Stories from Court: Lay People's Power in the Talmud
Lynn Kaye, Associate Professor of Rabbinic Literature and Thought, Brandeis University
The Talmud, a foundational text for Jewish law, completed by c. 650 CE in what is now Iraq, recounts thousands of case stories. In a few hundred, lay people make their voices heard in court, using a variety of tactics and arguments when they appear before rabbi-judges. While the Sasanian empire had a legal apparatus, the Jewish population seems to have had self-governing opportunities, with courts of arbitration.
This lecture will tell some of these stories, of men and women, some good, some bad, some knowledgeable, some lucky, and explain what purpose these stories serve in an ancient corpus of law. The topics range from disputes over claiming abandoned land, to arguments over inheritance, from tricky divorces, to compensation for assaults, injury, and theft. The stories dramatize how ordinary people navigate the unfamiliar terrain of law courts, as they try to find justice.
Lynn Kaye is an Associate Professor of Rabbinic Literature and Thought. Her areas of interest include Rabbinic law and narrative, philosophies of time, legal theory, and critical and literary theory. She completed graduate training in Hebrew Bible at the University of Cambridge and in Rabbinic Literature at NYU, during which time she held fellowships at Cardozo Law School and NYU Law School. She is on the editorial board of Oqimta: Studies in Talmudic and Rabbinic Literature. She has taught courses in rabbinic literature, Classical Hebrew grammar and theories of time.
Supported by the Pearl and Troy Feibel Lecture fund on Judaism and Law.
