Dr. Phillip I. Ackerman-Lieberman Office: 149 Buttrick Hall Email: [email protected] Phone: (O) 343-2098 (H) 347-249-9627 Office Hours: MW 8:30am-10:00am LAW 7340 Th 3:10pm-5:00pm, Bass Berry Sims Room
Jewish Law: From the Ancient Near East to the Israeli Supreme Court
Synopsis This course will survey the primary genres and methods of Jewish legal writing and legal decision-making from the Bible through the rabbinic and medieval period to the modern period. In discussing Jewish legal history, the course will focus particularly on the relationship of Jewish law to non-Jewish legal systems, issues of legal competition when Jews had access to non-Jewish venues, and the role of legal pluralism and indeterminacy in Jewish legal decision- making. The course will also discuss the complicated role of Jewish law in the State of Israel with respect to Jewish-Arab relations as well as the role of religious pluralism among Jewish communities within Israel. The role of Jewish law in contemporary Diaspora Jewish communities will also be addressed, particularly as these communities address modern social issues such as abortion, women’s rights, and homosexuality.
Textbooks Aaron M. Schreiber, Jewish Law and Decision-Making: A Study Through Time (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1979) (=“Schreiber”) N.S. Hecht and et al, eds., An Introduction to the History and Sources of Jewish Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996) (=“Hecht”)
Weekly Topics and Assignments Introduction; Biblical Foundations 14 and 21 January Schreiber, Chapters I-III
The Development of the Oral Law 28 January and 4 February Schreiber, Chapters IV-V Peretz Segal, “Jewish Law During the Tannaitic Period”, in Hecht, pp.101-140
From the Talmud to the High Middle Ages 11 February Schreiber, Chapters VI-VII
Communal Enactments and Rabbinic Responsa 18 February Schreiber, Chapter VIII Gideon Libson, “Halakhah and Law in the Period of the Geonim”, in Hecht, pp.197-250 Phil Ackerman-Lieberman, “Commercial Forms and Legal Norms in the Jewish Community of Medieval Egypt”, Law and History Review 30.4 (November, 2012): 1007-1052
LAW 7340 – Jewish Law: From the Ancient Near East to the Israeli Supreme Court – Page 1 From the Medieval to the Modern Period 25 February and 3 March Schreiber, Chapter IX Edward Fram, “Jewish Law from the Shulḥan Arukh to the Enlightenment”, in Hecht, pp.359- 377 Aaron Rakefet-Rothkoff, “Dina D’Malkhuta Dina—The Law of the Land in Halakhic Perspective”. Tradition 13.2 (1972): 5-23 Aaron Kirschenbaum and Jon Trafimow, “The Sovereign Power of the State: A Proposed Theory of Accommodation in Jewish Law”. Cardozo Law Review 12 (1991): 925-940 Gerald J. Blidstein, “A Note on the Function of ‘The Law of the Kingdom is Law’ in the Medieval Jewish Community”. Jewish Journal of Sociology 15 (1973): 213-219
10 March – Spring Break – No Class
Contemporary Israel; Law in the West Bank 17 March Daniel Sinclair, “Jewish Law in the State of Israel”, in Hecht, pp.397-415 Chibli Mallat, An Introduction to Middle Eastern Law (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008): 129-140, 217-222 Association for Civil Rights in Israel v. Minister of Defence HCJ 5973/92. Available at: http://www.hamoked.org/Document.aspx?dID=4890 Ian Lustick, “Israel and the West Bank after Elon Moreh: the Mechanics of De Facto Annexation”. Middle East Journal 35.4 (Autumn, 1981): 557-577 Tobias Kelly, “‘Jurisdictional Politics’ in the Occupied West Bank: Territory, Community, and Economic Dependency in the Formation of Legal Subjects”. Law & Social Inquiry 31.1 (Winter, 2006): 39-74
Religious Identity; the Nexus of Jewish and Israeli Law (Mishpaṭ ʿIvri) 24 March Law of Return 5710-1950. Available at: http://www.knesset.gov.il/laws/special/eng/return.htm Aharon Lichtenstein, “Brother Daniel and the Jewish Fraternity”. Judaism 12.3 (Summer 1963): 260-280 Shalev Ginossar, “Who is a Jew: a Better Law? The Law of Return (Amendment no.2) 1970”. Israel Law Review 5 (1970): 264-267. Asher Felix Landau (ed.), Selected Judgments of the Supreme Court of Israel (Jerusalem: Ministry of Justice, 1971): 1-34 Daphna Hacker, “Inter-Religious Marriages in Israel: Gendered Implications for Conversion, Children and Citizenship”. Israel Studies 14.2 (Summer 2009): 178-197 Samuel Shilo, “The Contrast between Mishpat Ivri and Halakha”. Tradition 20 (Summer 1982): 91-100 Brahyahu Lifshitz, “Israeli Law and Jewish Law—Interaction and Independence”. Israel Law Review 24 (1990): 507-524 Eliav Shochetman, “Israeli Law and Jewish Law—Interaction and Independence: A Commentary”. Israel Law Review 24 (1990): 525-536
LAW 7340 – Jewish Law: From the Ancient Near East to the Israeli Supreme Court – Page 2 “Patrilineal and Matrilineal Descent”. Contemporary American Reform Responsa (October 1983), available at http://ccarnet.org/responsa/carr-61-68 Walter Jacob (ed.), American Reform Responsa (New York: Central Conference of American Rabbis, 1983): 547-550 Shaye Cohen et al. Articles on matrilineal and patrilineal descent, Judaism 34.1 (Winter 1985) 9- 128
Jewish Divorce; the New York State Geṭ Law 31 March Kent Greenawalt, “Religious Law and Civil Law: Using Secular Law to Assure Observances of Practices with Religious Significance”. Southern California Law Review 71 (1998): 781-843. Tzvi Gartner, “Problems of a Forced ‘Get’”. Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society 9 (1985): 118-142. Suzanne Last Stone, “The Intervention of American Law in Jewish Divorce: a Pluralist Analysis”. Israel Law Review 34 (Summer 2000): 170-210 Michael J. Broyde, “The 1992 New York Get Law”. Tradition 29.4 (1995): 5-13 Chaim Z. Malinowitz, “The New York State ‘Get’ Bill and its Halachic Ramifications”. Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society 27 (1994): 5-25 Gedalia Dov Schwartz, “Comments on the New York State ‘Get Law’”. Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society 27 (1994): 26-34 Tanina Rostain, “Permissible Accommodations of Religion: Reconsidering the New York ‘Get’ Statute”. Yale Law Journal 96.5 (1987): 1147-1171 Judah Dick, “Is an Agreement to Deliver or Accept a Get in the Event of a Civil Divorce Halakhically Feasible?” Tradition 21.2 (1983) 91-106 Marvin E. Jacob, “The ‘Agunah’ Problem and the So-Called New York State ‘Get’ Law: a Legal and Halakhic Analysis” in Jack Nusan Porter (ed.), Women in Chains (Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1995): 159-184 Jeremy Glicksman, “Almost, but Not Quite: the Failure of New York’s ‘Get’ Statute”. Family Court Review 44.2 (2006): 300-315 Lawrence M. Warmflash, “The New York Approach to Enforcing Religious Marriage Contracts: from Avitzur to the Get Statute”. Brooklyn Law Review 50.2 (1984): 229-253 Walter Jacob (ed.), American Reform Responsa (New York: Central Conference of American Rabbis, 1983): 510-515
Womens’ Participation in Jewish Ritual 7 April Seymour Siegel, ed. Conservative Judaism and Jewish Law (New York: Rabbinical Assembly, 1977): 282-305 Joel Roth, “On the Ordination of Women as Rabbis”. Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly HM 7:4.1984b David J. Fine, “Women and the Minyan”. Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly OH 55:1.2002 Joel B. Wolowelsky, “Rabbis, Rebbetzins, and Halakhic Advisors”. Tradition 36;4 (2002): 54-63 Mendel Shapiro, “Qeriʾat ha-Torah by Women: a Halakhic Analysis”. Edah Journal 1.2 (2001) 1- 52)
LAW 7340 – Jewish Law: From the Ancient Near East to the Israeli Supreme Court – Page 3 Daniel Sperber, “Congregational Unity and Human Dignity: Women and Public Torah Reading”. Edah Journal 3:2 (2003) Shlomo Riskin, “Torah Aliyyot for Women”. Meorot 7:1 (2008) Mendel Shapiro, “A Response to Shlomo Riskin”. Meorot 7:1 (2008) Shlomo Riskin, “Response to Mendel Shapiro”. Meorot 7:1 (2008) Jacob Z. Lauterbach, “Ordination of Women as Rabbis”. American Reform Responsa 32 (1922): 50- 51, available at http://ccarnet.org/responsa/arr-24-43-2 David Golinkin, “Aliyot for Women”. Responsa of the Vaʿad ha-Halakha of the Masorti Movement in Israel OH 282.23, available at http://www.responsafortoday.com/eng_index.html (English summaries--volume 3)
Modern/Contemporary Responsa 14 April David Novak, “Modern Responsa: 1800 to the Present”, in Hecht, pp.379-395 Ephraim Oshry, Responsa from the Holocaust (New York: Judaica Press, 2001): Nos.1, 4, 14, 18, 36, 51, 58, 63, 73, 85, 99, 105, 110, 112. Gordon Tucker, “A Principled Defense of the Current Structure and Status of the CJLS”. Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly HM 2.1993 Idem. “Halakhic and Metahalakhic Arguments concerning Judaism and Homosexuality”. Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly EH 24.2006f Elliot N. Dorff et al. “Homosexuality, Human Dignity & Halakhah: a Combined Responsum for the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards”. Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly EH 24.2006b
Final Presentations 14 and 21 April
LAW 7340 – Jewish Law: From the Ancient Near East to the Israeli Supreme Court – Page 4