Q&A: Modes of Acquisition in the Torah
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
Modes of Acquisition in the Torah
Question
Hello,
On the one hand, you hold that acquisition is not a Torah-defined category but rather something prior to the Torah, and that the Torah’s prohibitions apply to it.
On the other hand, the Torah’s definitions of acquisition differ from the non-Torah definitions of acquisition (the Torah one is essential, while the legal one is not).
How are these two reconciled?
Answer
I didn’t understand. What makes you think they are different? They aren’t different.
Discussion on Answer
That is unlike the accepted legal conceptions, but not unlike legal truth. It’s just that in recent generations, secular people have had an aversion to metaphysics, and therefore they view law as a convention, and natural law is no longer fashionable.
Hello,
In the book Moves Among the Standing, p. 397, the conclusion is that Jewish law, unlike the accepted legal conceptions, understands the legal situation as a normative derivative of a metaphysical or meta-legal reality.