What is halakha? Is it just a system of law or also a legal medium to discuss some of Judaism's most weighty religious questions? In this episode, Rav David Silverstein is joined by Professor Chaim Saiman to discuss these issues through the prism of Professor Saiman's important book, Halakha: The Rabbinic Idea of Law.

Professor Chaim Saiman is Professor of Law at Villanova Law School, and has served as Gruss Visiting Professor of Talmudic Law at both Harvard Law School and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, a visiting fellow at Princeton University and as a visiting professor at the University of Toronto, Bar-Ilan, Hebrew University and IDC faculties of law. He is the author of Halakhah: The Rabbinic Idea of Law, published by Princeton University Press. Professor Saiman earned his J.D. from Columbia University School of Law, and studied for a number of years at Yeshivat Har-Etzion (Gush) and Yeshivat Kerem B’Yavneh in Israel. He also served as a law clerk to Judge Michael McConnell on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.

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Music from "Ashreinu" by Omek HaDavar
Recorded in the Old City of Jerusalem at Yeshivat Orayta (orayta.org) | Facebook | Instagram