The Vitality of Rabbinic Imagination: The Mishnah Against the Bible and Qumran [Paperback]

Assessed against comparable documents of Scripture and the Qumran library, the Mishnah shows itself as a triumph of imagination. It exhibits remarkable capacity to think in new and astonishing ways about familiar things. This study compares the Mishnah to four biblical codes and two codes found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. The comparison provides perspective upon the uniqueness of the Mishnah in its Israelite context of Scripture and tradition. Linked to Scripture and in dialogue with Scripture, the Mishnah struck out in new paths altogether from those set forth by Scripture's codes and those that imitated them. The capacity to think in fresh ways about the Scripture's own imperatives and their implications attests to the validity of Rabbinic imagination that reaches concrete expression in the Mishnah, a triumph of reconstruction and creative recapitulation.Jacob Neusneris Research Professor of Theology and Senior Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard College. He is also a Member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey, and Life Member of Clare Hall at Cambridge University, England.

Chapter 1 Preface
Chapter 2 The Mishnah's Indicative Traits
Chapter 3 The Book of the Covenant (EX. 20:22-23:33) and Mishnah-Tractate Baba Qamma
Chapter 4 The Priestly Code (LEV. 1-15) and Mishnah-Tractate Menahot
Chapter 5 The Holiness Code (LEV. 17-26) and Mishnah-Tractates Baba Mesia and Kilayim
Chapter 6 The Deuteronomic code (DT. 12-26) and Mishnah-Tractates Gittin and Hullin
Chapter 7 The Damascus Covenant (CD) and Mishnah-Tractate Shabbat
Chapter 8 The Manual of Discipline (1QS) and Mishnah and Tosefta Tractated Demai and Mishnah Tractate Tohorot
Chapter 9 Epilogue
Chapter 10 Appendix