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The Lost World of the Torah: Law as Covenant and Wisdom in Ancient Context is unavailable, but you can change that!

Our handling of what we call biblical law veers between controversy and neglect. On the one hand, controversy arises when Old Testament laws seem either odd beyond comprehension (not eating lobster) or positively reprehensible (executing children). On the other, neglect results when we consider the law obsolete, no longer carrying any normative power (tassels on clothing, making sacrifices)....

actually been broken and to what extent the consequences should be applied. This system relies heavily on logical precision (both in the writing of the rules themselves and in the presentation of evidence) and precedent. We very specifically do not want the judge (or the jury) to apply their intuition about what they think constitutes “wrongness” and about what they feel should happen to this specific individual, so we force them to work within a series of methodological constraints (for example,
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