The Derashah as the Basis for the Halakhah and the Problem of the Sofrim*

The dual form in which the tannaitic Torah was transmitted, that of midrash halakhah and that of the Mishnah, Tosefta and baraitot, raises a host of challenges that have occupied talmudic research since its inception, from the days of R. Nahman Krochmal and R. Zechariah Frankel to the present day. The history of research reflects not a little the battle of beliefs and opinions in Israel since the Enlightenment. It appears that there are two questions which scholars – according to the particular approach they adopt – view as interconnected. The first is whether exegesis of Scripture served as a source for halakhah. The second is whether learning proceeded by connecting laws to scriptural verses, or whether laws were learned in an abstract manner.