Ideals Face Reality: Jewish Law and Life in Poland, 1550-1655 (Monographs of the Hebrew Union College)

This study analyzes how sixteenth -and seventeenth-century jurists adapted the law to the evolving sensibilities of Jewish society. Drawing upon rabbinic legal decisions (responsa), talmudic and legal exegesis, the ordinances of Polish Jewry's political leadership, and Polish legal records, Fram examines cases in which the halakhah confronted unfamiliar circumstances or the special needs of individuals or groups within the community. Dealing with issues such as weddings on the Sabbath, inheritances for daughters, women in the marketplace, the aquisition of leases, letters of credit, and insolvency, rabbis had to reconcile contemporary realities with the demands of a tradition perceived to represent divine law.