Menachem Mendel

Below is a video of a lecture by Lawrence Kaplan on “Can the Halakhah Suspend One’s Emotions? Rabbi Soloveitchik, Rashi, and Maimonidies on the Laws of Mourning.”

Posted on December 1st, 2011 under Jewish Law, Legal History, Legal Theory. Comments Off

Recommended reading: Adiel Schremer’s working paper, Toward Critical Halakhic Studies. Here is the abstract: Current scholarly study of Jewish law concentrates either on a description and analysis of halakhic doctrines, or on the jurisprudential theories underlying the thought of halakhic thinkers. Questions such as: “how halakhic decisions are actually produced?”, and “what are the various [...]

Posted on September 14th, 2011 under Early Rabbinic Law, Halakhic Literature, Jewish Law, Legal History. Comments: 2

So is Jewish law based more on “legal reasoning” or “legal interpretation”? I am sure that the answer depends on who, when, and where. Endicott on Legal Interpretation: Timothy A.O. Endicott (University of Oxford – Faculty of Law) has posted Legal Interpretation (Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Law, A. Marmor, ed., Routledge, 2012) on SSRN. [...]

Posted on June 28th, 2011 under Jewish Law, Legal History, Legal Theory. Comments Off

From the Legal Theory Blog: Barak D. Richman (Duke University – School of Law) has posted Saving the First Amendment from Itself: Relief from the Sherman Act Against the Rabbinic Cartels on SSRN. Here is the abstract: America’s rabbis currently structure their employment market with rules that flagrantly violate the Sherman Act. The consequences of [...]

Posted on May 17th, 2011 under Legal History, Legal Theory, Rabbinic Authority. Comments Off

Michael Satlow has summarized Monday’s symposium at Harvard, The Rabbinic Revolution and the Invention of Jewish Law. The symposium featured Shaye Cohen, Moshe Halbertal, Aharon Shemesh, and Vered Noam. Also see this review of Aharon Shemesh’s book Halakhah in the Making: The Development of Jewish Law from Qumran to the Rabbis. Update: A video of [...]

Posted on March 30th, 2011 under Ancient Judaism, Early Rabbinic Law, Jewish Law, Legal History, Legal Theory. Comments: 2

The Center for Jewish Law and Contemporary Civilization at Cardozo Law School has started a new blog, Ancient Traditions, New Conversations. I highly recommend the blog for those interested in the academic study of Jewish law. See e.g. this recent post by Alyssa Gray, Law and Rhetoric in Tosafot.

Posted on February 1st, 2011 under Blogroll, Jewish Law, Legal History, Legal Theory, Rabbinic Authority, Talmud. Comments: 1

For your weekend reading: Zev Farber, “Extra-Legal Punishments in Medieval Jewish Courts,” in Mishpetei Shalom – A Jubilee Volume in Honor of Rabbi Saul (Shalom) Berman, edited by Yamin Levy (Ktav Pub, 2010). Available here.

Posted on January 13th, 2011 under Halakhic Literature, Jewish Law, Legal History, Middle Ages, Rabbinic Literature, Responsa. Comments: 3

This maybe of interest to some of you. Daphna Hacker, Religious Tribunals in Democratic States: Lessons from the Israeli Rabbinical Courts Abstract: This paper offers a three-variable explanatory model of religious tribunals’ praxis in democratic states. The model emerged from two empirical studies conducted by the author examining the Israeli legal field governing the family [...]

Posted on October 14th, 2010 under Israel, Legal History, Legal Theory, New Articles. Comments Off

Last week the Forward published an article on the legality of the way that most synagogues search for rabbis. While the writer was speaking about his experience on the search committee for a Conservative synagogue, it is clear that it is not movement specific. The inescapable conclusion is that the RA’s practices are illegal, and [...]

Posted on October 6th, 2010 under Legal History, Rabbinic Authority, Synagogue. Comments: 1