Pilpul
Pilpul is a method of studying the Talmud through intense textual analysis in attempts to either explain conceptual differences between various halakhic rulings or to reconcile any apparent contradictions presented from various readings of different texts. The word pilpul has entered English as a colloquialism used by some to indicate extreme disputation or casuistic hairsplitting.
Narrow definition
In the narrower sense, pilpul refers to a method of conceptual extrapolation from texts in efforts to reconcile various texts or to explain fundamental differences of approach between various earlier authorities, which became popular in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries: its founders are generally considered to be Jacob Pollak and Shalom Shachna. Pilpul was defined by Heinrich Graetz as "the astonishing facility of ingenious disquisition on the basis of the Talmud."Opposition
Many leading rabbinic authorities have harshly criticized this method as being unreliable and a waste of time, and it is regarded by some as having been discredited by the time of the Vilna Gaon. A common criticism is that those who used this method were often motivated by the prospect of impressing others with the sophistication of their analysis, rather than by a disinterested pursuit of truth; such students, it was held, did not apply appropriate standards of proof in obtaining their conclusions, and frequently presupposed conclusions that necessitated unlikely readings of "proof-texts". As such, pilpul has been derogatorily called bilbul, Hebrew for "confusion".Judah Loew ben Bezalel, in a famous polemic against pilpul, wrote:
The Rebbe Sholom Dovber Schneersohn, quoting Maharal, allows for "genuine pilpul" while dismissing "false pilpul":
An approach contrasting to pilpul, often referred to as "", emphasizes application over abstraction.