Jewish Modern Law and Legalism in a Global Age

The Case of Rabbi Joseph Karo

Bibliographic Data

ID5811096
AuthorsRoni Weinstein (0000-0002-0023-9578, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume17
Issue2
Pages561-578
Publication date2018-07-06
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueModern Intellectual History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1479-2443 • E-ISSN: 1479-2451
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s1479244318000264
OpenAlexW2845093314
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited30

During the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, Rabbi Joseph Karo composed two major Jewish codes of law: the Beit Yosef, and its abridged version, Sulchan 'Aruch. Though several centuries of legal discussion and scholarship have passed since their publication, these double codes of law were never superseded. This codification project defined the axial place of law in Jewish tradition. I argue that it responded to changes in legal processes and the enforcement of law that simultaneously transformed early modern Europe and the Ottoman world. Transcontinentally connected changes in political institutions-the formation of a centralized Islamic empire in the Ottoman case, and the formation of centralized states in Europe-dramatically redefined the role of law and legal codification in the forging of state power and community identities. The resultant belief among Sephardi rabbis, including Karo, that changes in Jewish legal tradition were now needed, prompted a redefinition of Jewish legal culture, whereby law (a gradually centralized conception of it) began to be seen as the foundation of Jewish religious heritage and ethnic identity. Despite the absence of state backing, early modern transformations in Jewish law were thus part of comparable changes taking place in the European and Islamic legal worlds

Archaeology · Judaism · Legal culture · Legalism (Western philosophy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science) · History · Islamic Studies and History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Law · Medieval and Classical Philosophy

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