• The Seduction of Law: Rethinking Legal Studies in Jewish Studies

    Author(s):
    Rachel Rafael Neis (see profile)
    Date:
    2019
    Group(s):
    Historiography, Interdisciplinary, Theoretical and New Approaches to Jewish Studies, Legal history, Rabbinic Literature and Culture, Religious Studies
    Subject(s):
    Law, Jews--Study and teaching, Imperialism, History
    Item Type:
    Essay
    Tag(s):
    halakhah, rabbinic literature, legalism, roman law, Jewish law, Religious studies, Jewish studies, Legal history
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/3gse-sn36
    Abstract:
    This essay considers the category of "Jewish law" in Jewish studies while inviting scholarly and historiographic assessment of the ways that Judaism's link to law has come to appear as obvious. Considering that our present concepts of law are invariably linked to a geographically and temporally parochial "mythology of modern law," the essay sounds a preliminary set of interventions and conversations designed to open critical reflection on these links. First, it considers how halakhah is assimilated as law, which is in turn seen as quintessentially Jewish. Second, it invokes critical assessments of law as a modern European colonial construct. Third, it moves to Hindu law and Islamic law as examples of scholarly fields whose histories are implicated in European colonialism. Fourth, it discusses the construction of Jewish law in Israeli Zionist contexts and in the context of the U.S. law school. It then closes with some suggestions for future directions.
    Notes:
    FREE ACCESS TO ESSAY HERE: http://bit.ly/JewLaw OR HERE: http://muse.jhu.edu/article/717872/pdf / Read and download without a subscription for the next six months (posted Mar 5, 2019)
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Pub. DOI:
    10.1353/jqr.2019.0005
    Publisher:
    Project Muse
    Pub. Date:
    2019-3-3
    Journal:
    Jewish Quarterly Review
    Volume:
    109
    Issue:
    1
    Page Range:
    119 - 138
    ISSN:
    1553-0604
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    5 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
    Share this:

    Downloads

    Item Name: pdf the_seduction_of_law_rethinking_legal_title-page.pdf
      Download View in browser
    Activity: Downloads: 533

    Back to Deposits