This book traces rabbinic thought on the phenomenon of legal circumventions—finding licit ways to achieve otherwise illegal outcomes. Elana Stein Hain shows how rabbinic literature does not fully reject or accept loopholes, but instead determines their acceptability based on whether their outcomes and processes maintain the integrity of the law.
Elana Stein Hain is the Rosh Beit Midrash and a Senior Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, where she leads research and curriculum development in the Kogod Research Center for Contemporary Jewish Thought and serves as lead faculty for the Institute’s educational programming. This is her first book.
"More than a historical and comparative phenomenology of rabbinic
legal ‘loopholes,’ this conceptually sophisticated and beautifully
written volume offers a fascinating exploration of the role of
values, intention, and subjectivity in classical rabbinic
jurisprudence and exposes the paradoxical faithfulness behind the
circumvention of divine law."
*Christine Hayes, author of What's Divine About Divine Law: Early
Perspectives*
"Elana Stein Hain offers a provocative and persuasive reading of
early rabbinic techniques for circumventing the law that
immeasurably enriches our understanding of the early rabbinic
worldview and invites readers to reconsider how our varying
understandings of human nature shape legal rules from within."
*Suzanne Last Stone, Yeshiva University*
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