Binaries: Remarks on Chaim N. Saiman's 'Halakhah'

11 Pages Posted: 20 Feb 2020

See all articles by Richard Weisberg

Richard Weisberg

Yeshiva University - Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law

Date Written: 2019

Abstract

Binaries are helpful but deceptive, and this may be particularly true of simplistic theological dichotomies purporting to show that the Talmud is "Nitpicking" and Christian Biblical understandings "Expansive", or that Jews believe in the "letter" and Christians in the "spirit", Jews in strict Justice and Christians in "mercy", etc. This essay, which focuses on the character of Shylock and the legalistic cruelty inflicted upon him by Venice's Christians, dissolves such Binaries, leaving in their wake greater clarity about the contrary need to "re-binarize" the falsely unified hyphenated adjective "Judaeo-Christian".

Keywords: Talmud, Binaries, Shylock

Suggested Citation

Weisberg, Richard H., Binaries: Remarks on Chaim N. Saiman's 'Halakhah' (2019). Cardozo Legal Studies Research Paper No. 600, Villanova Law Review, Vol. 64, No. 5, 2019, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3540377

Richard H. Weisberg (Contact Author)

Yeshiva University - Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law ( email )

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