10 September 2020

More on "Halakhah: The Rabbinic Idea of Law"

More than a year ago I posted some observations on Nate Oman's review of the book "Halakhah: The Rabbinic Idea of Law" by Chaim Saiman. Re-reading that post will provide a shortcut to the thrust of the book but I'll quote a paragraph as a teaser:

One aspect of Saiman's argument is a response to Christian criticisms of the practice of the study of Jewish law, the Halakhah. Saiman defends the halakhic project by comparing it to Christian theologizing. Just as Christians have developed the meaning of the text of Scripture with the tools of Aristotelian and Platonic philosophy (and others, more recently), scholars of Halakhah participated in the "morally serious engagement with God's law called for by Jesus, but also a medium through which the rabbis [did] the work reserved for philosophers and theologians within the Christian tradition."

Speaking with Saiman helps one understand how deeply experiential is halakhic study. Would that my theological study reach as deeply. 

In any event, you can go here to read a post by halakhic scholar Elijah Del Medigo to get a better sense of what it's like to be "inside" the study of the Talmud. Another teaser:

Throughout centuries of exile, the Talmud has been an oasis of calm for the Jewish people. Heinrich Heine famously called it “the portable homeland of the Jewish people.” The study of Talmud, even in the centuries-long suspension of national sovereignty, binds Israel together. For the uninitiated, the Talmud’s hold on the Jewish imagination can seem almost magical.

Read Del Medigo's piece with care. You will be enriched. 

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