Pilpul

''Pilpul'' ( he, פלפול, loosely meaning 'sharp analysis'; ) is a method of studying the Talmud through intense textual analysis in attempts to either explain conceptual differences between various halakhic rulings or to reconcile any apparent contradictions presented from various readings of different texts. The word ''pilpul'' has entered English as a colloquialism used by some to indicate extreme disputation or casuistic hairsplitting.

Sources

The requirement for close derivation of the conceptual structures underlying various Jewish laws, as a regular part of one's Torah study, is described by Maimonides as follows:

Other such sources include ''Pirkei Avot'', the Babylonian Talmud, Rashi, and Shneur Zalman of Liadi.

Narrow definition

In the narrower sense, ''pilpul'' refers to a method of conceptual extrapolation from texts in efforts to reconcile various texts or to explain fundamental differences of approach between various earlier authorities, which became popular in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries: its founders are generally considered to be Jacob Pollak and Shalom Shachna. ''Pilpul'' was defined by Heinrich Graetz as "the astonishing facility of ingenious disquisition on the basis of the Talmud."

Opposition

Many leading rabbinic authorities have harshly criticized this method as being unreliable and a waste of time, and it is regarded by some as having been discredited by the time of the Vilna Gaon. A common criticism is that those who used this method were often motivated by the prospect of impressing others with the sophistication of their analysis, rather than by a disinterested pursuit of truth; such students, it was held, did not apply appropriate standards of proof in obtaining their conclusions (if any), and frequently presupposed conclusions that necessitated unlikely readings (interpretations) of "proof-texts". As such, ''pilpul'' has been derogatorily called ''bilbul'', Hebrew for "confusion".Baruch Erlich
HaPilpul - Yesod Limud HaTorah SheBeAl-Peh VeHishtalshuto Bemeshech HaDorot
''Morashteinu'', 3:189 (1989)

Judah Loew ben Bezalel (the Maharal), in a famous polemic against ''pilpul'', wrote:

The Rebbe Sholom Dovber Schneersohn, quoting Maharal, allows for "genuine pilpul" while dismissing "false pilpul":

An approach contrasting to ''pilpul'', often referred to as "aliba dehilchasa", "analyzing the sugya re. the Halacha", emphasizes (legal) application over abstraction; see the Hebrew article.

Current methods

In the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, ''pilpul'' in this narrow sense was largely superseded by the analytic methods pioneered by the Lithuanian school, in particular the Brisker derech. However, many people consider these methods too to be a form of ''pilpul'', although the practitioners of the analytic method generally reject the term. Before World War II, both the old and the new kinds of ''pilpul'' were popular among Lithuanian and Polish Jews. Since then, they have become prominent in most Ashkenazi and many Chassidic yeshivas.

See also

* Aaron ben Meir of Brest
* Brisker method
* Eisegesis

References

{{reflist

External links

"Pilpul"
an article from the ''Jewish Encyclopedia''

Talmud concepts and terminology