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Systematic account of the hermeneutics of comparison and contrast of Rabbinic Judaism.A distinguished historian of religion once said, "The history of religions is the exegesis of exegesis." In a profound sense, that judgment animates an entire field of learning. In this project in the history of religions, I undertake an inductive account, through systematic inquiry into data, of the hermeneutics of the principal documents of Rabbinic Judaism. I ask whether a theory of interpretation guides the sages in their exposition of the topics, the category-formations, of Rabbinic Judaism in the documents that expound those formations. As the title means to suggest, my answer is, a hermeneutics of comparison and contrast governs the selection of data and the interpretation thereof for the entire corpus of category-formations of the Halakhah. The rest of this project serves to spell out the meaning and effect of that sentence. Hence "comparative hermeneutics" here bears the primary meaning, "a hermeneutics of analogical-contrastive analysis."
A propos de l'auteur
Professor
Marvin Fox received his B.A. in philosophy in 1942 from Northwestern University, the M.A. in the same field in 1946, and the Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in 1950 in that field as well. His education in Judaic texts was certified by rabbinical ordination as Rabbi by the Hebrew Theological College of Chicago in 1942. He served as a Jewish Chaplain in the US Army Air Force during World War II from 1942 to 1946. He taught at Ohio State University from 1948 through 1974, rising from Instructor to Professor of Philosophy. During those years he served also as Visiting Professor of Philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Bar Ilan University (1970-1971). In 1974 he came to Brandeis University as Appleman Professor of Jewish Thought, and from 1976 onward he has held the Lown Professorship. He has received numerous academic awards, lectured widely at universities and at national and international academic conferences and served as Member of the National Endowment for the Humanities National Board of Consultants for new programs at colleges and universities.
