Rabbinic hermeneutics in ancient Judaism reflects this multifaceted world of the text and of
reality seen as a world of reference worth commentary. As a mirror it includes this world but
perhaps also falsifies reality adapting it to one's own aims and necessities. It consists of
four parts:Part I considered as introduction is the description of the Rabbinic Workshop
(Officina Rabbinica) the rabbinic world where the student plays a role and a reformation of a
reformation always takes place the world where the mirror was created and manufactured. Part
II deals with the historical environment the world of reference of rabbinic Judaism in
Palestine and in the Hellenistic Diaspora (Reflecting Roman Religion) Part III focuses on
magic and the sciences as ancient (political and empirical) activities of influence in the
double meaning of receiving and adopting something and of attempt to produce an effect on
persons and objects (Performing the Craft of Sciences and Magic). Part IV addresses the
rabbinic concern with texts (Reflecting on Languages and Texts) as the main area of influence
of the rabbinic academy in a space between the texts of the past and the real world of the
present.
