Biblical Hermeneutics
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PRINCIPLES OF BIBLICAL HERMENETICS ; M. M. NINAN<br />
• the interpretation of the letters in a word according to their numerical value (see Gematria)<br />
• the interpretation of a word by dividing it into two or more words (see Notarikon)<br />
• the interpretation of a word according to its consonantal form or according to its<br />
vocalization<br />
• the interpretation of a word by transposing its letters or by changing its vowels<br />
• the logical deduction of a halakhah from a Scriptural text or from another law<br />
Classes of rules<br />
Compilations of such hermeneutic rules were made in the earliest times.<br />
The Tannaim תנאים "repeaters", "teachers" were the Rabbinic sages whose views are recorded in the Mishnah,<br />
from approximately 10-220 CE. The period of the Tannaim, also referred to as the Mishnaic period, lasted about 210<br />
years.<br />
The root of the word tanna (תנא) is the Talmudic Aramaic equivalent for the Hebrew shanah ,(שנה) which also is the<br />
root-word of Mishnah. The verb shanah (שנה) literally means "to repeat what one was taught" and is used to mean<br />
"to learn".<br />
The Tannaim lived in several areas of the Land of Israel. The spiritual center of Judaism at that time was Jerusalem,<br />
but after the destruction of the city and the Second Temple, Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai and his students founded a<br />
new religious center in Yavne. Other places of Judaic learning were founded by his students in Lod and in Bnei Brak.<br />
Some Tannaim worked as laborers (e.g., charcoal burners, cobblers) in addition to their positions as teachers and<br />
legislators. They were also leaders of the people and negotiators with the Roman Empire.<br />
The name "tanna" is derived from the Aramaic "teni" or "tena" (="to teach"), and designates in general a teacher of<br />
the oral law, and in particular one of the sages of the Mishnah, those teachers of the oral law whose teachings are<br />
contained in the Mishnah and in the Baraita. The term was first used in the Gemara to indicate a teacher mentioned<br />
in the Mishnah or in a baraita, in contradistinction to the later authorities, the Amoraim. Not all the teachers of the<br />
oral law who are mentioned in the Mishnah are called tannaim, however, but only those belonging to the period<br />
beginning with the disciples of Shammai and Hillel and ending with the contemporaries of Judah ha-Nasi I. The<br />
authorities preceding that period are called "zeḳenim ha-rishonim" (the former elders). In the time of the Amoraim<br />
the name "tanna" was given also to one well versed in the Mishnah and the other tannaitic traditions.<br />
The period of the Tannaim, which lasted about 210 years (10-220 C.E.), is generally divided by Jewish scholars into<br />
five or six sections or generations, the purpose of such division being to show which teachers developed their<br />
principal activity contemporaneously. Some of the tannaim, however, were active in more than one generation. The<br />
following is an enumeration of the six generations and of the more prominent tannaim respectively belonging to<br />
them:<br />
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