Heal Us O Lord

Review by Rabbi Johnny Solomon

As a Jewish educator and Rabbi I am blessed to know many religious leaders and Rabbis. Some work in synagogues, while others work in schools, Yeshivot and Seminaries. However, I believe those who are most involved on a day to day basis in bringing redemption and comfort to the lives of others are Chaplains working on campus, and specifically those working in hospitals, nursing homes and prisons.

Rabbi Sidney Goldstein is a true expert in this field. He was the Director of Chaplaincy at the Albert Einstein Medical Center, and he founded the National Association of Jewish Chaplains. Beyond this, he served as the community Chaplain of the Jewish Family Service of Palm Beach County.

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New Book – Scholarly Man of Faith

Gender Equality and Prayer in Jewish Law

Review by Roger S. Kohn • AJL Reviews

This slim book has two parts: part one about women serving as a communal prayer leader; part two, about women counting in a quorum of ten.

This book aims to answer a need: “though the halakhic questions regarding egalitarian minyanim have earned a fair amount of literature, there is still a need for a comprehensive treatment of the issue that seeks to understand the underlying concerns and issues of the different positions taken.

Gender Equality and Prayer in Jewish Law

Review by Aryeh Klapper • JOFA 

In Gender Equality and Prayer in Jewish Law, Rabbis Ethan Tucker and Micha’el Rosenberg have produced a book that is noteworthy for its integrity, accuracy, and clarity. The authors worked for many years to refine the book’s content and responded to critiques with thanks and openness to revising their arguments, if not their conclusions. (Full disclosure: I am thanked for my “sharp and serious critiques and criticisms” [p. 9], ongoing from when I was a stripling Orthodox rabbinic adviser at Harvard Hillel while they were undergraduates.) The formal elements of their arguments are consciously crafted to fall within traditional and contemporary Orthodox halakhic parameters. The quality and humility of their work can serve as a model for private and public halakhic conversations about such issues.

This hard-earned and well-deserved praise does not mean that the book ought to succeed in directly affecting the davening practices of halakhic communities, nor that it successfully justifies the genderidentical practices of current prayer communities that otherwise follow the halakhot of prayer. It is vital to understand why, even if the explanation is lengthy.

JEWISH LAW AS REBELLION: A PLEA FOR RELIGIOUS AUTHENTICITY AND HALACHIC COURAGE

Why Jewish law is so much more than a dry, unbending code

Review by Rabbi Jonny Solomon • Lookstein Digest · Times of Israel

I. PREFACE

Ever since first encountering the writings of Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo I have found myself agreeing with much of what he has written. He is a rare thinker who lives in many worlds, and he describes many of his ideas with true elegance by weaving profound Jewish teachings with exquisite insights from the world of philosophy, art and music. Moreover, as someone who not only listens to Beethoven, Bach & Mozart but plays them too, I have a debt of gratitude to Rabbi Cardozo for putting into words my love affair with music and for explaining how I can understand more about my relationship with God through my relationship with music.

However, beyond my admiration of Rabbi Cardozo, as well as my love of

Gender Equality and Prayer in Jewish Law

Benedict Roth, Jewish Chronicle UK

Orthodox women could enjoy greater equality if rabbis were ready to pursue it

A new book takes a fresh look at rabbinic sources on women’s prayer

The expressions “gender equality” and “Jewish law” rarely appear in the same sentence and many would expect a book on the subject to be a short one. Gender equality is the language of today’s equal rights movement, while Jewish law contains features that are conspicuously unequal: a woman’s testimony is invalid in a Jewish court and she is categorised with slaves and children for many halachic purposes.

But the true picture is

15% off Urim Publications at Mintzer Bookstore in Gush Etzion

 

Urim Publications display table at Mintzer Bookstore

 

Mintzer Bookstore in Gush Etzion is currently running a 15%-off sale on all Urim titles.

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