An original anthology of modern responsa (Jewish ethical and ritual decision-making) by rabbinic authorities, men and women, across movements (Conservative, Orthodox, Reform), geographic locales, and ethnicities (Ashkenazic, Sefardic, Mizra i), Modern Responsa engages readers in understanding how rabbis expert in Jewish law apply principles, precedents, and rules from Judaism’s legal tradition to real-life issues.
Responsa on ten topics—personal and business ethics, ritual, personal status, women, LGBTQIA+ people, medical ethics, the COVID-19 pandemic, relationships with the other, the modern State of Israel, and Jewish life in the United States—showcase how the rabbinic decisors who wrote them handle modern quandaries for their communities. Pamela Barmash’s translations open up most of these original Hebrew texts to English-speaking readers for the first time. Sometimes the decisors disagree—but other times they rule similarly, despite differing ideological commitments. Clear explanations of how the decisors build their arguments along with historical background, decisor biographies, implications, and a glossary enable general adult and teen readers as well as scholars to grasp the finer points of Jewish ethical and ritual decision-making.
Ultimately, Modern Responsa illuminates the dynamic nature of Jewish law, the creativity of Jewish legal writings, and the multidimensionality of the Jewish experience in modernity.
Modern Responsa, an original anthology of Jewish ethical and ritual decision-making by rabbinic authorities—men and women, across movements (Conservative, Orthodox, Reform), geographic locales, and ethnicities (Ashkenazic, Sefardic, Mizra i)—illuminates how Judaism’s legal tradition is applied to real-life issues.
Arvustused
"Modern Responsa should be on the shelves of synagogues, Jewish community centers, universities and individual homes. It would be a splendid gift for a bar or bat mitzvah and other important markers in individual Jewish life journeys."-Mindy C. Reiser, Association of Jewish Libraries An exemplary achievement-an original, sophisticated, topical, and accessible contribution to the field of Jewish law in general and the responsa literature in particular.-Rabbi David Ellenson, chancellor emeritus, Hebrew Union CollegeJewish Institute of Religion The brilliance of Modern Responsas idea and structure is matched only by the authors skill in executing it. Barmash enables readers to experience the range of Jewish approaches to profound moral questions-and our traditions ability to respond to changing circumstances.-Rabbi Jan Uhrbach, associate editor of Siddur Lev Shalem for Shabbat and Festivals A splendid book by a master educator offering broad, brilliant insight into Jewish society and different types of Jewish legal thinking.-Marc Zvi Brettler, Bernice and Morton Lerner Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies, Duke University
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Understanding Responsa
How to Use This Book
Notes on Translation
1. Personal and Business Ethics
Text 1.1. Cardin and Reisner, On the Mitzvah of Sustainability
Text 1.2. Leff, Whistleblowing: The Requirement to Report Employer
Wrongdoing
Text 1.3. Weiss, About Commercial Encroachment
Text 1.4. Somekh and Al-akam, On Commerce in the Markets of Malabar
Text 1.5. Barmash, Veal Calves
2. Ritual
Text 2.1. Sofer, On Using the Vernacular in Prayer
Text 2.2. Halevi, What Are the Chances That Our Prayers Are Answered by
God?
Text 2.3. ccar Responsa Committee, A Sex Offender in the Synagogue
3. Personal Status
Text 3.1. Oshry, The Case of a Mamzer Rabbi
Text 3.2. Spitz, Mamzerut
Text 3.3. Mesas, A Pesak Din in a Matter of Mamzerut
Text 3.4. ccar Responsa Committee, Patrilineal and Matrilineal Descent
Text 3.5. Yosef, On the Status of Ethiopian Jews
Text 3.6. Barmash, The Status of the eresh [ Deaf Mute] and of Sign
Language
4. Women
Text 4.1. Lauterbach, Shall Women Be Ordained Rabbis?
Text 4.2. Herzog, Takkanot on Marriage and Yibbum
Text 4.3. Roness, When Staining Renders a Woman Niddah
Text 4.4. Rembaum, Regarding the Inclusion of the Names of the Matriarchs
in the First Blessing of the Amidah
Text 4.5. Barmash, Women and Mitzvot
5. lgbtqia+
Text 5.1. Roth, Homosexuality
Text 5.2. Dorff, Nevins, and Reisner, Homosexuality, Human Dignity and
Halakhah
Text 5.3. ccar Responsa Committee, Same-Sex Marriage as Kiddushin
Text 5.4. Sharzer, Transgender Jews and Halakhah
6. Medical Ethics
Text 6.1. Sternbuch, A Woman Suffering from Alzheimers Disease Whose
Husband Wishes to Divorce Her
Text 6.2. Mevorakh, Eating on Yom Kippur When a Person Is Suffering from an
Eating Disorder (Anorexia)
Text 6.3. Waldenberg, On Abortion in General
Text 6.4. Waldenberg, On the Abortion of a Fetus with Tay-Sachs Disease
Text 6.5. Grossman, Partial Birth Abortion and the Question of When Human
Life Begins
7. The covid-19 Pandemic
Text 7.1. Co-chairs, Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, Halakhic
Guidance from cjls about Coronavirus
Text 7.2. ccar Responsa Committee, Virtual Minyan in Time of covid-19
Emergency
Text 7.3. Iggud akhmei ha-Maarav be-Eretz Yisrael, On a Seder via Zoom
Text 7.4. Schachter, Washing on Tisha bAv and Regarding the Rule of God
Protects the Simple
Text 7.5. Barmash, Ethics of Gathering When Not All of Us May Attend in
Person
8. Relationships with the Other
Text 8.1. Shapira, Engaging in a Public Fast in Sympathy with German Jews
Text 8.2. Weinberg, On the Burial of a Person Converted by Liberal Rabbis
Text 8.3. Halevi, Transcendental Meditation
Text 8.4. Hirsch and Rapport, Yoga as a Jewish Worship Practice: Chukat
Hagoyim or Spiritual Innovation?
Text 8.5. Hammer, The Status of Non-Jews in Jewish Law and Lore Today
9. The Modern State of Israel
Text 9.1. Goren, The Siege on Beirut in Light of Halakhah
Text 9.2. Halevi, The Law of the One Who Comes Forth to Kill You, Kill Him
First in Our State Affairs
Text 9.3. Friedman, A Responsum on the Issue of the Greater Land of
Israel and Halakhah
Text 9.4. Yosef, Ceding Territory from the Land of Israel When There Is
Pikkua Nefesh
Text 9.5. Yisraeli, Ceding Territory because of Pikkua Nefesh
10. Life in the United States
Text 10.1. Committee on Responsa of the Committee on Army and Navy Religious
Activities, Responsa in War Time
Text 10.2. Feinstein, American Thanksgiving
Text 10.3. Kalmanofsky, Participating in the American Death Penalty
Source Acknowledgments
Glossary
Notes
Index
Pamela Barmash is a rabbi and a professor of Hebrew Bible and Biblical Hebrew at Washington University in St. Louis, as well as chair of the Rabbinical Assemblys Committee on Jewish Law and Standards. She is the author of Homicide in the Biblical World and The Laws of Hammurabi: At the Confluence of Royal and Scribal Traditions.
