The conceptual significance of the prefatory sugya in the Babylonian Talmud

The prefatory sugya is unique in that the Mishnah is treated as a canonical text to be interpreted homiletically like a biblical verse. In this article I shift the scholarly focus from the technical interpretative methods of the prefatory sugya to its internal meaning. Homiletical interpretation of...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Brandes, Yehudah (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Liverpool University Press [2018]
In: Journal of Jewish studies
Year: 2018, Volume: 69, Issue: 1, Pages: 22-43
Further subjects:B INTERPRETATION (Philosophy)
B Jewish literature
B Mishnah
B Jewish preaching
B Talmud
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Description
Summary:The prefatory sugya is unique in that the Mishnah is treated as a canonical text to be interpreted homiletically like a biblical verse. In this article I shift the scholarly focus from the technical interpretative methods of the prefatory sugya to its internal meaning. Homiletical interpretation of the Mishnah is merely a rhetorical device employed by the author of the prefatory sugya in order to provide a conceptual preface to the tractate as a whole or to the central topic of the opening chapters. With this approach, the possibility emerges that the Talmudic prefatory sugya may have preceded the Savoraim, and may be considered a natural extension of the familiar petihta Midrash genre. This new 'content approach' significantly shifts and enriches our perception of the literary role of the prefatory sugya, from a playful intellectual curiosity to meaningful dicta of the sages emphasizing essential principles and values of the tractate.
ISSN:2056-6689
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of Jewish studies
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.18647/3349/jjs-2018