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Joanne Greenaway is joined by Rabbanit Chana Henkin, founder of Nishmat: The Jeanie Schottenstein Center for Advanced Torah Study for Women in Jerusalem, and Head of its Research Institute.

One of the great pioneers of women's Orthodox Torah scholarship, Rabbanit Henkin has transformed the landscape of women's halachic and spiritual leadership. Together with her late husband, Rav Yehuda Henkin ztz"l, she founded the Yoatzot Halacha programme, training women experts in Jewish law and women's health, whose work has changed the way halachic guidance is sought and given across the Orthodox world.

A beloved teacher and visionary, Rabbanit Henkin has received honorary doctorates from both Bar-Ilan and Yeshiva Universities and was awarded Israel's prestigious Agrest Prize for innovative religious education.

She reflects on resilience amid personal loss, explains the vacuum that prompted her to start the Yoatzot Halacha programme, discusses continuing her late husband's work on women in halacha and demonstrates how halacha has given agency to women. We discuss the difference between a yoetzet and a rabbi, and the changing relationships between women and rabbis in the information age, and she inspires us with a message about serving the community in the future.

Responsa on Contemporary Jewish Women's Issues (New Expanded Edition) is available here.

To access our full LSJS programme of learning, visit lsjs.ac.uk/learning.

Our new women's gemara course, A Taste of Talmud starts on Wed 22nd October. Book it for free here.