Table of Contents: Ariel Kopilovitz Ezekiel's Theology of Holiness and Impurity as a Key to Understanding the Description of the Departure of the 'Glory of YHWH' from the Temple (Ezekiel 8-11) Nadav Na'aman The Story of the Exodus between Historical Memory and Historiographical Composition Gideon Bohak A New Genizah Fragment of the Aramaic Levi Document Binyamin Katzoff Blessings over Mitzvot in Eretz Israel and in Babylonia: Further to David Rosenthal, 'Tefillin Blessing in Eretz Israel and in Babylonia' Yacov Fuchs MS Mantova 30 Itamar Kislev 'Exegesis in Perpetual Motion': The Short Commentary of Ibn Ezra as a Source for Rashbam in his Commentary on the Pentateuch Aviram Ravitsky The Doctrine of the Mean and Asceticism: On the Uniformity of Maimonides' Ethics Moshe Idel Sefer Yetzirah: Twelve Commentaries on Sefer Yetzirah and the Extant Remnants of R. Isaac of Bedresh's Commentary Maoz Kahana How did the Hatam-Sofer Seek to Trump Spinoza? Text, Hermeneutics, and Romanticism in the Writings of R. Moses Sofer

This book analyzes the influence that Aristotelian logic had on the understanding of methods of halakhic inference. “Methods of halakhic inference” refer to methods of Talmudic inference and argumentation, mainly the thirteen exegetical principles of the Torah, enumerated at the beginning of the Sifra. The thirteen exegetical principles are the most famous methods of halakhic inference. They are considered basic and fundamental rules by which the oral halakhic tradition is related to the Scriptures. No wonder, therefore, that there are dozens of commentaries to this set of rules. The study presented in this book focuses on the logical trend of commentaries on the Thirteen Principles. In these commentaries Aristotelian logic was applied, in a variety of ways. This special way of combining philosophy and halakha has significance not only for the history of the development of Talmudic methodology, but also for the understanding of the ongoing interaction between particular Jewish ideas and tradition on the one hand, and the external “universal” culture and literature on the other. Analysis of the logical commentaries on the Thirteen Principles can demonstrate how the original Greek doctrines were transmitted, mainly through Arabic philosophy, but sometimes also through Christian-scholastic philosophy, to the medieval Jewish sages, and how these Jewish sages applied those doctrines to develop a more sophisticated Talmudic methodology.