24 February 2011

The remedy for pilpul

If music is a more primal form of communication than speech, then the structure of the Bible might be a more primal medium for conveying the sense of the teachings. 
The narrative structure and the chiastic structure, the 'oral' structure of the text might well carry a whole layer of meaning that a linear analysis of the text would not convey. Certainly the super-analysis of the text the Talmud employs serves entirely to destroy the music of the teachings. 
When we once again become a musical people bound together in common appreciation of musical rhythms and tones we will also be able to appreciate the music of the teachings. That is the remedy for too much Talmudic pilpul
In paradise people sit together and sing and play musical instruments. Much of the musical ingredients of language was lost when we went to the written word. Some tone and rhythm could still be retained but for the most part the written word lacks the depth of the spoken word. 

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