Yerushalmi Sanhedrin

The amoraim reflect upon the inherent tension between the dual impulses of normativity and pluralism. Yerushalmi Sanhedrin 4:1–2, 22a notes in passing that those who can see all sides of a question and employ rhetorical tools to argue that black is white might not know how to issue a normative ruling. For the most part, the passage highlights multiple interpretations and opinions as crucial for the deliberative process. Indeed, in this passage, God asserts that an essential attribute of the Written Torah is its ability to support forty-nine interpretations for a given position and forty-nine interpretations for the opposite position.