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A Living Tree: The Roots and Growth of Jewish Law

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This book examines biblical and rabbinic law as a coherent, continuing legal tradition. The authors are religious Jews, but non-fundamentalists.

The publisher writes that: "It explains the relationship between religion and law and the interaction between law and morality. Abundant selections from primary Jewish sources, many newly translated, enable the reader to address the tradition directly as a living body of law with emphasis on the concerns that are primary for lawyers, legislators, and judges. This book has a comprehensive study of how Jewish law is applied and how it has developed from the Torah, through the Mishna and Talmud, into today's era. The book studies in great detail the evolution of halakha, an compares it to its parallel development in American law. This is illustrated by mainly dealing with three issues: (1) personal injury law, (2) Smoking, and (3) Marriage and divorce. Each of these issues is compared to American law, and is studied from the Orthodox, Conservative and Reform point of view. 'A Living Tree' will be of special interest to students of law and to Jews curious about the legal dimensions of their tradition. The authors provide sufficient explanations of the sources and their significance to make it unnecessary for the reader to have a background in either Jewish studies or law. "

Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff is Provost and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Judaism, and is a member of the Conservative movement's Committe on Jewish Law and Standards. Arthur Rosett is Professor of Law at the University of California at Los Angeles.