Logic of the Talmud (Translated): Understanding Talmud Methodology

By Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato

Contains all the ways of understanding and reflection to make it easier to grasp the ways of the Talmud, and the foundations of controversy in an abridged form; written and arranged by the elevated sage and distinguished teacher, Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto O.B.M.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Aug 4, 2014
• ISBN: 9781483535623

Book preview

LOGIC OF THE TALMUD

(THE PATH TO UNDERSTANDING)

Contains all the ways of understanding and reflection to make it easier to grasp the ways of the Talmud, and the foundations of controversy in an abridged form; written and arranged by the elevated sage and distinguished teacher, Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto O.B.M.

First printed in Amsterdam (1742)

and translated into plain English

by Yochanan Lederman

Beit Shemesh (5773/2013)

© Jean A. Lederman, 2014

Dedicated

In Loving Memory of

Joe and Gloria Weinberg

Roslyn, New York

Contents

Acknowledgments

Translator’s Note

Preamble

An Introduction in Dichotomies

Author’s Introduction

Chapter 1 explains the whole of dialectics

Chapter 2 explains the parts of dialectics and its foundations

Chapter 3 explains the species of propositions

Chapter 4 explains the oppositions and relationships of propositions

Chapter 5 explains the inferences of propositions

Chapter 6 explains the truth and falseness of propositions

Chapter 7 explains the species of demonstrations

Chapter 8 explains veridical proofs, disproof and their contradictions; the laws of narration and its deficiencies

Chapter 9 explains the parts and rules of debates

Chapter 10 explains the method of reading debates and books

Chapter 11 explains all the topics that can be discerned in a subject and the method of study

Appendix: Three Basic Rules; Exemplary Analysis of the Talmudic Debate (Bava Metzia 21a); Exercises in the Mishne Torah of Maimonides.

Selective and Critical Bibliography

Acknowledgments

It is a pleasant duty for me to thank my friend and colleague, Rabbi Jeremy Fenster, for his relentless devotion to the Ramchal’s Educational Writings.

He has been a steady force behind this publication and the many learned discussions we had together have contributed to the final elaboration of the text presented here.

Likewise he has reviewed the final proofs and added many useful remarks.

May the great merit of our teacher Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto of blessed memory, be an everlasting credit to him and his family.

Translator’s Note

The technical terminology of the Logic of the Talmud is mostly conventional and I usually followed the Spanish glossary (transliterated in Hebrew characters) found at the end of the first edition, except for terms which became archaic (like ‘repugnant’ for ‘contrary’ and ‘adjunct’ for ‘attribute’).

There are also a few unconventional ones, like ‘final goal’ (sof gezera, in chapter 6), ‘direct form’ (tzura yeshara, in chapter 10) which are apparently new terms coined by Ramchal.

As the title page suggests, my translation is a plain one, meaning that I departed from conventional terminology in certain cases so that the common reader would not have to consult a dictionary:

– in chapter 3, I used ‘conditional’ instead of ‘hypothetical’ proposition;

– in chapter 6, ‘exaggerated’ instead of ‘hyperbolic’,

– in chapter 7, ‘analogy’ instead of ‘induction’,

– in chapter 9, ‘two-sided question’ instead of ‘aporia’, and ‘discordance’ instead of ‘antinomy’.

The leading principle was always to choose a term better known to most people.

Graphics

I transliterated in Hebrew and put in italics and in parenthesis all logical links and Talmudic terminology, so that the students of the Talmud may identify them.

I used brackets [ ] in the text:

(1) to number paragraphs or to divide into sections,

(2) to fill lacunas or add short explanations.

Furthermore, I have added headings to each chapter which are printed in italics in order to distinguish them from the main text.

Preamble

Padua

¹

Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (Ramchal) was born in Padua in 1707.² His father, Yaqov Chai, was a wealthy businessman, as we see from Ramchal’s elegy for his sister Laura Chana (1731) where he calls his father a wealthy man (gvir).³ His mother Diamante came also from the Luzzato family.⁴

Moshe Chaim was a precocious child who knew the Lurianic Cabala by heart at the age of fourteen.⁵ At that time he also wrote his first Cabala synthesis, Asara Pirqe Mishna (Ten Chapters of Mishna).⁶

Another elegy written by Ramchal at the age of sixteen, for the demise of Rabbi Itzhaq Cantarini (1644–1723) seems to indicate a close relationship with this erudite, author of mystical writings, poetry, homiletics and history.⁷ However, the most impressive influence on the young prodigy was that of Rabbi Yeshaya Bassan (?–1739) who relates in one of his letters that during his stay in Padua (in 1715–1722) he used to let young Moshe Chaim browse through his library.⁸ Ramchal was then around 13 or 15 years old.⁹ In another letter Bassan writes to him: I raised you like a father since your childhood and fed you like a mother… I shall remain your father for ever.¹⁰ Ramchal’s great humility towards this rabbi shows without a doubt that he was his main teacher (rav muvhaq).¹¹

In 1727, Ramchal published his first book of rhetoric, Leshon Limudim, where he displays his erudition, as the technical terms are indicated in Latin and Italian in the margin. One must recall that Italian Jews participated actively in the Renaissance in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and even after the Counter-Reformation the rabbis’ cultural level remained generally high.¹²

At that time (1727–1729) Ramchal began teaching and entered a mystical phase in which he wrote a Zohar Tinyana (Second Zohar) and Tiqunim Chadashim (New Reparations) in Aramaic.¹³ But this was a period when the disciples of the false Messiah, Sabbatai Tzvi, were criss-crossing Europe, and the rabbis were alarmed by the thought that a young man was composing Zohar like writings. In his letter of March 5–10, 1730, the Cabalist Joseph Ergas wrote to Rabbi Bassan about his pupil: He is an intelligent man who has a sharp mind in exoteric and esoteric studies, but he does not practice asceticism. I asked if he was married, if he carefully observed the Sabbath eve ritual bath, if he did not cut his beard, and the answer was negative on all counts.¹⁴

First Censorship Episode

Rabbi Moshe Chagiz (1671–1750), who acted as a heretic hunter, took young Luzzatto’s case in hand. After reading a letter from Yequtiel Gordon revealing that Ramchal, his mentor, was writing under the influence of a spirit (magid) and that he was clairvoyant, Chagiz alerted the rabbis of Venice: We must destroy this group as soon as possible… and denounce them as enemies of Israel.¹⁵ Following this conflict, on July 17, 1730, Ramchal accepted under oath not to write in Aramaic anymore; and whatever he wrote in the name of the Magid and holy souls (neshamot qedoshot) could be published only with his teacher’s permission.¹⁶ Furthermore, he pledged from then on to write solely in Hebrew and all his mystical writings were placed in a sealed chest.¹⁷ To appease everyone and show that the episode was closed, Ramchal received rabbinical ordination, and peace was restored to Padua.¹⁸ A few weeks later Ramchal wrote to his teacher that he had decided to leave for the Holy Land.¹⁹ This occurred in August 1730, so it was only after 13 years that he was able to realize his project.

Ramchal had friends as well as enemies. Rabbi David Finzi, president of the rabbinical court of Mantua, gave him his daughter Tzipora as a wife. They were married on August 13, 1731.

The period from 1730 to 1734 was productive. On the one hand, Ramchal taught Cabala in his own academy;²⁰ on the other, he wrote many commentaries that we know about only partially.²¹ Among the most notorious are Adir ba-Marom (on the Idra Rabba of the Zohar, 1731), 515 Tefilot (Cabalistic Prayers, 1733); and those where he offers a rational version of the Lurianic system: Qlach Pitchei Chokhma (138 Gates of Wisdom, 1734) and Daat Tevunot (originally Dialogue between Reason and the Soul, 1734) where he does not use any Cabalistic terminology.

Second Censorship Episode

In his letter of December 11, 1733, Ramchal reminded his teacher that he had sent him his manuscript Choqer u-Mequbal (the philosopher and the cabalist²²) to obtain his approval. He added that he needed it greatly for his brother, who was engaged in talks with the heads of the Amsterdam community, and that he could not refuse him, because it was a financial necessity.²³ Bassan answered that if he wanted to defend the Cabala against the attacks of Leon of Modena (1571–1648), this had already been done by other writers, and he questioned the advantage of this new writing.²⁴ He did not understand his motivation and added that if he was thinking of earning money from this book, only a few people would buy it.²⁵ Therefore, he advised him not to publish it. He added that he was worried and that if anything were to happen he would have performed his duty by warning him.²⁶ However, since the contents of the work did not breach the 1730 oath, he finally gave him his approval.²⁷

Researchers and biographers of Ramchal have encountered difficulty with this episode,²⁸ and I deem it necessary to explain it here as an aside. The Portuguese community of Amsterdam was essentially made up of Marranos (crypto-Jews). The Inquisition was still active in Portugal and most of these Jews were rather sceptical about rabbinical traditions. As evidence we can quote Rabbi Dan Nieto’s second Kuzari (Matei Dan Cheleq Sheni, 1714) which he wrote to convince his Portuguese congregation of London about the truth of oral traditions.

I suggest the following theory. Ramchal’s idea (which he did not tell his teacher) was to teach the Marranos of Amsterdam. The dialogue Choqer u-Mequbal played a central role in that scheme because it shows that he had mastered the concepts of philosophy and the language of reason systematically and logically.²⁹ Moreover, it shows that he understood the theological problems inherent in the Cabala in connection with Christianity and the polytheism of the