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Halakhah ::the Rabbinic idea of law /
No full text"Though typically translated as 'Jewish law,' the term halakhah is not an easy match for what is usually thought of as law. This is because the rabbinic legal system has rarely wielded the political power to enforce its many detailed rules, nor has it ever been the law of any state. Even more idiosyncratically, the talmudic rabbis claim that the study of halakhah is a holy endeavor that brings a person closer to God (a claim no country makes of its law). In this panoramic book, Chaim Saiman traces how generations of rabbis have used concepts forged in talmudic disputation to do the work that other societies assign not only to philosophy, political theory, theology, and ethics but also to art, drama, and literature. In the multifaceted world of halakhah where everything is law, law is also everything, and even laws that serve no practical purpose can, when properly studied, provide surprising insights into timeless questions about the very nature of human existence. What does it mean for legal analysis to connect humans to God? Can spiritual teachings remain meaningful and at the same time rigidly codified? Can a modern state be governed by such law? Guiding readers across two millennia of richly illuminating perspectives, this book shows how halakhah is not just 'law' but an entire way of thinking, being, and knowing"--Provided by publisher
Turn It, Turn It, for All is In It : Reflections on Chaim Saiman\u27s \u3cem\u3eHalakhah: The Rabbinic Idea of Law\u3c/em\u3e
No full textAfter reading Professor Chaim Saiman’s book, Halakhah: The Rabbinic Idea of Law, I have a desire to learn more about halakhah. I have a sense of the questions I want to ask, and the issues I want to pursue, given my own commitments and training, which are both similar to and yet very different from his. Like Professor Saiman, I am a secular lawyer. I am also a Christian theological ethicist. As I worked through the book, I came to see that halakhah has significant overlap not only with canon law, which aims to regulate behavior in the community of the Catholic Church, but also with moral theology, which asks basic questions about human action, character, and community, and even with systematic theology, which asks fundamental questions about the nature of humanity’s relationship with God. As Professor Saiman’s book makes manifest, the study of Torah is the study of the entire world. Consequently, bringing his book into conversation with Christian thought—my task in these brief comments—is a considerable challenge.
Because Professor Saiman is such a good teacher, I began to ponder how I would construct a co-taught graduate seminar in “Comparative Theology and Law,” bringing Christian and Jewish sources into conversation, and structured around the issues raised by Professor Saiman’s book. In these remarks, I will point to three questions I would like the opportunity to pursue more fully in such a seminar
Is the requirement of dishonesty always the best policy to estabish liability against those who assist in a breach of trust?
No full textThis dissertation considers the history of the equitable liability for assisting in a breach of trust and the current requirement that the intermeddling stranger must be dishonest. The position in equity is compared with the position in the criminal law and the common law and the dissertation will consider if ‘dishonesty’ is a state of mind or conduct and if it is appropriate to require the intermeddling stranger to be dishonest. The aim is to establish if liability in equity should be founded on the dishonesty or knowledge of an intermeddling stranger and to consider if the appropriate test is currently being applied
Chaim Bloch Collection 1916-1969
No full textCorrespondence, including letters from Leo Baeck, Salo Baron, Julie Braun-Vogelstein, Martin Buber, Werner Cahnmann, Max Dienemann, Ismar Elbogen, Erich Fromm, Hermann Fürnberg, Nahum Glatzer, Nahum Goldmann, Max Gruenewald, Max Grunwald, Siegfried Guggenheim, Ernest Jones, Hermann Kesten, Guido Kisch, Adolf Kober, Franz Kobler, Joachim Prinz, Lessing Rosenwald, Ingrid Warburg, Alma Mahler-Werfel, and Franz Werfel.Clippings and manuscripts on Judaism, Hasidism, Zionism, Nazi Germany, and on Bloch's life and work.Born in Nagybocskó, Austria-Hungary (now in the Ukraine) on June 27, 1881, Chaim Bloch was ordained as a rabbi and emigrated to Vienna in 1915. He served as a chaplain in the Austro-Hungarian army during World War I, and afterwards worked as an author in Vienna. Most prominently, he wrote a book about the Golem of Prague. In 1939, Bloch emigrated to Great Britain and then moved on to the United States, where he continued his literary work. Chaim Bloch died in New York City on January 23, 1973.digitize
Author, Playwright and Rabbi Chaim Potok to Speak at UD\u27s Distinguished Speaker Series
No full textNews release announces that Chaim Potok will speak on Authority and Rebellion: The Writer and the Community, at UD
'A narrative community : the voices of Israeli backpackers', by Chaim Noy : [book review]
No full textBook review of: 'A Narrative Community - The Voices of Israeli Backpackers ' by Chaim Noy. Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Michigan, USA 48201 2007, xii + 238 pp (appendices, references, subject index, author index) $29.95 Hbk. ISBN 978-0-8143-3176-
Jesus’ Legal Theory—A Rabbinic Interpretation
No full textThis article locates the ancient debates between Jesus and the Talmudic rabbis within the discourse of contemporary legal theory. By engaging in a comparative reading of both Gospel and rabbinic texts, I show how Jesus and his rabbinic interlocutors sparred over questions we now conceptualize as the central concerns of jurisprudence. Whereas the rabbis approach theological, ethical and moral issues through an analytical, lawyerly interpretation of a dense network of legal rules, Jesus openly questions whether law is the appropriate medium to structure social relationships and resolve interpersonal conflicts. Through an examination of Talmudic sources, this paper argues the controversies between early Christianity and the nascent rabbinic Judaism (summarized by Paul in terms of Letter vs. Spirit) have the same argumentative architecture as the ongoing debates over law vs. equity, procedural vs. substantive justice, rules vs. standards, formalism vs. instrumentalism, and textualsim vs. contextualism. Moreover, the contrast between the Gospels and the emerging rabbinic discourse brings Jesus’ bold claims about the role, rule and domain of the law to the fore. Thus while the mainstream representation of Christian legal theory tends towards rules, procedural justice, formalism and textualism, this analysis of primary sources shows that Jesus argued for exactly the opposite
The Law Wants to be Formal
No full textThis Article examines the relationship between the formalism of an area of law, and whether it plays a central role in the legal system. English and American law were traditionally comprised of formalist private law doctrines. The influence of legal realism and the New Deal, however, caused these systems to diverge. While American private law was recast in realist terms, it also became less significant to the overall legal system. In its place, procedure and statutory interpretation emerged, and in turn became more formalized. Realism was never as influential in England where private law remains more formal and at the center of legal analysis. Procedural and interpretation doctrines, by contrast, are less prevalent and less formalized.
These trends are related. Law is attracted to formalism because a confined account of judging provides the necessary contrast between constrained judicial decisionmaking and unfettered political policymaking. When private law is formalized, it can sustain the distinction between law and politics. But when private law is seen as too pliable, pressure mounts to recast the law in a more formalist mode. Realism did not eliminate formalism from American law but caused it to migrate from the receding private law to the ascendant interpretation and procedure doctrines
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