What is Jewish law?
Judaism in Five Minutes - Sarah Imhoff
Yonatan Y. Brafman [+]
Tufts University
Yonatan Y. Brafman is Assistant Professor of Modern Judaism in the Department of Religion, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Literary and Cultural Studies, as well as a member of the Program in Judaic Studies at Tufts University. He is also an affiliated scholar at the Brodie Center for Jewish and Israeli Law at Yale Law School.
Description
This chapter explores the dynamic and evolving nature of Jewish law (halakhah). It discusses the Written and Oral Torah and the interpretation of law through commentaries, codes, and responsa. Despite the expansive scope of halakhah, it historically developed while Jewish people lacked political sovereignty and when Jewish communities possessed varying degrees of autonomy, thus creating differing opportunities to live by Jewish law. This chapter addresses the emergence of the nation-state in modernity that fundamentally changed the status of Jewish law.