Joseph Karo and Shaping of Modern Jewish Law: The Early Modern Ottoman and Global Settings

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The double codes of law composed by R. Joseph Karo during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries mark a watershed in the history of Jewish Halakhah [law]. No further legal project was suggested in later generations. The books suggest a new reading beyond the aspects of positive law. R. Karo continued centuries-
long traditions of Jewish erudition, in tandem with responding to global changes in history of law and legality bothin Europe, and mainly in the Ottoman Empire. It is a global reading of Jewish Halakhah and modernization of Jewishculture in general.

Reviews

Roni Weinsteins cross-denominational approach to Yossef Karos legal corpus is undoubtedly a turning point for scholars of Jewish and Ottoman legal traditions. This thorough book carefully maps out the Ottoman and broaderMediterranean contexts of Karos legal oeuvre, giving historians of Ottoman Islamic law much to consider. GuyBurak, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Librarian at NYUs Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, USA.

Roni Weinsteins thought-provoking book situates the codification of Jewish law and mystical-cum-legal thought ofRabbi Joseph Caro, the Master of Talmudic scholars in sixteenth-century Ottoman Safed, into a global early modernEurasian context increasingly attuned to the community-making capacity of law. By engaging closely with recentresearch in anthropology of law, early modern Jewish and European history, as well as Ottoman legal history, Weinsteinprovides a new, dialogic reading of Caro. The book points to legal history as a fertile ground on which to explore notonly global early modern trends such as the search for a strong center (legal, spatial, or otherwise) as the basis forcommunity-building but also ways of integration of non-Muslims into Ottoman society. Tijana Krstic, historian of theearly modern Ottoman Empire and professor at Central European University, Hungary.

In Joseph Karo and Shaping of Modern Jewish Law: The Early Modern Ottoman and Global Settings Roni Weinsteinengages an impressive range of scholarship and source materials as he crafts a valuable comparative analysis that cutsacross early modern Islamic, Jewish, and Christian history and society. This book advances our knowledge ofnumerous legal issuesfrom canonization, codification, the anthropology of law, comparative law, the role of law in therise of the modern state, and the relationship between law and mysticism, to the impact of printing. Weinsteinsimpressive scholarship deepens our understanding of the work and life of the towering figure of Joseph Karo and addsnuance to the examination of many core early modern topics. Dean Phillip Bell, President/CEO and Professor ofJewish History, Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership, USA.

Author Bio

Roni Weinstein teaches at the Hebrew University, Foreign Students Program.