The Open Past: Subjectivity and Remembering in the Talmud

6. Sense in the Making: Hermeneutical Practices of the Babylonian Talmud

Focusing on the characters in the Talmud, the chapter applies renegotiates modern theories of sense and truth to describe the protocols of making the sense. If this process is no longer attributed to a named person, and in particular to an anonymous one, how the characters in the Talmud participate in the process of making sense of the texts of the past? Through an example of a Talmudic discussion, the chapter formulates the criterion of pertinense, highlights the importance of refutation as both a instrument both production of sense and a vehicle of remembering it. As a result, the chapter identifies a theory of truth in memory as distinct from the truth in representation.