The practice of halakha changes. Every shift in materials, technology, economic structure, and political framework necessarily creates new practical halakha. Can plastics be kashered? Is the completion of an electrical circuit forbidden on Shabbat? May Jews own stock in a corporation that serves hametz in its cafeteria over Pesah?
“And afterwards, the Rabbanan Sabborai saw that Jewish women were becoming dependent upon the Gentiles to get divorces from their husbands by force … from which ruin emanates.”
We continue to reach thousands of people annually through our National Scholar program, combining classes, teacher trainings, and publications to promote the core values of our Institute.
There are several upcoming classes and programs in February:
Rabbi Hayyim Angel's Latest Book
Keys to the Palace
Essays Exploring the Religious
Value of Reading the Bible
I can still hear the voices of my grandparents, parents and elder relatives speaking and singing in Judeo-Spanish. Although they have passed away years ago, I still feel their presence especially on Shabbat and holidays and at family celebrations.
When we think of our religious outlook as capturing truth, we gesture toward something very large, something toward which we can only gesture: toward how deep the religious vision goes, how it underscores, alerts us, sensitizes us, to features of reality that are as significant as they are elusive; how it can play a key role in constructing a life characterized by genuineness, yashrut.
The Deferred Action to Childhood Arrivals program gave about 800,000 young people — individuals who had arrived in the U.S. ten or more years ago at age 16 or younger — a chance to legally study or work here. The President and Congress are in the midst of discussions to legislatively address the status of Daca recipients. Many of these "dreamers" have lived most of their lives in the US and are constructive members of our society.
*For Anthony Polimeni, on assuming the Vice Presidency
of Touro College.