A Note on Spelling and Abbreviations

The Hebrew terms used throughout this book have various spellings in English, including the key phrase analyzed here, lifnim mi-shurat ha-din. I adopt a consistent spelling of these terms throughout, except when quoting directly from other sources. Thus, while I write lifnim mi-shurat ha-din, direct quotes may render the phrase lifnim meshurat hadin or other variant spellings. Likewise, while I write “halakhah,” direct quotes may render the term “halacha” or “halakha.” Tractates from the Mishnah, Tosefta, Yerushalmi (Palestinian Talmud), and Bavli (Babylonian Talmud) have parallel titles. Full titles are introduced in text, and sources are referred to using the abbreviations below in the notes. Thus, Mishnah Bava Metzi’a becomes m. Bava Metzi’a in the body of the text, but will be referred to simply as m. BM in all notes and parentheticals.