Anat

The interesting thing is to see how the interpretations are derived and how they are based in the text via a small number of interpretive rules.

storytime

What rules govern interpretation?

gupwalla

I have some comments to add to the later discussion here, but I don't have time to form my thoughts just yet. But in the meantime, going back to the OP, I have researched the Reform Jewish perspective on the death penalty and it more or less provides some kind of closure to the original question ("What is the reasoning that Jews use to not follow the laws that require captital punishment"):

semiopen

The Baraita_of_Rabbi_Ishmael

Theoretically, an interpretation of scripture must have been made by a Sage. Sages have a common characteristic of being dead. The latest of these are the Acharonim Acharonim (Hebrew: אחרונים‎; sing. אחרון, Acharon; lit. "last ones") is a term used in Jewish law and history, to signify the leading rabbis and poskim (Jewish legal decisors) living from roughly the 16th century to the present.

Basically, one shouldn't make a claim that is not based on something a sage said.

For example, I have a theory that Joseph was gay. If no sage said this, this would be wrong by definition. However a couple of minor sages did note that Joseph's behavior was effeminate; so depending on how one looks at this my opinion could be kosher.

One of the rules is that if sages disagree on something (or there is a contradiction in the Torah) a third opinion (or third line in the Torah) should be found that reconciles this. For example, some commentators say that Rachel stole the Teraphim from Laban to keep him from idol worship, another group says that she wanted to use it's divining powers to know when Laban caught up to Jacob and family. I'm not aware of the reconciling opinion but hopefully you get the idea.

storytime

Reconciling the sages interpretations seems to be basically the Christian idea of letting scripture interpret scripture, is this close enough to the rules of interpretation?

semiopen

This is possible, I'm not really any kind of expert in this.

For example, I forgot to mention that one can choose a sages interpretation and ignore any contradictions. For example one could believe the interpretation that Rachel stole the Teraphim to encourage Laban to stop worshipping idols and ignore the contradicting one.

Anat

One has to differentiate between interpretation of narrative, like the examples semiopen gave and derivation of law. Ultimately it isn't important what one believes about the details of the story, but when it comes to deriving laws that govern how all Jews must behave there are criteria of how to anchor one's reasoning in the text. For example when deciding which modern activity is permissible on Shabbat and which isn't you can't just decide 'this looks like work to me', it has to be something that can be derived from one of the 49 (I think) 'avot melakha' that the Talmudists listed and argued based directly on the text.

semiopen

This Yom Kippur I stayed at a hotel where my Shul was having services.

My Rabbi thinks it is extra important not to drive on Yom Kipper compared to Shabbat - even though both were on the same day this year. When I was a kid, my teacher taught that Shabbat was more impotantant than all the holidays.

There are some interesting issues. Religious Jews will not turn on or off lights, etc. I don't follow these things so after the first evening service I had no problem watching TV turning lights on and off, etc. Then it hit me that the card key to get into the room was technically dubious because it opens a lock by electricity and even turns a light on.

I talked to a deluded friend about this the next day and he noted that he keeps his door open. I had another issue with my kindle, could it be turned on, if it was on is it legal to turn a page, etc. If I'm sitting in the lobby reading a kindle will all the religious people think I'm a heretic?

What's really a pain in the ass is that there is a gap of four hours between the morning and afternoon services. You can't drive, eat, drink, watch TV, etc and at the end of four hours like this there's two more hours of intense prayer.

I almost always go to Shul on Shabbat, the services are about 2-2.5 hours, I used to avoid paying bills on Shabbat, but even that is difficult (not to mention pointless).