NMC384H1

Marking Time: Legal Issues and Personal Status in Judaism

This course will examine certain aspects of status and family law in Judaism, as well as Zoroastrianism, Eastern Christianity, and Islam. We will review some literature in legal theory to test its applicability to religious-based law. Our main topics include virginity (marital age, proof of virginity or its absence, rape or seduction of virgins, economics and theology of virginity); menstrual laws (impurity, punishment, sexuality, purification); mysticism (practitioners, purity requirements, theology); and sexuality (marriageability, prohibited partners, sex acts). Sectarian approaches to these legal issues will be examined, for example, how biblical law is interpreted in Qumran, by the rabbis, and how these topics are addressed by Zoroastrian law, the Eastern Church Fathers and the Four Schools in Islamic law.