Contents -- Manuscripts and Early Editions -- Abbreviations -- Transliteration System -- Introduction -- Reductive Historical Analysis of Rabbinic Texts -- The External or Historical Approach to Legal Difference Between the Talmuds -- Critique of the Historical Analysis of Rabbinic Texts -- On the Susceptibility of Rabbinic Texts to Historical Analysis -- Source Criticism of Talmudic Texts: Making the Case -- Failure to Consider Internal Causes of Difference: The Intersection of Hermeneutics and History -- On the Lack of External Verification -- The Present Study -- Method -- I: INTERNAL CAUSES OF HALAKHIC DIFFERENCE (l): TEXTUAL ISSUES -- 1 Textual Causes -- Halakhic Difference Due to Divergent Versions of a Mishnah as a Result of Revision -- Halakhic Difference Due to Divergent Versions of a Mishnah as a Result of Amoraic Emendation/Conflation or Misconstrual -- II: INTERNAL CAUSES OF HALAKHIC DIFFERENCE (ll): HERMENEUTICAL CAUSES -- 2 Halakhic Difference as a Result of Ambiguity in the Mishnah -- Gapped Texts: m. AZ 4:5 and m. AZ 3:8 -- Halakhic Difference as a Result of Gaps in Rationale for Mishnaic Teachings -- Semantic and Syntactic Ambiguity in m. AZ 1:7 and m. AZ 1:3 -- 3 Hermeneutical Theory: Halakhic Difference as a Result of Hermeneutical Presuppositions -- Hermeneutical Presuppositions -- The Principle of Verbal Economy, or "Is the learning of gemara then to be like singing a song?" -- Formal Halakhic Difference -- Substantive Halakhic Difference -- 4 Hermeneutical Practice: Halakhic Difference as a Result of Dialectical Strategies of Interpretation and Redaction -- Texts Explicate Texts: The Dialectical Juxtaposition of Traditions -- Dialectical Treatment of Mishnayot on the Basis of Logic -- Puzzles and Conundrums -- III: EXTERNAL CAUSES OF HALAKHIC DIFFERENCE: HALAKHAH AND HISTORY.

5 The Reduction of the Prohibition of m. AZ 1:1 in the Diaspora -- The Sources -- Accounting for the Difference -- 6 The Israelite Midwife -- The Sources -- Intratextual Verification -- 7 The Private Feasts of a Gentile -- Economic Interaction on Private Feast Days: The Sources -- Social Interaction on Private Feast Days: The Sources -- 8 The Sale of Weapons -- The Sources -- Accounting for Halakhic Development -- Conclusion -- Appendix: Response to Jacob Neusner -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index of Citations -- General Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z.