Open Canon

Avi Sagi is Professor of Philosophy, and Founder and Director of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Hermeneutics and Cultural Studies, at Bar-Ilan University, Israel. He is Senior Research Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, Israel. He has written and edited numerous books and articles in Jewish and general philosophy, among them Religion and Morality (with Daniel Statman, New York: 1995) and the recently released Judaism: Between Religion and Morality (Tel Aviv: 1998) and Albert Camus and the Philosophy of the Absurd (New York: 2002).

"Avi Sagi is one of the most brilliant scholars of our day.  This book demonstrates that he possesses a prodigious command of the vast corpus of rabbinical literature as it has developed over the centuries and his knowledge of secular philosophical literature is equally erudite.  In THE OPEN CANON, Sagi draws upon these two areas of expertise to provide a description and analysis of the nature of halakhic discourse that is at once sophisticated and illuminating.  He allows the sources to speak for themselves, even as he provides philosophical contexts and considerations that shed light on those sources.  This book is an unparalleled feast for knowledgeable laypeople and scholars who are interested in grasping the dynamic and manifold nature of Jewish law and its many approaches to the questions of authority." - David Ellenson, President, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion

• IntroductionPart 1: The Monistic Outlook1. Halakhah Follows Beth Hillel: The Rejected Option in Monism2. Monism: The 'Valid Decision' Concept3. Monism: Dispute and The Concept Of RevelationPart 2: The Pluralistic Outlook4. Revelation and Halakhic Pluralism5. The Limits of Halakhic Pluralism and the Nature of  Halakhic Inference6. Halakhah Follows Beth Hillel: The Pluralistic VersionPart 3: The Harmonic Outlook7. The Union of Opposites8. 'Reality Knows No Opposites'Part 4: These And These Are the Words of the Living God - Halakhic Values9. The Religious Value of the Quest for Truth10. 'Torah Shall Go Forth Today...that Had Not Gone Forth Yesterday': The Value of Innovation Part 5: On Dispute And Authority11. Dispute in Halakhic Culture:  Historical Phenomenon  or Constitutive Element 12. On Authority and the Duty of Obedience Index