The Mishnah: Religious Perspectives

Jacob Neusner, Ph.D. (1960), Columbia University, is Distinguished Research Professor of Religious Studies at the University of South Florida and Professor of Religion at Bard College. In a remarkable career spanning more than 35 years, Professor Neusner has taught and conducted research at centers in North America, Asia and Europe including Dartmouth College, Brown University, the Institute for Advanced Study Princeton, Cambridge University, the University of Göttingen and Uppsala University. Honored by awards from many of the world’s scholarly societies, his prodigious corpus of published work includes scores of seminal books and essays on Jewish life, law, ideas and tradition which have made him one of the most influential figures in his field in the modern period.

1. THE MISHNAH AND SCRIPTURE
i. Category-Formations of the Halakhah Wholly Framed by the Written Torah
a) Horayot
b. Negaim
c. Pesahim
d. Shebuot
e. Sotah
f. Sukkah
g. Yoma
ii. What the Oral Torah Did Not Contribute
iii. Category-Formations of the Halakhah Wholly Defined within the Oral
Torah
iv. Categories that Encompass in their System Facts Set forth in Scripture
[1] Berakhot
v. Categories that Encompass in their System Facts Set forth in Scripture:
[2] Taanit
vi. The Oral Torah Forms a Category out of Scripture¹s Topic: Tamid
vii. Categories beyond Scripture¹s Framework but Subordinate to Scripture¹s
Own Categories: Demai
viii. The Oral Torah¹s Own Categories [1]: Scripture¹s Imperatives without
Scripture¹s Facts. Tohorot
ix. The Oral Torah¹s Own Categories: [2] Uqsin
x. The Oral Torah¹s Own Categories: [3] Ketubot
xi. The Oral Torah¹s Original Categories: [4] Qiddushin
xii. The Oral Torah¹s Original Categories
xiii. The Oral Torah Systematizes the Written Torah¹s Category-Formations,
Spirit and Letter Alike: The Four Interstitial Categories
a. Subordinate but Not Concentric Expositions of the Same
Category-Formations
b. Received Topics, Innovative Compositions of Category-Formations Thereof
c. Received Letter, New Spirit: The Asymmetrical Category-Formations of the
Oral Torah
d. A Fresh Statement out of a Familiar Topic and Routine Exposition thereof
xiv. Same Spirit, Same Letter ‹ But Lots More Letters
a. Abodah Zarah
b. Arakhin
c. Bekhorot
d. Bikkurim
e. Keritot
f. Maaser Sheni
g. Meilah
h. Menahot
i. Nedarim-Nazir
j. Peah
k. Rosh Hashanah
l. Shebi¹it
m. Sheqalim
n. Yebamot
xv. Where the Letter Gives Life to the Spirit
xvi. Types of Independent Exposition of Received Category-Formations. When
the Oral Torah Reorganizes the Written Torah¹s Category-Formation
a. Baba Qamma-Baba Mesia-Baba Batra
b. Hagigah
c. Kelim
d. Megillah
e. Miqvaot
f. Sanhedrin-Makkot
g. Zebahim
xvii. Kaleidoscopic Discourse
xviii. Same Letter, New Spirit: When the Oral Torah Asks its Own Questions
about the Written Torah¹s Topical Program
a. Besah
b. Erubin
c. Gittin
d. Hallah
e. Hullin
f. Moed Qatan
g. Maaserot
h. Makhshirin
i. Ohalot
j. Parah
k. Shabbat
xix. Old Dog, New Tricks
xx. When the Oral Torah Finds Fresh Issues in Received Information
a. Kilayim
b. Orlah
c. Tebul Yom
d. Temurah
e. Terumot
f. Yadayim
g. Zabim and Niddah
xxi. Original Variations on Borrowed Themes

2. THE MISHNAH AND ITS TIMES: THE THREE STAGES OF HALAKHIC
CATEGORY-FORMATION

i. The Starting Point: Second Temple Times
ii. Methodological Foundations: Correlating Sequences of Sages with
Sequences of Rulings
iii. Rabbinic Judaism in Second Temple Times?
iv. The Phenomenological Reading: A quo
v. The Historical Reading: Ad Quem
vi. Constructing Categories for Comparison and Contrast: The Systemic
Approach
vii. The Formative History of the Halakhic Category-Formations
vii. The Halakhah before 70
viii. The Interim-Category-Formation: The Halakhah between the Wars of
66-70 and 132-135
ix. The Halakhah of the Mid-Second Century: The Halakhah¹s Fully-Realized
Category-Formation in Structure and System
x. The Oral Torah Seen Whole: The Restoration of Eden through the
Reconstruction of Israel¹s Social Order
xi. One Whole Torah, Oral and Written?

3. FORM AND MEANING IN THE MISHNAH

i. Formulation and Transmission of the Mishnah: By Whom, For What?
ii. Rhetoric and Reality
iii. Form and Meaning
iv. Language, Reality, and Power
v. Language Becomes Ontology