Tali Farhadian Weinstein on Bava Metzia 30b – “The Imperative of Justice: Going Inside the Law”

Prosecutor, professor, and proven criminal justice reformer, Tali Farhadian Weinstein, is Mark’s guest on the podcast today. Tali came to America as a refugee in 1979, having fled the violence and ant-Semitism of revolutionary Iran, and went on to earn degrees from Yale College, Oxford University where she was a Rhodes Scholar, and Yale Law School. She has served as a Law Clerk for Judge Merrick B. Garland at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, at the U.S. Supreme Court for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, and most recently as the General Counsel of the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office. She has taught immigration law and policy at Columbia Law School, is currently Adjunct Professor of Law and Adjunct Professor of Clinical Law at NYU Law School, and is also running for the position of Manhattan District Attorney, for which she has the full support of the Rabbi’s Husband. Tali has chosen the Talmudic text, Bava Metzia 30b, to discuss with Mark today. Tali begins by sharing her summary of the selected text, the meaning it holds for her, and the rhythm and surprise that she finds within it. Together, she and Mark analyze the notion of going beyond or inside the letter of the law, as well as their differing readings of the text. This leads them to explore the learning and use of prosecutorial discretion, the lessons to be learned through visiting jails and prisons, and the human capacity for change. Tali draws their conversation to a close by recounting the lessons she has learned about mankind, and how they relate directly back to today’s selected text. Tali’s vast experience as a prosecutor and a professor combine strikingly here today as she shares her remarkable insights while drawing out both the questions and lessons inherent to this ‘awesome rabbinic passage’, and their very real and highly impactful application in our world today. Quotes: “They upheld the law rather than doing this thing of going beyond it or inside of it.” “The passage you chose says we’re following Torah laws, therefore the worst