The Jewish Law Annual Volume 16 (Jewish Law Annual)

267 Pages·2006·2.32 MB·English

by  Neil Hecht

THE JEWISH LAW ANNUAL
The Institute ofJewish Law
Boston University School of Law
765 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston MA02215
Publication No. 32
THE JEWISH LAW
ANNUAL
VOLUME SIXTEEN
THE INSTITUTE OF JEWISH LAW
BOSTON UNIVERSITYSCHOOLOF LAW
First published 2006
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USAand Canada
by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2006 Trustees of Boston University
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006.
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collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Acatalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Acatalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN10: 0–415–39209–8
ISBN13: 978–0–415–39209–9
We express our appreciation to
Paul and Neil Sugarman,
through whose generosity
this volume has been published
in memory of their parents,
Samuel and Ruth Sugarman,
whose love and inspiration they honor
The Jewish Law Annualis published under the auspices of the Institute
of Jewish Law, Boston University School of Law.
Editor
BERACHYAHULIFSHITZ
Executive Board
HANINABEN-MENAHEM
NEILS. HECHT
BERACHYAHULIFSHITZ
Board of Editors
HANINABEN-MENAHEM, Jerusalem BERACHYAHULIFSHITZ, Jerusalem
DOVFRIMER, Jerusalem STEPHENM. PASSAMANECK, Los Angeles
NEILS. HECHT, Boston DANIELSINCLAIR, Jerusalem
BERNARDJACKSON, Liverpool RONALDWARBURG, Teaneck NJ
Manuscript Editor
NESSAOLSHANSKY-ASHTAR
Editorial communications should be addressed to Prof. Berachyahu
Lifshitz, Institute for Research in Jewish Law, Faculty of Law, The Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus, 91905 Jerusalem, Israel. All
communications should be clearly marked “Attention: Editor, Jewish
Law Annual.” Contributors should consult the style sheet that appears
at the end of the volume; it is also available from the editor upon
request. Submissions are welcome from all. Neither the editor nor
members of the Board of Editors are to be associated with the views
expressed by contributors.
This book is part of a series. The publisher will accept continuation orders, which may be
cancelled at any time, and which provide for automatic billing and shipping of each title in the
series upon publication. Please write for details.
CONTENTS
PART ONE
Judah GALINSKY, Ashkenazim in Sefarad: The Rosh
and the Tur on the Codification of Jewish Law 3
Ron S. KLEINMAN, Early Interpretations of the Bible and
Talmud as a Reflection of Medieval Legal Realia 25
Yechezkel LICHTENSHTEIN, Suicide as an Act of
Atonement in Jewish Law 51
David MALKIEL, The Burden of the Past in the
Eighteenth Century: Authority, Custom and
Innovation in the Pahad Yitzhak 93
PART TWO
CONFERENCE PAPERS
Hanina BEN-MENAHEM, Some Introductory
Remarks on Genesis Rabbah and the Law 135
Charles DONAHUE, Jr., Genesis in Western Canon Law 155
Timothy D. LYTTON, Due Process and Legal Authority in
the Garden of Eden: Jurisprudence in Aggadic Midrash 185
PART THREE
CHRONICLE
Martin EDELMAN, ATale of Two Cultures:
Conspicuous Religious Symbols in the Public
Schools of France and the United States 205
viii CONTENTS
Daniel B. SINCLAIR, Jewish Law in the State of Israel 221
1 Arabbinical court decision regarding a dispute
over the fate of pre-embryos
2 Kofin al midat sdom: abuse of rights in Jewish law
3 Adefinitive rabbinical court decision on the
status of civil marriage
PART FOUR
Survey of Recent Literature 245
Style Sheet 253
FROM THE PUBLISHER
An international conference on the topic “Genesis and Jewish Law,”
jointly sponsored by the Boston University School of Law’s Institute of
Jewish Law, and Harvard Law School’s Gruss Chair of Talmudic Civil
Law, took place May 18–20, 2003 at Harvard Law School. We decided
to include a number of the conference presentations in the Jewish Law
Annual, and therefore asked participants to submit them as articles for
publication. Three of these articles are grouped together in a special
section commencing on page 135. We hope our readers will find them
of interest.
Neil S. Hecht
The Institute of Jewish Law
Boston University School of Law