Word: talmudic
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Justice is something the community prefers to handle itself. Disputes are arbitrated by a panel of the Diamond Dealers Club composed of three or more men whose logic has been sharpened by intense study of the Talmud, the volumes of Jewish law. The decisions of these scholars, who act like the Jewish religious courts that existed in Europe hundreds of years ago, are law to those in the diamond trade...
...upwardly mobile and socially inecure believed as fervently as The Four Hundred that there existed somewhere?in the mind of God, perhaps, or the graven tablets of Emily Post?an absolute standard of The Correct. All contingencies were covered in this elaborate system of law, as refined as the Talmud and sometimes as difficult to interpret. But trying to cultivate manners today is like buying a house in Grosse Pointe and discovering that the previous tenants were the Symbionese Liberation Army: the place is a mess. The old fixtures don't work; the walls are smeared with ego; the foundation...
...There is a saying in the Talmud," he adds, "that if it is God's will for you to die, you will die no matter where you are." I, however, am a believer in free will--and more importantly, a believer in the power of Palestinian mortar...
...Cardinal Newman sympathized with Kant. His solution: instead of lying to the murderer, knock him down and call the cops. Casuists invented the "mental reservation." Example: "Mr. Smith is not in today"-a lie that is magically transformed into a truth by adding the unspoken thought "to you." The Talmud allows lies for "bed" (inquiries into one's sex life) and "hospitality" (if a host was generous, one could lie about it so that the host would not be inundated by unwelcome guests...
...that a Jew who adopts Christianity - or any other religion - is a meshummad (apostate), a grievous sinner who incurs various penalties. He may not be a witness in a Jewish legal proceeding or count in the minyan, or quorum for prayer. He remains technically a Jew, however, since the Talmud says that "a Jew who sins is still...