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"This work explains the jurisprudence and methodology of the last great restatement of Jewish law written, the Arukh Hashulhan, by Rabbi Yeheil Michel Epstein. It will help those interested in exploring Jewish law understand how halakha was codified, decodified and then recodified in the beginning of the Twentieth Century. It compares the two great codes of Jewish law written then - the Arukh Hashulhan and the Mishna Berura - and allows the reader to better understand modern Jewish Law"--
List of contents
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part One: Setting the Table: The Codification of Jewish Law
1. Codifying Jewish Law
2. Rabbi Yechiel Mikhel Epstein’s Arukh HaShulhan
3. Competing Models: The Arukh HaShulhan and Mishnah Berurah
Part Two: The Methodological Principles of the Arukh HaShulhan
Introduction
4. The Rule of the Talmud
5. Rabbinic Consensus
6. Resolving Doubtful Cases
7. Non-Normative Opinions
8. Superogatory Religious Conduct
9. Law and Mysticism
10. Law and Custom
11. Temporal Rationalization of Halakhic Rules
12. Law and Pragmatism
Conclusion
Part Three: Illustrative Examples from the Arukh HaShulhan
The Arukh HaShulhan’s Methodological Principles for Reaching Halakhic Conclusions
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Michael J. Broyde is Professor of Law at Emory University and Director of its Center for the Study of Law and Religion. This book was written while Broyde was a Fulbright Senior Scholar and completed while he was a Visiting Professor of Law at Stanford. In his nearly thirty-year rabbinic career he was the Rabbi of the Young Israel Congregation in Atlanta and the Director of the Beth Din of America.
Summary
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.
