Description

Book Synopsis
Punishment 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 Contents

Note 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

Punishment and Freedom

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    A Hardback by Devora Steinmetz

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      Book details

      Publisher University of Pennsylvania Press
      Published 10 June 2008
      ISBN-13 9780812240689
      978-0812240689
      ISBN-10 0812240685

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      Punishment 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 Contents

      Note 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

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