What is Totafos?

In short, it's an attempt to share my thought process as I work through some of the Talmudic areas that interest me most.

In particular, I find it fascinating to examine core abstractions - meaning, the fundamental concepts that undergird much of the "scientific method" of the Talmud.

You will note the quotes around "scientific method".

These quotes are not to cast aspirations on this categorization; rather it is because the term is not commonly applied to Talmudic analysis.

However, I believe that it absolutely should be.

Not in the way we refer to empirical observation and experimentation, but closer to the field of pure mathematics, where great minds fiercely dedicated to the rigorous pursuit of truth analyze complex data using fundamental principles to deduce new information.

Which, if your starting point is that you were given a legal document from God, makes a lot of sense.

How could you not pour over every phrase, every letter, run your finger along the fine edge of information to pick up the slightest whorl or discrepancy, to drill down deeper and deeper, leveraging and deducing principle after principle in your quest to understand the Grand Unified Theory of it all?

This, then, is my goal.

To use plain language to work our way through fundamental principles of the Talmud.

To start from first principles, from the root deduction of the concept from the Biblical verses, and work our way down to the latest commentaries of the most recent commentators.

If you'd like to join me, you can start with the list of topics here.