The following is a public service announcement from the Freehof Blog.
If you’re thinking of having one last, lovely dinner in the sukkah tonight, October 4, 2015, which marks the onset of Sh’mini Atzeret, you should think twice. In fact, in this case it might help to think more than twice. Continue reading Back Away From the Sukkah, or, Yom Tov Sheni, Part One
The massive wave of migration to Europe and beyond from Syria and other Middle Eastern countries has us scrambling to mount an appropriate and adequate response. The most urgent sort of “response” is in the field of action: what can we Jews do to ease the horrible suffering of these, our fellow human beings? But another kind of response is the one that takes place in the realm of thought: how should we Jews think and talk about our moral obligations toward the migrants? We would like to think that our tradition teaches us something about an earth-shaking challenge such as this, that it offers substantive guidance as to how we should act. And if it does, we would expect to find that teaching and guidance within the resources of the halakhah, that segment of our tradition that speaks most directly to questions of sacred action. Continue reading Thinking Halakhicly About the Refugee Crisis
Rabbi Sh’lomo b. Adret (Rashba / רשב”א, d. 1310 in Barcelona) was one of the outstanding rishonim, or “early” (pre-16th century) rabbinical writers. His Talmud commentaries (ḥidushim) are regarded as classics of the genre and are standard features of the yeshiva curriculum. Rashba was also a recognized halakhic authority, and his collected responsa (t’shuvot), numbering in the thousands, cover the entire range of Jewish law and practice.
One responsum of his (vol. 1, no. 215) is especially timely for rabbis and cantors at the Yamim Nora’im, the High Holiday season. Continue reading To Cantors and Rabbis: A High Holiday Message from the 13th Century
The latest round of the conversion wars in Israel is more than simply politics, the attempt to entice ḥaredi parties into a razor-thin Knesset majority. When we look at it closely, we find a case of progressive halakhah at work, an example of how rabbis not at all associated with the progressive Jewish movements can nonetheless utilize progressive halakhic thinking to solve problems and to relieve human suffering. Continue reading The Israeli Conversion Crisis and Progressive Halakhah
Welcome to our new blog! Our goal at the Freehof Institute for Progressive Halakhah is to consider issues of halakhah from a liberal perspective and to explore how halakhah and halakhic thinking might contribute to the enrichment of liberal Jewish observance. If you share our commitment to the enduring connection between the halakhic tradition and liberal/progressive/Reform Judaism, please consider this an invitation to join in the discussion. Continue reading An Invitation
