ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that the history of Jewish law is more a matter of historiosophy, that is, of interpretation and meaning, rather than descriptive historiography, than are the histories of other religio-legal traditions. The historical narration of Jewish law is itself a disputed matter across the generations and one indispensable to ideologies and views concerning the Jewish religion. Depicting the history of Jewish law, of which there is no unitary or trans-historical conception, because each of its components – ‘history’, ‘Jewish’ and ‘law’ – is highly contested and subject to intensely held ideological perspectives. In various discourses, the subjugation of Jewish law to external meanings and conceptions was a choice intentionally made by Jewish thinkers and jurists, so that in different contexts it became the authentic and authoritative manifestation of Jewish law. Because Jewish law was seen as a means of achieving personal perfection, transcending ethnic belonging and history, its particularity to the Jews and its very Jewishness were questioned.
