Dear Peter,
I wonder who suggested that you were 'doing Torah? Years ago I met a very curious man who had been in the Indian army and he spoke about 'doing puja(h)' which I think is a sort of meditational prayer technique.
It all puts into context that fascinating remark you made about indigenous rights and Judaism, although I still wonder if there might be more of a claim over a specific form of knowledge like Kaballah. I suspect our speaker was thinking more of people in the Kalahari. Perhaps in the light of the departure of our critical-legal-thinking colleage into the Havens of the West, we should introduce Kaballistic (or Qabalistic) methodology into Advanced Legal Research. Of course, perhaps you do already...
Actually, I do recall an American Federal Court Judge (IXth Circuit which I think includes California) saying to me that he thought that there was a strong influence of Torah on eighteenth century commercial practice. I could only reply that I believe that Lord Mansfield regularly dined with merchants and in deriving his law of contract might well have been (indeed, was) affected by their ideas. If a number of merchanst were Jewish (I presume that this would not be unreasonable at the time) he might well have absorbed concepts from the Torah.
As to the inherent mysticism of the English judiciary, that's another story. Perhaps I should write it up, but I can't help feeling it's very unfashionable.
Best wishes,
Richard
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