In Railing against Israel, Mahmoud Abbas Helps His Sworn Rival
The PA’s anti-Jewish campaign inadvertently tells Palestinians that Hamas has it right.
December 28, 2018
Did Maimonides Reform Jewish Law to Keep Jews Out of Islamic Courts?
A new study of Jewish law in the medieval Muslim world argues that he did.
In Maimonides and the Merchants, Mark R. Cohen explores how the legal rulings of the great 12th-century philosopher and jurist—along with those of other rabbis living in the medieval Islamic world—were shaped by the lived social and economic realities of their day. Documents found in the Cairo Genizah, for instance, show that it was common at the time for both Jewish and Muslim merchants to enter into arrangements whereby one merchant served as an agent for the other in one country, while the second did the same for the first in a different country. Cohen argues that Maimonides shaped his rulings to account for such arrangements, as Ezra Blaustein writes in his review:
December 28, 2018
The History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict Shows the Futility of an “Arab NATO”
The myth of a shared Arab heritage.
For Israelis, Secular and Religious Alike, Jewishness Is as Natural as Breathing
No worries about “Jewish continuity.”
Did Maimonides Reform Jewish Law to Keep Jews Out of Islamic Courts?
A new study of Jewish law in the medieval Muslim world argues that he did.
An Ancient Persian Military Base Discovered in Northern Israel
Built for launching a campaign against Egypt.