Judging within the Rabbinic Household in the Babylonian Talmud

Abstract

Abstract Included among the many case reports gathered in the Babylonian Talmud are some trials that go awry because of the judge’s inescapable prior relationships and affective investment in the case. Chapter 7 argues that for the authors of these narratives, the judge’s favouritism is seen as essentially inevitable, with stricter, more neutral, legal reasoning unable to compete with a far more powerful mode of knowing and deciding. Talmudic and rabbinic methodology continues to embrace legal reasoning, with an awareness of its limitations. Particular litigants and their relationships to those who render judgments come to the fore and are revealed to be far more decisive than adherence to rules and precedent; at times these personal ties lead to a broader and more perfect justice, and at times they lead to preferential treatment for insiders. These stories puncture the fantasy that a judge can transcend their material and social environment.