““Not like Our Rock Is Their Rock” (Deut 32:31): Rabbinic Perceptions of Roman Courts and Jurisdiction”
Résumé
This paper discusses how early (mainly tannaitic) rabbinic sources viewed Roman jurisdiction, and the possibility that Jews would turn to non-Jewish courts to settle their disputes. It does not aim to describe actual practices, nor to clarify how Jews navigated between non-Jewish and Jewish courts in Palestine, but rather seeks to analyze rabbinic statements about Roman or non-Jewish courts and to understand how the rabbis conceived of their activity as opposed to that of non-Jewish courts. What is at stake is the history of representations, or ideas, rather than legal history. After noting that few tannaitic texts explicitly reject Roman or non-Jewish courts, I examine the well-known case of a Jewish divorce enforced by a non-Jewish tribunal, then proceed to analyze the underlying covenantal rationale for the rejection of Roman courts. I argue that at least some rabbis associated non-Jewish courts with idolatry, thus rejecting the more accommodationist position that seems to characterize most rabbinic literature on the subject, while other texts associate Jewish or more specifically rabbinic jurisdiction or arbitration with God’s holiness.
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