Disputes

73

(6)

Maintaining Multiple Views

73

(1)

Disputes as Failure

74

(2)

Received Knowledge and Intuitive Generalization

76

(1)

Formalization and the Proliferation of Disputes

77

(2)

Rabbi Yehoshua and Rabbi Eliezer

79

(9)

Liberalism versus Conservatism

79

(1)

The need for Novelty

80

(2)

The Legitimacy of Disputes

82

(4)

Parsimony in Halakhic Explanation

86

(2)

Halakhah as an Evolutionary Process

88

(5)

Diversity and Stability

88

(1)

Survival of the Fittest Halakhah

89

(1)

A March to Perfection?

90

(2)

Looking Ahead

92

(1)

7 RAMBAM ON ENTRENCHMENT AND IMMUTABILITY IN HALAKHAH

93

(10)

Divrei Soferim

93

(4)

Derabbanan or De'oraita?

94

(1)

Divrei Soferim as a Meta-Halakhic Category

95

(2)

Divrei Kabbalah

97

(6)

The Immutability of Sinaitic Law

97

(1)

The Immutability of Divrei Kabbalah

98

(2)

Divrei Kabbalah That Are Not Sinaitic

100

(3)

PART III ENDS OF HALAKHAH

103

(34)

8 HALAKHAH AND THE AUTONOMY OF MAN

105

(14)

The Autonomous Self

106

(1)

Consciousness and Soul Sickness

107

(4)

The Tree of Knowledge and the Dawn of Consciousness

107

(1)

Anxiety and the Need to Choose

108

(2)

No Shortcut to Infinity

110

(1)

Teleology of Halakhah

111

(5)

Freedom and Life

111

(2)

The Purpose of Halakhah

113

(3)

Fluency

116

(3)

Bumping into the Rules of Grammar

116

(1)

Torah as Idolatry

117

(1)

The Indivisibility of Torah and Its Practitioners

118

(1)

9 THE MEANING OF EMUNAH

119

(10)

The Content of Emunah

119

(6)

Basic Questions

119

(1)

Emunah and Meta-Halakhah

120

(5)

The Nature of Emunah

125

(4)

Emunah as Perspective

125

(3)

Believing in Autonomy and Being Autonomous

128

(1)

10 THE STATE OF HALAKHAH TODAY

129

(8)

Healthy and Sick Societies

130

(2)

The Ills of Self-Consciousness

130

(1)

Conservatism and Liberalism

131

(1)

Where Are We Now?

132

(3)

The Current Dichotomy

132

(2)

Getting Carried Away

134

(1)

Prognosis: The Death of Ideology

135

(2)

Messianism as Crisis of Faith

135

(1)

A Happy Ending

136

(1)

APPENDIX

137

(18)

INDEX

155

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Meta-Halakhah Logic, Intuition, and the Unfolding of Jewish Law

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Meta-Halakhah Logic, Intuition, and the Unfolding of Jewish Law

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