The Talmudic Okimta and its Logical Structure: A Contribution to the Systematic Research into Talmudic Legal Hermeneutics

Abstract

Scholars have thus far devoted little attention to the systematic research of Talmudic legal hermeneutics.1 To address this topic requires, in my opinion, two undertakings: (1) the systematic sifting of the wealth of argumentative and interpretative topoi2 used in the complexly structured Talmudic sugiot, and (2) the development of a reasonable, legal-theoretical method of analyzing individual argumentative figures for their logical-hermeneutic evidentiary value. Concerning the latter, attention must be paid both to the logical and, at the same time, hermeneutic aspects of the question. Talmudic hermeneutic, due to its embedment in clearly structured argumentation strategies must be questioned from the perspective of legal logic. An essential question in proceeding to the legal-logical analysis of existing juridical procedures is that of the inferential figures used therein. Traditionally, the inferential modi of deduction and induction are prescribed but third logical figure, called abduc-