Deviant Judges, Foul Factories, and Bio-medical Marvels: Turning Points in Jewish Law
Hillel Gray
Description
In our naïve imaginings, Jewish law is merely a cumulative code of conduct that unfolds logically from Biblical and Talmudic rules. Within the raw data of Jewish legal discourse, we can discern a 2,000-year-old discontinuity of politicized contestations, personal innovations, and curious adjustments to evolving cultural and technological conditions. We will read rabbinic texts through which Jewish communities overrode old laws, set precedents, hardened schisms, and otherwise carried the drama of Jewish law into new territory. Our studies will explore the gamut from Talmudic case law through Reform responsa, and also peer into the future of Jewish law.
Hillel Gray is a Ph.D. candidate in the History of Judaism at the University of Chicago. He is former policy director of the National Environmental Law Center and has served on the boards of minyanim from both the left and right ends of Jewish life.
Notes
Categories
- History and Culture
- Intermediate Text
- Morning Course