Responsa Radio

You're not supposed to pray somewhere unclean, like a bathroom. But if I'm in the bathroom and can hear the prayers nearby, am I allowed to say "amen"?

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With any new industry, there are important questions to address from legal and religious perspectives. Responsa Radio creator David Zvi Kalman comes back to ask this question about generative AI for his new podcast, Belief in the Future. Given the way the new large language models trawl the internet for content, is it permitted to use them or does it count as theft?

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There's a stereotype that I've seen on the internet recently that Jews don't care about non-Jewish life. How am I supposed to respond when somebody uses this argument? What do Jewish sources say about the imperative of saving the lives of non-Jews?

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I've often heard the phrase "all of Israel are responsible for each other" (kol yisrael areivim zeh be-zeh). But what does this mean? What does the responsibility entail? How is it supposed to change my actions toward other Jews?

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You asked and we answered! A new season of Responsa Radio begins next week. We're going to dig in to topics like artificial intelligence, the value of human life, and our responsibilities toward fellow Jews, just to name a few.

Have a halakhic question you want answered on Responsa Radio? Send your question to  [email protected].

Halakhic works are often a dizzying compendium of multiple perspectives on a given issue, often making it difficult to determine how to behave in a given situation. In this lecture, R. Ethan Tucker argues this is a feature rather than a bug. Critical values that are meant to guide our lives are rarely fully manifest in any given time, place, or situation. It is our job to discern the wisdom of each voice and allow that wisdom to make a claim on us, rather than submitting ourselves to one path. Recorded at the Halakhah Intensive, May 2024.

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In celebration of 100 episodes of Responsa Radio, we're re-releasing our favorites with an update from Rav Eitan and Rav Avi at the end of the episode.

Our producer, Jeremy Tabick's favorite is episode #7: The laws of eruv—constructing a sometimes questionable boundary around a neighborhood to allow carrying objects on shabbat—often seem obscure, bizarre, and made-up. But what are the ways in which it makes sense? What are the operating principles behind these laws?

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In celebration of 100 episodes of Responsa Radio, we're re-releasing our favorites with an update from Rav Eitan and Rav Avi at the end of the episode.

Our sound engineer, David Khabinsky's favorite is episode #78: A few months ago, one of the largest kosher certification agencies announced that it would not certify "Impossible Pork," despite the fact that nothing in the ingredients or preparation of Impossible Pork is not kosher. What determines whether or not a food is kosher, apart from the ingredients?

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I'm planning on going to the total solar eclipse that will be visible in North America on April 8th. is there a blessing or some other liturgy that I should say as I see it?

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I was trying to help someone on the street get some food. They asked for a sandwich, so I went into a nearby shop—and suddenly panicked because I realized it was Passover! What was I supposed to do in this case? What are the parameters of buying and touching hameitz for non-Jews during the holiday?

Have a question you'd like answered on Responsa Radio? Email us at [email protected]