YU PhD student awarded AJS fellowship

CONGRATULATIONS TO MS. LANDMAN WERMUTH: Revel Student Awarded Prestigious Fellowship. Yael Landman Wermuth Receives Association for Jewish Studies Dissertation Completion Fellowship (YU News).

Landman Wermuth’s advisor, Dr. Barry Eichler, professor of Bible and cuneiform studies at Revel and Yeshiva College, described his student’s work as multifaceted, methodologically rigorous, and creative in addressing “significant legal issues both in biblical and cuneiform law.”

Landman Wermuth’s dissertation studies the biblical law of bailment (Exodus 22:6-14) in its ancient Near Eastern (ANE) contexts. Her methods include exegesis, legal theory, and socio-economic analysis. “I bring together previously unconnected texts (including Mesopotamian legal documents and biblical narrative and prophecy) to reconstruct the institution as it functioned and was perceived in ancient Israel and Judah,” she explained. “The law in Exodus is not just about bailment, but is also a law of fact-finding driven by an epistemological concern: How can the wronged party know that the accused is innocent?”