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What Is “Jewish Law”? A Review of Jewish Law: History, Sources, Principles-Ha-Mishpat Ha-Ivri by Menachem Elon. Jewish Publication Society, 1994. Four Volumes. $300.00/set. Pp. 2, 231. ISBN: (Vol. 1, 0-8276-0385-1; Vol. 2, 0-8276-0386-X; Vol. 3, 0-8276-0387-8; Vol. 4, 0-8276-0388-6; Four Vol. Set, 0-8276-0389-4).

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2015

Ze'ev W. Folk
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Type
Book Reviews
Information
Journal of Law and Religion , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , June 1994 , pp. 835 - 844
Copyright
Copyright © Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University 1994

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References

1. Jewish Law: its History, Sources and Principles.

2. Elon, Menachem, Jewish Law: History, Sources, Principles, Ha-Mishpat Ha-Ivri, (Jewish Publication Society, trans Auerbach, Bernard and Sykes, Melvin J., 1994)Google Scholar.

3. Dor Dor weDoreshaw (Vienna, 1911) (5 vols)Google Scholar.

4. Toledot haHalakhah (New York, 1934–1950) (4 vols)Google Scholar; Toledot haPoseqim (The Jubilee Committee, 1946) (3 vols)Google Scholar.

5. Waxman, Meyer, History of Jewish Literature, (Thomas Yoseloff, 2d ed, 1960) (5 vols, not mentioned in Elon's book)Google Scholar.

6. See, for instance, Patrick, Dale, Old Testament Law (John Knox Press, 1985)Google Scholar.

7. The hypothesis that the bible consists of a number of documents by different authors. Compare Wellhausen, Julius, Prolegomena to the History of Ancient Israel (Adam and Charles Black, 1957)Google Scholar; Eissfeldt, Otto, The Old Testament: An Introduction (Oxford, trans Ackroyd, Peter, 1965)Google Scholar.

8. Compare Coggins, R. J., Samaritans and Jews (John Knox Press, 1975)Google Scholar and A. B. Chadashot haShomronim, with its current bibliography.

9. Compare Yaron, Re'uven, The Law of the Aramaic Papyri (Clarendon Press, 1961)Google Scholar.

10. For instance Philo's writings. The obvious need for critical evaluation of these sources is the only thing Elon has to say about them. Elon, , Ha-Mishpat Ha-Ivri at 1037 (cited in note 2)Google Scholar.

11. Compare Dimant, Devorah and Rappaport, Uriel, eds, The Dead Sea Scrolls: 40 Years of Research, (The Magnes Press, 1992)Google Scholar; Baumgarten, Joseph M., Halakhic Polemics in New Fragments from Cambridge, in Biblical Archeology Today (Jerusalem, 1985)Google Scholar; Flusser, David, Judaism and the Origins of Christianity (The Magnes Press, 1988)Google Scholar; Schiffman, Lawrence H., Archeology and History in the Dead Sea Scrolls (Academic Press, 1990)Google Scholar; Schiffman, Lawrence H., Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls (Jewish Publication Society, 1994)Google Scholar.

12. Compare Sussman, J., Cheqer Toledot haHalakhah uMegillot Midbar Yehudah, 50 Tarbiz at 11–76 (1990)Google Scholar.

13. Compare Corinaldi, Michael, HaMa'amad ha'Ishi shel haQara'im (R. Mas, 1984)Google Scholar.

14. Compare Corinaldi, Michael, Yahadut Ethiopia; Zehut uMesoret (R. Mas, 1988)Google Scholar.

15. Compare the responsa of Solomon B. Freehof (who is mentioned only in another context) and Jacobs, Walter, ed, Isaac Klein, Responsa and Halakhic Studies (Ktav, 1975)Google Scholar; Siegel, Seymour, ed, Conservative Judaism and Jewish Law (The Rabbinical Assembly, 1977)Google Scholar, and the responsa of the Rabbinical Assembly.

16. The wording is the author's, italics are the reviewers.

17. Austin and his method are not mentioned in Elon's book.

18. Such as Bentham's Utilitarianism, Savigny's Historical School (although Elon presents his method also as “historical”), Ihering's Sociological Jurisprudence, and postmodern Legal Realism or Skepticism.

19. Derashot haRan.

20. The controversy which arose at the beginning of the 20th century about the originality of the Book of the Covenant, in the light of the recent Babylonian texts.

21. An example is the rule that “The Court has the Power to Expropriate Property” (507-514), which is clearly based on the royal patent and Persian law: Ezra 7:26.

22. Compare the scholarly literature on biblical and Near Eastern law, as well as on Jewish and Western law.

23. Compare Urbach, E. E., Halakhah uNevu'ah, 18 Tarbiz 1 (1947)Google Scholar.

24. Compare Fishbane, Michael, Biblical Interpretation in Ancient Israel (Clarendon Press, 1985)Google Scholar.

25. Compare Mishnah ‘Eduyot 1:5-6; Tosefta ‘Eduyot 1:4. This was also the attitude of the authors of the Turkish restatement of Muslim law, the Mejelle.

26. Compare Paton, George Whitecross, A Textbook of Jurisprudence 56 (Oxford U Press, 4th ed, 1972)Google Scholar.

27. Compare Maine, Henry S., Ancient Law (John Murray, 1901)Google Scholar.

28. The party of religious Zionists emerging out of Mizrachi and Hapo'el Ha-Mizrachi.

29. In other words, Jewish commercial courts functioning in Italian communities beside the rabbinical courts.

30. Compare Blidstein, Gerald J., Maimonides on ‘Oral Law’, 1 Jewish Law Annual 108–122 (1978)Google Scholar.

31. Compare Safra'i, Shmuel, Halakhah leMosheh miSinai - Historia 'o Theologia?, 3 World Congress of Jewish Studies 23 (1983)Google Scholar.

32. Compare, Internationale Zeitschriftenschau fuer Bibelwissenschaft und Grenzgebiete (Verlag Katholisches Bibelwerk, 1952)Google Scholar; Elenchus Bibliographicus Biblicus (Pontificio Istituto Biblico, 1920-present)Google Scholar.

33. Literally: Hebrew Law.

34. For example, in the writings of Johannes Selden (17th century), Theodor C. Lilienthal (18th century) and J. Benzinger (19th century).

35. Compare Kadushin's, Maxvalue concepts, in Kadushin, Max, The Rabbinic Mind (Jewish Theological Seminary, 1952)Google Scholar.

36. Heschel, Abraham Joshua, God in Search of Man at 320–335 (Meridian, 1959)Google Scholar.