{"id":50783,"date":"2019-09-13T15:57:22","date_gmt":"2019-09-13T21:57:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=50783"},"modified":"2019-09-13T15:57:22","modified_gmt":"2019-09-13T21:57:22","slug":"off-the-pulpit-courts-of-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/off-the-pulpit-courts-of-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Off the Pulpit: Courts of Love"},"content":{"rendered":"

By RABBI DAVID WOLPE<\/p>\n

In medieval England and France, there were courts of love. They legislated on questions regarding love, passed sentence on lovers who were in the wrong, and generally tried to establish a system of jurisprudence to keep love disputes from the regular courts.<\/p>\n

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While Jews did not have \u2018courts of love\u2019 per se, Judaism also adjudicated promises and romantic entanglements in court, and does to this day. No one can accurately judge feelings, but the courts could judge promises made.<\/p>\n

Love overspills law. No legal netting, however fine, can capture the quicksilver nature of the human heart. We are told in the Talmud that \u201cGod wants the heart.\u201d Not only does God want it directed toward heaven, but toward one another, with a sincerity and fullness that cannot be measured or judged but can surely be felt.<\/p>\n

(Rabbi David Wolpe is the senior rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles.)<\/em><\/p>\n

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