- Copyright Page
- List of Abbreviations
- List of Contributors
- Introduction: Vistas in the Study of Biblical Law
- Covenant
- Social Justice
- Offenses Against Human Beings in Private and Public Law
- Litigation: Trial Procedure, Jurisdiction, Evidence, Testimony
- Women, Children, Slaves, and Foreigners
- Ritual Law: Sacrifice and Holy Days
- Purity and Sancta Desecration in Ritual Law
- “An Eye for an Eye” and Capital Punishment
- The Decalogue
- The Book of the Covenant
- Priestly Law
- Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic Reform
- Law and Narrative
- Determining the Date of Biblical Legal Texts
- The Role of Law in the Formation of the Pentateuch and the Canon
- The Law and the Prophets
- Law in the Wisdom Tradition
- Ancient Near Eastern Law Collections and Legal Forms and Institutions
- Ancient Near Eastern Treaties/Loyalty Oaths and Biblical Law
- Monarchy and Law in the Pre-Exilic Period
- Law in the Persian Period
- The Law in the Late Second Temple Period
- The Bible and the Sources of Rabbinic Law
- The Law and the Gospels, with Attention to the Relationship Between the Decalogue and the Sermon on the Mount/Plain
- Ethical and Moral Duties in Rabbinic Judaism
- Paul and the Covenant
- Rabbinic Law
- Ritual Law in Rabbinic Judaism
- Women, Children, and Slaves in Rabbinic Law
- Women, Children, Slaves, and the Law in the New Testament Period
- Social Justice in Early Christianity
- Social Justice in Rabbinic Judaism
- Index of Citations
- Index of Modern Authors
- Index of Subjects
Abstract and Keywords
The category of social justice can be understood to encompass both protection of the vulnerable from abuse and support for the poor (charity). The chapter surveys aspects of social justice, conceived in these broad terms, in the classical rabbinic corpus (c. second to sixth centuriesce). After reviewing methodological challenges, important contributions, and scholarly lacunae, the chapter turns to the conceptualization of charity in rabbinic literature, and the light that rabbinic literature sheds on charity practices in Jewish late antiquity. The final section examines rabbinic interpretation of biblical verses mandating protection of the vulnerable from abuse, with particular attention to the liminal status of such provisions between law and ethics.
Keywords: rabbinic literature, late antiquity, social justice, charity, sabbatical year, law, ethics
Tzvi Novick is Associate Professor and Abrams Chair of Jewish Thought and Culture in the Department of Theology at the University of Notre Dame.
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- Copyright Page
- List of Abbreviations
- List of Contributors
- Introduction: Vistas in the Study of Biblical Law
- Covenant
- Social Justice
- Offenses Against Human Beings in Private and Public Law
- Litigation: Trial Procedure, Jurisdiction, Evidence, Testimony
- Women, Children, Slaves, and Foreigners
- Ritual Law: Sacrifice and Holy Days
- Purity and Sancta Desecration in Ritual Law
- “An Eye for an Eye” and Capital Punishment
- The Decalogue
- The Book of the Covenant
- Priestly Law
- Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic Reform
- Law and Narrative
- Determining the Date of Biblical Legal Texts
- The Role of Law in the Formation of the Pentateuch and the Canon
- The Law and the Prophets
- Law in the Wisdom Tradition
- Ancient Near Eastern Law Collections and Legal Forms and Institutions
- Ancient Near Eastern Treaties/Loyalty Oaths and Biblical Law
- Monarchy and Law in the Pre-Exilic Period
- Law in the Persian Period
- The Law in the Late Second Temple Period
- The Bible and the Sources of Rabbinic Law
- The Law and the Gospels, with Attention to the Relationship Between the Decalogue and the Sermon on the Mount/Plain
- Ethical and Moral Duties in Rabbinic Judaism
- Paul and the Covenant
- Rabbinic Law
- Ritual Law in Rabbinic Judaism
- Women, Children, and Slaves in Rabbinic Law
- Women, Children, Slaves, and the Law in the New Testament Period
- Social Justice in Early Christianity
- Social Justice in Rabbinic Judaism
- Index of Citations
- Index of Modern Authors
- Index of Subjects
