How Ancient Jews Understood Divine Law

Oct. 20 2016

In her recent book, What’s Divine about Divine Law, Christine Hayes examines how Jews in antiquity thought about the laws of the Torah. Many, especially those influenced by Greco-Roman thinking, considered halakhah divine because of its nature or characteristics; others saw it as divine simply because it was commanded by God. (This division, she remarks, corresponds neatly to the one in modern legal theory between those who believe in positive law and those who believe in natural law.) According to Hayes, many Greek-speaking Jews—including the Alexandrian philosopher Philo and the apostle Paul—found the two competing notions to be disturbingly dissonant, but the talmudic rabbis, for their part, tended toward a conception of law that transcended the distinction between them. (Interview by Joseph Ryan Kelly. Audio, 52 minutes.)

Read more at Marginalia

More about: Halakhah, History & Ideas, Jewish Thought, Judaism, Paul of Tarsus, Philo, Talmud

The Mass Expulsion of Palestinians Is No Solution. Neither Are Any of the Usual Plans for Gaza

Examining the Trump administration’s proposals for the people of Gaza, Danielle Pletka writes:

I do not believe that the forced cleansing of Gaza—a repetition of what every Arab country did to the hundreds of thousands of Arab Jews in 1948— is a “solution.” I don’t think Donald Trump views that as a permanent solution either (read his statement), though I could be wrong. My take is that he believes Gaza must be rebuilt under new management, with only those who wish to live there resettling the land.

The time has long since come for us to recognize that the establishment doesn’t have the faintest clue what to do about Gaza. Egypt doesn’t want it. Jordan doesn’t want it. Iran wants it, but only as cannon fodder. The UN wants it, but only to further its anti-Semitic agenda and continue milking cash from the West. Jordanians, Lebanese, and Syrians blame Palestinians for destroying their countries.

Negotiations with Hamas have not worked. Efforts to subsume Gaza under the Palestinian Authority have not worked. Rebuilding has not worked. Destruction will not work. A “two-state solution” has not arrived, and will not work.

So what’s to be done? If you live in Washington, New York, London, Paris, or Berlin, your view is that the same answers should definitely be tried again, but this time we mean it. This time will be different. . . . What could possibly make you believe this other than ideological laziness?

Read more at What the Hell Is Going On?

More about: Donald Trump, Gaza Strip, Palestinians