Setting the table : an introduction to the jurisprudence Rabbi Yechiel Mikhel Epstein's Arukh HaShulhan / Michael J. Broyde and Shlomo C. Pill.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Broyde, Michael J., author.

Pill, Shlomo C., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Epstein, Jehiel Michael ben Aaron Isaac, Halevi, approximately 1829-approximately 1908. Arukh ha-shulhan.

Epstein, Jehiel Michael ben Aaron Isaac.

Social sciences.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 412 pages)

Place of Publication:

Brookline, Massachusetts : Academic Studies Press, [2020]

Summary:

One of the most basic questions for any legal system is that of methodology: how one interprets, analyzes, weighs and applies a mass of often competing legal rules, precedents, practices, customs, and traditions to reach final determinations and practical guidance about the correct legal-prescribed course of action in any given situation. Questions of legal methodology raise not only practical concerns, but theoretical and philosophical ones as well. We expect law to be more than the arbitrary result of a given decision maker’s personal preferences, and so we demand that legal methodologies to be principled as well as practical. These issues are especially acute in religious legal systems, where the stakes are raised by concerns for respecting not just human, but divine law. Despite this, the major scholars and codifiers of halakhah, or Jewish law, have only rarely explicated their own methods for reaching principled legal decisions. This book explains the major jurisprudential factors driving the halakhic jurisprudence of Rabbi Yehiel Mikhel Epstein, twentieth century author of the Arukh Hashulchan—the most comprehensive, seminal, and original modern restatement of Jewish law since Maimonides. Reasoning inductively from a broad review of hundreds of rulings from the Orach Chaim section of the Arukh Hashulchan, the book teases out and explicates ten core principles of halakhic decision-making that animate Rabbi Epstein’s halakhic decision-making. Along the way, it compares the Arukh Hashulchan methodology to that of the Mishna Berura. This book will help any reader understand important methodological issues in both Jewish and general jurisprudence.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I—Setting the Table: The Codification of Jewish Law

Chapter One: Codifying Jewish Law

Chapter Two: Rabbi Yechiel Mikhel Epstein’s Arukh HaShulchan

Chapter Three Competing Models: The Arukh HaShulchan and Mishnah Berurah

Part II—The Methodological Principles of the Arukh HaShulchan

Chapter Four: The Rule of the Talmud

Chapter Five Rabbinic Consensus

Chapter Six Resolving Doubtful Cases

Chapter Seven Non-Normative Opinions

Chapter Eight Supererogatory Religious Conduct

Chapter Nine Law and Mysticism

Chapter Ten Law and Custom

Chapter Eleven Temporal Rationalization of Halakhic Rules

Chapter Twelve Law and Pragmatism

Part III—Illustrative Examples from the Arukh HaShulchan

The Arukh HaShulchan’s Methodological Principles for Reaching Halakhic Conclusions

The Ten Methodological Principles of the Arukh HaShulchan

Bibliography

Index of Biblical and Rabbinic Works Cited

Index of Names and Subjects

Index of Examples by Methodological Principle

Notes:

CC BY-NC

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781644690710

1644690713

Access Restriction:

Open Access Unrestricted online access