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About This Book
Talmudic legislation prescribed penalty for a Jew to testify in a non-Jewish court, against a fellow Jew, to benefit a gentile - for breach of a duty of loyalty to a fellow Jew. Through close textual analysis, Saul Berman explores how Jewish jurists responded when this virtue of loyalty conflicted with values such as Justice, avoidance of desecration of God's Name, deterrence of crime, defence of self, protection of Jewish community, and the duty to adhere to Law of the Land. Essential for scholars and graduate students in Talmud, Jewish law and comparative law, this key volume details the nature of these loyalties as values within the Jewish legal system, and how the resolution of these conflicts was handled. Berman additionally explores why this issue has intensified in contemporary times and how the related area of 'Mesirah' has wrongfully come to be prominently associated with this law regulating testimony.
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Table of contents
- Cover
- Half-title
- Title page
- Copyright information
- Dedication
- Table of contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 The Use of Non-Jewish Courts: The Tannaitic Period
- 2 Legislative Constraint on Testimony: The Amoraic Period
- 3 Rejected Rationales for Testimonial Restriction: The Gaonic Period into the Period of the Rishonim
- 4 The Creation of a Duty to Testify Against Fellow Jews in Non-Jewish Courts: The Period of the Rishonim
- 5 The Tension Between Responsa and Codification â Maharam Mintz, Rabbi Joseph Karo and Rabbi Moshe Isserlis
- 6 Further Expansion of the Duty of Testimony Against Fellow Jews in Non-Jewish Courts in the Period of the Acharonim
- 7 Contemporary Attempts to Revert to the Original Law of Rava: Expanding the Boundaries of Loyalty
- 8 Conclusion: Reflections on Loyalty and Law
- References
- Index