Tikvah Fellow
Academic Year 2011-2012
David Flatto
David Flatto is an assistant professor of law, religion, and history at Penn State University, Dickinson School of Law. He received a B.A. and Ordination from Yeshiva University, a J.D. from Columbia Law School, and a Ph.D. with distinction from the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University. He has served as a visiting professor at Hebrew University Law School and Yeshiva University, and a visiting researcher at Yale Law School. Experienced as an educator and lecturer, he was honored in 2003 with a Teacher Recognition Award from the U.S. Department of Education. His research interests include Second Temple and Rabbinic jurisprudence, comparative law, and constitutional history. His works have appeared in Yale Journal of Law and Humanities, Yale Law Journal Pocket Part, NYU Law Global Hauser Series, Dine Israel, Hebraic Political Studies, Commentary and Tradition.
Research
Foundational Stories in the Jewish Legal Tradition
Every legal system has its foundational stories (e.g., American law relays the tales of the Constitutional Convention, Marbury v. Madison, etc.), and my project will begin an investigation of seminal tales that animate or shape the Jewish legal tradition.
While the account of Sinai stands out as the most momentous Jewish legal narrative, several other normative stories have been highly influential (i.e., the translation of the Torah, its transcription, etc.) and likewise deserve examination. I am most interested in tales which arguably have an historical kernel, but whose significance transcends the empirical record. Often such tales are narrated multiple times, with the various retellings signifying distinct (even contradictory) themes or messages.
Specifically, my project will analyze the multiple versions of the foundational story of the trial of Herod/Jannaeus as a case study. Revolving around the confrontation between law and power, this “event” made a deep impression on the early Jewish legal imagination. I will especially focus upon the different modes of articulating and transmitting this epic legal narrative. By exploring the literary, mythical, historical, legal, social and ethical layers of the various versions of this story, I plan to illustrate how this narrative shaped the Jewish legal tradition.
