Shev Shema'tata (), most commonly pronounced Shev Shmaytsa or Shev Shmaisa, is a work on Talmudic logic and methodology by R. Aryeh Leib HaCohen Heller. The name of the book is Aramaic, and means "seven passages". It consists of seven sections, each with approximately 25 chapters, which explains intricate halakhic topics including the validity of a single witness and the practical ramifications of a doubt. The reasoning process that Heller employs to analyse and resolve these very basic conflicts and contradictions in the Talmud is considered the basis for the analytical method used in modern times in Talmudic study. Although an early form of this work was initially presented by R. Heller when he was still a young man during his seven days of celebration after his wedding, it was actually one of his later publications and underwent significant editing by the author. Contents Introduction R. Heller's introduction to this celebrated work explains his outlook on Judaism, and includes complex and profound biblical exegesis. His basic stance is a blend of Kabbalah and Italian Neoplatonism, somewhat similar to that found in Isaiah Horowitz's Shene Luchot ha-Berit and the works of Moshe Chaim Luzzatto. The starting point is a doctrine of the Fall, according to which the effect of Adam's sin was a confusion between soul and body, causing the soul to become dependent on the gratification of the body's desires. The correct relationship is one in which the body is simply an instrument for the soul, and the purpose of religious endeavour is to restore this position. Through analysis of a series of Biblical incidents, he illustrates his contention that there would be no value in an understanding and observance of Torah that was ready-made and which one had no choice but to follow. Rather, just as practical halachah is a code which one strives to follow using one's free will, so the intellectual content of Torah is presented in a cryptic and open-ended form the value of which depends on one's struggle to understand it. Talmudic analysis is accordingly the highest form of religious endeavour, and the purpose of the book is to furnish the tools for this activity. The Shema'tata The overall subject of the book is the way in which Jewish law addresses doubts, either as to the facts or as to the applicable law. The Talmud provides a series of presumptions, in favour of strictness or