Rav Eliezer Melamed has recently been criticized harshly by leading rabbis from the right wing of Religious Zionism. This affords an opportunity to introduce Rav Melamed and his ongoing magnum opus, Peninei Halakha. In this first episode, I detail who he is, what the Peninei Halakha project is, and where it fits in the history of halakha. The upshot: His is the first successful reorganization of practical halakha in almost 700 years!

Episode 10: We discuss an interesting phenomenon: Sometimes, the punishment that the Torah prescribes for sexual transgressions are not commensurate with the rhetorical severity ascribed to those same transgressions. This tendency becomes even more pronounced in the Neviim and Chazal. I cannot provide a reason for this gap, but I find that it can justify our outrage even in cases where the Torah's prescribed punishment seems minor.

In this episode we describe the essential structure of halakhic authority as a social phenomenon (not as a matter of doctrine). We describe two models - the formal hierarchical model and the horizontally distributed model - and contend, elaborating on the view of Jacob Katz, that Halakhah operates according to a third model - an informal, emergent hierarchy. The implication of this model is that there is no such thing as articulation of Halakhah in a vacuum. Reception and acceptance by communities is an inherent element of what makes Halakhah.

Conversion and its regulation is a major political fight in Israel today. Who is right? What's the debate? In this episode, I begin to take a broader look at institutionalized religion in Israel and try to situate the conversion conundrum within that. We get into the nitty gritty of the Halakhah and address an important graphic feature of how the laws of conversion were codified. We take issue with an otherwise excellent book by Barry Wimpfheimer. We go on a tangent about Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai and some key differences between them. We discuss a bit about the founding of the Chief Rabbinate under the British. The key contention, though, is that attempts to fit Halakhah within a modern, bureaucratic, regulatory regime will inevitably result in the distortion of Halakhah.

On the origins of Jewish customs for "Nittel Nacht", or Christmas Eve. It's not the Chassidishe custom you thought it was. It actually originates somewhere else entirely... Some notes on this episode. Here's a thread I did last year on Twitter. You can see that here. It includes links to a source sheet and some nice pics/scans. https://twitter.com/Adderabbi/status/1342153328709545985?t=jKnOcnxM-N9NSxpmw552Kg&s=19

A bit on the Chabad celebration of 5 Teves, "Yom Didan Natzach"

Background on Megillas Taanis - both the Tannaitic and Geonic versions

Attitudes toward the translation of the Torah into Greek - in Chazal and among other groups

The Chasam Sofer's fascination with the 8th of Teves as the day commemorating the translation

Moshe Simon-Shoshan, "The Tasks of the Translators: The Rabbis, The Septuagint, and the Cultural Politics of Translation"

Maoz Kahana, "How Chatam Sofer Vanquished Spinoza" (Hebrew)

Elli Fischer, "Azariah de Rossi's Fascination with the Septuagint"

Throughout Chanukah, we heard about Hellenizers, the Jews who took on elements of Greek culture. But what about Judaizers - non-Jews who are attracted to and take on elements of Jewish culture and religion? They have existed for thousands of years. Do we have a way of thinking about them?

Using Rav Hoffmann's introduction to Melamed Le-ho'il as a jumping off point, we discuss his life, work, unique combination of styles and methods, and important contributions to different areas of Torah. In this episode, we discuss a major turning point in R. Hoffmann's life: The death of R. Azriel Hildesheimer

Using Rav Hoffmann's introduction to Melamed Le-ho'il as a jumping off point, we continue our discussion of his life, work, unique combination of styles and methods, and important contributions to different areas of Torah.