and the history of Israel. Our sages did not argue about generalizations, like philosophers. Nor did they merely record things that happened, like historians. They looked for the laws of history, the generalizations emerging from the particulars of the past, much the way social scientists look for the general in the particular. So the mere statement of their proposition, which we saw earlier, demands much more specific proof. That is what we now find. II:III.1.A. [“And the earth was unformed …” (Gen.