This collection of articles deals with the connection between the concept of death and the philosophy of the Halakha. Many would argue that recoil from death and flight from it underlie in every culture, including the Halakha. To understand a culture one must examine its attitude toward death. The articles in this volume and its special symposium on the denial of death follow this assumption by studying what the Halakha has to say on this subject. Three themes that link death and Halakha lie at the heart of the book: the issue of fear of death and the tools for coping with it; the connection between human experience and Halakhic conceptualizations and tools pertaining to the issue of death; and the influence of meta-Halakhic views on Halakhic rulings and thought on the issue of death. This diverse collection presents the voices of the leading scholars and intellectuals in the field; it touches on existential issues whose sources lie in deep Halakhic and philosophic study, from the Sages and Maimonides to the Holocaust and the technological age. The book, whose foundation is the philosophical discourse of the Halakha, constitutes a cornerstone for broad study that encourages additional scholarship. It presents the Halakhic world’s deep insights on the end of life, coping with these moments, and the Halakhic implications of the concept of death, including all its derivatives in the Halakha and the Aggada.

The Halakha is not just a body of literature; it is also a cultural event. It follows then that the philosophy of Halakha must address the happening of the Halakha. Surprisingly, till now philosophers of Halakha have not addressed this dimension of the event or the happening of the Halakha. The articles in this book are an attempt at facing this challenge. But this is not simple because herein lies a paradox. If the event or the happening is something that lies outside the confines of what is captured in the written word, the effort to write about it is one that must take us on a fascinating journey between what is possible and what perhaps is not. What is the nature of the Halakha as an event? What is the knowledge contained in this dimension of the Halakha that defies conceptualization in the written word? How does the insight that the Halakha is principally an event dramatically affect the philosophy of the Halakha? As we have said, philosophers of the Halakha have not addressed this question before and the authors in this collection – scholars and researchers from a wide range of fields – are all facing it for the first time bringing to it a wide range of tools from fields as varied as philosophy, Jewish thought, performance, cinema, group dynamics, cognition, gender studies and more. Together they offer us a new discourse and framework for conceptualizing the philosophy of the Halakha.

Halakhah: Overt and Implicit Conceptual and Ideological Contexts , is a collection of articles by leading scholars in the field of halakhah and the philosophy of halakhah. The articles uncover the overt and implicit worldviews of a number of halakhic decisors and examine how they coped with extra-halakhic cultures and ideas. Some of them internalized “outside” concepts, while others dealt with the outside world by making new use of the internal notions of the world of halakhah. The articles also consider the link between ideology and the issuance of halakhic rulings. Readers will encounter examples of the influence of ideology on halakhah, alongside arguments that categorically deny that ideology plays any part in halakhic thinking. The volume proposes answers to questions such as whether halakhah derives its power from its anti-ideological character and what underlies the assertion that halakhah is an ideological text.

This research hopes to construct fascinating mosaic studies which expand and redefine the boundaries of the discourse of Halakhah Thought. This book gives a new understanding of the Halakhic process through the analytical tools of the philosophy of Halakhah. It invites fresh insights into the Halakhah's dynamic in light of models which come from varied disciplinary fields. In this framework, we will meet some models from philosophy, anthropology, sociology, law, psychology, and education which will shed a new light on our understanding of the concept of Meta-Halakhah. In this book, there are discussions such as "what is the contribution of feminism to the halakhic discourse?" (Tamar Ross); "on Aristotelian logic and Halakhah" (Aviram Ravitzky); "between philosophy of science, language and Halakhah" (Meyer Bouzaglo); "the relationship between the Halakhic language and Kabbalistic language" (Joseph Dan); "on Emmanuel Levinas and Jewish law" (Joel Hansel); "values, world view and Halakhic progress" with Izhak Englard, David Halivni, David Hartman and Aviezer Ravitzky.

Rabbi J.B Soloveitchik (1903-1993) was the preeminent leader of Modern Orthodoxy in the United States for nearly 50 years. His prominence in American Orthodox life was based upon his expertise in Torah and Western intellectual culture, his extraordinary pedagogical and rhetorical skills and his halakhic authority. As the head of the World Mizrachi, he also played an influential role on religious Zionism in Israel. Rabbi in the New World , explores the extent of Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik’s leadership in shaping the Orthodox communities in the United States and analyzes the characteristics and multiple domains of his influence. The book examines the question of whether Rabbi Soloveitchik’s leadership is best understood as limited to American Orthodoxy or whether his influence exceeded those boundaries. The essays in the book probe which of his students most closely reflect his religious philosophy, whether his vision was sufficiently flexible to meet the challenges of the present and the future, and whether Rabbi Soloveitchik was open to inter-religious dialogue. The book contains twenty-six articles by scholars in history, sociology, education, theology and philosophy, all of whom evaluate Rabbi Soloveitchik’s works and the era in which he was active. Rabbi in the New World, was co-edited by Dr. Avinoam Rosenak, Chair of Jewish Philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Research Fellow at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and Rabbi Prof. Naftali Rothenberg, Senior Research Fellow at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and Rabbi of Har Adar.

What are the considerations that move Halakhic decision makers? Which questions must they ask themselves in the process of producing a worthy ruling? How does the Halakhah contribute to the shaping of a person's character? How can the Halakhic decision maker play a conscious rule in this process of education? These are some of the questions raised in this book. The book "Halakhah as an Agent of Change" intends to move forward the discourse about the Philosophy of Halakhah by making a fundamental claim that the existent literature ignores. This claim is that in addition to the Halakhah being a juridical system – and for the religious Jewish person a religious imperative – the Halakhah is primarily an educational instrument and existential event. Therefore, the Halakhah is designed to effect cultural, valuative and educational changes in its devotees. Hence, in order to understand the Halakhah from a philosophical perspective we must make use of philosophical tools that are to be found in Philosophy of Education. In light of this basic insight – which has not received the attention of researchers – this book illuminates both the Halakhic field of studies and the process of Halakhic ruling itself but, also helps us to re-think Halakhic-philosophical studies in the past and intends to contribute to the development of Halakhic philosophy in the future. Furthermore, the book opens a new path for the discourse of the philosophy of Education.

What is Philosophy of Halakhah? Can the Halakhah be understood philosophically? Is the Halakhah influenced by factors external to it? This book, New Streams in Philosophy of Halakhah points to new directions of research by outstanding scholars in this field. This book has four sections: delineating the field of inquiry; study of the role and function of philosophy in Halakhic discourse; formalism and realism in Halakhic interpretation; sociological, anthropological and gender orientated readings of the Halakhah. In these sections fundamental issues will be clarified including defining the discourse of philosophy of Halakhah, the diverse elements within Halakhah, and the contribution of the Halakhic philosopher to an understanding and clarification of the Halakhah and its significance. Also treated in this book is the issue, whether the Halakhah is characterized only by factors inherent in it or whether also by valuative and philosophical worlds outside of it. What is the weight of external considerations in the shaping of the Halakhah and its decision makers? Can the tools of Sociology and Anthropology enrich our understanding of the Halakhic process? In examining these questions the authors deal with the Philosophy of the Halakhah through critical but also normative lenses. This book lays before the readers the cutting edge of research in Philosophy of Halakhah, and it gives the reader a fascinating point of entry into philosophical-Halakhic discourse.

In Ha-halakhah ha-nevu’it , the author traces the halakhic philosophy of Rabbi Abraham Isaac ha-Kohen Kook, one of the preeminent Jewish thinkers of modern times. Rabbi Kook was called upon to offer his opinions on the raging issues of the day within the Jewish world—enlightenment, secularization, and the Zionist movement—and his influence on Israeli public life was and remains enormous. His complex, poetically formulated pronouncements resonated with the community and gave rise to varied, sometimes contradictory interpretations. Although regarded as philosophically daring and a source of intellectual ferment, he is also recalled as a stringent halakhist. Not surprisingly, most of the literature on Rabbi Kook thus far has concentrated on his thought and has tended to disregard his halakhic rulings. This book is the first to examine the full extent of Rabbi Kook’s philosophical and halakhic writings, taking account of all the contradictions and tensions they embody. At the same time, it illustrates the linkage among halakhah, aggadah, and prophecy. The study shows that there can be no halakhah without aggadah; that every ruling is illuminated by an underlying philosophy. To elucidate Rabbi Kook’s halakhic writings, the book introduces the reader to the areas of his thinking and philosophy that encompass human thought in general as well as the hidden recesses of Jewish literature in all its forms: aggadah and halakhah; poetry and legal decisions; esoteric and exoteric teachings. Against that comprehensive background, the meta-halakhic principles that underlie his halakhic rulings clearly emerge. Rabbi Kook’s jurisprudence touches on the realm of prophecy, and his journals—extensively cited in this book—convey his prophetic sensibility. The sense of prophecy is tied to the experience of the return to the Land of Israel, and it plays a central role in understanding his halakhic writings. The book examines the problematic interplay between prophecy and halakhah in general and Rabbi Kook’s prophetic-halakhic world in particular, along with its wealth of implications.