The ancient world produced two radically different ideas of divine law – Greek natural law grounded in abstract reason and biblical law grounded in concrete revelation. The confrontation of these two ideas of divine law led some Jews in late antiquity to think of the revealed Torah in terms of Greek natural law: an absolute, immutable, abstraction of universal truth. Other ancient Jews, particularly the rabbis of the Babylonian Talmud, resisted this new way of thinking. They sought to preserve and reinforce the divine Torah’s dynamic and historically-embedded character. But how did they do this? What tools did they use?

This lecture takes listeners inside the rabbis’ workshop where a spirit of play and a devotion to detail are key strategies for preserving the Torah’s open-ended vitality.

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The ancient world produced two radically different ideas of divine law – Greek natural law grounded in abstract reason and biblical law grounded in concrete revelation. The confrontation of these two ideas of divine law led some Jews in late antiquity to think of the revealed Torah in terms of Greek natural law: an absolute, immutable, abstraction of universal truth. Other ancient Jews, particularly the rabbis of the Babylonian Talmud, resisted this new way of thinking. They sought to preserve and reinforce the divine Torah’s dynamic and historically-embedded character. But how did they do this? What tools did they use?

This lecture takes listeners inside the rabbis’ workshop where a spirit of play and a devotion to detail are key strategies for preserving the Torah’s open-ended vitality.

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