Jewish Law

This white paper was developed through an iterative process of reflection, synthesis, drafting, critique, revision, and conceptual integration led by Dr. Bichara Sahely. It extends the life-coherent framework previously developed across health, healing, human flourishing, Beyond GDP, progress, wealth, peace, efficiency, and governance into the domains of spirituality, organized religion, ultimate concern, sacred insecurity, geopolitical conflict, and civilizational repair.
The framework brings together multiple streams of inquiry: Maturana’s biology of love and legitimate coexistence; McMurtry’s life-value onto-axiology and critique of life-incoherent value systems; Galtung’s analysis of direct, structural, and cultural violence; Peil Kauffman’s understanding of emotion as embodied moral-spiritual guidance; Wilber’s distinctions between waking up, growing up, cleaning up, and showing up; and wider traditions of thought on ultimate concern, idolatry, sacred memory, I–Thou relation, scapegoating, reconciliation, restorative justice, prophetic religion, and peacebuilding.
The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance of ChatGPT as an AI-supported drafting, analytical, editorial, and synthesis companion during the development of the manuscript. ChatGPT was used to help organize the argument, refine language, develop section structure, generate explanatory prose, identify conceptual gaps, support integration across traditions, and assist with editorial polishing.
The author remains fully responsible for the final conceptual framing, interpretive judgments, manuscript content, scholarly claims, and any remaining errors or omissions.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the norms of Islamic law in relation to persons residing in the jurisdiction of the Muslim legal order, but pro fessing another religion. With the involvement of normative material and referring to the positions of famous Islamic scholars, lawyers and specialists in the field of Muslim law, the author traces the process of formation of a separate segment of Islamic jurisprudence, fiqh, namely a group of religious and legal norms devoted to regulating the personal status of a nonbeliever within the framework of the Islamic legal order. The work highlights the prerequisites for the formation of Muslim socio-normative culture and law in the narrow sense as original phenomena that have continuously existed in various guises for many centuries and have an impact both on the legislation of countries where the Muslim population historically predominates and on the architecture of social relations in these regions and states. The article focuses on the historical and legal aspect of the formation of Islamic legal norms of the personal status of a non-Muslim, which, however, is due to the characteristic feature of Muslim law, which, from the moment of its inception and separation from Islamic theology, has existed doctrinally and temporally continuously up to the present day.

The secular day begins at 12:00 AM and ends at 11:59 PM -a convention useful for coordinating society, but arbitrary by any natural measure. Jewish law takes a different approach: each day is calculated independently, reflective of its own astronomical reality. Sunrise and sunset are not merely representations of social activity or pretty sights; they are the legal boundaries within which time-bound commandments operate. The milestones within that range -midday, the afternoon offering, the latest time for the evening Shema -are all proportionally derived from those endpoints. After the Talmudic Sages codified ‫ובשכבך‬ ‫ובקומך‬ to establish individual timeframes for reciting the Shem'a, further end-times were imposed within the day and night, each one dependent on knowing where the day itself begins and ends. The stakes of getting this right are therefore high. Every time-dependent ruling is built proportionally on top of the endpoints; define them incorrectly, and the entire structure shifts with themat worst, causing Shabbat desecration without the observer even realizing it. Defining those endpoints, however, is anything but simple. The question of when the day begins and ends has been debated across centuries, drawing in astronomy, manuscript variants, legal precedent, and the limits of pre-modern timekeeping. Our responsibility is to be equipped with enough data (both practical and theoretical) to decide on our own, through all the different assertions and opinions. We begin with an Aggadah (a non-literal Talmudic text) that poses a deceptively simple question: how far can an average person walk in a day? The answer it gives is ten parsaot -it's a distance measuring unit where each individual parsa encompasses 4 individual mil (another measuring unit; could be further broken up to each mil encompassing 2000 amot). Distance, however, is only meant here as a unit for time keeping (since the text never cared about this distance) -measure the time correspondence for this distance unit (using the average person's walking speed), and you have your day. How is this day structured? There are 4 times of importance: dawn, sunrise, sunset, and ‫הכוכבים‬ ‫.צאת‬ Dawn and ‫הכוכבים‬ ‫צאת‬ are the edges of the day, where they mark the beginning and end of the 40 mil. Although their definitions are reflective of astronomy rather than time, their usage to start and end the day naturally causes their occurrence to become measured, and thus the basis of time. The measurements are done through the known variables: its length and the offset point. When you subtract its length from sunrise (the first visibility moment of the sun's solar sphere), you arrive at Dawn. To contrast this with the end of the day, when you add its length to sunset (the last visibility moment of the sun's solar sphere), that's when ‫הכוכבים‬ ‫צאת‬ occurs. With consistent definitions of sunrise, sunset, and the two in-between lengths (called "twilight" in English), the day's symmetry is consistent -the middle of the day is the midpoint of the sun's traversal in the sky, regardless of how long twilight is. How long is it? Within the answer of the 40 mil day, we know that both twilight periods reserve a minimum of 10% each -that is, at least 4 mil before sunrise and at least 4 mil after sunset. The dispute between R' Yoḥanan and R' Yehuda is about whether twilight extends beyond that minimum. R' Yehuda holds that the day occupies the full remaining 80%, allocating 32 mil to the sunrise-to-sunset period and leaving exactly 4 mil for each twilight period -the minimum. R' Yoḥanan disagrees, holding that the day occupies only 75%, allocating 30 mil to the sunrise-to-sunset period and extending each twilight period to 5 mil. The distinction between the two positions is therefore not about the length of the day itself -that remains a constant we will assign shortly -but about how much of the remaining time twilight is permitted to claim. Although our available text of the Talmud rules like R' Yehuda, we will see why that may be irrelevant for the final determination of twilight's length. By expressing the inner mil as a percentage of the larger "40 mil" unit, we could use the process of variable substitution to determine how long a singular mil (and thus, twilight) is. The consequences of

מדינת ישראל נחשבת באופן מסורתי למדינה פרו-נטליסטית בעיקר בזכות מתן זכויות יוצאות דופן לאימהות (בעיקר לאימהות ״עובדות״) בשנות המדינה הראשונות. אף שבמשך הזמן הלכו זכויות אלה והצטמצמו, הטענה שישראל היא מדינה פרו-נטליסטית המשיכה להישמע, אלא שכעת נטען שהביטוי המובהק אם לא הבלעדי לכך הוא שימוש ליברלי וחסר תקדים בטיפולי פוריות מסובסדים, בפרט מסוג ההפריה החוץ-גופית (IVF). ההסבר שניתן לטענה שישראל היא מדינה פרו-נטליסטית מתבסס בעיקר על נימוקים הנשענים על “המאבק הדמוגרפי”, כלומר על מדיניות שנועדה לעודד ילודה באוכלוסייה היהודית כדי לשמר רוב יהודי בישראל. במאמר זה אתייחס לבעייתיות שבהצגה זו של הדברים ואציע את המושג “כריית נשים” כמסגרת חלופית להבנת המדיניות הישראלית בנוגע למתן טיפולי פוריות ולנושאי פוריות האישה בכלל.

The Day Kosher Slaughter Was Saved -Commentary Magazine commentary.org/articles/baruch-sterman/rabbi-herzog-saved-kosher-slaughter-ireland The recent ruling by the European Union Court of Justice allowing member countries to ban ritual slaughter of animals for kosher and halal meat is just one in a long line of such measures dating back at least as far as 1893, when Switzerland voted to outlaw the practice. That prohibition continues to be in effect, while the ban on kosher slaughter in Nazi Germany was rescinded after World War II. Numerous countries and governments have deliberated the issue, including the United States, with some actually adopting the prohibition. Faced with these challenges, Jewish proponents have mounted various defenses of the ritual slaughter known as shechita. But none was more cogent and persuasive than the petition that was argued nearly 90 years ago by a young rabbi before the Seanad Éireann-the Irish Senate. The presentation was exhaustive in the sweeping scope and depth of its content, compelling in its eloquence and passion, and remarkable in the singular and extraordinary personality delivering the address. His name was Isaac Halevy Herzog, and he would later become the first chief rabbi of the State of Israel. When he rose to defend kosher slaughter in 1934, Herzog had already made a practice of defending controversial opinions. Although raised in England, he himself strongly sympathized with the Irish Nationalists, the Sinn Féin, and he counted their leader, Éamon de Valera, among his close friends. Of the rabbi, de Valera once said, "from the moment I met him, I felt in the presence of a good and holy man." Ireland was still in political turmoil in 1934. Officially the country was named Saorstát Éireann, the Irish Free State, and it had the status of Dominion of

המאמר מחדד את ההבנה ש"מטא-הלכה" אינם רעיונות הבאים מחוץ לעולמה של ההלכה ומשפיעים על התפתחותה, אלא שקיימים עקרונות על בהלכה עצמה, שמנווטים את המגמות המוסריות והערכיות של הפסיקה. בדוגמה שבמאמר רואים שהמאמץ להקל על עגונות ולפתור את מצוקתן גם באמצעות חידושי הלכה מופלגים אינה תוצר של רוח ליברלית פמיניסטית מודרנית אלא עקרון יסודי שמרחף על פני הפרקים האחרונים של מסכת יבמות מקדמת דנא

Although the Bible and the Talmud recognise Ezra's extraordinary contribution to the renewal of Judaism and accordingly accord him full honours for conceiving the Great Assembly "כְּנֶסֶת הַגְּדוֹלָה" of 120 scholars and prophets, and for leading a considerable number of Babylonian Jewish exiles to Jerusalem, it is for his deep understanding of the influence of law on the formation of a cohesive society that he is revered – this is what makes Ezra one of the essential priests of Rabbinic Judaism.

The Talmud describes the biblical spies as carrying a cluster of grapes in a formation of "tortani and tortani de-tortani." This description, making use of a Greek and Latin word for scales, matches a common way of carrying heavy objects during construction during the pre-mechanical era. An examination of the relevant literature helps explain the passage and supports the interpretation of Ḥananel ben Ḥushiel.

Valdajska visoka ravnica je glavna tačka hidrografskoga sustava, riječja, Rusije. Tu izvire Volga, koja se spušta u Kaspijsko more; tu nastaje i Dnjepar, koji utiče u Crno more, pak isto tako Njemen i zapadna Dvina, koje ističu u Baltičko jezero; Velikaja, koja utiče u Pejpus (Čudsko jezero); napokon rijeke, od kojih nastaje Iljmenjsko jezero, a koje prave Ladoško i Oneško jezero, odakle ističe Neva. Pošto se hidrografsko središte Rusije nalazi na sjeveroistočnom pristranku središnjega platoa, to su i rijeke nagnule prema jugu i prema istoku. Taj raspored je imao svoga upliva na razvoj narodne povijesti, koja upravo započinje na sjeveroistoku, kraj Valdajske visoke ravnine, jer na Pejpusu i Iljmenu ponikoše stari trgovački gradovi Pskov i Novgorod. Pa koja su im vrata u more? Nije možda Nazova, koja ističe iz jezera Pejpusa, i koja je puna slapova, nego ona mreža jezera i rijeka, koje se izlijevaju u Nevu, rijeku istina kratku, ali veoma široku, pravu rusku Temzu, te na kojoj se je imao sagraditi Petrograd, taj Novgorod XVIII. vijeka. U onim surovim vremenima bio je Novgorod sigurniji u sredini te mreže od rijeka i jezera, nego li bi bio na Nevi; njegove se lađe spuštahu po Volhovu od Iljmenskoga jezera u Ladoško, a po Nevi od Ladoškoga do finskoga zaljeva i Baltičkoga mora. Druge je male rijeke spajahu sa Oneškim i Bijelim jezerom (Bjelo ozero); Suhona i sjeverna Dvina spajahu je sa Bijelim morem, gdje je kasnije sagrađena Arhangelska luka. Novgorođani prodirahu po Dvininim pritokama daleko u sjeverne šume, naseljene starosjediocima, te ih podjarmiše i danak im nametnuše. Međa, koja dijeli vode između pristranaka Bijeloga mora, Novgorodskih jezera i porječja Volginog, nije baš jasno označena. Čini se, kao da se rijeke s početka kolebaju, kojim li bi od dva protivna pravca krenule; pa neke se i ne odluče, kao na primjer troma Šeksna, koja spaja Bijelo jezero sa Volgom, Ta zbrka hidrografskoga sustava, po kojoj su Dvina, Neva, zapadna Dvina i Njemen kao nastavci Dnjepra i Volge, i po kojoj su u savezu četiri mora ruska, dovoljno nam razjašnjuje važnu ulogu trgovačku i velika osvajanja Velikoga Novgoroda. Na Dnjepru se je podigla s početka suparnica Novgorodskoj Rusiji, naime Kijevska Rusija. I ona se je spuštala niz svoje rijeke, a naime Dnjepar, koji je kobno vodio u Crno more, i prema bizantinskom svijetu. Po Dnjepru su se spuštale ratne mornarice protiv Carigrada, a uza nj je dolazila do Kijeva grčka civilizacija i kršćanstvo. Po Dnjepru je Kijev postao velikim, ali po njemu je i propadao, pošto se je po njemu vrlo teško plovilo radi onih zloglasnih deset slapova niže Kijeva, koji su prometu tako smetali, te taj grad nije mogao ostati trgovačkim i političkim glavnim gradom Rusije. Don, mada je 1000 kilometara dug, nije baš mnogo navijao pravca ruske povijesti. Čitavo vrijeme narodnoga ujedinjenja gospodarili su njime azijski čopori, a kasnije mu je ušće sa Azovom dopalo Turaka. Osim toga se je u njegovu donjem toku pijesak nasipavao, te je smetao njegovoj važnosti za trgovinu. Isto su tako zapadna Dvina i Njemen sve do XYIII. stoljeća bili u rukama Litavaca i Fina ili njemačkih osvajača. Najglavnija rijeka ruska jeste Volga, majka (matuška) Volga, koja je Rusiji i Nil i Mississippi. Sa svojim tokom od 3778 kilometara, ona nadmašuje Dunav skoro za 250 milja. Više se njezinih pritoka broje među velike svjetske rijeke: Oka ima 1000 kilometara, te je veća od Meusee i Odre; Kama, koja je duga 2000 kilometara, veća je od svih rijeka europskih, osim Dunava; jer Laba ima samo 1030, Loirea 1090, a Rajna 1300 kilometara. Sastavci Oke i Volge kod Nižnjeg Novgoroda izgledaju kao da se ondje dva morska rukava sastaju. To je veličanstven prizor, kada se gleda sa brežuljka, na kojem je gornji grad; donji se pak grad ili sajam, na koji do 100.000 naroda dođe, sa svojim zgradama stere na obalama jedne i druge rijeke. Volga, koja je kod Jaroslavlja 639 metara široka, ima 1400 metara iznad Kazana; oko Samare se čas suzi do 746 metara, a čas se opet raširi sa svojim dragama i pobočnim rukavima do 28 kilometara. Njezino ušće (delta) u Kaspijsko more ima 75 rukava sa nebrojenim ostrvima te obuhvaća do 150 kilometara. Ta bi čudnovata rijeka, u kojoj ima u izobilju velikih riba kao i u moru: jesetre, semge, bjeluge, a kečiga kadikad do 488 kilograma teških, bila pravim čudovištem europskim, da nije zamrznuta po više mjeseci u godini. No kad okopni, luke, poljodjelstvo, pa gotovo ni za stalni život, kao ni susjedni krajevi Azije, te se čini da nesu za drugo nego li stočarstvo i nomadski život. Zato i jesu to jedini krajevi u čitavoj europskoj Rusiji, u kojim do danas još stanuju nomadska plemena azijska: Kirgizi i Kalmici, a do zadnjih godina i krimski Tatari i Nogajci. Čini se, da su ti azijski narodi na tim stepama isto tako zadovoljni, kao da su kod svoje kuće. Prema tome su doista plodni dijelovi Rusije: livade, zemlja crnica i u šumskom pojasu ratarski i obrtni kraj oko Novgoroda, Moskve, Nižnjeg Novgoroda i Kazana. Kada bi se površina morska podigla, te poplavila sjeverni dio poljesja i neplodne stepe na jugu, to ne bi još ništa škodilo bogatstvu i pravoj snazi Rusije. Mada se eto tako u zapadnoj Europi izmjenjuju nizke ravnice sa visokim, mada su pravci velikih rijeka tako raznolični, pa mada se ona dijeli na šume, stepe oranice i pustare, ipak je ona prilično ujedinjena. Nijedan se dio Rusije ne može odijeliti od drugoga; jer u ravnici nema nikakvih ograda ni međa; međa, što bi ih rijeke mogle označiti, nestalo bi u zimi pod kolima vojske, kada mrazovi prikriju čitavu ravan od Bijeloga do Crnoga mora ledenom korom, a zima je gotovo isto tako jaka u Kijevu kao i u Arhangelsku. Svi su ti krajevi, koji ljeti opet postanu raznoliki, u gospodarstvenom pogledu u tijesnom savezu: šumski pojas treba Dnjeprova žita i Volgina blaga; južne stepe trebaju sjevernoga drveta. Trgovina sa zapadnom Europom po zapadnoj Dvini, Nevi i sjevernoj Dvini nadopunjuje se trgovinom sa jugom i istokom po Dnjepru i Volgi. Jedini je Moskovski kraj, u kojem se polja izmjenjuju sa šumama, mogao dugo sam o sebi živjeti; no od kako se obrt u njemu razvio ne može ni on. U stara se vremena u nj dovožahu proizvodi sa sjevera i juga, te je on time spajao oba ta kraja, a napokon im bio i gospodarom. Pa i Novgorod je zavisio u gospodarstvenom pogledu od knezova, koji stanovahu na Oki; valjalo im je samo zabraniti da se žito šalje sa gornje Volge u krajeve jezera, a velika bi im se republika odmah pokorila. Vidi se dakle, da je prostranim ravnicama Rusije već unaprijed suđeno bilo ujedinjenje, kao što je Švicarskoj suđeno da se raskomada. Između Karpata i Urala, između Kavkaza i finskoga gorja označila je priroda mjesto prostranome carstvu, kojemu su pojasne gore okvirom. Kako li je taj okvir ispunjen bio, to će nam pokazati povijest.

In vielen evangelischen Landeskirchen haben sich im Rahmen einer strategischen Kirchenentwicklung sogenannte Innovations- und Erprobungsräume etabliert. Sie zeichnen sich dadurch aus, dass sie auf vielfältige Weise Abweichungen von kirchlichen Normverhältnissen zulassen, fördern und mitunter für das eigene Lernen des gesamtkirchlichen Systems nutzen. Dieser Band bündelt und diskutiert die bisher vorhandenen empirischen Begleitforschungsergebnisse und deren methodische Ansätze, die es innerhalb der Evangelischen Kirche in Deutschland (EKD) sowie in Österreich, der Schweiz und den Niederlanden gibt. Neben Beiträgen zu Innovations- und Erprobungsräumen in acht (Landes-)Kirchen, enthält der Band eine wissenschaftlich-komparative Gesamtschau zu Fragen des Lernens und der Implikationen für die Kirchenentwicklung.

This paper examines what may be one of the most consequential and widely misunderstood interventions in the history of civilization: the Torah's reorientation of the status and role of women. The analysis proceeds in four stages. First, it reconstructs the legal and philosophical framework of ancient Egypt, the most sophisticated pre-modern civilization to accord women substantial civil autonomy, arguing that this autonomy, while real, was ultimately functional and naturalistic. Second, it traces the Torah's transformation of this framework, showing that the shift from the Nebet Per, literally "Mistress of the House" in ancient Egyptian to the Nevat Bayit ‫ַת(‬ ‫ְו‬ ‫נ‬

Tra XVII e XVIII secolo, nello Stato della Chiesa, i circuiti fieristici rappresentano un osservatoriovprivilegiato per analizzare la mobilità ebraica all’interno di un regime che ne imponeva la stanzialità attraverso il dispositivo del ghetto. A partire dalla metà del Seicento, con l’accentramento delle competenze in materia di mobilità presso la Congregazione del Sant’Uffizio, la concessione di permessi temporanei si trasformò in uno strumento politico di regolazione selettiva dell’accesso allo spazio. Tale prerogativa rimase tuttavia condivisa – e spesso contesa – con le sedi episcopali locali, circostanza che consentiva ai mercanti ebrei di muoversi su due piani istituzionali, tentando di
ottenere dall’uno – il vescovo o l’Inquisizione – ciò che l’altro aveva negato. Le procedure per l’ottenimento di questi lasciapassare – in larga parte contestuali all’accesso alle fiere e alla conclusione di affari ad esse legate – rivelano così un uso consapevole e sistematico degli strumenti giuridico-amministrativi disponibili, tale da permettere la sospensione, anche per lunghi periodi, di una effettiva residenza nel ghetto. In questo quadro, la mobilità mercantile non si configura come una semplice eccezione tollerata, bensì come l’esito di un’interazione strutturata tra norme,
interessi economici e capacità di negoziazione, che mette in luce tanto le ambiguità e le porosità del sistema di controllo pontificio quanto le possibilità, per i mercanti ebrei, di incidere sulla concreta configurazione dello spazio politico ed economico locale.

Starting in the 1980s, Orthodox female scholars have adopted and adapted various genres to discuss the intricacies of Jewish tradition from halakhic perspectives. Earlier precedents of women writing (about) halakhah from the first half of the twentieth century are forgotten forebears of these books. One of them is Gella Sänger, who authored the handbook Ishah El Ah. otah. Published in German in 1927, it is a practical guide for observing Jewish law for women and girls. While it seems to have achieved some popularity just after its publication, it has fallen into oblivion, much like Gella Sänger herself, remaining unacknowledged within halakhic history and the history of Jewish women writers. This is even though Gella Sänger appears to be the first woman to have authored a handbook on Jewish law in a vernacular language. This article explores her rendering of halakhah and musings on her identity and agency as a woman writing (about) Jewish law and highlights the continuities and discontinuities of women's halakhic writings. Gella Sänger, much like female authors writing (about) halakhah in the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries, sought to look at Jewish law and tradition in light of previously neglected women's experiences within Jewish society.

המאמר עוסק בסוגית הנזיקין המזעריים שבסוף מסכת בבא קמא ומבקש להצביע על התודעה הרעיונית של חכמים אודות הרגישות של האדם לערך ממונו, גם בשיעור זעיר . לפי הדברים, הכלל "דין פרוטה כדין מאה" אינו רק כלל משפטי אלא אמירה פסיכולוגית-נפשית ורוחנית ויש בה כדי להאיר את כלל העיסוק הדקדקני של חכמים בדיני נזיקין בפרט ובדיני ממונות בכלל.

This study presents the first comprehensive examination of the stitching materials and techniques used in tefillin cases from the Judean Desert. It reports the results of microscopic and spectroscopic analyses of all twelve Judean Desert specimens with surviving threads, examining materials, thread construction, stitching techniques, and seam placement. The results reveal considerable variability: stitching materials included linen, possible animal hair, and sinew; threads could be plied or single-stranded; and multiple stitching techniques and seam configurations were employed. Evaluating these findings alongside later rabbinic halakhic sources, it appears that stitching details were not treated with ritual invariance during the early phases of tefillin practice. The ritual significance of stitching materials and methods appears to have developed gradually, becoming standardized only in late antiquity and during the medieval period. The study thus illuminates both the material diversity of early Jewish ritual artifacts and broader processes in the historical development of halakhah.

Early presentations of the Dead Sea Scrolls in popular media relied on orientalist tropes and a narrow Christian horizon to create relevance and prestige for the scrolls, which contributed to strong religious interest in them and a market for unprovenanced Dead Sea Scrolls fragments and forgeries. Such a strategy also constructed public authority for the Bible scholars working on the scrolls. This article treats the colonialist approach in the earliest popular works on the scrolls in the United States, written by Edmund Wilson, Frank Moore Cross, and Alex Small, and shows how the stories they tell set the stage for religious veneration of the scrolls and popular acclaim of the scholars. A bevy of sophisticated Dead Sea Scrolls forgeries since 2002 has led to scholarly analysis not only of the material forgeries but of the prestige that made those forgeries profitable. 1 Many factors shaped the Dead Seas Scroll market in the United States, including Evangelical reverence for Scripture at places such as the Many thanks for perceptive feedback on this article from the JBL reviewers and from colleagues, including

Sefer Hamitzvot (ספר המצוות), The Book of Commandments, was completed around 1178. This foundational text aims to enumerate and clarify the 613 mitzvot commandments found in the Torah, which he believed to be the binding legal and moral framework for the Jewish people. The book serves as a comprehensive list, providing an overview of the commandments that dictate Jewish life. It is built around two major sections; positive commandments, those which one is commanded to perform, known as aseh (מִצְוֹת עֲשֵׂה), and negative commandments, those which one is commanded to refrain from doing, known as lo ta’aseh, (מִצְוֹת לא תַעֲשֵׂה)

IF I AM NOT FOR MYSELF, WHO WILL BE FOR ME?* Female Autonomy, Human Rights-Consciousness, and the Right to Exit From Haredi Communities in Israel Jessica Sarah Briggs The “right to exit” refers to the right of individuals to leave (exit) their religious or cultural groups. While not expressly articulated in any international human rights documents, the right to exit from cultural or religious groups is guaranteed by the internationally acknowledged rights to self-determination, freedom of religion, and freedom of movement. In this study, I examine the effects of Israel’s religious policies on women in Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jewish communities, where women have an exceptionally difficult time asserting autonomy, voicing and remedying grievances, and exiting their marriages and/or community if they wish to. By accommodating the Haredim, Israel denies Haredi women many rights guaranteed to all Israeli women by virtue of their citizenship. I conclude that Israel must reform its educati...

Mishneh Torah (מִשְׁנֵה תוֹרָה), also known as Sefer Yad HaChazaka (ספר יד החזקה), is a monumental work of Jewish law authored by the medieval rabbi, philosopher, and physician, Moses ben Maimon, commonly known as Maimonides. Completed in 1178, the Mishneh Torah is a comprehensive code of Jewish law, halakah (הֲלָכָה), which aims to cover all aspects of Jewish life. The structure of the Mishneh Torah is highly organised, consisting of fourteen books subdivided into sections and chapters, although this paper provides a summary without diving into chapter divisions.

Written in 1168 by Moses Maimonides, one of the foremost intellectuals of Jewish history, Commentary on the Mishnah is an extensive work in which Maimonides provides a detailed commentary on the Mishnah, the core text of Jewish oral law. In this commentary, Maimonides aims to explain the Mishnah's teachings, analyse its principles, and resolve its complexities.

Harari courts, which are Sharia courts, have registered different themes of cases that they have entertained for centuries. The registrations of two of the Harari qadis are housed in the Institute of Ethiopian Studies in Addis Ababa. These Arabic manuscripts cover the period of the pre-Egyptian occupation to Harar from 1242 to 1283 H. (1827-1867 A. D.). They registered marriages, divorces, inheritances, land transactions, and other cases. This study focuses on the description of divorce cases of the two qadis' registrations. It provides an edition and translation of several examples of divorces that appear in these records. Based on the information given in the cases, this study identifies the Islamic divorce types and their preconditions that the Harari court employed throughout the 40 years of the two qadis' period. The three types of Islamic divorces identified from reading the manuscripts are : khul ʿ, țalāq, and faskh. The cases show consistency across the years in many matters except in the number of the khul ʿ type of divorce, which is believed to be initiated by woman. These divorce cases show that the qadis registered the final conclusion of the divorce without giving details on the process or procedures that took place for the divorce to finalize. Other matters related to the divorce, such as the maintenance and the guardianship of children, are not mentioned. Les tribunaux harari, qui appliquent la sharia, ont enregistré les affaires qu'ils ont traitées pendant des siècles. Les registres de deux des cadis de Harar sont conservés à l'Institute of Ethiopian Studies, à Addis Abeba. Ces manuscrits couvrent la période qui précède l'occupation égyptienne de Harar, entre 1242 et 1283 H. (1827-1867 ap. J. C.). Ils ont enregistré des cas de mariages, de divorces, d'héritages, de transactions foncières, etc. La présente étude se concentre sur la description des cas de divorce dans les registres de ces deux cadis. Elle fournit une édition et une traduction anglaise de plusieurs exemples de divorces qui apparaissent dans ces registres. Sur la base des informations fournies dans les cas étudiés, cet article identifie les types de divorces islamiques et leurs conditions préalables que le tribunal de Harar a utilisés pendant les 40 ans de la période de ces deux cadis. Les trois types de divorces islamiques identifiés à partir de la lecture des manuscrits sont les khul ʿ, les țalāq et les faskh. Les cas montrent une cohérence à travers les années dans de nombreux domaines, sauf dans le nombre de divorces de type khul ʿqui sont censés être initiés par la femme. Ces cas de divorce montrent que les cadis enregistrent la conclusion finale du divorce sans donner de détails sur le processus ou les procédures qui ont eu lieu afin que le divorce soit finalisé. D'autres questions liées au divorce, comme la pension alimentaire et la tutelle des enfants, ne sont pas non plus mentionnées.

This Article argues that the Reconstruction Amendments created a Lineage-Based Constitutional Class (LBCC)-a juridically recognized descent group composed of the formerly enslaved and their identifiable descendants. Through a synthesis of constitutional text, historical practice, administrative law, and comparative covenantal jurisprudence, the Article demonstrates that LBCC constitutes a constitutionally grounded identity category that was later erased through administrative racialization without constitutional amendment. Restoring LBCC clarifies constitutional standing, corrects a century of doctrinal drift, and provides a legally coherent framework for lineage-based remedies.

This White Paper proposes a new analytic framework for understanding the legal foundations of slavery and its enduring consequences in the United States. Prevailing interpretations center "race" as the operative category of American slavery.

This paper argues that while racial ideology was present from the earliest colonial period, the legal system's defining innovation was the creation of a hereditary estate in persons — a juridically operative status transmitted through maternal descent and enforceable as property across generations.

The doctrine of partus sequitur ventrem did not merely reflect pre-existing racial prejudice; it transformed that prejudice into a legally constitutive condition.

Recovering this distinction — between the social ideology that justified the system and the legal mechanism that constructed it — is the central task of this paper. Drawing on Jewish halachic jurisprudence and early British colonial law, this paper argues that the true operative category waslineage, not race. Recognizing this restores legal precision and clarifies the obligations owed to the descendants of those placed within this state-created hereditary lineage.

A note on method is necessary at the outset.This paper distinguishes among three categories that are often conflated:

(1) legal genealogy — the hereditary status created by colonial statute and transmitted through maternal descent; (2) social race — the set of phenotypic markers, cultural practices, and community affiliations that emerged alongside and after the hereditary regime; and
(3) modern racial identity — the self-identified and externally assigned racial classifications used in contemporary law, policy, and social life. The argument of this paper is not that social race and modern racial identity are irrelevant or illusory.

Rather, it is that legal genealogy — the statutory
creation and perpetuation of a hereditary legal estate — is the analytically prior category, and that recovering it clarifies obligations that racial frameworks alone cannot specify.

המחקר בוחן את התהוותם של כללי הפסיקה מראשיתם בתקופת התלמוד. בשני התלמודים, ביחס לספרות התנאים בכללה והמשנה בעיקר. לצד הבירור הפילולוגי וההיסטורי של הופעת הכללים בתלמודים ודרך התפתחותם בתקופת התלמוד נעשה נסיון גם להסביר את ההגיון של הכללים ואופן השימוש בהם לרבות שינויים שחלו בהבנתם ובשימוש בהם במהלך הדורות, הן בתוך התלמוד והן לאחריו

המאמר בוחן את דמותה של "בת הארץ" כפי שהיא עולה ממכתבי נשים יהודיות מן המחצית הראשונה של המאה ה־19, שנשתמרו בארכיונו של הרב נתן עמרם. באמצעות ניתוח מכתבים אישיים נדונה זיקתן של נשים למרחב הארץ־ישראלי והעדפתן לחיות בו גם על פני מרכזים יהודיים בחוץ לארץ. מן המכתבים עולה כי נשים היו מעורבות בחיי המשפחה, הכלכלה והקהילה, וקיבלו החלטות הנוגעות למקום חייהן; לצד זאת, השימוש בעברית לצד ערבית יהודית ומצרית משקף את מעורבותן בספירה הציבורית. המכתבים מציעים הצצה לעולמן של נשים ומרחיבים את הדיון במושג "בני הארץ" כך שיכלול גם את "בנות הארץ".

מאמר זה דן בהסדרת מעמדם של זרים בישראל מכוח הקשר הזוגי שקשרו עם אזרחי המדינה. המאמר טוען שיש להפריד בין השאלה המושגית – מיהם "בני זוג" לעניין דיני ההגירה וההתאזרחות הישראליים, לבין השאלה הנורמטיבית – מתי קשרים זוגיים לא יקבלו את הגנת דני ההגירה וההתאזרחות מסיבות הקשורות בטיב הזוגיות או נוכח אינטרסים ציבוריים נוגדים. בנוסף, עושה המאמר שימוש באבחנה האנליטית בין השאלה המושגית לבין השאלה הנורמטיבית לצורך ניתוח של כמה סוגיות שמעוררות עניין בישראל ובעולם בתחום הגירת משפחה: קשרים טריים, נישואי שידוך, נישואי תועלת, קשרים פוליאמוריים ופוטנציאל ההתערות של בן הזוג הזר בחברה הקולטת.

Building on a string of focused studies, Judah Galinsky has published the definitive assessment of 'Amudei Golah (Pillars of Exile), aptly designated "a medieval bestseller." Isaac of Corbeil (d. 1280) authored the work in c. 1276-7 while teaching largely in Corbeil, the center of Talmudic study in later thirteenth-century northern France. While respected for his learning and the son-in-law of the famed Rabbi Yehiel of Paris, Isaac was not himself a leading rabbinic authority of his generation. Nevertheless, he produced what became one of the most popular Hebrew works of the Middle Ages. Over 200 manuscripts of 'Amudei Golah-better known today as Sefer Mitzvot Katan-survive from the Middle Ages, most of which were glossed by either Peretz of Corbeil (d. c. 1295) or Moses of Zurich (14 cent.). This is an astounding number, comparable only to that of Rashi's famed commentary on the Pentateuch. Galinsky highlights how Isaac structured 'Amudei Golah according to his specific educational outlook and with deep awareness for the needs of his generation. This intentionality successfully transformed the work into a classic during the Middle Ages and beyond.

In this essay, I will examine the Jewish cultural context surrounding a passage from the New Testament where Jesus and his disciples act in a manner that appears to be contrary to the religious leaders of the first century. The Scripture I have chosen for this paper comes from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 6, verses 1-5. This Scripture at hand addresses the issue of Jesus and his disciples working on the holy day of the Sabbath, which is not lawful according to the Torah. The religious leaders of Jesus' day confronted him about the activities of he and his disciples, accusing them of breaking the Sabbath law. Jesus responds by citing an event similar to David and his men, and demonstrates a teaching on the true meaning of the Sabbath and human life. In this essay, I will utilize Matthew Thiessen's work as a helpful interpretive lens in examining this specific passage from the Gospel of Luke.