Revision as of 13:24, 3 March 2008

Fundamental Documents

• Fundamental Documents defining Jewish Law
• Fundamental Documents defining the Sanhedrin

Current Leadership in Jewish Law

• Current Halakhic Leadership

Jurisprudence

• The Oral Law and its relation to the Written Law
• Traditional Laws without any exegetical basis in the Torah
• The Categories of Oral Law
• Authority for rulings based on logical inferences
• Enactments deduced from post-Mosaic Books
• Takkanoth (Enactments) and Gezeroth (Decrees)
• Gezeroth in chronological order
• Enactments promulgated by post-Biblical authorities
• Enactments handed down from anonymous authorities
• The Takkanoth in chronological order
• Enactments promulgated by the Nesiyyim (Princes) and the Sanhedrin (Supreme Court)
• Rabbinic Enactments unanimously adopted
• Enactments the binding force of which was later relaxed
• A Summary of the various categories of the Oral Law
• Rulings established by the usage of the People
• Miscellaneous rabbinical Ordinances
• The Aggadah — a general outline of its main aspects
• Aggadoth received by tradition
• The thirty-two Middoth (Rules) employed by the Aggadah
• The Praise of the Righteous and the Condemnation of the Wicked in the Aggadah
• The Quoting of various persons under one and the same name
• The Method of expounding the names of persons
• Support in history for 'Tradition' handed down by the Great Assembly
• Divine Providence in the Aggadah
• Alterations in textual reading as a specific device in homiletic expositions
• Aggadoth aimed at inspiring and stirring the curiousity of the People
• Aggadoth expressing profound ideas in figurative style
• Aggadoth relating the performance of mriacles
• The Parables of the Aggadah — illustrations pointing a moral
• The Aggadic use of hyperbole and the employment of numbers figuratively; also Biblical quotations in the Aggadah which are at variance with the Massoretic text
• Demons, witchcraft, incantations, dreams, and planetary influences, medical prescriptions, and curative methods in the Aggadah
• The contradictory views regarding the Aggadah and its place in talmudic teaching
• Dates of completion of the Mishnah and Talmud

History

• Secular and religious history of the Jewish Sanhedrin
• The Title Nasi in Jewish Tradition
• The Sanhedrin in Rabbinic & Greek Sources
• The Titles Ab Bet Din, Hakam and Mufla
• The Removals of the Sanhedrin from Jabneh to Usha
• The Offices of the Nasi; Jesus, Paul, and the Sanhedrin
• On the Reliability of Rabbinic Sources
• Capital Cases Outside Jerusalem.

Archeology

• Newly discovered ruins of the Sanhedrin at Tiberias (Spring 2005)
• Archaeological program to explore all ten locations of the Sanhedrin

References