Table of Contents

Contributors
Prologue
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Aaron Levine

I. Economic Theory in the Bible
1. The Right to Return: The Biblical Law of Theft
Eliakim Katz and Jacob Rosenberg
2 . Eliezer the Matchmaker: Ethical Considerations and Modern
Negotiation Theory
Aaron Levine
3. Land Concentration, Efficiency, Slavery, and the Jubilee
Jacob Rosenberg and Avi Weiss

II. Economic Theory in the Talmud
4 . Risk and Incentives in the Iska Contract
Jeffrey L. Callen
5. Externalities and Public Goods in the Talmud
Ephraim Kleiman
6 . An Extended Talmudic Search Model
Yehoshua Liebermann
7. Optimal Precautions and the Law of Fire Damages
Jacob Rosenberg
8. Valuation in Jewish Law
Keith Sharfman
9. Could What You Don't Know Hurt You? Information Asymmetry in Land Markets in Late Antiquity
P.V. (Meylekh) Viswanath and Michael Szenberg

III. Jewish Law, Ethics, and the Modern Society
10. Hetter Iska, the Permissible Venture: A Device to Avoid the
Prohibition Against Interest-Bearing Loans
J. David Bleich
11. Ethical Demands on Creditors in Jewish Tradition
Yoel Domb
12. The Jewish Prohibition of Interest: Themes, Scopes, and
Contemporary Applications
Daniel Z. Feldman
13. Interloping Behavior in the Marketplace in Jewish Law
Howard Jachter
14. Principles of Ethical and Communal Investment in Judaism:
A Jewish Law Approach
Asher Meir
15. The Art of Moral Criticism: Rebuke in the Jewish Tradition and Beyond
Moses L. Pava
16. "Know Before Whom You Stand": Trust, the Marketplace,
and Judaism
Jonas Prager
17. Payment for Organ Donation in Jewish Law
Fred Rosner and Edward Reichman
18. The Theory of "Efficient Breach": A Jewish Law Perspective
Ronald Warburg

IV. Economic Public Policy and Jewish Law
19. Public and Private International Law From the Perspective of Jewish
Law
Michael J. Broyde
20. Jewish Environmental Ethics
Yehuda L. Klein and Jonathan Weiser
21. The Global Recession of 2007–: The Moral Factor and
Jewish Law
Aaron Levine
22. The Employee Free Choice Act, Unions, and Unionizing in
Jewish Law
Dani Rapp
23. Rabbinic Responses to Rapid Inflation in Israel, 1973—1985
Daniel Schiffman
24. Jewish Ethics, the State, and Economic Freedom
Meir Tamari

V. Comparative Law Studies Relating to Economic Issues
25. Economic Substance and the Laws of Interest: A Comparison of Jewish and U.S. Federal Tax Law
Adam Chodorow
26. Transfer of Ownership in E-Commerce Transactions from the
Perspective of Jewish Law: In Light of Israeli and American Law
Ron S. Kleinman and Amal Jabareen
27. The Jewish Guarantor and Secular Law: Stumbling Blocks and
Their Removal
Roger Lister

VI. Judaism and Economic History
28. Babylonian Jews at the Intersection of the Iranian Economy and Sasanian law
Yaakov Elman
29. Coins and Money in Jewish Law and Literature: A Basic Introduction and Selective Survey
Laurence J. Rabinovich
30. Economics and Law as Reflected in Hebrew Contracts
Yosef Rivlin
31. Talmudic Monetary Theory: Currency in Rabbinic Halakhah
Lawrence H. Schiffman

VII. The Economics of Judaism
32. The Economic Progress of American Jewry: From Eighteenth-
Century Merchants to Twenty-First-Century Professionals
Barry R. Chiswick
33. How Economics Helped Shape American Judaism
Carmel Ullman Chiswick

Glossary
List of Abbreviations
Name Index
Subject Index