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

Ḥullin 58a (original, English trans.) is one of the places in the Talmud where the phrase כח דהיתרא עדיף (“the strength of the lenient ruling is preferable”) appears. Many people are familiar with the use of the phrase in post-Talmudic literature, where it signifies the preference to rule leniently in questions of law. What some [...]

Posted on September 1st, 2011 under Daf Yomi, Jewish Law, Legal Theory, Rabbinic Authority, Rabbinic Literature, Talmud. Comments: 2

The limits that a democratic society can place on the freedom of speech is a difficult question. During the past few days this question has been in the headlines in Israel. The reason for this is that the police detained Rabbi Dov Lior after he refused the be investigated regarding the approbation that he wrote [...]

Posted on June 28th, 2011 under Halakhic Literature, Israel, Jewish Law, Legal Theory, Politics. Comments Off

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

A new book from David Hartman, The God Who Hates Lies. In this deeply personal look at the struggle between commitment to Jewish religious tradition and personal morality, Dr. David Hartman, the world’s leading Modern Orthodox Jewish theologian, probes the deepest questions at the heart of what it means to be a human being and [...]

Posted on May 18th, 2011 under Jewish Law, Legal Theory, New Books, Rabbinic Authority, Rabbinic Literature. Comments: 6

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

At Balkanization there is a post about an exchange between Judges Scalia and Alito on what the Constitution has to say about video games. The arguments speak for themselves. It’s usually conventional wisdom that the Constitution’s text matters most, and the framer’s original intent matters least, in cases involving modern technologies, like wiretaps or the [...]

Posted on November 4th, 2010 under Legal Theory. Comments: 1