Law's Dominion: Jewish Community, Religion, and Family in Early Modern Metz

Erscheinungsjahr 2019
ISBN: 978-90-04-41739-7
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 60, 404 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 233 mm, Gewicht: 594 g

Reihe: Studies in Jewish History and

In Law’s Dominion, Jay Berkovitz offers a novel approach to the history of early modern Jewry. Set in the city of Metz, on the Moselle river, this study of a vibrant prerevolutionary community draws on a wide spectrum of legal sources that tell a story about community, religion, and family that has not been told before.

Focusing on the community’s leadership, public institutions, and judiciary, this study challenges the assumption that Jewish life was in a steady state of decline before the French Revolution. To the contrary, the evidence reveals a robust community that integrated religious values and civic consciousness, interacted with French society, and showed remarkable signs of collaboration between Jewish law and the French judicial system.

In Law’s Dominion, Jay Berkovitz has gathered and meticulously mined a dazzling array of rich and complex rabbinic texts and records from Western Europe during the early modern period, including the pinkas of the rabbinic court of Metz that he previously rescued from oblivion. What emerges is a remarkably fresh depiction and incisive comparative treatment of central aspects of Jewish law, religion and family, which will have far-reaching ramifications for all future studies in these disciplines.

-Ephraim Kanarfogel, E. Billi Ivry University Professor of Jewish History, Literature, and Law at Yeshiva University

Autoren/Hrsg.

Berkovitz, Jay R.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Jüdische Studien Geschichte des Judentums Geschichte des Judentums: Moderne & Gegenwart
• Geisteswissenschaften Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien Jüdisches Recht
• Geisteswissenschaften Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien: Leben & Praxis, Soziale Aspekte
• Rechtswissenschaften Recht, Rechtswissenschaft Allgemein Rechtsgeschichte, Recht der Antike
• Rechtswissenschaften Ausländisches Recht Jüdisches Recht

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Maps

Introduction

Part 1: Foundations

1 Writing Jewish History through a Legal Lens

Rabbinic Responsa Literature

Communal Registers (Pinkasim)

Lay and Rabbinic Court Records

Law as a Cultural System

The Production of the Metz Pinkas Beit Din

2 The Foundations of the Metz Kehillah

Return of the Jews to France and the Establishment of the Metz Community

Ritual and Identity

Material Culture

Economic Integration

Part 2: Community, Governance, Authority

3 Communal Autonomy and Governance

Electoral and Administrative Procedures

Consumption and Social Status

Poverty and Social Welfare

Juridical Autonomy and Recourse to Non-Jewish Courts

Policing Religious and Cultural Boundaries

4 Lay and Rabbinic Judicial Authority

Lay and Rabbinic Tribunals

Sources of Law

Judicial Procedure

Functions of the Beit Din

5 Navigating the Challenges of Multiple Jurisdictions

Language

Production of Bi-lingual Documents

Patterns of Litigation in the Beit Din

Judicial Behavior of the Metz Beit Din

The Acquaintance of the Beit Din with French Law and Judicial Procedure

Navigating the Two Systems

The Impact of French Law on Rabbinic Jurisprudence

Part 3: Family Affairs

6 Guardianship and Inheritance

Guardianship

Inheritance

Testamentary Charity

7 Women, Marriage, and Property

Betrothal and Marriage

Marital Property

Women in Credit and Commerce

8 Conclusion and Epilogue

Glossary

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Jay R. Berkovitz, Ph.D. (1983), Brandeis University, is Distinguished Professor of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies (Emeritus) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He has published extensively in the fields of early modern history and law, including Protocols of Justice (Brill, 2014).