Table of Contents

Preface ... viiTHREE THEOLOGICAL PREMISES OF JUDAISM1. SPEECH: An eye that sees an ear that hears ... 3i. Know before whom you are going to give a full account of yourself ... 3ii. Oaths ... 5iii. Vows and the Nazirite Vow in Particular ... 142. TIME: "Considerations of Temporal Priority or Posteriority Do Not Enterinto the Torah" ... 35i. Temporal Sequence Does Not Apply to the Torah... 35ii. The Present-Tense Past: Scripture Re-Presented in the Immediacy ofthe Moment... 37iii. How are events treated, if not as unique indicators of the movementof history? Patterning Events. Mishnah-tractate Ta'anit 4:6-7 ... 44iv. History in the Torah and in the Mishnah ... 47v. How the Mishnah Configures Israel in the Context of History Defined byGod. How the Destruction of the Temple Figures in Mishnah-tractateRosh Hashanah 4:1-3 ... 49vi. Patterning the History of the Sacrificial Cult: Mishnah-TractateZebahim 14:4-10 ... 51vii. A Messiah in the Mishnah: Mishnah-tractate Sotah Chapter Nine ... 553. SPACE: The land of Israel is holier than all lands ... 59i. The Locative Dimension ... 59ii. Taking life to Sustain Israel's life: Hullin ... 68iii. The Domestic Table Compared with the Temple Altar ... 70iv. The Particular Laws of Mishnah-Tractate Hullin ... 72v. Gradations of Sanctification ... 80vi. Why Hullin in Particular? ... 82vii. Location, Occasion, the Character of the Encounter, in God's Context,of God and the Israelite ... 84viTHE PHILOSOPHICAL PREMISE OF JUDAISM4. ANALYSIS: Hierarchical classification and the Law's PhilosophicalDemonstration of Monotheism ... 89i. Hierarchical classification ... 89ii. Aristotle and the Mishnah's Deductive Reasoning ... 97iii. Message: The Taxonomic Power of Human Intentionality ... 100iv. The Judaism behind ... 1165. MIXTURES ... 117i. The Three Types of Mixtures ... 117ii. Zebahim... 123iii. Hullin ... 125iv. Temurah... 125v. Miqvaot ... 125vi. Makhshirin ... 127vii. Mixtures in the First Division of the Halakhah: Bikkurim ... 128viii. Conclusion ... 1496. ANALYSIS: Intentionality ... 150i. Defining Intentionality, Attitude ... 150ii. Intentionality and Freedom of Will ... 160iii. The Manipulation and Application of power... 166iv. The point of differentiation within the political structures, supernaturaland natural alike, lies in the attitude and intention of a human being 171v. The Sources of Power: The Will of God and the Will of Man ... 175INTEGRAL JUDAISM7. Integrating the System ... 179i. At the Center of the System ... 179ii. Defining Zekhut... 184iii. Specific Meanings of Zekhut in Particular Contexts ... 186iv. Zekhut in Genesis Rabbah ... 193v. Deeds that Generate Zekhut ... 199vi. Relationships ... 2038. Living in the kingdom of God ... 206i. The Rationality of the Israelite Social Order ... 206ii. Approved Emotions ... 211iii. Competition for the Status of "Being Israel" ... 215iv. From Philosophy to Religion: The Kingdom of Heaven andthe City of God ... 218v. The Question of History Once Again ... 227Index 234

About the Author

Jacob Neusner is Distinguished Service Professor of the History and Theology of Judaism and Senior Fellow, Institute of Advanced Theology, Bard College. He also is a Member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton NJ, and Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University, in England. He has published more than 1000 books and unnumbered articles, both scholarly and academic and popular and journalistic, and is the most published humanities scholar in the world.

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"This is a learned and very detailed study…"
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