{"product_id":"halachah-of-the-bizarre-von-joseph-hample","title":"Halachah of the Bizarre","description":"\u003cp\u003eJudaism is often identified as a legalistic  religion.  Usually this is meant as criticism, and  of course a legalistic religion is not to everyone''s  taste.  But I find something touching in the rabbis''  certainty that everything in the universe, or in our  most improbable fantasies, can be subjected to legal  analysis and classification.  If our sages believed  that God''s will can be known with microscopic  precision, in even the most far-fetched situations,  were they mad or brilliant?  It depends on your  point of view. It is my position that absurd legislation is not in  the Talmud by mistake, that the rabbis knew it was  absurd, but there is not merely one reason for why  it''s there.  Sometimes the improbable legislation is  not to be taken seriously; it is a test case, a  hypothetical example, a reductio ad absurdum, or  occasionally just a witticism.  Other times it is  meant seriously, though perhaps not literally.  Let  us remember that we are speaking of religion, which  has a high tolerance for paradox: a religion like  Zen Buddhism positively delights in the irrational.   If absurdity is spiritually moving to the Zen  Buddhist, why not to the rabbinic Jew?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"aw-variant-hidden-subtitle-div\" id=\"aw-variant-subtitle-9783838331751\"\u003e\u003ch3\u003eLegal Absurdities in the Mishnah and Talmud\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Autorenwelt Shop","offers":[{"title":"Softcover - 9783838331751","offer_id":39498907615325,"sku":"9783838331751","price":49.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0940\/0622\/files\/cafbe266-593b-423b-9143-f891e31e9767.jpg?v=1776487274","url":"https:\/\/shop.autorenwelt.de\/products\/halachah-of-the-bizarre-von-joseph-hample","provider":"Autorenwelt Shop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}