Research Catalog

Title

People of the book : canon, meaning, and authority / Moshe Halbertal.

Author

Halbertal, Moshe.

Publication

Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1997.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

x, 185 pages; 24 cm

Summary

People of the Book offers the best introduction available to Jewish hermeneutics, a book capable of conveying the importance of the tradition to a wide audience of both academic and general readers. Halbertal provides a panoramic survey of Jewish attitudes toward Scripture, provocatively organized around problems of normative and formative authority, with an emphasis on the changing status and functions of Mishnah, Talmud, and Kabbalah.

Subject

• Bible. > Criticism, interpretation, etc., Jewish
• Bible. > Canon

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [145]-179) and index.

Contents

Introduction: Canonical Text and Text-Centered Community -- 1. Canon and Meaning. The Uses of Canon. The Sealed Canon. Authority and Sealing. The Meaning of the Canonical Text. Canon and the Principle of Charity. Textual Closure and Hermeneutical Openness. Uncharitable Readings of Canons -- 2. Authority, Controversy, and Tradition. Authorial Intention and Authoritative Meaning. Canon and Controversy. Three Views on Controversy and Tradition. From a Flexible Canon to a Closed Code. The Institution and the Canon -- 3. Canon and Curriculum. Formative Text. The Concept of Torah in "Talmud Torah" The Challengers of Talmudism. Codification and Decanonization. Esotericism and Censorship. Kabbalists and the Talmudic Curriculum. Strong Canonicity and Shared Discourse. App. The Sovereign and the Canon.

ISBN

• 0674661117 (cloth : alk. paper)
• 0674661125 (paper : alk. paper)

LCCN

97018945

OCLC

• 36824845
• ocm36824845

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries