IJII

FROM BLACK FIRE TO WHITE FIRE:

CONVERSATIONS ABOUT RELIGIOUS TANAKH METHODOLOGY

R. Pinehas says in the name of R. Shimon b. Lakish: The Torah that the Holy One, blessed be He, gave to Moses was given to him from white fire inscribed by black fire.  It was fire, mixed with fire, hewn from fire and given by fire, as is written: “From His right a fiery law to them” (Deut. 33:2) (J.T. Shekalim 6:1, 25b).

Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals

Progress Report

June 2008

From Rabbi Marc D. Angel, Director

The Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals opened in October 2007. These past eight months have been busy and productive, and I thank all who have supported and encouraged the work of the Institute. Through your contributions, you help foster an intellectually vibrant, compassionate and inclusive Orthodox Judaism.

WEBSITE: www.jewishideas.org

The International Rabbinic Fellowship

By Avraham Weiss and Marc D. Angel

(Rabbis Weiss and Angel are co-founders of the International Rabbinic Fellowship, an association of Orthodox rabbis who foster an intellectually vibrant, open, compassionate and inclusive Orthodox Judaism. The Fellowship held a preliminary conference in October 2007, at which it was decided to establish the IRF on a formal basis. The IRF’s inaugural conference was held in West Palm Beach, Florida, April 29-30, 2008.

A View from Israel

Zvia Harriet Elazar

(An interior designer in Jerusalem, who made aliyah with her late husband Prof. Daniel Elazar in 1968.)

From Exclusion to Hierarchy:

Orthodoxy and the Nonobservant Jew in Historical Perspective

Dr. Adam S. Ferziger

(Lecturer and Associate Director in the Graduate Program in Contemporary Jewry at Bar Ilan University)

Old-Fashioned Discrimination, New-Style Battle

Dr. Yifat Bitton

The State of the Jewish Polity: a Modern Orthodox Perspective

By Alan Yuter

(Rabbi Yuter is Mara de-Atra of B’nai Israel, the Orthodox synagogue of downtown Baltimore. He is a faculty member in the department of Bible and Jewish Law at the Institute for Traditional Judaism.)

The Ninth Level

Naomi Schacter

Toward a Kinder, Gentler, More Tolerant and Flexible Orthodoxy

Aryeh Rubin

The Discourse of Halakhic Inclusiveness

Rabbi Dov Linzer

Rosh HaYeshiva and Dean, YCT Rabbinical School