The Talmud rule is a method to determine how to allocate an estate (an amount of money) to two or more individuals who are owed collectively more than the estate. Using data from the Egyptian Talmud, I will examine the puzzle of how the data led to the rule and I will give some of the history of the problem. The Talmud rule is one of a class of consistent rules. I will demonstrate how such rules (as well as the proportional rule) can be used to define a dynamic procedure for which the bankruptcy solution is the unique attractive fixed point.

This is joint work with Jennifer M. Wilson, Eugene Lang College, The New School for Liberal Arts, New York, NY.