The full workshop description including program, abstracts and biographies is available for download here: workshop description
Convener:
Daniel Boyarin (University of California, Berkeley/Fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin 2012-2013) and Islam Dayeh (Zukunftsphilologie/Freie Universität Berlin)
Description:
In most research and popular conceptions, the borders of Jewish Law, the Halakha, are considered firm and clear. The Halakha is understood as an internal Jewish process of development from biblical law that, while it has history, is not in dialogue with other cultures and legal systems. In this colloquium, we will explore new research that tends to show that the above picture (somewhat simplified) is not at all the case. By studying the development of sectarian Halakha and its relations to rabbinic law and by studying the interactions between medieval and early modern Jewish and Muslim Arab legal systems and thought a new picture of Halakha as a dynamic interactive system of thought and practice will be adumbrated.
Presenters and Titles:
Aharon Shemesh (Bar-Ilan University)
Whose Revolution was it? The Dead Sea Scrolls, Jesus and the Rabbis on Saving Life on the Sabbath
Lena Salaymeh (Berkeley School of Law)
Borders of Jewish Law in an Islamic Context: a Case Study in Geonic “Innovation”
Daniel Boyarin & Islam Dayeh
Argumentation through Division: The Method of Diaresis in Islamic and Jewish Scholasticism
