Talmudic Reasoning: From Casuistics to Conceptualization (Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism 89)

Leib Moscovitz presents the first systematic study of the development of abstraction and conceptualization in rabbinic legal thought, analyzing the most significant aspects and modes of legal reasoning in the major works of rabbinic literature. The themes addressed in this study include the use of casuistics, generalization, and implicit conceptualization in the earlier strata of rabbinic literature, classification and legal definition, legal fictions, legal explanation, analogy and association, and the development and use of explicit legal concepts and principles in the later strata of rabbinic literature.