Creativity and Constraint: The Legal Imagination in Judaism

Catalog description

Professional lawyers and jurists today often conceive of the law as an instrument of social policy. In Judaism, however, this view of law amounts to looking through the wrong end of a telescope. More than a tool for achieving practical goals, law is the very bedrock of Jewish self and society. Law, a direct link to God, is also a unique vessel for creativity across millennia of Jewish history. Our course trains students in key methods for analyzing this bond between law and Jewish life.