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184-401: For a divorce to be effective, halakha requires that a man grant his wife a get of his own free will . Without a get , no new marriage will be recognized, and any child she might have with another man would be considered a mamzer ( illegitimate ). It is sometimes possible for a woman to receive special dispensation from a posek ( halakhic authority), called a heter agunah , based on

368-483: A false dilemma . Different compatibilists offer very different definitions of what "free will" means and consequently find different types of constraints to be relevant to the issue. Classical compatibilists considered free will nothing more than freedom of action, considering one free of will simply if, had one counterfactually wanted to do otherwise, one could have done otherwise without physical impediment. Many contemporary compatibilists instead identify free will as

552-417: A get when a husband wants to give one, than cases in which the man refuses to grant a get . There are also cases where the get is offered to protect the wife. For example, if the husband is undertaking a dangerous activity, or is being imprisoned for a lengthy time, he may wish to divorce entirely to help his wife by freeing her. Often, such offers are refused. Karaite Judaism , which does not recognize

736-508: A get , intended to speed up the process of granting a get , and this court is not involving itself in any future arrangements for the granting of a get , but rather, it is a direct response to the consequences that stem from not granting a get , and the right of the woman to receive punitive damages." This ruling stemmed from the Public Litigation Project initiated by the advocacy organization Center for Women's Justice as one of

920-526: A get : In 1995 the Israeli parliament gave the rabbinical court expanded legal power to sanction men who refuse to give their wives a get by suspending their driver's licenses, seizing their bank accounts, preventing travel abroad and even imprisoning those who do not comply with an order to grant a divorce; however, women's groups say the 1995 law is not very effective because the court uses sanctions in less than 2% of cases. In 2004, Justice Menachem HaCohen of

1104-441: A mesorevet get by a rabbinical court. However, not any woman who wants to leave an unwanted marriage but is refused by her husband, is considered to be a victim of get refusal. There are opinions that deem a woman's repugnance for her husband as acceptable halakhic grounds for coercion. "It is said: In cases of granting a get to a woman, the man is forced until he says, 'I wish to do so ' ". Nevertheless, in almost all cases, it

1288-471: A "provisional get " to their wives before leaving for battle. This practice can raise halakhic issues, especially for Kohanim (members of the priestly class). Since they are forbidden from marrying divorcees, were they to end up returning safely after the date the provisional get went into effect they would be unable to remarry their wives. Because of the serious nature of adultery in Jewish law, an agunah

1472-515: A 2020 landmark case in London, a woman obtained a get after launching a private criminal prosecution against her husband for "controlling and coercive behaviour in an intimate of family relationship" contrary to section 76 of the Serious Crime Act 2015. This was submitted on the basis that her husband had kept her in an intimate relationship against her will. The criminal prosecution was dropped when

1656-518: A choice or volition – a willing, trying, or endeavoring on behalf of the agent (such as the cognitive component of lifting one's arm). Such intentional actions are interpreted as free actions. It has been suggested, however, that such acting cannot be said to exercise control over anything in particular. According to non-causal accounts, the causation by the agent cannot be analysed in terms of causation by mental states or events, including desire, belief, intention of something in particular, but rather

1840-511: A compilation by Zechariah Aghmati called Sefer ha-Ner . The Tosafot are collected commentaries by various medieval Ashkenazic rabbis on the Talmud (known as Tosafists or Ba'alei Tosafot ). One of the main goals of the Tosafot is to explain and interpret contradictory statements in the Talmud. Unlike Rashi, the Tosafot is not a running commentary, but rather comments on selected matters. Often

2024-562: A complex decision supported by substantial evidence that her husband is presumed dead, but this cannot be applied if the husband is clearly alive. Because of the difficulty for women in such situations, it has been a task for every generation of halakhic authorities to try to find halakhically acceptable means to permit such women to remarry. In the past it was not uncommon, due to the danger of travel and primitive means of communication, for people leaving home never to be heard of again; consequently rabbis often had had to deal with this issue. Over

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2208-417: A conscious being). While determinism usually refers to a naturalistically explainable causality of events, predeterminism seems by definition to suggest a person or a "someone" who is controlling or planning the causality of events before they occur and who then perhaps resides beyond the natural, causal universe. Predestination asserts that a supremely powerful being has indeed fixed all events and outcomes in

2392-567: A consensus view. The rabbis recorded in the Mishnah are known as the Tannaim (literally, "repeaters", or "teachers"). These tannaim—rabbis of the second century CE--"who produced the Mishnah and other tannaic works, must be distinguished from the rabbis of the third to fifth centuries, known as amoraim (literally, "speakers"), who produced the two Talmudim and other amoraic works". Since it sequences its laws by subject matter instead of by biblical context,

2576-403: A deterministic universe is known as the problem of free will or sometimes referred to as the dilemma of determinism . This dilemma leads to a moral dilemma as well: the question of how to assign responsibility for actions if they are caused entirely by past events. Compatibilists maintain that mental reality is not of itself causally effective. Classical compatibilists have addressed

2760-496: A different problem for free will. Hard determinism is the claim that determinism is true, and that it is incompatible with free will , so free will does not exist. Although hard determinism generally refers to nomological determinism (see causal determinism below), it can include all forms of determinism that necessitate the future in its entirety. Relevant forms of determinism include: Other forms of determinism are more relevant to compatibilism, such as biological determinism ,

2944-409: A ditch of snakes and scorpions—[there is] no [need] to testify [that he is dead] ' ". In other words, if it is known that the man fell into a ditch of snakes and scorpions and did not come out, it can be assumed that he is dead, and there is no need for further evidence (unlike falling into a lion's den where there is still a slight chance of survival). If, however, it is later discovered that the husband

3128-503: A given set of circumstances. Accounts of libertarianism subdivide into non-physical theories and physical or naturalistic theories. Non-physical theories hold that the events in the brain that lead to the performance of actions do not have an entirely physical explanation, which requires that the world is not closed under physics. This includes interactionist dualism , which claims that some non-physical mind , will, or soul overrides physical causality . Physical determinism implies there

3312-434: A list of particular grounds for divorce, the beth din (rabbinical court) may apply pressure on the husband in these situations. There are some halakhic decisors who would act accordingly in the cases of abuse or neglect. Nevertheless, not under all circumstances is a wife entitled to demand a divorce according to halakha . If a wife who is not halakhically entitled to a divorce does demand one, she may not be considered as

3496-582: A lower boundary on the dating of the Babylonian Talmud, it must post-date the early 5th century given its reliance on the Jerusalem Talmud . From the time of its completion, the Talmud became integral to Jewish scholarship. A maxim in Pirkei Avot advocates its study from the age of 15. This section outlines some of the major areas of Talmudic study. One area of Talmudic scholarship developed out of

3680-554: A major focus of philosophical debate. The view that posits free will as incompatible with determinism is called incompatibilism and encompasses both metaphysical libertarianism (the claim that determinism is false and thus free will is at least possible) and hard determinism (the claim that determinism is true and thus free will is not possible). Another incompatibilist position is hard incompatibilism , which holds not only determinism but also indeterminism to be incompatible with free will and thus free will to be impossible whatever

3864-419: A man to have multiple wives, and a child born to a married man with a single woman is not considered to be a mamzer . Thus, while a woman who enters a new relationship while married suffers severe halachic consequences, a man doing the same suffers much lighter consequences. However, in the beginning of the 11th century, Rabbenu Gershom issued a decree prohibiting Jewish men from practising bigamy (though this

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4048-514: A man's future children will not be considered illegitimate." In 2015 Tzohar (a religious Zionist rabbinic organization in Israel), along with the Israeli Bar Association , introduced a prenuptial agreement meant to help ensure divorcing wives will receive a get ; under the agreement the husband commits to paying a high sum of money daily to his spouse in the event of a separation. In 2018

4232-399: A modern-day version of the aforementioned, Harchakot D'Rabeinu Tam, which include: revoking of a driver's license, closing of bank accounts, revoking professional licenses such as medical and legal, cancellation of a passport, and incarceration. Practically, one of the most effective of these has turned out to be revoking a recalcitrant husband's driver's license. Even so, neither the laws nor

4416-412: A new causal chain. But this is impossible. Man cannot create himself or his mental states ex nihilo . This argument entails that free will itself is absurd, but not that it is incompatible with determinism. Strawson calls his own view "pessimism" but it can be classified as hard incompatibilism . Causal determinism is the concept that events within a given paradigm are bound by causality in such

4600-426: A non-physical entity on physical reality. Indeterministic physical models (particularly those involving quantum indeterminacy ) introduce random occurrences at an atomic or subatomic level. These events might affect brain activity, and could seemingly allow incompatibilist free will if the apparent indeterminacy of some mental processes (for instance, subjective perceptions of control in conscious volition ) map to

4784-600: A number of successful lawsuits filed in Israeli civil courts claiming financial damages against recalcitrant husbands. In 2007, the Rabbinical Courts Administration released a report concerning agunot in Israel. The report clarified that various categories of unresolved divorce cases existed and that only a small percentage of cases are deemed as receiving the status of agunah. The report stated that in 2006-07 there were 942 unresolved divorce cases, with 69 receiving

4968-407: A power, or ability, to prefer or choose". The contemporary philosopher Galen Strawson agrees with Locke that the truth or falsity of determinism is irrelevant to the problem. He argues that the notion of free will leads to an infinite regress and is therefore senseless. According to Strawson, if one is responsible for what one does in a given situation, then one must be responsible for the way one

5152-571: A provisional get that only goes into effect if the husband does not return by a specified date. During World War II , some American Jewish and other chaplains provided combat soldiers with a "provisional get ", which only goes into effect if the husband is missing in action, leaving his wife an agunah . This practice is based on the Talmudic declaration that King David did not commit adultery when lying with Bathsheba (see II Samuel 11 ), since all of his soldiers (including Bathsheba's husband) gave

5336-530: A psychological capacity, such as to direct one's behavior in a way responsive to reason, and there are still further different conceptions of free will, each with their own concerns, sharing only the common feature of not finding the possibility of determinism a threat to the possibility of free will. The problem of free will has been identified in ancient Greek philosophical literature. The notion of compatibilist free will has been attributed to both Aristotle (4th century BCE) and Epictetus (1st century CE): "it

5520-613: A rabbinic prenuptial agreement. The agreement states that in the case of the couple divorcing civilly, the husband is obligated to immediately deliver to his wife a get. The initiative was launched by Sara Winkowski, a director of the Kehila, the Comunidad Israelita del Uruguay (Jewish Community of Uruguay), who is also a Vice President of the World Jewish Congress and longtime activist for the rights of women within Jewish law. In

5704-455: A robot, then people must not have free will. This argument has been rejected by compatibilists such as Daniel Dennett on the grounds that, even if humans have something in common with these things, it remains possible and plausible that we are different from such objects in important ways. Another argument for incompatibilism is that of the "causal chain". Incompatibilism is key to the idealist theory of free will. Most incompatibilists reject

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5888-492: A self-contained, edited passage known as a sugya . Much of the Gemara is legal in nature. Each analysis begins with a Mishnaic legal statement. With each sugya, the statement may be analyzed and compared with other statements. This process can be framed as an exchange between two (often anonymous, possibly metaphorical) disputants, termed the makshan (questioner) and tartzan (answerer). Gemara also commonly tries to find

6072-410: A separate pre-marital agreement was signed, and in the presence of the rabbinical court, the prospective groom read it, and the prospective bride stated that she agreed to it. The agreement was that the parties understood that if a civil divorce were ever granted, then a get must be delivered within six months of that date. A refusal to abide by that agreement would give the court no choice but to consider

6256-640: A sole for one's foot. Despite its incomplete state, the Jerusalem Talmud remains an indispensable source of knowledge of the development of the Jewish Law in the Holy Land. It was also an important primary source for the study of the Babylonian Talmud by the Kairouan school of Chananel ben Chushiel and Nissim ben Jacob , with the result that opinions ultimately based on the Jerusalem Talmud found their way into both

6440-525: A solution to this problem. Various remedies have been proposed, but as yet, no one solution has common acceptance. Nevertheless, the Jewish prenuptial agreement is one remedy which is in use in Modern Orthodox Jewish communities worldwide and is accepted by moderate halakhic authorities. Circumstances leading to a woman being declared an agunah are: A woman who is denied a divorce from her husband

6624-406: A way that any state (of an object or event) is completely determined by prior states. Causal determinism proposes that there is an unbroken chain of prior occurrences stretching back to the origin of the universe. Causal determinists believe that there is nothing uncaused or self-caused . The most common form of causal determinism is nomological determinism (or scientific determinism), the notion that

6808-626: Is Biblically forbidden to marry again; and children she might bear to another man would be considered mamzerim according to halakha . A man is similarly not permitted to marry before being divorced, but the ban is much less severe (because monogamy was instituted by one single overreaching authority in Europe in around the year 1000 CE, and was accepted in Europe among the ( Ashkenazim ), whereas Sefardic and Mizrahi (Eastern) Jewish communities did not formally accept monogamy only until very recently, after aliyah to Israel in 1950's onward.) This considered,

6992-482: Is a compatibilist and she has just sat down on the sofa, then she is committed to the claim that she could have remained standing, if she had so desired. But it follows from the consequence argument that, if Jane had remained standing, she would have either generated a contradiction, violated the laws of nature or changed the past. Hence, compatibilists are committed to the existence of "incredible abilities", according to Ginet and van Inwagen. One response to this argument

7176-427: Is a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual. It is a concept based on the belief that there is a fixed natural order to the cosmos. Although often used interchangeably, the words "fate" and "destiny" have distinct connotations. Fate generally implies there is a set course that cannot be deviated from, and over which one has no control. Fate

7360-454: Is a set course that cannot be deviated from, but does not of itself make any claim with respect to the setting of that course (i.e., it does not necessarily conflict with incompatibilist free will). Free will if existent could be the mechanism by which that destined outcome is chosen (determined to represent destiny). Discussion regarding destiny does not necessitate the existence of supernatural powers. Logical determinism or determinateness

7544-421: Is already present in a deterministic world. Deliberative indeterminism asserts that the indeterminism is confined to an earlier stage in the decision process. This is intended to provide an indeterminate set of possibilities to choose from, while not risking the introduction of luck (random decision making). The selection process is deterministic, although it may be based on earlier preferences established by

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7728-498: Is and the implications of whether it exists or not constitute some of the longest running debates of philosophy. Some conceive of free will as the ability to act beyond the limits of external influences or wishes. Some conceive free will to be the capacity to make choices undetermined by past events. Determinism suggests that only one course of events is possible, which is inconsistent with a libertarian model of free will. Ancient Greek philosophy identified this issue, which remains

7912-440: Is appealed to as supplying the "elbow room" that libertarians believe necessary. A first common objection to event-causal accounts is that the indeterminism could be destructive and could therefore diminish control by the agent rather than provide it (related to the problem of origination). A second common objection to these models is that it is questionable whether such indeterminism could add any value to deliberation over that which

8096-421: Is associated with non-materialist constructions, including both traditional dualism , as well as models supporting more minimal criteria; such as the ability to consciously veto an action or competing desire. Yet even with physical indeterminism , arguments have been made against libertarianism in that it is difficult to assign Origination (responsibility for "free" indeterministic choices). Free will here

8280-420: Is assumed power to intervene in the physical world. Agent (substance)-causal accounts have been suggested by both George Berkeley and Thomas Reid . It is required that what the agent causes is not causally determined by prior events. It is also required that the agent's causing of that event is not causally determined by prior events. A number of problems have been identified with this view. Firstly, it

8464-417: Is considered a matter of spontaneity and creativity. The exercise of intent in such intentional actions is not that which determines their freedom – intentional actions are rather self-generating. The "actish feel" of some intentional actions do not "constitute that event's activeness, or the agent's exercise of active control", rather they "might be brought about by direct stimulation of someone's brain, in

8648-431: Is difficult to establish the reason for any given choice by the agent, which suggests they may be random or determined by luck (without an underlying basis for the free will decision). Secondly, it has been questioned whether physical events can be caused by an external substance or mind – a common problem associated with interactionalist dualism . Hard incompatibilism is the idea that free will cannot exist, whether

8832-558: Is during this period that rabbinic discourse began to be recorded in writing. In antiquity, the two major centres of Jewish scholarship were located in Galilee and Babylonia . A Talmud was compiled in each of these regional centres. The earlier of the two compilations took place in Galilee, either in the late fourth or early fifth century, and it came to be known as the Jerusalem Talmud (or Talmud Yerushalmi ). Later on, and likely some time in

9016-430: Is evident that observation may disturb the outcome of the observation itself, rendering limited our ability to identify causality. Niels Bohr , one of the main architects of quantum theory, suggested, however, that no connection could be made between indeterminism of nature and freedom of will. Agent/substance-causal accounts of incompatibilist free will rely upon substance dualism in their description of mind. The agent

9200-410: Is forbidden to marry another man, regardless of the circumstances, whether accidental or malicious, that left her an agunah in the first place, or the amount of time that has passed since she first became an agunah . A child born from another man to an agunah is considered a safek mamzer ( illegitimate ), and may only marry a convert. Because of the dire situation of the agunah , every effort

9384-403: Is frequently taken to mean that human actions cannot interfere with (or have no bearing on) the outcomes of a pre-determined course of events, and that one's destiny was established externally (for example, exclusively by a creator deity). The concept of predeterminism is often argued by invoking causal determinism , implying that there is an unbroken chain of prior occurrences stretching back to

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9568-429: Is given by a husband to his wife of his own free will. However, under certain circumstances such as intimate partner violence or emotional abuse, especially where such abuse and refusal to grant a get, or ignoring the ruling of a beit din , has been ongoing for a period of several years, certain kinds of pressure may be applied on a husband to force him to grant a divorce to his wife. Where a woman has proven one or more of

9752-421: Is in certain mental respects. But it is impossible for one to be responsible for the way one is in any respect. This is because to be responsible in some situation S , one must have been responsible for the way one was at S . To be responsible for the way one was at S , one must have been responsible for the way one was at S , and so on. At some point in the chain, there must have been an act of origination of

9936-811: Is largely in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic , although quotations in the Gemara of the Mishnah, the Baraitas and Tanakh appear in Mishnaic or Biblical Hebrew. Some other dialects of Aramaic occur in quotations of other older works, like the Megillat Taanit . The reason why earlier texts occur in Hebrew, and later texts in Aramaic, is because of the adoption of the latter (which was the spoken vernacular) by rabbinic circles during

10120-405: Is made to release her from her marriage. This can be done in three ways: According to most rabbis , reasonable circumstantial evidence is sufficient to prove the death of the husband, and no direct testimony is required. This is based, among other things, on the talmudic assertion: "The Rabbis taught: 'If he fell into a lion 's den, [bring witnesses to] testify [that he is dead], if he fell into

10304-589: Is not considered an agunah until her husband refuses an order by a beth din (rabbinic court) to give her a get . What constitutes a legitimate request for a divorce is based on halakhic considerations and the particular case of the couple. See Mesorevet get below. In modern and ancient times, warfare has been a major cause of women being declared agunot (plural of agunah ), as (especially in ancient times) soldiers are often killed with no one knowing. Many efforts have been made to resolve this problem in accordance with halakhic principles, including issuing

10488-427: Is not dead, the woman will find herself in particularly bad circumstances: her children from her second marriage will be considered mamzerim , and she will be forced to divorce both her first and second husbands, subject to the halakhic ruling that an adulterous woman "is forbidden to her husband and the man with whom she fornicated". While such situations are extremely rare under normal circumstances, they did occur in

10672-428: Is not generally accepted amongst the halakhic authorities as there is generally no method to disprove intent. It is felt that the purpose of this endeavor is solely or primarily to retroactively delegitimize a marriage that was performed and accepted often many years previously. Annulling the marriage has no impact on the status of the woman's children. However, since it is not a generally accepted mechanism, it may leave

10856-426: Is not limited to reading the ketubah , serving as a witness, and making one of the sheva berachot ". By 2019, the vast majority of Modern Orthodox rabbis took the same approach. A related case is that of a woman whose husband has died childless: in such a situation, the husband's brother is required by Jewish law to enter into yibbum (a kind of levirate marriage ) with the widow so as to have children with her in

11040-456: Is often criticized as being a modern-day version of pilpul . Nevertheless, the influence of the Brisker method is great. Most modern-day Yeshivot study the Talmud using the Brisker method in some form. One feature of this method is the use of Maimonides ' Mishneh Torah as a guide to Talmudic interpretation, as distinct from its use as a source of practical halakha . Rival methods were those of

11224-409: Is only one possible future and is therefore not compatible with libertarian free will. As consequent of incompatibilism, metaphysical libertarian explanations that do not involve dispensing with physicalism require physical indeterminism, such as probabilistic subatomic particle behavior – theory unknown to many of the early writers on free will. Incompatibilist theories can be categorised based on

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11408-421: Is perhaps more relevant. Despite this, hard determinism has grown less popular in present times, given scientific suggestions that determinism is false – yet the intention of their position is sustained by hard incompatibilism. One kind of incompatibilism, metaphysical libertarianism holds onto a concept of free will that requires that the agent be able to take more than one possible course of action under

11592-520: Is predominantly treated with respect to physical determinism in the strict sense of nomological determinism , although other forms of determinism are also relevant to free will. For example, logical and theological determinism challenge metaphysical libertarianism with ideas of destiny and fate , and biological , cultural and psychological determinism feed the development of compatibilist models. Separate classes of compatibilism and incompatibilism may even be formed to represent these. Below are

11776-560: Is primarily because the prestige of the Jewish community of Israel steadily declined in contrast with the Babylonian community in the years after the redaction of the Talmud and continuing until the Gaonic era. Maimonides claims that all Jewish communities in the Gaonic period formally accepted the Babylonian Talmud as binding, and that in any areas where the two Talmuds conflict, deference is given to

11960-443: Is regarded as more comprehensive. The structure of the Talmud follows that of the Mishnah, in which six orders ( sedarim ; singular: seder ) of general subject matter are divided into 60 or 63 tractates ( masekhtot ; singular: masekhet ) of more focused subject compilations, though not all tractates have Gemara. Each tractate is divided into chapters ( perakim ; singular: perek ), 517 in total, that are both numbered according to

12144-400: Is related to determinism , but makes no specific claim of physical determinism. Even with physical indeterminism an event could still be fated externally (see for instance theological determinism ). Destiny likewise is related to determinism, but makes no specific claim of physical determinism. Even with physical indeterminism an event could still be destined to occur. Destiny implies there

12328-580: Is required to leave the man some say in the matter, lest the get be considered a "coerced divorce", which is halakhically invalid. As ruled by Rabbeinu Tam , pressures that can be exerted against the man include shunning , denying him communal benefits and honors, and in extreme cases even imprisonment. Starting in the mid-1980s, the New York divorce coercion gang employed violent tactics such as kidnapping, beating and torture to extort gittin and money from husbands in troubled marriages. They were arrested by

12512-496: Is that if a person has free will, then they are the ultimate cause of their actions. If determinism is true, then all of a person's choices are caused by events and facts outside their control. So, if everything someone does is caused by events and facts outside their control, then they cannot be the ultimate cause of their actions. Therefore, they cannot have free will. This argument has also been challenged by various compatibilist philosophers. A third argument for incompatibilism

12696-601: Is that it equivocates on the notions of abilities and necessities, or that the free will evoked to make any given choice is really an illusion and the choice had been made all along, oblivious to its "decider". David Lewis suggests that compatibilists are only committed to the ability to do something otherwise if different circumstances had actually obtained in the past. Using T , F for "true" and "false" and ? for undecided, there are exactly nine positions regarding determinism/free will that consist of any two of these three possibilities: Incompatibilism may occupy any of

12880-414: Is the notion that all propositions, whether about the past, present, or future, are either true or false. This creates a unique problem for free will given that propositions about the future already have a truth value in the present (that is it is already determined as either true or false), and is referred to as the problem of future contingents . Omniscience is the capacity to know everything that there

13064-471: Is to know (included in which are all future events), and is a property often attributed to a creator deity. Omniscience implies the existence of destiny. Some authors have claimed that free will cannot coexist with omniscience. One argument asserts that an omniscient creator not only implies destiny but a form of high level predeterminism such as hard theological determinism or predestination  – that they have independently fixed all events and outcomes in

13248-553: Is written largely in Jewish Palestinian Aramaic , a Western Aramaic language that differs from its Babylonian counterpart . The eye and the heart are two abettors to the crime. The final redaction of the text was in the late fourth or early fifth century, once Christianity had become the state religion of the Roman Empire and Jerusalem. Just as wisdom has made a crown for one's head, so, too, humility has made

13432-669: The Talmuda de-Eretz Yisrael ("Talmud of the Land of Israel"). Prior to being written down, it was transmitted orally for centuries and represents a compilation of scholastic teachings and analyses on the Mishnah (especially those concerning agricultural laws) found across regional centres of the Land of Israel now known as the Academies in Galilee (principally those of Tiberias , Sepphoris , and Caesarea ). It

13616-453: The Aggadic material from the Talmud. It was intended to familiarize the public with the ethical parts of the Talmud and to dispute many of the accusations surrounding its contents. Geonic -era (6th-11th centuries) commentaries have largely been lost, but are known to exist from partial quotations in later medieval and early modern texts. Because of this, it is known that now-lost commentaries on

13800-473: The Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2013, and sentenced to prison. In 2016, another rabbinical team was arrested on suspicion of planning the contract killing of a husband in order to free his wife. In Israel, rabbinical courts are allowed by law to implement various measures to persuade a man to grant his wife a get (Rabbinical Courts Law [Enforcement of Divorce Rulings] 5755–1995). These sanctions are

13984-555: The Gemara ( גמרא , c. 500 CE), a commentary of the Mishnah and related Tannaitic writings whose greater goal is to systematically understand the Hebrew Bible . Sometimes, the term "Talmud" is only used for the Gemara. As a whole, the traditions of the Talmud emerged in a literary tradition that occurred between the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE and the Arab conquest in

14168-494: The Hebrew alphabet and given names, usually using the first one or two words in the first Mishnah. A perek may continue over several (up to tens of) pages . Each perek will contain several mishnayot . The Mishnah is a compilation of legal opinions and debates. Statements in the Mishnah are typically terse, recording brief opinions of the rabbis debating a subject; or recording only an unattributed ruling, apparently representing

14352-479: The Jerusalem Family Court offered new hope to agunot when he ruled that a man refusing his wife a get must pay her NIS 425,000 in punitive damages, because "[R]efusal to grant a get constitutes a severe infringement on her ability to lead a reasonable, normal life, and can be considered emotional abuse lasting several years." He noted that "[T]his is not another sanction against someone refusing to give

14536-697: The Knesset enacted the Rabbinical Courts Jurisdiction (Marriage and Divorce) Law, 5713 – 1953. Section 1 of the Law states, "Matters of marriage and divorce of Jews in Israel, being citizens or residents of the State, shall be under the exclusive jurisdiction of the rabbinical courts." The substantive provision of section 2 of this Law further states: "Marriages and divorces of Jews shall be performed in Israel in accordance with Jewish religious law" (din torah). In 2007

14720-420: The Knesset passed a law, slated to remain in effect for three years, allowing Israel's rabbinical courts to handle certain cases of Jewish women wishing to divorce their Jewish husbands, even if neither the wife nor the husband is an Israeli citizen. A mesorevet get is a Jewish woman who is a victim of "get refusal", and is known as a modern-day "agunah". According to halakha , a get is only valid when it

14904-503: The Mir and Telz yeshivas . See Chaim Rabinowitz § Telshe and Yeshiva Ohel Torah-Baranovich § Style of learning . The text of the Talmud has been subject to some level of critical scrutiny throughout its history. Rabbinic tradition holds that the people cited in both Talmuds did not have a hand in its writings; rather, their teachings were edited into a rough form around 450 CE (Talmud Yerushalmi) and 550 CE (Talmud Bavli.) The text of

15088-598: The Mishnah and the Babylonian Gemara, the latter representing the culmination of more than 300 years of analysis of the Mishnah in the Talmudic Academies in Babylonia. The foundations of this process of analysis were laid by Abba Arika (175–247), a disciple of Judah ha-Nasi . Tradition ascribes the compilation of the Babylonian Talmud in its present form to two Babylonian sages, Rav Ashi and Ravina II . Rav Ashi

15272-468: The Mishnah , primarily written in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic . It contains the teachings and opinions of thousands of rabbis on a variety of subjects, including halakha , Jewish ethics , philosophy , customs , history , and folklore , and many other topics. The term Talmud normally refers to the collection of writings named specifically the Babylonian Talmud ( Talmud Bavli ), compiled in

15456-458: The Tosafot and the Mishneh Torah of Maimonides . Ethical maxims contained in the Jerusalem Talmud are scattered and interspersed in the legal discussions throughout the several treatises, many of which differ from those in the Babylonian Talmud. The Babylonian Talmud ( Talmud Bavli ) consists of documents compiled over the period of late antiquity (3rd to 6th centuries). During this time,

15640-411: The ability to make rational decisions. A different approach to the dilemma is that of incompatibilists , namely, that if the world is deterministic, then our feeling that we are free to choose an action is simply an illusion . Metaphysical libertarianism is the form of incompatibilism which posits that determinism is false and free will is possible (at least some people have free will). This view

15824-507: The agunah status. Nevertheless, an agunah would not typically pursue a second marriage, since her first marriage is still valid according to halakha, any other sexual relationships would constitute adultery from her first husband. Furthermore, according to halakha, any children born by an agunah are considered mamzerim . In 2014 the Rabbinate of Uruguay instituted the requirement for all Jewish couples that marry under its auspices to sign

16008-413: The agunah , efforts are made to identify reasons why one of the witnesses was ineligible. This is typically unachievable as strong efforts are made at the time of marriage to ensure the validity of the witnesses and the marriage ceremony. Another possibility is to prove that the woman did not consent to the marriage clearly and of her own free will, so that the marriage ceremony is declared invalid. This too

16192-414: The separation of church and state , Conservative rabbis began to require couples to sign a separate letter, stating that the clause had been explained to them as part of pre-marital counseling, and that both parties understood and agreed to its conditions, recognizing that this letter would constitute a separate civil document, enforceable in a civil court. However, many Conservative rabbis, including some on

16376-412: The uncertainty principle . The relevance of such prospective indeterminate activity to free will is, however, contested, even when chaos theory is introduced to magnify the effects of such microscopic events. Below these positions are examined in more detail. Determinism can be divided into causal, logical and theological determinism. Corresponding to each of these different meanings, there arises

16560-416: The 15th and 16th centuries, a new intensive form of Talmud study arose. Complicated logical arguments were used to explain minor points of contradiction within the Talmud. The term pilpul was applied to this type of study. Usage of pilpul in this sense (that of "sharp analysis") harks back to the Talmudic era and refers to the intellectual sharpness this method demanded. Pilpul practitioners posited that

16744-498: The 15th century on, some authorities sought to apply the methods of Aristotelian logic , as reformulated by Averroes . This method was first recorded, though without explicit reference to Aristotle, by Isaac Campanton (d. Spain, 1463) in his Darkhei ha-Talmud ("The Ways of the Talmud"), and is also found in the works of Moses Chaim Luzzatto . According to the present-day Sephardi scholar José Faur , traditional Sephardic Talmud study could take place on any of three levels. In

16928-467: The 18th century, pilpul study waned. Other styles of learning such as that of the school of Elijah b. Solomon, the Vilna Gaon , became popular. The term "pilpul" was increasingly applied derogatorily to novellae deemed casuistic and hairsplitting. Authors referred to their own commentaries as "al derekh ha-peshat" (by the simple method) to contrast them with pilpul. Among Sephardi and Italian Jews from

17112-456: The 5th century by Rav Ashi and Ravina II . There is also an earlier collection known as the Jerusalem Talmud ( Talmud Yerushalmi ). It may also traditionally be called Shas ( ש״ס ), a Hebrew abbreviation of shisha sedarim , or the "six orders" of the Mishnah . The Talmud has two components: the Mishnah ( משנה , c. 200 CE), a written compendium of the Oral Torah ; and

17296-457: The Agunah for two contrasting reasons—due to affliction and due to salvation. Like Esther, the agunah of the present era does not want to be in the marriage in which she finds herself. Like Esther, many women who are refused a get live in fear of their spouses and live a double life. Like Esther, the agunah , a victim of get-refusal, finds herself lacking control of her own freedom. The Torah allows

17480-581: The Babylonian Talmud may draw upon the Mishnah, the Jerusalem Talmud, midrash, and other sources. The traditions that the Gemara comments on are not limited to what is found in the Mishnah, but the Baraita as well (a term that broadly designates Oral Torah traditions that did not end up in the Mishnah). The baraitot cited in the Gemara are often quotations from the Tosefta (a tannaitic compendium of halakha parallel to

17664-585: The Babylonian opinion. Neither covers the entire Mishnah. For example, the Babylonian commentary only covers 37 of 63 Mishnaic tractates. In particular: The Babylonian Talmud records the opinions of the rabbis of the Ma'arava (the West, meaning Israel) as well as of those of Babylonia, while the Jerusalem Talmud seldom cites the Babylonian rabbis. The Babylonian version also contains the opinions of more generations because of its later date of completion. For both these reasons, it

17848-594: The Catholic Church, which agreed to refuse to have the marriage performed until the previous marriage was religiously dissolved, resulting in the almost immediate granting of the get by the husband. Finally, in 1968, by a unanimous vote of the law committee, the final approach was initiated, when it was decided that the Joint Bet Din of the Conservative Movement could annul marriages as a last resort, based on

18032-519: The Chief Rabbinate found that in Israel men and women were refused divorce in equal numbers, 180 women and 185 men over a two-year period. The Director-General of the Rabbinical Courts said this showed that "the claims by women's organizations of thousands of women whose husbands refuse to give them divorces have no basis in reality". Nevertheless, "A woman suffers more in this situation, as she

18216-656: The Israeli Rabbinical Courts' enforcement, or lack thereof, have succeeded in eliminating get refusal in Israel. In the Diaspora, the rabbinical courts have no such powers, and any practical power that they may wield would be the product of a binding arbitration agreement (such as Prenuptial Agreement for the Prevention of Get-Refusal ), if signed previously by the combating couple. Within the past decade, both Orthodox rabbinical groups and women's organizations have decried

18400-595: The Jerusalem rabbinical court, specifically recognizing that authority in the words recited under the chuppah (wedding canopy). Risikoff, among others, also proposed a discussion of the reinstatement of the Biblical status of the pilegesh , a relationship status between man and woman that does not require a Get upon dissolution, thereby avoiding the category of agunah. Other approaches that have been discussed by religious leaders, including leading Orthodox rabbis, have included

18584-531: The Mishnah discusses individual subjects more thoroughly than the Midrash , and it includes a much broader selection of halakhic subjects than the Midrash. The Mishnah's topical organization thus became the framework of the Talmud as a whole. But not every tractate in the Mishnah has a corresponding Gemara. Also, the order of the tractates in the Talmud differs in some cases from that in the Mishnah . The Gemara constitutes

18768-409: The Mishnah) and the Midrash halakha (specifically Mekhilta, Sifra and Sifre ). Some baraitot , however, are known only through traditions cited in the Gemara, and are not part of any other collection. In addition to the six Orders, the Talmud contains a series of short treatises of a later date, usually printed at the end of Seder Nezikin. These are not divided into Mishnah and Gemara. The work

18952-456: The Orthodox community to refrain from having sex with their husbands in order to draw attention to Malky Berkowitz's four-year-long effort to secure a get from an abusive husband. The " mikvah strike" (so named because Orthodox women must ritually purify themselves in a bath known as a mikvah before engaging in sexual relations) generated significant controversy within Orthodox communities around

19136-504: The Roman destruction of the Jewish commonwealth and the Second Temple in the year 70 and the consequent upheaval of Jewish social and legal norms. As the rabbis were required to face a new reality—mainly Judaism without a Temple (to serve as the center of teaching and study) and total Roman control over Judaea , without at least partial autonomy—there was a flurry of legal discourse and the old system of oral scholarship could not be maintained. It

19320-746: The Talmud after the end of the Amoraic period, known as the Savoraim or Rabbanan Savora'e (meaning "reasoners" or "considerers"). Unlike the Western Aramaic dialect of the Jerusalm Talmud, the Babylonian Talmud has a Babylonian Aramaic dialect. The Jerusalem is also more fragmentary (and difficult to read) due to a less complete redactional process . Legally, the two differ minimally. The Babylonian Talmud has received significantly more interest and coverage from commentators. This significantly greater influence

19504-502: The Talmud could contain no redundancy or contradiction whatsoever. New categories and distinctions ( hillukim ) were therefore created, resolving seeming contradictions within the Talmud by novel logical means. In the Ashkenazi world the founders of pilpul are generally considered to be Jacob Pollak (1460–1541) and Shalom Shachna . This kind of study reached its height in the 16th and 17th centuries when expertise in pilpulistic analysis

19688-597: The Talmud was compiled appears to have been forgotten at least by the second half of the Middle Ages, when estimates between the 3rd century BCE to the 9th century CE are suggested in the Wikkuah , a text that records the debates that took place in the Disputation of Paris (also known as the "Trial of the Talmud") which took place in 1240. A wide range of dates have been proposed for the Babylonian Talmud by historians. The text

19872-402: The Talmud were written by Paltoi Gaon, Sherira , Hai Gaon , and Saadya (though in this case, Saadiya is not likely to be the true author). Of these, the commentary of Paltoi ben Abaye ( c. 840) is the earliest. His son, Zemah ben Paltoi paraphrased and explained the passages which he quoted; and he composed, as an aid to the study of the Talmud, a lexicon which Abraham Zacuto consulted in

20056-460: The Talmud, has become a classic. Sections in the commentary covering a few tractates (Pes, BB and Mak) were completed by his students, especially Judah ben Nathan , and a sections dealing with specific tractates (Ned, Naz, Hor and MQ) of the commentary that appear in some print editions of Rashi's commentary today were not composed by him. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, a genre of rabbinic literature emerged surrounding Rashi's commentary, with

20240-538: The Talmudic principle of hafka'at kiddushin . According to Rabinowitz, just the threat of this action was sometimes enough to compel the former husband to grant a get. There is a long history of concern for the agunah on the part of Orthodox rabbis, and a number of proposals have been put forth for consideration by religious leaders. So far, no solution has been found that satisfies most orthodox religious leaders. A number of modern papers and conferences have continued to discuss both issues and possible solutions, including

20424-533: The absence of any relevant desire or intention on the part of that person". Another question raised by such non-causal theory, is how an agent acts upon reason, if the said intentional actions are spontaneous. Some non-causal explanations involve invoking panpsychism , the theory that a quality of mind is associated with all particles, and pervades the entire universe, in both animate and inanimate entities. Event-causal accounts of incompatibilist free will typically rely upon physicalist models of mind (like those of

20608-493: The aftermath of the Holocaust and also occurred frequently in the wake of pogroms and other forms of persecution. Finding a flaw in the marriage ceremony is considered to be a last resort in releasing an agunah . It is rarely used as it is typically difficult to find actual cause in most marriages sufficient to invalidate them retroactively. In Jewish law, a marriage must be performed in front of two witnesses. In order to release

20792-745: The authority of the Talmud , bases its divorce law entirely on the Torah: "A man takes a wife and possesses her. She fails to please him because he finds something obnoxious about her, and he writes her a bill of divorcement, hands it to her, and sends her away from his house." (Deuteronomy 24:1) Therefore, under Karaite law, it is difficult for a woman to obtain a divorce unless it is explicitly written and delivered by her husband (or an appointed agent) whereas in Rabbinic Judaism there are several rare exceptions and cases where alternatives are available (annulments, forcing

20976-598: The behaviour of a set of dominoes to neural activity in the brain where; "If the brain is nothing but a complex physical object whose states are as much governed by physical laws as any other physical object, then what goes on in our heads is as fixed and determined by prior events as what goes on when one domino topples another in a long row of them." Physical determinism is currently disputed by prominent interpretations of quantum mechanics , and while not necessarily representative of intrinsic indeterminism in nature, fundamental limits of precision in measurement are inherent in

21160-446: The case may be regarding determinism. In contrast, compatibilists hold that free will is compatible with determinism. Some compatibilists even hold that determinism is necessary for free will, arguing that choice involves preference for one course of action over another, requiring a sense of how choices will turn out. Compatibilists thus consider the debate between libertarians and hard determinists over free will vs. determinism

21344-411: The central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ( halakha ) and Jewish theology . Until the advent of modernity , in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewish cultural life and was foundational to "all Jewish thought and aspirations", serving also as "the guide for the daily life" of Jews. Above all, the Talmud is a commentary on

21528-589: The classic arguments bearing upon the dilemma and its underpinnings. Incompatibilism is the position that free will and determinism are logically incompatible, and that the major question regarding whether or not people have free will is thus whether or not their actions are determined. "Hard determinists", such as d'Holbach , are those incompatibilists who accept determinism and reject free will. In contrast, " metaphysical libertarians ", such as Thomas Reid , Peter van Inwagen , and Robert Kane , are those incompatibilists who accept free will and deny determinism, holding

21712-504: The commentary portion of the Talmud. The Mishnah, and its commentary (the Gemara), together constitute the Talmud. This commentary arises from a longstanding tradition of rabbis analyzing, debating, and discussing the Mishnah ever since it had been published. The rabbis who participated in the process that produced this commentarial tradition are known as the Amoraim . Each discussion is presented in

21896-422: The compatibilist), yet they presuppose physical indeterminism, in which certain indeterministic events are said to be caused by the agent. A number of event-causal accounts of free will have been created, referenced here as deliberative indeterminism , centred accounts , and efforts of will theory . The first two accounts do not require free will to be a fundamental constituent of the universe. Ordinary randomness

22080-471: The context of its capacity to determine future events. Despite this, predeterminism is often considered as independent of causal determinism. The term predeterminism is also frequently used in the context of biology and heredity, in which case it represents a form of biological determinism . The term predeterminism suggests not just a determining of all events, but the prior and deliberately conscious determining of all events (therefore done, presumably, by

22264-409: The correct biblical basis for a given law in the Mishnah as well as the logical process that connects the biblical to the Mishnaic tradition. This process was known as talmud , long before the "Talmud" itself became a text. In addition, the Gemara contains a wide range of narratives, homiletical or exegetical passages, sayings, and other non-legal content, termed aggadah . A story told in a sugya of

22448-413: The determination of outcome as their physical processes (see non-reductive physicalism ). Although at the time quantum mechanics (and physical indeterminism ) was only in the initial stages of acceptance, in his book Miracles: A preliminary study C.S. Lewis stated the logical possibility that if the physical world were proved indeterministic this would provide an entry point to describe an action of

22632-468: The dilemma of free will by arguing that free will holds as long as humans are not externally constrained or coerced. Modern compatibilists make a distinction between freedom of will and freedom of action , that is, separating freedom of choice from the freedom to enact it. Given that humans all experience a sense of free will, some modern compatibilists think it is necessary to accommodate this intuition. Compatibilists often associate freedom of will with

22816-429: The early Greek stoics (for example, Chrysippus ), and some modern philosophers lament the lack of progress over all these centuries. On one hand, humans have a strong sense of freedom, which leads them to believe that they have free will. On the other hand, an intuitive feeling of free will could be mistaken. It is difficult to reconcile the intuitive evidence that conscious decisions are causally effective with

23000-509: The early seventh century. In all, the Talmud is divided into 63 tractates , with each tractate systematically discussing one general subject or theme. In the standard print of the Talmud (the Vilna Shas ), the Talmud runs to a length of 2,711 double-sided folios . Talmud translates as "instruction, learning", from the Semitic root lmd , meaning "teach, study". Originally, Jewish scholarship

23184-461: The explanations of Tosafot differ from those of Rashi. Among the founders of the Tosafist school were Rabbeinu Tam , who was a grandson of Rashi, and, Rabbenu Tam's nephew, Isaac ben Samuel . The Tosafot commentaries were collected in different editions in the various schools. The benchmark collection of Tosafot for Northern France was that of Eliezer of Touques . The standard collection for Spain

23368-426: The fifteenth century. Saadia Gaon is said to have composed commentaries on the Talmud, aside from his Arabic commentaries on the Mishnah. The first surviving commentary on the entire Talmud is that of Chananel ben Chushiel . Many medieval authors also composed commentaries focusing on the content of specific tractates, including Nissim ben Jacob and Gershom ben Judah . The commentary of Rashi , covering most of

23552-511: The husband relented and provided the get rather than face the prospect of a substantial prison sentence. Subsequently, in 2022, another suit was successfully pursued resulting in a Manchester businessman pleading guilty to coercive behavior for refusing to give his wife a get . This case marks the first complete application of the 2015 legislative effort to prevent the situation of agunot. In March 2024, Orthodox social media influencer Adina Sash (known online as Flatbush Girl) called for women in

23736-547: The husband to participate) Free will Free will is the capacity or ability to choose between different possible courses of action . Free will is closely linked to the concepts of moral responsibility , praise , culpability , and other judgements which apply only to actions that are freely chosen. It is also connected with the concepts of advice , persuasion , deliberation , and prohibition . Traditionally, only actions that are freely willed are seen as deserving credit or blame. Whether free will exists, what it

23920-426: The husband's brother trying to blackmail the widow by delaying the halizah ceremony, effectively leaving her as an agunah . In 1947 David Ben-Gurion acceded that the authority in matters of marriage and divorce would be invested in the hands of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, and an agreement was signed in recognition of this decision (among other matters). This agreement is known as the "status quo letter". In 1953

24104-511: The idea that all behaviors, beliefs, and desires are fixed by our genetic endowment and our biochemical makeup, the latter of which is affected by both genes and environment, cultural determinism and psychological determinism . Combinations and syntheses of determinist theses, such as bio-environmental determinism, are even more common. Suggestions have been made that hard determinism need not maintain strict determinism, where something near to, like that informally known as adequate determinism ,

24288-410: The idea that freedom of action consists simply in "voluntary" behavior. They insist, rather, that free will means that someone must be the "ultimate" or "originating" cause of his actions. They must be causa sui , in the traditional phrase. Being responsible for one's choices is the first cause of those choices, where first cause means that there is no antecedent cause of that cause. The argument, then,

24472-450: The incompatibility of omnipotence with a good creator deity (i.e. if a deity knew what they were going to choose, then they are responsible for letting them choose it). Predeterminism is the idea that all events are determined in advance. Predeterminism is the philosophy that all events of history , past, present and future, have been decided or are known (by God , fate , or some other force), including human actions. Predeterminism

24656-557: The increasing number of cases of get refusal, as well as establishing task forces to deal with the issue and to help individual victims of get refusal. Many women's groups assert that rabbinical courts fail to use all the measures at their disposal to force men to grant their wives a get , thereby allowing a vengeful husband to blackmail his wife for years. Public criticism of the courts, as well as demonstrations, have been attempted to influence particularly notorious cases. Several solutions have been proposed to help women who are denied

24840-448: The indeterminacy of agent volition processes could map to the indeterminacy of certain physical events – and the outcomes of these events could therefore be considered caused by the agent. Models of volition have been constructed in which it is seen as a particular kind of complex, high-level process with an element of physical indeterminism. An example of this approach is that of Robert Kane , where he hypothesizes that "in each case,

25024-479: The indeterminism is functioning as a hindrance or obstacle to her realizing one of her purposes – a hindrance or obstacle in the form of resistance within her will which must be overcome by effort." According to Robert Kane such "ultimate responsibility" is a required condition for free will. An important factor in such a theory is that the agent cannot be reduced to physical neuronal events, but rather mental processes are said to provide an equally valid account of

25208-455: The late 19th century another trend in Talmud study arose. Hayyim Soloveitchik (1853–1918) of Brisk (Brest-Litovsk) developed and refined this style of study. Brisker method involves a reductionistic analysis of rabbinic arguments within the Talmud or among the Rishonim , explaining the differing opinions by placing them within a categorical structure. The Brisker method is highly analytical and

25392-572: The most important of the Jewish centres in Mesopotamia , a region called " Babylonia " in Jewish sources (see Talmudic academies in Babylonia ) and later known as Iraq , were Nehardea , Nisibis (modern Nusaybin ), Mahoza ( al-Mada'in , just to the south of what is now Baghdad ), Pumbedita (near present-day al Anbar Governorate ), and the Sura Academy , probably located about 60 km (37 mi) south of Baghdad. The Babylonian Talmud comprises

25576-466: The movement's own law committee , had growing misgivings about the clause for religious reasons. The second approach fell into the category of conditional marriages, t'nai b'kiddushin, and was based in part on past approaches used by both the French and Turkish rabbinates—but, according to Rabinowitz—had improvements gleaned from lessons learned from those past experiences. The ketubah was not changed, but

25760-441: The name of the deceased. The brother can refuse to do yibbum and instead perform a ceremony known as halizah to release her from her bond to him (in modern times halizah is nearly always performed instead of yibbum ). If the brother is missing, or if he is still a child, the woman is required to wait until he is located or has reached adolescence so that he can perform the halizah ceremony. There have been recorded cases of

25944-454: The necessary consequences of the past and the laws of nature, then we have no control over them and, hence, no free will. This is called the consequence argument . Peter van Inwagen remarks that C.D. Broad had a version of the consequence argument as early as the 1930s. The difficulty of this argument for some compatibilists lies in the fact that it entails the impossibility that one could have chosen other than one has. For example, if Jane

26128-478: The need to ascertain the Halakha (Jewish rabbinical law). Early commentators such as Isaac Alfasi (North Africa, 1013–1103) attempted to extract and determine the binding legal opinions from the vast corpus of the Talmud. Alfasi's work was highly influential, attracted several commentaries in its own right and later served as a basis for the creation of halakhic codes. Another influential medieval Halakhic work following

26312-517: The nine positions except (5), (8) or (3), which last corresponds to soft determinism . Position (1) is hard determinism , and position (2) is libertarianism . The position (1) of hard determinism adds to the table the contention that D implies FW is untrue, and the position (2) of libertarianism adds the contention that FW implies D is untrue. Position (9) may be called hard incompatibilism if one interprets ? as meaning both concepts are of dubious value. Compatibilism itself may occupy any of

26496-414: The nine positions, that is, there is no logical contradiction between determinism and free will, and either or both may be true or false in principle. However, the most common meaning attached to compatibilism is that some form of determinism is true and yet we have some form of free will, position (3). Alex Rosenberg makes an extrapolation of physical determinism as inferred on the macroscopic scale by

26680-592: The order of the Babylonian Talmud, and to some extent modelled on Alfasi, was "the Mordechai ", a compilation by Mordechai ben Hillel ( c. 1250–1298). A third such work was that of Asher ben Yechiel (d. 1327). All these works and their commentaries are printed in the Vilna and many subsequent editions of the Talmud. A 15th-century Spanish rabbi, Jacob ibn Habib (d. 1516), compiled the Ein Yaakov , which extracts nearly all

26864-406: The origin of the universe. In the case of predeterminism, this chain of events has been pre-established, and human actions cannot interfere with the outcomes of this pre-established chain. Predeterminism can be used to mean such pre-established causal determinism, in which case it is categorised as a specific type of determinism . It can also be used interchangeably with causal determinism – in

27048-418: The original intent was to find a solution that could be used by Orthodox and Conservative rabbis alike, and that leaders of Orthodox Judaism's Rabbinical Council of America , and respected Orthodox rabbis, including Joseph B. Soloveitchik , supposedly recognized the clause as valid. Later, because some civil courts viewed the enforcement of a religious document as a violation of the constitutional principle of

27232-522: The original marriage, and the original declaration of the groom, so flawed that it would be as if that marriage never occurred. The third approach, using contacts both within Judaism and external to it, was to coerce the recalcitrant husband to grant a get. One example cited at the conference was a case where the civilly-divorced husband planned to remarry, this time to a Catholic woman in a Catholic religious ceremony. The Conservative movement's Bet Din contacted

27416-526: The orthodox community. In 2012 the International Rabbinic Fellowship (IRF), an organization of (as of 2012) 150 Modern Orthodox rabbis, passed a resolution saying that, "IRF Rabbis may not officiate at a wedding unless the couple has signed a halakhic prenuptial agreement. IRF Rabbis are further encouraged to participate ritually only in weddings in which the couple has signed a halakhic prenuptial agreement. Ritual participation includes but

27600-660: The past and the present dictate the future entirely and necessarily by rigid natural laws, that every occurrence results inevitably from prior events. Quantum mechanics poses a serious challenge to this view. Fundamental debate continues over whether the physical universe is likely to be deterministic . Although the scientific method cannot be used to rule out indeterminism with respect to violations of causal closure , it can be used to identify indeterminism in natural law. Interpretations of quantum mechanics at present are both deterministic and indeterministic , and are being constrained by ongoing experimentation. Destiny or fate

27784-486: The past few centuries, thousands of responsa have been written to deal with cases of agunot. In the past most agunah cases were due to a husband dying without leaving clear evidence of his demise , or becoming mentally ill ( insane ). Nowadays many agunah cases arise as a result of a husband withholding a get , perhaps seeking a more favorable divorce settlement, or out of vindictiveness. In response agunah groups have organized to support these women and try to find

27968-587: The period of the Amoraim (rabbis cited in the Gemara) beginning around the year 200. A second Aramaic dialect is used in Nedarim , Nazir , Temurah , Keritot , and Me'ilah ; the second is closer in style to the Targum . The oldest full manuscript of the Talmud, known as the Munich Talmud (Codex Hebraicus 95), dates from 1342 and is available online. Manuscripts of the Talmud are as follows: The exact date at which

28152-434: The phrase "free will" made any sense (compare with theological noncognitivism , a similar stance on the existence of God ). He also took the view that the truth of determinism was irrelevant. He believed that the defining feature of voluntary behavior was that individuals have the ability to postpone a decision long enough to reflect or deliberate upon the consequences of a choice: "...the will in truth, signifies nothing but

28336-527: The possibility of prenuptial agreements , not incorporated into the ketubah or mentioned in the words recited by the groom during the ceremony, through which the husband and wife agree to abide by orders of a designated Beth Din, regarding the giving or acceptance of a get. Jechiel Perr discussed such a proposal, and it has been reported that Moshe Feinstein , looked upon this idea with favor, and Australian Chabad rabbi Moshe Gutnick has spoken out strongly in favor of it. Additionally, discussions have considered

28520-509: The possibility of a modern takkanah (religious legislative enaction), to empower the Chief Rabbinate of Israel to intervene to annul marriages retroactively, in a way that was possible for some time during the Middle Ages. Such proposals are considered too radical—and not legally permissible (in terms of halakha)—by most orthodox leaders. However, as studies and discussions continue, a number of modern works and conferences have referenced

28704-505: The possibility of various forms of coercion that could be applied to the husband, to compel him to grant the get . No proposal has so far met with wide approval on the part of the Orthodox rabbinate, although there have been some cases of individual rabbis taking what has been viewed as "maverick" individual action, including the convening of rabbinic courts to annul marriages, using the Geonic model. Such actions have been widely condemned within

28888-592: The problem of the agunah . The first, beginning in the 1950s, was the inclusion of the Lieberman clause in the ketubah (marriage contract). Named for Talmudic scholar and Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) professor Saul Lieberman , the clause requires that a get be granted if a civil divorce is ever issued. While most Orthodox rabbis have rejected the Lieberman clause, leaders of the Conservative movement claim that

29072-691: The purpose of supplementing it and addressing internal contradictions via the technique of pilpul . This genre of commentary is known as the Tosafot and focuses on specific passages instead of a running continuous commentary across the entire Talmud. Many Talmudic passages are difficult to understand, sometimes owing to the use of Greek or Persian loanwords whose meaning had become obscure. A major area of Talmudic scholarship developed to explain these passages and words. Some early commentators such as Rabbenu Gershom of Mainz (10th century) and Rabbenu Ḥananel (early 11th century) produced running commentaries to various tractates. These commentaries could be read with

29256-454: The same process. Deliberative indeterminism has been referenced by Daniel Dennett and John Martin Fischer . An obvious objection to such a view is that an agent cannot be assigned ownership over their decisions (or preferences used to make those decisions) to any greater degree than that of a compatibilist model. Centred accounts propose that for any given decision between two possibilities,

29440-436: The situation of such a man, the heter meah rabbanim (exemption by one hundred rabbis) was established, to permit him to take a second wife (after depositing a get for the first wife with the rabbis). However, due to complexities, costs and other reasons, many husbands do not succeed in obtaining a heter meah rabbanim , and thus remain chained to their wives. In Israel, there are more cases in which women choose not to accept

29624-471: The sixth century, the Babylonian Talmud was compiled. This later Talmud is usually what is being referred to when the word "Talmud" is used without qualification. The two Talmuds were likely written independently of one another. The Jerusalem Talmud ( Talmud Yerushalmi ) is known by several other names, including the Palestinian Talmud (which is more accurate, as it was not compiled in Jerusalem ), or

29808-402: The status of agunah. The report selected 346 of the total as a sample for analysis. Referring to a subset of the total cases, the report indicated that 180 cases involved husbands refusing a divorce while 190 cases involved the wife refusing a divorce. Outside Israel, an agunah could obtain a civil divorce and remarry via civil marriage , as non-Israeli legal systems generally do not recognize

29992-401: The strength of reason will be considered for each option, yet there is still a probability the weaker candidate will be chosen. An obvious objection to such a view is that decisions are explicitly left up to chance, and origination or responsibility cannot be assigned for any given decision. Efforts of will theory is related to the role of will power in decision making. It suggests that

30176-476: The text likely trace to this time regardless of the date of the final redaction/compilation. Additional external evidence for a latest possible date for the composition of the Babylonian Talmud are the uses of it by external sources, including the Letter of Baboi (mid-8th century), Seder Tannaim veAmoraim (9th century) and a 10th-century letter by Sherira Gaon addressing the formation of the Babylonian Talmud. As for

30360-611: The text of the Talmud and would help explain the meaning of the text. Another important work is the Sefer ha-Mafteaḥ (Book of the Key) by Nissim Gaon , which contains a preface explaining the different forms of Talmudic argumentation and then explains abbreviated passages in the Talmud by cross-referring to parallel passages where the same thought is expressed in full. Commentaries ( ḥiddushim ) by Joseph ibn Migash on two tractates, Bava Batra and Shevuot, based on Ḥananel and Alfasi, also survive, as does

30544-418: The type of indeterminism they require; uncaused events, non-deterministically caused events, and agent/substance-caused events. Non-causal accounts of incompatibilist free will do not require a free action to be caused by either an agent or a physical event. They either rely upon a world that is not causally closed, or physical indeterminism. Non-causal accounts often claim that each intentional action requires

30728-430: The underlying indeterminacy of the physical construct. This relationship, however, requires a causative role over probabilities that is questionable, and it is far from established that brain activity responsible for human action can be affected by such events. Secondarily, these incompatibilist models are dependent upon the relationship between action and conscious volition, as studied in the neuroscience of free will . It

30912-502: The universe in advance, and is a famous doctrine of the Calvinists in Christian theology . Predestination is often considered a form of hard theological determinism . Talmud The Talmud ( / ˈ t ɑː l m ʊ d , - m ə d , ˈ t æ l -/ ; Hebrew : תַּלְמוּד ‎ , romanized :  Talmūḏ , lit.   'teaching') is, after the Hebrew Bible ,

31096-409: The universe in advance. In such a case, even if an individual could have influence over their lower level physical system, their choices in regard to this cannot be their own, as is the case with libertarian free will. Omniscience features as an incompatible-properties argument for the existence of God , known as the argument from free will , and is closely related to other such arguments, for example

31280-401: The view that some form of indeterminism is true. Another view is that of hard incompatibilists, which state that free will is incompatible with both determinism and indeterminism . Traditional arguments for incompatibilism are based on an " intuition pump ": if a person is like other mechanical things that are determined in their behavior such as a wind-up toy, a billiard ball, a puppet, or

31464-473: The view that the physical world can be explained entirely by physical law . The conflict between intuitively felt freedom and natural law arises when either causal closure or physical determinism ( nomological determinism ) is asserted. With causal closure, no physical event has a cause outside the physical domain, and with physical determinism, the future is determined entirely by preceding events (cause and effect). The puzzle of reconciling 'free will' with

31648-591: The wife susceptible to a halakhic ruling that she was still married, and any subsequent relations with another man to be adultery. And it may lead to other halakhic problems, so it is only used as a last resort by the authorities that do accept its use. At the 1998 Jerusalem Agunot Conference , Mayer Rabinowitz, the Chairman of the Joint Bet Din of the Conservative Movement , explained the four approaches taken by leaders of Conservative Judaism to find remedies for

31832-414: The work of past Orthodox rabbis, such as Ya'akov Moshe Toledano , who recommended in 1930/31 that every Jewish marriage be made contingent on the "continuing agreement" of the local rabbinic court, so that the court could retroactively annul the marriage as a remedy to the agunah problem; and Mnachem Risikoff , who recommended in 1937 that such consideration be given not to every local court, but at least to

32016-438: The world is deterministic or not. Derk Pereboom has defended hard incompatibilism, identifying a variety of positions where free will is irrelevant to indeterminism/determinism, among them the following: Pereboom calls positions 3 and 4 soft determinism , position 1 a form of hard determinism , position 6 a form of classical libertarianism , and any position that includes having F as compatibilism . John Locke denied that

32200-509: The world. Berkowitz received a get in September 2023. Agunah Day was established by ICAR—The International Coalition for Agunah Rights—in 1990, to raise public awareness to the plight of the Agunah and galvanize action to solve the problem. It is observed on the Jewish calendar date of the Fast of Esther . The Fast of Esther was chosen by ICAR as Agunah Day in order to symbolize identification with

32384-430: Was Rabbenu Asher 's Tosefot haRosh. The Tosafot that are printed in the standard Vilna edition of the Talmud are an edited version compiled from the various medieval collections, predominantly that of Touques. A recent project, Halacha Brura , founded by Abraham Isaac Kook , presents the Talmud and a summary of the halachic codes side by side, so as to enable the "collation" of Talmud with resultant Halacha. During

32568-550: Was oral and transferred from one generation to the next. Rabbis expounded and debated the Torah (the written Torah expressed in the Hebrew Bible) and discussed the Tanakh without the benefit of written works (other than the Biblical books themselves), though some may have made private notes ( megillot setarim ), for example, of court decisions. This situation changed drastically due to

32752-665: Was considered an art form and became a goal in and of itself within the yeshivot of Poland and Lithuania. But the popular new method of Talmud study was not without critics; already in the 15th century, the ethical tract Orhot Zaddikim ("Paths of the Righteous" in Hebrew) criticized pilpul for an overemphasis on intellectual acuity. Many 16th- and 17th-century rabbis were also critical of pilpul. Among them are Judah Loew ben Bezalel (the Maharal of Prague), Isaiah Horowitz , and Yair Bacharach . By

32936-468: Was formulated by Carl Ginet in the 1960s and has received much attention in the modern literature. The simplified argument runs along these lines: if determinism is true, then we have no control over the events of the past that determined our present state and no control over the laws of nature. Since we can have no control over these matters, we also can have no control over the consequences of them. Since our present choices and acts, under determinism, are

33120-544: Was introduced by Christian philosophy (4th century CE). It has traditionally meant (until the Enlightenment proposed its own meanings) lack of necessity in human will, so that "the will is free" meant "the will does not have to be such as it is". This requirement was universally embraced by both incompatibilists and compatibilists. The underlying questions are whether we have control over our actions, and if so, what sort of control, and to what extent. These questions predate

33304-435: Was most likely completed, however, in the 6th century, or prior to the early Muslim conquests in 643–636 CE at the latest, on the basis that the Talmud lacks loanwords or syntax deriving from Arabic . Recently, it has been extensively argued that Talmud is an expression and product of Sasanian culture, as well as other Greek - Roman , Middle Persian , and Syriac sources up to the same period of time. The contents of

33488-401: Was not accepted by certain remote Jewish communities such as the Yemenite Jews ). To prevent this decree from causing flippant divorces previously unnecessary, Rabbenu Gershom also decreed that "a woman may not be divorced against her will." These decrees made it possible for men to become "agunim" just as women become "agunot", if his wife should disappear or refuse to accept a get. To resolve

33672-425: Was president of the Sura Academy from 375 to 427. The work begun by Rav Ashi was completed by Ravina, who is traditionally regarded as the final Amoraic expounder. Accordingly, traditionalists argue that Ravina's death in 475 is the latest possible date for the completion of the redaction of the Talmud. However, even on the most traditional view, a few passages are regarded as the work of a group of rabbis who edited

33856-497: Was the fact that nothing hindered us from doing or choosing something that made us have control over them". According to Susanne Bobzien , the notion of incompatibilist free will is perhaps first identified in the works of Alexander of Aphrodisias (3rd century CE): "what makes us have control over things is the fact that we are causally undetermined in our decision and thus can freely decide between doing/choosing or not doing/choosing them". The term "free will" ( liberum arbitrium )

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