When It Comes to Territorial Compromise, Israel Doesn’t Have a Choice
Peace isn’t yet an option.
June 2, 2017
Does Rabbinic Judaism Acknowledge a Fundamental Difference between Civil and Ritual Law?
One rabbi’s argument that civil law is rooted in human reason.
For modern Western readers, it seems natural to see a gaping divide between the Torah’s ritual laws (like the prohibitions against eating certain foods) and its civil laws (like those governing torts). The biblical text, by contrast, slips easily from one category to the other, while the Talmud recognizes a distinction but tends to portray both categories as part of a unified and unchanging divine law. Drawing on the work of the early-20th-century Russian talmudist Shimon Shkop, Chaim Saiman argues that the Jewish tradition does recognize a qualitative difference between these two areas of halakhah:
June 2, 2017
With al-Qaeda Resurgent and Iran Ascendant, the U.S. Can’t Afford to Back Down
Don’t let Islamic State become a distraction from the big picture.
A French Jew Was Murdered by a Muslim. The French Media Concealed the Details
What really happened to Sarah Halimi.
Does Rabbinic Judaism Acknowledge a Fundamental Difference between Civil and Ritual Law?
One rabbi’s argument that civil law is rooted in human reason.
The Lebanese Jewish Housewife Who Spied for Israel
“Grandma James Bond.”