Jewish Law and Decision-Making: A Study through Time

Abstract

It is only quite recently that Jewish Law has been regarded as a distinct legal system suitable for study at law school. Only now, therefore, are the modern approaches to legal studies being applied to the Jewish legal system. In this book of materials and commentary on the decision-making process in Jewish Law, Professor Schreiber of Temple University Law School seeks to apply a Realist analysis to the available material. He rejects the idea of a mechanical approach to law, and proposes instead an analysis centered around the processes of dispute-settlement. Although I am not too certain that the Realist analysis succeeds in this work, the resulting book is still a fascinating account of the history and application of Jewish Law through the ages. Jewish Law has an uniquely long history. Starting in the Biblical period, Jewish law developed and reached maturity during the periods of Jewish autonomy up to the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E. Even after that time, however, Jewish communities in the diaspora enjoyed a very high degree of autonomy, up to the last century and, in the case of some communities, up to the middle of this century. Professor Schreiber has, therefore, divided his book into three parts-the period of Biblical law to 350 B.C.E., the period of Talmudic law up to 630 C.E., and the Middle Ages up to the present day. With regard to each of these periods, he describes the decision-making bodies involved in the application of Jewish Law, concentrating, particularly, on the involvement of the layman in this process. Of the three sections of this work, the last is undoubtedly the most successful; there is far more known about the last period both in terms of the law involved and of the personalities concerned with the decision-making process. The materials col-