Event

Jewish Law, also known as Halakhah, is a legal system without a state. Being religious law, its authority is based on its acceptance by believers. As such, it does not have official branches of government. Nor does it have a formal hierarchy of authorities. Traditionally, its sources of law (fontes juris) were halakhic books, mainly based on the Talmud, composed throughout the ages. Nevertheless, hierarchies appeared within it: The rabbinic elite accepted some books as more authoritative than others and some rabbis as "greater" than others. Much of their authority rested on their Jewish communities, which enjoyed the right to enforce religious law until the late 18thcentury under formal or informal grant of authority from ruling governments. In later times, some rabbis gained even greater prestige, not based on any official position in their communities but rather based on their reputation within the rabbinic elite and on a kind of personal charisma. In recent decades some of these rabbis have been ruling on a variety of questions – not all of them strictly halakhic – with very short texts, relying on their own personal authority, sometimes without reference to books. Do these developments corroborate the philosophy of Legal Realism with the case of Jewish Law? Do they turn the Ultra-Orthodox society into a small-scale theocratic version of the "Platonic republic"? and what do they teach us about the trajectories of halakhic Judaism today?  In this lecture we will try to examine these questions.  

Featuring the 2023-2024
Gruss Professor of Talmudic Law
Professor Benjamin Brown

Professor Benjamin Brown is deeply engaged with modern philosophy and political philosophy, the primary focus of his scholarship has been Orthodox Judaism, of which he studies various aspects: Jewish law (Halakhah), Hasidism, the theology of the Musar movement, and Haredi ideology (Hashkafah).

Brown completed his undergraduate studies in law and philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. After practicing law for a year, he returned to the Hebrew University to study Jewish thought (Mahshevet Yisrael) through the Faculty of Humanities and Jewish law (Mishpat ‘Ivri) through the Faculty of Law. His dissertation on the Hazon Ish, which integrated legal, theological, and historical analyses, later served as a basis for his first book (The Hazon Ish: Halakhist, Believer, and Leader of the Haredi Revolution [Jerusalem: Magnes, 2011; Hebrew]). Upon completion of his postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University (2005), he taught Jewish law at Tel Aviv University and Bar-Ilan University. Shortly thereafter, he was appointed a faculty member in the Department of Jewish Thought at his alma mater, the Hebrew University.

While his primary institution is the Hebrew University, Brown also works as a researcher at the Israeli Democracy Institute, where he studies Israeli Haredi Jewry, and teaches a regular course on modern political philosophy at the Kohelet Policy Forum. He was recently named the Samuel L. Haber Chair in Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University.

Hosted by Penn Carey Law. This is a virtual-only event. The Zoom link will be shared in a confirmation email after registration.

This program has been approved for a total of 1.0 Substantive CLE credits for Pennsylvania lawyers. Attendees seeking CLE credit can make a payment via the online registration link in the amount of $40.00 ($20.00 public interest/non-profit attorneys). In order to receive the appropriate amount of credit, passwords provided throughout the program must be noted in your evaluation form. 

Penn Carey Law Alumni receive CLE credits free through The W.P. Carey Foundation’s generous commitment to Lifelong Learning.