It's one of the strangest of all halakhic rules: "one is obligated to become intoxicated with wine on Purim to the point that one cannot tell the difference between 'cursed be Haman' and 'blessed be Mordekhai.'” Read literally, this is a requirement that we celebrate the joy of Purim by getting ourselves wasted, stinking drunk, which is hardly in keeping with almost everything else the tradition teaches us. So... must we read it literally? In this installment, we'll look at a number of authorities who don't. Which, of course, raises some interesting questions about the nature of halakhic interpretation.

Source sheet available at www.freehofinstitute.org/learning. 

In installment #29, we saw how the halakhah, as expressed by some major rishonim and the leading codes, tends to protect the physician from claims for damages due to negligence in medical treatment. Well, it turns out that there's a different trend in halakhic thinking that holds doctors liable for those damages. It's the other side of the halakhah of malpractice.

Get the source sheet at www.freehofinstitute,org/learning, scroll down to the Twelve Minute Shiur.

In the previous two shiurim, we've seen that the practice of medicine (r'fu'ah) is defined as a mitzvah. It's holy work, a duty the physician owes to the patient. But if so, does halakhah exempt the physician from liability for causing injury (or worse) in the course of treatment? It's a complex question, and we begin its exploration in this installment.

Source sheet available at www.freehofinstitute.org/learning. 

In our last installment, we saw how Ramban (Nachmanides) created a theory to prove that the practice of medicine is a mitzvah. In this shiur, we consider a different theory, that of Rambam (Maimonides). Since both these giant rishonim reach the same conclusion, is there a nafka minah, a practical difference between them? We think that maybe - just maybe - there is.

Download the source sheet at www.freehofinstitute.org/learning, scroll down to the Twelve Minute Shiur.

The first in a series of shiurim devoted to the nature of medicine as understood in the halakhah.

It's a mitzvah to practice medicine, to heal the sick, right? Sure it is; the Shulchan Arukh says so explicitly. But as always, we have to ask that pesky Rabbinic question: how do we know this? In this case, it's Ramban (Nachmanides) to the rescue.

Download the source sheet at www.freehofinstitute.org/learning, scroll down to the Twelve Minute Shiur.

In our previous shiur, we saw that Rambam regards the mitzvah of t'filah as d'oraita: that is, the Torah itself instructs us to pray once a day. So how does he think we got from that to the three- (or four-) times daily regimen of t'filot traditionally recited today? 

Download the source sheet at www.freehofinstitute.org/learning, scroll down to the Twelve Minute Shiur.

In this installment, we take a look at an old machloket between two halakhic giants - Rambam (Maimonides) and Ramban (Nachmanides) - over the status, the origin, and the function of prayer according to the tradition of the halakhah. That's why it's a hard question. Who has the better argument? Well, that's a hard question, too, but there's a lot we can learn from both sides.

Get the source sheet at www.freehofinstitute.org/learning, scoll down to the Twelve Minute Shiur.

Thanksgiving is a beloved (if non-Jewish) holiday for American Jews. So why did the eminent Orthodox posek R. Moshe Feinstein rule that they shouldn't celebrate it? In this installment, we study his argument... and the reason that progressive halakhah disagrees. 

Download the source sheet at www.freehofinstitute.org/learning, scroll down to the Twelve Minute Shiur.

In this installment, we read another responsum of Rabbi Hayyim David Halevy on the subject of firearms control. How does halakhah want us to think, talk, and argue about this issue in the public sphere?

Download the source sheet at www.freehofinstitute.org/learning, scroll down to the Twelve Minute Shiur.

Does Jewish law offer any useful guidance to societies facing the issue of the control and regulation of firearms? In this installment and the next, we explore that question by studying two responsa of Rabbi Hayyim David Halevy, who at his death in 1998 served as chief S'fardic rabbi of Tel-Aviv-Yafo. 

Get the source sheet at www.freehofinstitute.org/learning, scroll down to the Twelve Minute Shiur.