The Law of the Kingdom Is the Law
b. Bava Metsi‘a 108a
Samuel said, One who took possession of [land on a] riverbank is an impudent person, but we certainly do not remove him. But nowadays that the Persians write, “It [a field on a riverbank] is acquired by you as far as the depth of the water reaching up to the horse’s neck,” we certainly remove him.
b. Bava Batra 55a
Rabbah said, Ukvan son of Nehemiah the Exilarch related to me these three things in the name of Samuel: “The law of the kingdom is the law; possession for the Persians is forty years; and those who acquire land for the taska tax [land tax], their acquisition is valid.”
Translated by Shai Secunda.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.
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Torah Law versus Magian Law
Jews enjoyed relative autonomy in the Sasanian Empire. Jewish courts were a viable option for legal proceedings, and rabbinic courts competed for litigants in the empire’s legally pluralistic environment. Certain cases may have been judged in Jewish courts outside of rabbinic jurisdiction. The Babylonian Talmud continued the rabbinic bias against non-Jewish courts and also recorded a number of specific pejorative references to Persian and Zoroastrian law under the authority of the magi, Zoroastrian priests.
The talmudic claim that the law of the kingdom should be the law for Jews is credited, by an exilarch, to Samuel. In this case, the “law of the kingdom” was the law of the Sasanian Empire, by which Jews were to abide. The rabbinic exhortation to follow the rules of the reigning government or state—which appears several times in the Talmud—continues to influence Jewish life to this day.
