Description
Book SynopsisPunishment and Freedom offers a fresh look at classical rabbinic texts about criminal law from the perspective of legal and moral philosophy, arguing that the Rabbis constructed an extreme positivist view of law that is based in divine command and that is related to the rabinnic notion notion of human freedom and responsibility.
Trade Review"This is an exciting and often brilliant work, perhaps the best available analysis of how judicial punishment is understood in rabbinic literature.
Punishment and Freedom contributes mightily to the most vexed and widely debated issue in all of Jewish legal theory, whether Jewish law is to be conceived as positivist or instead as reflecting a notion of natural law." * David Shatz, Yeshiva University *
Table of ContentsNote on Transliteration
Preface
Chapter 1. Heneq and the Nature of Law
Chapter 2. Noachide Law
Chapter 3. Legal Principles and Prohibitions
Chapter 4. Murder and the Social Response to Wrongdoing
Chapter 5. "And Live by Them": Paul and the Rabbis
Chapter 6. Law, Responsibility, and Transformation
Appendix
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
