Two attitudes towards the Talmudhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

A Hannukah party is waiting to be organized so telegraphically - there are two basic attitudes towards the Talmud. Legal code or multivalent discussion. Summarized admirably in the following two quotes in the NYTimes:

Rabbi Benjamin Blech, professor of Talmud at Yeshiva University, said the rabbis believed that study should not be made too easy. “We want people to struggle with the text because by figuring it out you will have a deeper comprehension,” he said. “They wanted a living index, not a printed index.”

Nothing satisfied Mr. Retter’s needs. As he said: “I’m a lawyer, and if I want to know the law, I look it up in an index.”