Correspondence

CORRESPONDENCE Reply to Richard Kalmin's correspondence in Hebrew Studies 33 (1992). In Professor Kalmin's description of my views, I cannot find any position imputed to me with which I in fact concur. 1. He states, "My research ... builds on the theories of modern Talmudic scholars (Hyman Klein, Avraham Weiss, David Halivni, Shamma Friedman, and others). I offer no apology for accepting this scholarship, just as Neusner offers no apology for ignoring it." I have not ignored the work of any of those named but have devoted long seminar studies, an entire issue of an journal, and a whole book, to Avraham Weiss, Shamma Friedman, and David Halivni, respectively. I call to Professor Kalmin's attention the seminar essays on Avraham Weiss in The Formation of the Babylonian Talmud. Studies on the Achievements of Late Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Historical and Literary-Critical Research. Leiden, 1970: Brill; and The Modern Study of the Mishnah. Leiden, 1973: Brill; the seminar essays on Shamma Friedman in Law as Literature, which I edited in a special issue of Semeia; and my own numerous essays on Halivni in those same books, most recently a whole book Sources and Traditions. Types of Composition in the Talmud ofBabylonia. Atlanta, 1992: scholars Press for South Florida Studies in the History of Judaism. I do not ignore the views of people working on the same problems; I read them, reflect on them, respond to them, carefully criticize the work of those with whom I differ, stating my reasons for differing. 2. He says, "Discovery of these distinct patterns contradicts Neusner's claim that the Talmud speaks with one voice, and supports the view of most scholars that the Talmud is comprised of diverse sources." But while I do indeed maintain the Bavli speaks with one voice,-that is to say, I do see the Bavli as a cogent, coherent document, possessed of integrity and following rules of logic and form beginning to end-I have devoted several monographs to the proposition that the Talmud is comprised of diverse sources, which we can identify on the strength of objective, indicative characteristics. I point to the following monographs for extensive discussions of the various compositions and composites ("sources") of which the Bavli is comprised: The Bavli and its Sources: The Question of Tradition in the Case ofTractate Sukkah. Atlanta, 1987: Scholars Press for Brown Judaic Studies; Making the Classics in Judaism: The Three Stages of Hebrew Studies 34 (1993) 242 Correspondence Literary Formation. Atlanta, 1990: Scholars Press for Brown Judaic Studies; Tradition as Selectivity: Scripture, Mishnah, ToseJta, and Midrash in the Talmud ojBabylonia. The Case oJ Tractate Arakhin. Atlanta, 1990: Scholars Press for South Florida Studies in the History of Judaism; Language as Taxonomy, The Rules Jor Using Hebrew and Aramaic in the Babylonian Talmud. Atlanta, 1990: Scholars Press for South Florida Studies in the History of Judaism; Rules oj Composition oj the Talmud oj Babylonia. The Cogency oJ the Bav/i's Composite. Atlanta, 1991: Scholars Press for South Florida Studies in the History of Judaism; The BavJi's Massive Miscellanies. The Problem oj Agglutinative Discourse in the Talmud oj Babylonia. Atlanta, 1992: Scholars Press for South Florida Studies in the History of Judaism; The Bav/i's Primary Discourse. Mishnah Commentary, its Rhetorical Paradigms and their Theological Implications in the Talmud of Babylonia Tractate Moed Qatan. Atlanta, 1992: Scholars Press for South Florida Studies in the History of Judaism; The BavU's Intellectual Character. The Generative Problematic in Bavli Baba Qamma Chapter One and the Bavli Shabbat Chapter One. Atlanta, 1992: Scholars Press for South Florida Studies in the History of Judaism; Decoding the Talmud's Exegetical Program: From Detail to Principle in the Bavli's Quest Jor Generalization. Tractate Shabbat. Atlanta, 1992: Scholars Press for South Florida Studies in the History of Judaism. In The Principal Parts oj the Bavli's Discourse: A Final Taxonomy. Mishnah-Commentary, Sources, Traditions, and Agglutinative Miscellanies. Atlanta, 1992: Scholars Press for South Florida Studies in the History of Judaism, I summed up some of the main results of the work of form-analysis that I have completed Assuming that reading all these books would be too much trouble for some...