Week 1: Why? Why do we keep kosher in the first place? What is the intended function of various dietary restrictions? What is their effect as practiced? Before we jump into the details, we will endeavor to begin with a broad picture of motivations and frameworks for eating differently than we might otherwise without the Torah and Hazal's guidance. Download sources for Session 1
Week 2: What? The Torah presents a list of items that are forbidden to eat and rabbinic literature supplements this even further. Avoiding these problematic foods lies at the heart of any kashrut practice. What is in our food and how do we know? What kinds of information and evidence are sufficient for ensuring that we don't transgress these requirements? We will look in depth at questions regarding verifying the ingredients present in food and when we can trust that food is permitted to eat. Download sources for Session 2 Download audio recording Watch Session 2
Week 3: How? How food is prepared is almost as important in Jewish law as the contents of the food itself. We will look in depth at the question of the utensils used to prepare food and how pots and pans play an integral role in the question of whether something is kosher. We will also see, however, that questions of procedure and preparation are complex, and some of the tradition's most striking flexibility can be found in this fascinating area of practice. Download sources for Session 3
Week 4: Who? An often overlooked dimension of the kashrut of food is: "Who prepared it?" The identity of the preparer plays a prominent role in rabbinic thinking about kashrut. Recognizing that food is a key element in creating fellowship, many rabbinic sources forbid consuming food prepared by those with whom fellowship is dangerous or undesirable. We will wade into the complex issue of Jewish-Gentile boundaries around food and try to think about the role of food in creating fellowship in our contemporary environment.
Week 5: Where? Can you eat a glatt-kosher, double-wrapped meal while dining with a genocidal dictator? Even if the ingredients are kosher, the pots are kosher and the identity of the preparer is innocuous, some venues are simply too problematic for eating. We will explore a small but fascinating set of texts on the notion of mesibot, celebratory events that abhorred rabbinic sensibilities and think about the application of this category to contemporary social situations.
Week 6: Now This last session will be devoted to putting everything we have learned together with an eye to thoughtful application to the contemporary world. The effects of modern standards of cleanliness and the materials revolution will be explored. A significant period of time will be set aside during this final session for practical questions and broader reflections on what we have learned.
New from Halakhah Think Tank: Eating and Drinking Before Davening
by Rabbi Ethan Tucker
Our contemporary lives always seem rushed, as we each try to cram in as many activities as possible to the limited amount of time we feel we have available. Mornings can be particularly challenging, as observant Jews attempt to get themselves ready, out of the house, find time for both prayer and breakfast and off to work on time. Add to this the factor of a commute to somewhere somewhat far from home, and many challenges arise. Among them is how to manage balancing making prayer and the cultivation of one's relationship with God the first experience of the day, contributing to the communal by attending minyan and maintaining healthy eating habits around breakfast. This post aims to engage some of the literature around this topic.
Berg Lectures on Jewish Law: Pathways for Egalitarian Judaism
Taught by Rabbi Ethan Tucker
March 6th, 13th and 20th, 2012
March 6: Incremental Change or Paradigm Shift?
In thinking about gender and Jewish rituals, rights and responsibilities, we are faced with a fundamental choice. One approach is to tackle each issue on its own terms and to use incremental and minimalist approaches to solving problems that arise. The other approach is to embrace a paradigm that addresses issues of gender in one fell swoop by arguing for a paradigm shift. We will think about these two modes more broadly in halakhah and consider what is gained and lost by each.
March 13: Sharing Burdens Equally in a World without Adjuncts
In an egalitarian world of Jewish rights and responsibilities, who gets to come late to shul?Who plays the role of adjunct and supporter that has always been key in the mechanics of Jewish community? If much of the Jewish past assumed that many supporting roles were delegated to women in order to allow men to be fully present, how can an egalitarian world ensure full presence for some without dividing roles along gender lines alone? We will consider other models for thinking about burdens shared among equals and think about how to keep both men and women fully involved in all aspects of Jewish life.
March 20: Egalitarianism without Androgyny
Much of the struggle for gender equality both in the general culture and in Judaism has focused on equality of citizenship and equality of power. Must that struggle also necessarily entail wiping the public space clean of gender differences? Can Jews who are committed to gender difference and separation be full members of the egalitarian project pursuing equality of power and citizenship? We will attempt to address this difficult and contentious topic with sensitivity and honesty.
Location: 190 Amsterdam Avenue at 69th St.
Cost: Free
Can't make it in person? These sessions will be recorded and posted online.
4/7/11
Halakhah in the Modern World: Are There Other Ways?
Mechon Hadar proudly welcomes Professor Zvi Zohar for a lecture entitled, "Halakhah in the Modern World: Are There Other Ways?".
Zvi Zohar is one of the world's foremost scholars of Jewish Law in the modern world. He has spent decades studying the ways in which Rabbis in the Sephardic world have responded to new challenges and possibilities in the modern world, and has particularly explored the work of major figures whose understanding of Halakhah has been marked by remarkable openness, dynamism, and creativity; as one twentieth century figure famously put it, "There is nothing in the world more flexible than the Halakhah." In this lecture, Professor Zohar will share the fruits of his research, and discuss what contemporary Jews can learn from the too often neglected work of Rabbinic sages from Arab lands.
Zvi Zohar is a professor at Bar-Ilan University, where he teaches in the Faculties of Law and Jewish Studies and heads the Rappaport Center for Assimilation Research and the Strengthening of Jewish Vitality. He also heads the Alan and Loraine Fischer Family Center for Halakha at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.
11/11/10
The Boundaries of Intimacy: Non-Marital Sex and Contemporary Realities
The biblical and rabbinic material on sexual practice surrounding menstruation is more loaded with critique and apology than almost any other area of halakhic literature. In this series we will attempt to engage this topic directly and honestly, sincerely searching for what these ancient sources continue to teach us today and to imagine new possibilities for their application to contemporary reality.
When: 6 Tuesday nights, October 12 - November 16 (come for any or all classes) Time: 7:30pm - 9:00pm Cost: $5/$25 for series Where: Mechon Hadar, 190 Amsterdam Avenue (at 69th St.)
Can't make it? Watch live on UStream. Video of each lecture will be posted online.
This three-part series will lay out an overarching theory of and approach to halakhah (Jewish Law).The lectures will focus on the following themes: I. History--Our Present Moment: Its genesis and our way forward (March 4) II. Philosophy and Theology--Viewing halakhic norms as representing values worthy of respect rather than arbitrary rules demanding obedience (March 11) III.Law--Practical examples of language and category shifts that allow us to engage even the most contentious areas of Jewish Law (March 18)
We are grateful to the David Berg Foundation for making these lectures possible.
Devorah Zlochower is a 1996 graduate of the Drisha Scholars Circle, and she has an MA in Political Science from Columbia University. She was the first woman scholar-in-residence to accompany a delegation of rabbinical students on the AJWS mission to El Salvador. She serves on the board of JOFA (the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance), and speaks in communities across the United States and overseas on topics such as the social and historical factors that influence the development of Halakha.
Breaking a Leg for God - How Much Must One Sacrifice While Performing Ordinary Mitzvot?
Shmuel Kadosh
To what extent does the halakhah demand that a Jew incur serious harm (short of death) in order to keep its dictates? On August 22, 1963, Ruth Friedman and Jack Katz, two counselors on their day off from camp, went on a hike at the Belleayre Mt. Ski Center in the Catskills. They took the ski lift to the top of the mountain, and hiked there most of the day. On their way back down, the ski lift stopped, leaving Jack and Ruth stranded on the ski lift. Concerned about violating the Jewish law prohibition against the seclusion of men and women (Yichud), Ruth jumped off the ski lift, breaking both her legs. (See Friedman v. State, 282 N.Y.S.2d 858 (N.Y. Ct. Cl. 1967)) In this class, we will examine Ruth's decision to jump, both from the perspective of normative Jewish law and in a broader discussion about the tension between Divine Will and human need.
How should we think about the economic, religious, and political implications of the Biblical agricultural cycle for contemporary Israeli life? This class will use Biblical, Talmudic, and medieval sources to develop the diversity of opinions formulated in canonical Jewish sources and their potential contemporary relevance.
Rabbi Jill Jacobs is the Director of Education for the Jewish Funds for Justice (JFSJ), a national public foundation dedicated to mobilizing the resources of American Jews to combat the root causes of domestic social and economic injustice. Jill also holds an MS in Urban Affairs from Hunter College and a BA in Comparative Literature from Columbia University. Her writings have appeared in a number of magazines, journals and websites, including Conservative Judaism, Tikkun, The Reconstructionist, Lilith, the Forward, Women in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary Journal, and MyJewishLearning.com.
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