Words, especially in the Torah, can have multiple meanings – sometimes even contradictory. How do we manage them? 

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What is the role of the legal system now that we do not have semicha? Is it just to settle disputes or is it also to deter malice?

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We would have created a legal system even without the Torah’s instructions. The system in the Torah is much more than a bureaucratic legal system. It is a channel of Hashem’s presence into our communities. It judges rather than punishes.
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There are two different disciplines in the study of Talmud: Critical thinking and halachik decision-making.
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Can you look at women?

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Anger one of the worst character traits we are advised to avoid entirely, it has no place in our lives. Yet in our Gemara we find chazal legislating to protect people from their own impulsiveness in moments of anger. Why would we accommodate people’s weakness of character with legislation?
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Intellectual sophistication can contaminate innocence. There is a small window of opportunity to implant innocence into the intellectual process.
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A degree of financial maturity that comes from work, is needed to value long term investment over short term cash-flow.
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We interpret a person’s intentions from the words he chooses not from what he tells us he meant. (Similar to the way we interpret a work of art or literature.) However, context is a valid way to interpret words. 
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We tend to value only tangible economic inputs such as capital, labor, efficiency and synergy which create economies of scale. However, birckat Hashem (Hashem’s blessing), which although not always tangible or measurable, is a visible input of prosperity.
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