Akivean Midrash Halakha: Noticing Life`s Complexities via Biblical Laws

If we read both Biblical laws as legal examples of an ANE culture rather than as definitions of the law and Tannaim as sages of the end of that ANE culture who, in turn, read Biblical Hebrew and Biblical laws accurately – we undergo a paradigm shift. We discover that seeming legal innovations are merely adaptations of Biblical laws to changed conditions. We discover that seeming deductions of new laws from distorted atomistic or even vacuous readings of Biblical words or letters are actually reflections on the real life implications of the lessons learned from accurately read legal examples. In short, they taught students: “Learn to say" rather than deduce.

This paper illustrates how late Second Temple and Akivean sages sought to wisely address changed conditions by applying all of a given Biblical law’s competing considerations appropriately to changed conditions. Rather than apply a law poorly by ignoring some of the considerations underlying it, as people do when they simplistically treat laws as definitive wordings that must be obeyed or overcome, they sought to apply all of a law’s considerations well; they accepted the responsibility of addressing life well by humbly internalizing the insights of Biblical laws. It illustrates how they internalized the few Biblical legal examples deeply enough to address issues not covered by any Biblical laws – in line with Ben Sira’s description of limited Biblical Law as brimming like the Pishon with wisdom, overflowing like the Euphrates with understanding, and flooding like the Nile with instruction.