Jewish Law in Classical and Modern Periods (Saiman)
Faculty
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| Chaim Saiman Gruss Professor of Talmudic Law (Villanova Law School) csaiman@law.upenn.edu |
Additional Information
Skills Training
Expository Writing
Grading
35% Participation,
65% Other (Grades will be based 35% on class participation and 65% on response and reflection papers. )
With Permission of Instructor
With permission of instructor, we can work on assignment(s) that will qualify for Senior writing requirement
Class meets in person.
Course Continuity
Students are encouraged to stay home if you are ill or experience flu-like symptoms. If you miss a class for any reason, it is still your responsibility to make up the work missed.
I offer the following to students who miss class due to illness:
- Class sessions are regularly recorded. I will make these recordings routinely available on the course site to everyone in the class.
Meeting Times/Location
M 4:30PM - 6:30PM
Tanenbaum Hall 145
Category
Upper-Level
Credits
2.0
In Judaism, law is everywhere. Questions other cultures treat as philosophy, ethics, politics, or theology are often framed in legal terms, making Jewish law far more than courtroom rules or regulatory mandates. Jewish law not only prescribes Jewish practice; it is the primary medium through which rabbinic thinkers have explored life, love, God, justice, and community. The course has two aims. First, it examines how the rabbis used legal categories to do the work of other disciplines. The rabbis understood that one comes to know God, truth, morality, and life through intellectual engagement with the law. But this framing raises core questions: What happens to law when it also grounds social and theological thought? What does it mean to think speculatively in legal terms, to study law as a mode of connection between human beings and God, and to rely on a law-centered discourse for broader social and religious purposes?
The second half turns to modernity: How does Jewish law function when compliance is voluntary, when many Jews are not committed to Jewish law, and when it must coexist within the modern state? We will also consider Jewish law’s role in American legal doctrine and, with the return to the Jewish homeland, its complex relationship to Zionism and the State of Israel.
Perspectives on the Law Learning outcomes: Demonstrate an understanding of how the law affects, and is affected by, the individual course topic; Perform legal analysis in the context of the individual course topic; Communicate effectively on the legal and other aspects of the individual course topic; Demonstrate the ability to use other disciplines to analyze legal issues relevant to the individual course topic, including economics, philosophy, and sociology, as appropriate.