The 2025 Caroline Zelaznik & Joseph S. Gruss Lecture in Talmudic Civil Law
1.0 Substantive credits
Sympotic Rabbis, Truth, and the Glorious Uncertainty of Law
The Talmud is famous for its labyrinthine debates and dialectical subversions, but is it law? By situating the Talmud in the literary tradition of the late antique symposium, we gain insights into the rabbis’ “epistemological agon” and their skeptical approach to the notion of a single legal truth. This lecture argues that the Talmud’s skepticism is grounded in a positive embrace of uncertainty as the antidote to both moral absolutism and moral nihilism, with implications for contemporary approaches to law.
Presented by Professor Christine Hayes
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The 2025 Caroline Zelaznik & Joseph S. Gruss Lecture in Talmudic Civil Law
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