Biblical Hermeneutics

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