Law and Truth in Biblical and Rabbinic Literature PDF Download
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Author: Chaya T. Halberstam
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253003989
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 240
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Book Description
How can humans ever attain the knowledge required to administer and implement divine law and render perfect justice in this world? Contrary to the belief that religious law is infallible, Chaya T. Halberstam shows that early rabbinic jurisprudence is characterized by fundamental uncertainty. She argues that while the Hebrew Bible created a sense of confidence and transparency before the law, the rabbis complicated the paths to knowledge and undermined the stability of personal status and ownership, and notions of guilt or innocence. Examining the facts of legal judgments through midrashic discussions of the law and evidence, Halberstam discovers that rabbinic understandings of the law were riddled with doubt and challenged the possibility of true justice. This book thoroughly engages law, narrative, and theology to explicate rabbinic legal authority and its limits.
Author: Chaya T. Halberstam
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253003989
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 240
Get Book Here
Book Description
How can humans ever attain the knowledge required to administer and implement divine law and render perfect justice in this world? Contrary to the belief that religious law is infallible, Chaya T. Halberstam shows that early rabbinic jurisprudence is characterized by fundamental uncertainty. She argues that while the Hebrew Bible created a sense of confidence and transparency before the law, the rabbis complicated the paths to knowledge and undermined the stability of personal status and ownership, and notions of guilt or innocence. Examining the facts of legal judgments through midrashic discussions of the law and evidence, Halberstam discovers that rabbinic understandings of the law were riddled with doubt and challenged the possibility of true justice. This book thoroughly engages law, narrative, and theology to explicate rabbinic legal authority and its limits.
Author: Christine Hayes
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691176256
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 430
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Book Description
How ancient thinkers grappled with competing conceptions of divine law In the thousand years before the rise of Islam, two radically diverse conceptions of what it means to say that a law is divine confronted one another with a force that reverberates to the present. What's Divine about Divine Law? untangles the classical and biblical roots of the Western idea of divine law and shows how early adherents to biblical tradition—Hellenistic Jewish writers such as Philo, the community at Qumran, Paul, and the talmudic rabbis—struggled to make sense of this conflicting legacy. Christine Hayes shows that for the ancient Greeks, divine law was divine by virtue of its inherent qualities of intrinsic rationality, truth, universality, and immutability, while for the biblical authors, divine law was divine because it was grounded in revelation with no presumption of rationality, conformity to truth, universality, or immutability. Hayes describes the collision of these opposing conceptions in the Hellenistic period, and details competing attempts to resolve the resulting cognitive dissonance. She shows how Second Temple and Hellenistic Jewish writers, from the author of 1 Enoch to Philo of Alexandria, were engaged in a common project of bridging the gulf between classical and biblical notions of divine law, while Paul, in his letters to the early Christian church, sought to widen it. Hayes then delves into the literature of classical rabbinic Judaism to reveal how the talmudic rabbis took a third and scandalous path, insisting on a construction of divine law intentionally at odds with the Greco-Roman and Pauline conceptions that would come to dominate the Christianized West. A stunning achievement in intellectual history, What's Divine about Divine Law? sheds critical light on an ancient debate that would shape foundational Western thought, and that continues to inform contemporary views about the nature and purpose of law and the nature and authority of Scripture.
Author: Golan Brosh
Publisher: Independently Published
ISBN: 9781793227560
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 116
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Book Description
The intention of the authors is to present a vigorous critique of traditional-rabbinic Judaism. It should be clearly stated at the outset, however, that this critique is offered in the context of an intramural discussion between Jews who believe in Yeshua (Jesus) and those who do not yet follow Him. It should not be understood as an attack on the Jewish people, but rather as a dispute between different sects within Judaism, over the true interpretation of the Tanakh and the authority thereof. This paper's main objective will be to examine the validity of the following premise: for two millennia Judaism has been held hostage under the government and philosophy of one distinct sect, namely the Pharisees and their heirs--the rabbis. Since the destruction of the Second Temple, biblical Judaism had ceased to exist and the rabbinic traditions took over, with a completely reformed version of Judaism which centered on three main pillars: the rabbis themselves, the yeshiva (ישיבה) and the Halacha (הלכה). This work will also try to examine how this sect managed to enforce their traditions upon Israel and at what cost.In order to establish their authority over the Jewish people, the rabbis came up with the revolutionary idea according to which their philosophy, traditions and teachings (i.e., the Oral Law) were passed on through the generations, beginning with Moses and ultimately with God Himself. Henceforth, the focus of the rabbinic religion has been to study and meditate on the Oral Law (Oral Law). In fact, the Oral Law serves as the foundation upon which all the traditions of rabbinic Judaism stand. Without the rabbis' traditions, rabbinic Judaism losses all its validity and existence. In other words, if the divine origin of the Oral Law is nothing but a myth, then rabbinic Judaism has no leg to stand on. Other main objectives of this paper would be to historically examine how the sect of the Pharisees was able to attain such a stronghold over Judaism, to investigate whether the Oral Law's traditions are in fact rooted in the Bible and genuinely reflect God's will for men, and to examine the implications of the Oral Law on Judaism today, especially in regard to Israel's relationship to the New Testament and Yeshua. The first chapter of this paper will deal with the advent of the Pharisees and the circumstances which brought them into the position of authority.
Author: Aryeh Amihay
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190631015
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 257
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Book Description
This book offers a novel approach for the study of law in the Judean Desert Scrolls, using the prism of legal theory. Following a couple of decades of scholarly consensus withdrawing from the "Essene hypothesis," it proposes to revive the term, and suggests employing it for the sectarian movement as a whole, while considering the group that lived in Qumran as the Yahad. It further proposes a new suggestion for the emergence of the Yahad, based on the roles of the Examiner and the Instructor in the two major legal codes, the Damascus Document and the Community Rule. The understanding of Essene law is divided into concepts and practices, in order to emphasize the discrepancy between creed, rhetoric, and practices. The abstract exploration of notions such as time, space, obligation, intention, and retribution, is then compared against the realities of social practices, including admission, initiation, covenant, leadership, reproof, and punishment. The legal analysis yields several new suggestions for the study of the scrolls: first, Amihay proposes to rename the two strands of thought of Jewish law, formerly referred to as "nominalism" and "realism," with the terms "legal essentialism" and "legal formalism." The two laws of admission in the Community Rule are distinguished as two different laws, one of an association for a group as a whole, the other as an admission of an individual. The law of reproof is proven to be an independent legal procedure, rather than a preliminary stage of prosecution. The methodological division in this study of thought and practice provides a nuanced approach for the study of law in general, and religious law in particular.
Author: Jeffrey L. Rubenstein
Publisher: Jewish Publication Society
ISBN: 0827614373
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 327
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Book Description
Making the rich narrative world of Talmud tales fully accessible to modern readers, renowned Talmud scholar Jeffrey L. Rubenstein turns his spotlight on both famous and little-known stories, analyzing the tales in their original contexts, exploring their cultural meanings and literary artistry, and illuminating their relevance. Delving into both rabbinic life (the academy, master-disciple relationships) and Jewish life under Roman and Persian rule (persecution, taxation, marketplaces), Rubenstein explains how storytellers used irony, wordplay, figurative language, and other art forms to communicate their intended messages. Each close reading demonstrates the story’s continuing relevance through the generations into modernity. For example, the story “Showdown in Court,” a confrontation between King Yannai and the Rabbinic judges, provides insights into controversial struggles in U.S. history to balance governmental power; the story of Honi’s seventy-year sleep becomes a window into the indignities of aging. Through the prism of Talmud tales, Rubenstein also offers timeless insights into suffering, beauty, disgust, heroism, humor, love, sex, truth, and falsehood. By connecting twenty-first-century readers to past generations, The Land of Truth helps to bridge the divide between modern Jews and the traditional narrative worlds of their ancestors.
Author: William A. Galston
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815739311
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 322
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Book Description
Taking the long view of conflicts between truth and political power What role does truth play in government? In context of recent political discourse around the globe—and especially in the United States—it is easy to believe that truth, in the form of indisputable facts, is a matter of debate. But it's also important to remember that since ancient times, every religious and philosophical tradition has wrestled with this question. In this volume, scholars representing ten traditions—Western and Eastern, religious and secular—address the nature of truth and its role in government. Among the questions they address: When is deception permissible, or even a good thing? What remedies are necessary and useful when governments fail in their responsibilities to be truthful? The authors consider the relationship between truth and governance in democracies, but also in non-democratic regimes. Although democracy is distinctive in requiring truth as a fundamental basis for governing, non-democratic forms of government also cannot do without truth entirely. If ministers cannot give candid advice to rulers, the government's policies are likely to proceed on false premises and therefore fail. If rulers do not speak truthfully to their people, trust will erode. Each author in this book addresses a common set of issues: the nature of truth; the morality of truth-telling; the nature of government, which shapes each tradition's understanding of the relationship between governance and truth; the legitimacy and limits of regulating speech; and remedies when truth becomes divorced from governance. Truth and Governance will open readers' eyes to the variety of possible approaches to the relationship between truth and governance. Readers will find views they thought self-evident challenged and will come away with a greater understanding of the importance of truth and truth-telling, and of how to counter deliberate deception.
Author: Ayelet Hoffmann Libson
Publisher:
ISBN: 1108427499
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 229
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Book Description
Highlights the emergence of self-knowledge in rabbinic literature, showing how Babylonian rabbis relied on knowledge accessible only to the individual to determine the law.
Author: Reuven Travis
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1532647808
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 224
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Book Description
While it is true the Bible does relate important episodes in the history of the Jewish people, it is thought of as being much more than a history book. This is why many question the Bible's rationale for including a book such as Numbers, one that seems to be little more than a history book. In comparison, Genesis as a history book makes sense. It tells of the creation of the heavens and earth and the foundational stories of the Jewish people. Even Exodus, which relates the departure of the Jewish people from Egypt, has many legal sections. This thus begs the question: what exactly is the Book of Numbers, and what role does it play in the overall narrative of the Bible? Presenting Numbers as the book of character development is the major guiding principle of the pedagogical approach set forth in this book for teaching Numbers. This approach can also be used for teaching Genesis. However, the characters in Genesis are portrayed as either "very good" or "evil." Not so in Numbers, whose main personalities can and should be viewed in hues of grey, making it a very appropriate vehicle for teaching character development to high school students.
Author: Joshua Garroway
Publisher: Hebrew Union College Press
ISBN: 0878202285
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 297
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Book Description
Our nation's founding document, the Declaration of Independence, confidently declares, "These truths we hold to be self-evident" And yet, America today seems mired in a truth crisis. Postmodern relativism has cast doubt on the Enlightenment notion of shared, self-evident truths held by all; technologies have made the swift proliferation of untruths commonplace; political sensibilities have become so partisan as to tolerate public personalities who brazenly lie. Many Americans, Jews among them, are understandably concerned for the future of truth as we once knew it. With this book, These Truths We Hold: Judaism in an Age of Truthiness, the editors and HUC-JIR have demonstrated a commitment to full engagement in the contemporary moment as well as to our Jewish heritage as a repository of complex and deep truths. We have assembled an impressive list of contributors who address the subject of truth in Jewish tradition and in contemporary Jewish life from several important perspectives: biblical, talmudic, liturgical, scientific, philosophical, satirical, pluralistic, and poetic. The articles are meant to shore up faith and to serve as a bank of resources to orient readers to Judaism's rich, multi-faceted and morally edifying teachings about truth.
Author: Sarra Lev
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 1512825182
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 393
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Book Description
This book explores the question: How did the rabbis of the first two centuries CE approach bodies that are born with variant genitals—bodies that they could not identify as definitely male or female? The rabbis had constructed a system in which every behavior was governed by one’s sex/gender, posing a conundrum both for people who did not fit into that model and for the rabbinic enterprise itself. Despite this, their texts contain dozens of references to intersex. And the Sages Did Not Know examines the rabbis’ legal texts and concludes that they had multiple approaches to intersex people. Sarra Lev analyzes seven different rabbinic responses to this conflict of their own making. Through their rulings on how intersex people should conduct themselves in multiple circumstances, the early rabbis treat intersex people as unidentifiable males or females, as indeterminate, as male, as non-gendered, as sui generis, as part-male/part-female, as a sustainable paradox, and, finally, as a way for them to think about gender, having nothing to do with intersex people themselves. This is the first such work that concentrates primarily on the potential effects of these rabbinic texts on intersex persons themselves rather than focusing on what the texts offer readers whose interest is rabbinic approaches to sex and gender or gender diversity. Although the rabbinic texts do not include the voices of known intersex people, these materials do offer us a window into how one small group of people approached intersex bodies, and how those approaches were both similar to and different from those we recognize today.
